Category: restaurants

Humperdinks — Border Burger

Ashley BischoffLeave a comment

I stopped by Super Target on the way home from the gym last night and, by the time I got back to the apartment, it was almost 10pm. I didn’t feel like making dinner at that point, so I asked Mike whether he had already eaten dinner (he hadn’t) and suggested that we head off to Quizno’s (there’s one less than a mile from here). My recollection was that Quizno’s closed at 10:30, so it looked like we had enough time.

But, we got there and quickly realized that their closing time was actually 10:00 (doh!). But, Humperdinks was just across the street, so we decided to give that a try (out of curiosity, what other restaurants are open past 10pm in the Lovers & Greenville area?).

Humperdinks has its own brewery and we both wanted to make use of that. Their “Total Disorder Porter” caught my eye and we both ordered one. It was also the special of the day, which was a pleasant surprise. While it wasn’t quite at the level of a Fuller’s Porter, it still very well done (and if it were sold in stores, I’d probably buy it from time to time).

Both Mike and I had a hard time deciding on the menu, but I settled on a Border Burger (a 1/2 pound burger with guacamole, bacon, Pepperjack cheese, jalapeños and salsa) while Mike went for a Ranch Chicken sandwich (a chicken sandiwch with Monterey Jack, ranch dressing, bacon strips, lettuce and tomato).

I noticed on the menu that the Humperdinks Melt was actually served on rye bread (along with Swiss cheese). And considering how ordinary most buns are, I got to thinking that perhaps the Border Burger might be even better on rye. And even though I’ve had a Border Burger previously, I wasn’t sure about those “spicy jalapeños”. So, when I ordered the burger, I asked whether I could get it on rye (and without jalapeños). The server didn’t seem to mind that substitution.

Once the food arrived, I was pleased that the rye bread was thickly cut (about half an inch) and toasted as well. Border Burgers are already tasty, but the rye bread just made it even better. The slight tartness of the rye along with the salsa and guacamole was a great combination.

It helped that the beer was the day’s special ($3.50 for 20oz or so), but the burger was still $9. It was delicious, but I’m still not sure if it was worth $9 (maybe $7-8 would have been more fair). So, once again, rye saves the day. Now if only they’d make a rye pizza :).

DFWBlogs Cocktail Event – August

Ashley Bischoff7 Comments

This month’s DFWBlogs Cocktail Event was at Old Monk. With such a name, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I became quickly intrigued as I read the GuideLive review:

The menu has only 16 items, which range from traditional pub grub such as German sausages ($7.50) and fish and chips ($7.50) to the national dish of Belgium, moules frites (mussels and french fries, $8.95). The mussels and fries are as good, or better, than versions I have eaten in France. […]

German sausages? Well, say no more! That made my entree choice very easy :). The GuideLive review also mentioned their Belgian and German beers, so I went to see whether I could find their beer list. Normally, I'd check their webpage, but a search on Google for “old monk dallas” turned up nothing.

However, I did find this Old Monk section on BeerAdvocate (Beer Advocate is apparently a user-contributed site of restaurant reviews with a focus on beer). And I was pleased to see that some of the reviewers mentioned some of Old Monk’s beers.

So, it wasn’t a complete beer list, but it was a start. As usual, I cross-referenced those beers with the ratings at RateBeer.com — the numbers below include each beer’s score (out of five) and its percentile-ranking.

There were more beers than just those beers listed at the Beer Advocate page, but I didn’t include beers that I couldn’t find at RateBeer nor those that didn’t score well. And, since some of the beer descriptions on Beer Advocate were vague, I wasn’t sure about some of the specific brews (Chimay has serveral, for instance, though only “Chimay” was mentioned).

Once I arrived at Old Monk, I ordered the German Plate and I was about to order a Chimay Bleu, but I then noticed that they didn’t actually have that Chimay variety (though they had Chimay Red, Chimay Grand Reserve and Chimay White). (I just now discovered that Chimay Grand Reserve is an alias for Chimay Bleu — oops.) However, I quickly noticed that they had Fuller’s Porter — a beer I hadn’t seen previously mentioned in any of the Old Monk reviews.

