10000 Research
345-6410
Men's room rating: 3. (When did they stop putting ice in the urinals? Wasn't that a T.G.I. Friday's trademark?)
Dwight's comments:
A large menu of mostly undistinguished food, with decor by the BMTCRSC.
Much to their credit, the waitstaff dealt quite well with moving our unexpectedly large party (with John and Marty and RoadRich showing up at a conspiracy for once) to another table.
Unfortunately, the appetizers and main courses (such as my salmon with a Jack Daniel's glaze) were excessively bland. (I was able to spice the fish up a bit with some Cajun mustard dipping sauce left from a shrimp appetizer, but why should I have had to?)
Really, what can you say about T.G.I. Friday's that hasn't been said about Bennigan's or every other fern bar/fern food chain?
Additional comments from Lawrence:
For what it's worth, I liked TGI Fridays a bit more than you. I liked the appetizers well enough, my burger was quite tasty, and they kept my bottomless glass of Dr Pepper well filled.
All in all, I think they did the Fern Bar thing pretty well--well enough that I'd have a hard time picking between them and Chili's for the Fern Bar Championship (haven't been to Bennigens in a while).
Additional comments from John:
Amazingly, I have nothing bad to say about Friday's, except that I hate their TV commercials. I'll point out that it is easier to eat healthy at Chili's, however.
3010 Guadalupe
477-7884
Pepper grinder rating: 0/5. (Ruth's Chris defines the standard for Class 5 pepper grinders. Unfortunately, our waitress on this visit didn't see fit to offer us fresh ground pepper for our salads or steaks, so we had to watch the pepper grinder in action at other tables.)
Men's room rating: 3. (It could have been slightly cleaner, but, other than that, perfectly acceptable.)
Dwight's comments:
Lawrence and I have our birthdays in the same week in April. (His is the 14th, mine the 20th.) So, about this time every year, we indulge ourselves in the expense of Ruth's Chris, so that we can remember we're men, dammit, and we eat from the top of the food chain.
Usually, one or two other friends join us: this year, it was the notorious Andrew "Get Out Of Town Before Sunset" Wimsatt, late of the local highway department office and now a citizen of Fort Worth. This gave us a chance to wallow in political incorrectness, instead of reading the Wall Street Journal (thoughtfully provided for free to Ruth's Chris patrons.)
Lawrence claims that his steak wasn't actually the best he's had here, but I didn't notice any decline since last year with mine. A fillet (cooked at 1800 degrees F, served around 500 degrees F, or so the waiter's spiel claims), a nice baked potato, some sauteed onions and mushrooms, a large Ceaser salad, and some good French bread later, I eased my chair back from the table, sighed...
...and ordered some of the chocolate mousse cheesecake and a glass of the Napolean VSOP ($13 a shot, and smooth, very smooth.)
All a meal like this needs afterwards is a good cigar. (And I don't smoke, but I would have gladly walked over to the nearby cigar shop/newsstand and bought one.)
To hell with mad cow disease. To hell with health food. To hell with PETA (and, spekaing of PETA, Doug suggested this link. Thanks.) And to hell with the cost. This is living. And, after all, are we not men?
200 Buttercup Creek Blvd
331-3810
Dwight's comments:
PooThai is a pleasant enough place, with friendly waitstaff (although the guy who waited on when we first came in looked suspiciously sleepy and suspiciously Austrailian). The decor isn't too bad, either: it's better looking on the inside than Thai Kitchen's south or central locations. (Internal evidence led us to believe it used to be a steakhouse.)
But the food...well, the pad thai noodles reminded me of the ones my mother used when she made beef stroganoff, and the dish itself seemed strange tasting: somewhat beefy, which is odd for a chicken dish. PooThai's larb with chicken (chopped chicken, roasted rice, lime juice, onions and cilantro) is pretty good, though. John found the Thai Shrimp Curry a little too soup-like for his taste, I think.
Lawrence did his usual, "This dish can not be too hot for me" routine, and was disappointed (both with the dish, and that, with a name like "PooThai", he couldn't get the larb tigger or pad eeyore). The tom ka gai soup was also good, as were the steamed dumplings we had as an appetizer.
It was a very pleasant birthday dinner, with +Rich, Terri, and Marty showing up (as well as Lawrence and John); though I found the food not quite up to Thai Kitchen standards, the company made up for it. Thanks, gang.
But would I go back? Well, PooThai is way out in Cedar Park, a long way off my usual routes. If I was in the area, though, I'd like to try their pud grapow squid and perhaps the other noodle dishes.
Research Boulevard
Men's room rating: 4. (The taped French lessons in the bathroom are an amusing touch, for a few minutes.)
Dwight's comments:
"I am of the firm opinion that La Madelaine is hideously overpriced. And also exceedingly pretentious." -Mike, responding to the original announcement.
I'm not sure I agree with the "pretentious", but I did dislike La Madeleine intensely.
First of all, I hate cafeteria dining. (As a young child, I entertained dreams of making my first fortune, and using some of the spare money to buy up all the cafeteria chains and close them down for good.)
But La Madeleine doesn't even impliment that concept well: you have to order certain items directly from the waitress at the front, but if you want anything like salad, soup, or drinks, you still have to stand in the cafeteria line.
This line, of course, bottlenecks at the salad (because each salad is made while you stand there: god forbid that they should make it and bring it to your table), so you wind up waiting in lines that stretch out the door.
And for what? Not terribly good food. I've had better french onion soups and ceaser salads elsewhere. (Ancho's makes a very good onion soup.) The prices aren't moderate (by the time you add up a soup, a decent sized salad, drinks, and a "main course" such as quiche.)
As far as I can tell, the cafeteria concept doesn't result in any savings in staff. (We saw a large number of waitstaff, most of whom seemed to have nothing to do.) And, frankly, I don't see any reason for the continued existance and popularity of this chain, other than as vindication of Mencken's statement, "No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people."
Send e-mail to Dwight Brown (stainles@bga.com).
Return to the main Saturday Dining Conspiracy page.
See the logs for March of 1996.