Park It at PD’s

Laps of parking lot required before you’ll find a spot count: 15 Chip varieties count: Bites left on your plate count: 0 I saw the Web video “2 Girls, 1 Cup” (do NOT look that up) and that made me feel like having some lunch, so I decided to check…

Burgers With Balls

Lunch special: Hamburger, sweet potato chips and a drink for $9.46. Homemade root beer at the fountain count: 1 “Sofa King tasty” jokes count: 1 Paper towel holders hanging on the wall for you to use as napkins count: 58 Some days, I’m just hungry. But other days, my stomach…

Review: Exposition Park Café

You can order food to go at Exposition Park Café, but just about the only reason to do it would be to get a change of scenery if you already ate all your meals there. A sign over the bar at this decidedly un-haute haunt says, “Welcome, You Are Home,”…

South Dallas Café

Lunch specials: Monday-Friday $5.95 TVs playing soap operas: 2 Guy walking around asking if everything’s OK and refilling my Kool-Aid: 1 South Dallas Café has a big sign outside that says, “No Panhandling. No Loitering. No Soliciting. No Trespassing.” So I went inside instead. I knew they offered a bunch…

Review: Aló Cenaduria & Piqueos

Not long after the Aló Cenaduria & Piqueos menu was unleashed, founding chef Taco Borga was chided for his spelling. Ceviche is lettered “cebiche” on the menu, a composition Borga hastens to add was molded with the considerable help of Aló executive chef Julia Lopez, who steeped herself in Peruvian…

Review: Sultan Café in Richardson

There’s an old adage that gets thrown around at business dinners and happy hours and parental lectures: Do one thing and do it well. Or, as someone who helped pay my college tuition once said with frustration, “Focus. Remember, it’s better to be great at one thing than to do…

Mooyah Burgers

Lunch special: Burger, fries and a drink for $7.85 People in line in front of me: 15 Number of french fries in one order of french fries: 572 A fan of Mooyah recommended that I test it out, so with high expectations, I did. Almost completely distracted by the fact…

Big D’s Dogs

Lunch: Dog and a drink for $6.33 Times employees resist making hot dog/dick jokes a day count: 1,000 Times employees make hot dog/dick jokes a day count: 1,000 As I was waiting for the Condom Sense on Lower Greenville Avenue to open so I could purchase a dildo (which I…

Review: Pho New Bay

There is no music in Pho New Bay, but there is a high-definition television set anchored in one corner. It is tuned to the Discovery Channel. Right now on the screen is Bear Grylls, British Special Forces hunk-turned-adventurer-survivalist star of Discovery’s Man vs. Wild (among his favorite reads is Messy…

Tacos y Mas

Lunch special: three tacos, rice, beans and a drink for $6.16 Cashier yelling at her cook in Spanish count: 1 Tables and chairs indoors count: 0 I was driving down Ross Avenue a few days ago, and the lunch special signage at Tacos Y Mas taco/burger stand at Ross and…

Review: Cafe Rembrandt

Walk into a restaurant and you want to feel welcome, wanted. There’s something to be said for a chic, modern dining experience or traditional white linen eatery, sure, but there’s also value in a warm, friendly café. A place to hide out and nurse a coffee when you should be…

Two Words: Jalapeño Sausage

Wednesday Lunch Special: $6.39 for a meat, a veggie, a roll and a drink. Add a peach cobbler for a buck. Corona bottles filled with barbecue sauce and sitting on a warmer count: 30 Guy yelling your name when your food’s up count: 1 Free pickle bar count: 1 In…

Review: The Club Dining & Drinks

It has the look of a speakeasy, or a port of ill-repute where scruples are scarce commodities. The entrance to The Club is in the quiet, expansive alley-like causeway that drains into the central courtyard at the Centrum building. The frame around the large door is black and leather-like. Gas…

Lovers Pizza and Pasta

Lunch special: Every Day Special, $4.99 for one slice of pizza, a salad and a soda Fake plant count: 50 Chicks in short shorts and heels count: 0 You ever been to Fireside Pies? The pizza there is outstanding. It just sucks that you’re out standing on the porch for…

Review: Luna de Noche

Luna de Noche’s Gourmet Tex-Mex in Victory Park is the sixth location for the chain helmed by Lisa Galvan-Cuevas. She started the first of the restaurants in 1998, and with this one has expanded the menu to include four “nuevo gourmet” dishes and additional items in various sections on the…

I Got Your Burger Right Here

Lunch special: Burger, fries and a drink for $6.36 Tiny, tiny building count: 1 Burgers on the grill count: 7 bazillion Either a car just backfired or that was a gun shot count: 1 Every time you drive your car through a Wendy’s, you’re cheating yourself. Every time you order…

Review: Fearing’s at the Ritz Carlton

Fearing’s is a well-oiled machine. Service is prompt. Water is chilled and filled. Wine recommendations are astute. Skipping through the list, wanting a light-to-medium-bodied red to successfully straddle the orders of fish and red meat at our table, sommelier Paul Botamer talked up the Peltier Station Petite Syrah from Lodi,…

Eat This, Jared

Lunch special: No. 1 hero plus chips and a drink for $8 People behind the counter looking like they’re moving fast, but really moving kind of slowly, but at least they’re smiling count: 100 Hovering straw caddy count: 1 Empty table count: 0 Why is Jared the Subway guy still…

Review: Dallas Fish Market

In Dallas, seafood is the black sheep, a gangly, stinky stepchild that doesn’t take to wood-fired grates or high-degree broilers with the same gusto as a corn-fed steer. It’s a placeholder on steakhouse menus, a light alternative for those who don’t relish beefy bloodlust or the burden a fine steakhouse…

Small-Town Celebrity

On Main Street in Rowlett sits a florist and other storefronts, a few park benches, a grassy median and Big Star Burgers. The town square vibe is lost out on the pavement—it’s forced and a bit awkward. Only once the Big Star’s large glass and wooden doors are breached does…

Cheese Pleased

Lunch special: Wednesdays, get two beef enchiladas plus rice and beans for $4.25 or two fajita tacos plus rice and beans for $5.55 Sweet-ass wooden chair count: 50 Taco Loco Late Night Taqueria attached to the side count: 1 I recently had lunch at Taco Diner in West Village. What…

Naked Dinner

Every once in a while—not often, but often enough to prompt a sensory readjustment—you come across a dish with a glaring hole in the flavor profile that somehow fills itself. The sharp edges are there—a razor line of salt or a burst of sour or the balm of sweet—counterpoised with…