Restaurant Review: Bellville Meat Market

If you haven't visited Bellville Meat Market, you should. They have a vast array of fresh meats, meats that are already smoked for your convenience, and many other great items. Cheese, jerky, dried sausage, summer sausage, regular sausage (try the double black pepper! Excellent!), and even some desserts. Butchers are on call at the meat counter to serve you in a prompt and courteous manner. 

But that is not what this blog post is about. We'll save all that wonderful stuff for another day. Today we are covering the "restaurant" portion of the meat market. BBQ plates, sandwiches, and loaded baked potatoes are on the menu.

This is our "go-to" place for brisket in Austin County. The brisket is always moist, tender, and flavorful. No sauce needed. I have never had bad brisket from Bellville Meat Market. You can order it by the pound, which is what we usually do. You can get slices that are lean, or opt for a fattier version. Just ask. 

One day we decided to get a couple of side orders with a pound of brisket. The brisket was wonderful, as always. 

The beans were okay. Could have been better though. 

The bacon Mac & cheese? No. Just no. The processed cheese completely overwhelmed the bacon and macaroni. It was like eating straight processed cheese that had texture. I know there are plenty of people who like the processed cheese (especially Velveeta.) We even use it here for dips on occasion. But it is pretty strong, so you need a good balance. Unfortunately, the Mac & cheese did not have that balance. So avoid it unless you are a dyed-in-the-wool Velveeta lover. One who could just drink the stuff with a straw.

The sauce. Well, just like everywhere else, it could use massive improvement. It's thin and sad. I never use it when we get brisket because their brisket is always so good. It's not bothersome on a sandwich either. But alone...forget it. It is not the "old timey" sauce that's in its own food group. 

Sad Sauce

If you're passing through Bellville and you have a hankerin' for some good brisket, go to Bellville Meat Market. They have tables outside for dining, or you can take it with you. 

Just look at that gorgeous, juicy brisket! I wish I had some right now. 

Restaurant Review: Spring Creek Barbeque

 

The BBQ joint that used to be better. I don't know....20 or 30 years ago? We visited Spring Creek recently because of a brisket craving, and... 

MISTAKE. MISTAKE OF EPIC PROPORTIONS. I can't hold back on this one.

Seriously...we would have had a better BBQ meal if we had gone to H.E.B. and picked up a pre-cooked brisket and sides. There definitely would have been more bang for the buck with that option.

It seems to be the bane of many BBQ restaurants these days. They make the BBQ, which may or may not be good caliber, then serve it with pre-made sides and watery BBQ sauce. If the BBQ is of good caliber, you know you can just skip the sides & order a pound or two. 

I wouldn't even recommend that here. The brisket was okay, but not "it's so freakin' good I could eat two pounds of it all by myself without anything else and be happy as a clam" caliber brisket. 

Spring Creek, 

WTH??!!  Please don't claim you represent Texas BBQ. It's an embarrassment. Nothing but BS on the website too. Yeah, I know, you can't expect it to look just like the pictures...blah blah blah...we are way beyond that. 

Potato salad soup, Anyone?

How about some canned green beans?

What is the deal with the lame rolls? 

Where is the smoke ring on the brisket? Was it smoked in an oven?

How in the world can you serve food like this and charge such insane prices and not be ashamed? 

I guess it stopped being about the BBQ long, long ago and love of $$$ took over. 

You really can serve better quality food and still make a profit. 

Instead, we get all of the bells and whistles, and ads proclaiming BBQ greatness, but it is all a lie. It's simply a restaurant skating on longevity to bring customers in. They have been around for SUCH A LONG TIME...surely they must be good, right? 

Nope. Not this time. Somewhere along the way, they lost the magic. 

The food was packed with military precision. Brisket snuggled under its blanket of foil, sides in separate containers with lids to prevent leakage. If the food was as great as the way it was packed, they'd be in great shape! 

On the other hand, that's a lot of unnecessary containers. It is BBQ, for Pete's sake! Load that plate up using the separate compartments as intended. Forget about a "space blanket" for the brisket. The only thing in danger is the bread, which needs to be protected from moisture until the food is about to be consumed. None of that other ridiculous rigamarole! BBQ is supposed to be a little bit messy. People will learn not to tilt the plate and end up with mixed food. Let them learn. It builds character. 