I needed no encouragement in ordering the Fuller’s Porter — I’m not only a fan of porters but the Fuller is also the top rated porter at RateBeer.com! The 16oz bottle didn’t hurt, either.

The porter soon arrived, along with the sausages. The sausages were of two varieties, though I can’t recall their names at the moment (one was pinkish while the other was more whitish). They included some mustard on the side which went perfectly with the sausages — full of flavor and spice but not too hot.

The porter itself was fantastic and I’m not surprised by its high ratings. It had almost a coffee-like taste but without coffee’s bitter aftertaste (as my roommate Mike put it). I don’t even like coffee but I still found this to be a delicious beer. This is easily my favorite porter and possibly my second-favorite beer (Ayinger Celebrator Doppelbock is still first).

After the Fuller’s, I gave some thought to my second beer. Before arriving, I was all set on ordering a Chimay Bleu. But, of course, that was seemingly the one Chimary variety that Old Monk didn’t have. So, I went for a Chimay Red (“only” in the 95.4th percentile). The Red was a good beer, to be sure, though I’m not sure it lived up to its high expectations. It had more carbonation than I expected and a slight sweetness (which isn’t a bad thing, but just not what I was in the mood for at the time).

I really enjoyed Old Monk and on the drive home I was trying to think whether there were any Cocktail Events that I had enjoyed more. Up to that point, The Meridian Room was probably my favorite (their service, in particular, was exceptional). But after thinking it over, I don’t know if there’s anywhere other than Old Monk where I could get some tasty sausages along with such a good selection of beers in Dallas.

(And, Old Monk apparently has a website after all, though all I see is a broken puzzle piece <g>)

Roger’s Birthday at Texas Roadhouse

Ashley Bischoff1 Comment

We celebrated Roger’s birthday at Texas Roadhouse last night. Interestingly enough, the chain is actually based in Indiana and only came to Texas relatively recently.

Since they have their menu right on their site, I checked that out beforehand. Before looking, I already had a fillet in mind, and they had two to offer (6 oz & 8 oz). At first, I wasn’t sure whether I should go for the 6 or 8 oz, but I quickly realized that it’s not every day that I have fillet (8 oz it is!).

And that wasn’t the only decision. Each entree also comes with two sides (cup of chili, baked potato, sweet potato, steak fries, green beans&hellip). So, I had more decisions. But, I quickly narrowed that down since they included house and cesar salads among their sides. And, since I wanted a salad anyway, I could just include my salad as a side and not have to order it separately.

I could have ordered a baked potato as my other side (you can’t go wrong there), but I figured that I’d have plenty of carbs from various birthday goodies. So, I just selected the vegetables as my other side.

The food arrived relatively quickly and it looked great. I wasn’t sure what to expect of the vegetables, but the vegetable side had broccoli, cauliflower and carrots (a reasonable combination). Before tasting anything else, I cut right into the fillet to check its done-ness — it seems that some steakhouses don’t account for meat’s tendancy to continue cooking after it’s removed from heat. But, it was pleasantly pink — a perfect “medium”.

The meat looked good, but how did it taste? Fantastic. It was warm and very tender — I really cherished each bite. Maybe it wasn’t the best fillet I’ve ever had, but I’d be hard-pressed to come up with which ones were better.

For birthday merriment, Leia and Ru made some double-chocolate cupcakes earlier in the day. As I understand it, Ru helped mix the batter while Leia baked and iced the cupcakes. They brought them along to Texas Roadhouse for dessert.

As cupcakes go, these were possibly thesecond best from-a-mix cupcakes that I’ve had. I’m also a chocolate fiend and the double-chocolate nature was an added bonus. Leia even adorned them with sprinkles/jimmes.

As it turns out, these cupcakes featured the dot-type sprinkes. The dot-type sprinkle adds a pleasant color to the cupcakes but they can be rather crunchy — somewhat like adding sugar-flavored sand to a cupcake. Don’t get me wrong — I like dot-type sprinkles as much as the next guy — but perhaps the cylindar-type (softer) sprinkles could have been even better.

I’m not one to turn down a steakhouse, but I was a bit skeptical about Texas Roadhouse. After all, could a good steakhouse really come out of Indiana? In the end, it worked out great and I’d go back to Texas Roadhouse anytime.

DFWBlogs Cocktail Event – June

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The DFWBlogs Cocktail Event was held at The Meridian Room this month. And, though The Meridian Room’s source code is slightly atrocious (generated by Dreamweaver), I like their site design — the photographs scattered throughout are better than I would expect for this type of site.

Of course, their full menu and drinks list are online. Earlier in the day, I selected the Bleu Cheese Burger along with Spaten Franziskener (on draught!). Unfortunately, upon arriving, I realized that their website was out of date since I couldn’t find the Spaten on the paper menu. So, I ordered my burger and went with a Newcastle instead.

The burger arrived shortly, along with a heaping portion of fries. All of it was steaming and very hot (a good sign, for sure). I added a dab of ketchup to the burger (as usual) but, after tasting the fries, decided that they only needed a dash of salt & pepper.

The burger itself was above par and very good. It’s likely among the top five burgers I’ve had here in Dallas. The blue cheese wasn’t just sprinked on top, but melted — so, it must have been added while still on the grill. Melted or otherwise, they probably could have fit more blue cheese on there. I would have preferred just a touch more (that is to say, as much blue cheese could be crammed on there).

The only letdown with the burger was the bun. The menu listed it as a honey-wheat bun and I could taste the honey and the wheat (no surprise there). But, the bun was not only a bit tall — the top bun may have even been a little taller than the 1/2 lb patty — but the honey flavor was too intense such that the bun resembled a distant cousin of a Cinnabon. The bun wasn’t super-sweet, but it was more sweet than it should have been.

The shoestring fries — presented in a heaping pile next to the burger — were great. Too often, other restaurants overcook their fries into hard sticks; but these were pleasantly pliable. They were steaming and still moist with oil, so they absorbed the salt & pepper easily. Fries don’t get much better than this, and they were probably the best fries I’ve had in Dallas.

The service at The Meridian Room was also very good. Not a moment after finishing a glass, a server appeared and asked whether I would like another beverage. With such attentive service, I had three beers there (I more often go through two beers at other Cocktail Events). Rest assused, I tipped them well for such service.

From when I first saw their quaint website, I had a good feeling about The Meridian Room. And, it didn’t let me down. I had a good time, and I would look forward to going there again.

Pluckers – Not So Plucky

Ashley Bischoff3 Comments

On a whim, Jason, Julie and I decided to order-out last night. They had already had pizza for lunch, so we decided to give Pluckers a try.

Perhaps I should have known better than to order beef from a wings-place, but the avocado burger looked tempting. So, I ordered that while Jason & Julie decided to split a 10-piece order of chicken tenders.

The food arrived a little while later (though I wasn’t paying attention to the time). Jason & Julie were enjoying their tenders before even sitting down. Meanwhile, I placed my burger (and waffle-fries) on a plate since I was concerned that the styrofoam tray might become unwieldy.

On paper, the burger had it all: bun, meat, lettuce, onions, cheddar and (of course) avocado. But, it was just stone-cold. It wasn’t actually chilly, but I couldn’t detect any remnants of heat. It took a 40-second nuke to bring the burger up to an acceptable temperature — and I shouldn’t have to do that. The waffle fries looked the part, but they were also cold and more soggy than crispy.

Perhaps it was just a fluke. Or maybe Pluckers doesn’t have an expertise in beef. Either way, I don’t think I’ll buy their hambugers again, but I'd be willing to give their chicken another chance sometime.