It always saddens me to have to apply the mango forks, but Spring Creek definitely deserves them for their BBQ scam. 

Restaurant Review: Prasek's Smokehouse

Dry ass brisket, premade potato salad, watery coleslaw mush

Prasek's (Sealy location) has many wonderful food items, but their smoked brisket isn't one of them. We had it once before, (a couple of years ago), and it was just as dry then as the second try recently. 

What didn't help? The "bbq" sauce. It tasted like cocktail sauce. Yes! Really! Looked like ketchup, tasted like cocktail sauce. I really wanted some boiled shrimp after I tasted it. 

I don't recall if they have shrimp on the menu, but I hope so, because at least that would be a good reason that we ended up with this stuff...by mistake. If not then they have a LOT of work to do on their bbq sauce. 

Seems to be a trend these days that no matter where you go, the BBQ sauce sucks. What happened to that wonderful, "old timey" sauce that is in its own food group? I would have expected Prasek's to have BBQ sauce like that. 

In case y'all missed the memo, Prasek's: Cocktail sauce & brisket is not a good combo. SMH

Okay...so...on to the side orders. Pre-made potato salad. Very sad. Also, I wanted beans but ended up with coleslaw. That would have been okay except the coleslaw was mush. Really, really watery too. It had an essence of mayo, but just looking at it, you couldn't see that it was there. Because it was so damn watery! Ugh! 

I finished the meal, but I was not a happy camper. Didn't touch that cocktail sauce after the first taste though. Everyone else who had bbq didn't eat their sauce either. 

Let's do better, Prasek's! Unfortunately, you get the mango forks for the brisket; the pre-made potato salad; the watery, mushy coleslaw; and the freakin cocktail sauce! smh

I have no complaints about anything else I have purchased there, though. They have a fabulous selection of food, whether you want something that's ready-to-eat or want fresh meats to prepare at home. 

Restaurant Review: WTH, Chuy's?

It looks promising, doesn't it? 
But it was a broken promise.

We had high hopes, because Chuy's used to be pretty good. It saddens me that this location seems to have gone down the tubes. I have to preface this with the fact that they were not busy when we went over there after the lunch hour on a Saturday. So throw that excuse out the window. 

The first issue was with tea. First of all, it was weak AF, but that was the least of it. Most places have sweet tea that's entirely too sweet, so I always get unsweetened and sweeten my own. 

Maybe I am not remembering correctly, but I could have sworn that Chuy's kept sugar & other sweeteners on each table. That wasn't the case here, so I asked for sugar packets on the side. The server that delivered the drinks didn't have them (I guess our server forgot to mention it), so I asked her for sugar packets. 

She brings me pink packets of generic sweet & low. Ummm....no. I'm sure the expression on my face must have resembled Bruce Willis's face in the 5th Element when Baby Ray threw him the billiard halls instead of the gun. 

Our original server visited next, so I asked him for some sugar packets. He brought me 3 each of every sweetener. So I had sugar, and pink, blue, and yellow sweetener packets. The next time he came by,  I just asked him to bring me more white packets. Apparently, if you need sweetener here, you must ask for the color you like. There should be a warning on the front door.

I'm still a little puzzled about that. I could understand one person not knowing sugar from faux sugar, but two on the same day at the same restaurant? Are the servers informed about sweeteners and the differences or does Chuy's just assume everyone knows what's what? Why didn't they know? Very strange. 

Next...the food. Well...the pico de Gallo was nice & fresh. The jalapeno dip wasn't as good as it used to be. Everyone remarked that it tasted like ranch dressing. I thought it used to be a little thicker too. We also had some queso which, while not spectacular, was at least passable. The refried beans & rice were good.

BUT...

Entrees...oh boy...still so disappointed about these...

I ordered chicken enchiladas with boom-boom sauce. The boom-boom sauce was so weak, it wasn't even one boom. I'd say it was about 1/4 of a boom. No good, spicy OOMPH, and the aftertaste was like Campbell's vegetable soup. 

And the chicken...omg. Slices & chunks instead of shredded, and ohhhh sooooooo pale. So, so pale. No caramelization at all. Poached? Boiled? Steamed? I don't know, but the chicken was bland AF, and the "boom-boom sauce" did not help much. No Big Bada Boom here...the fuse fizzled out on that bomb.

Just look how pale that chicken is!
Poach that bitch with some spices next time, FPS!

For comparison, I'll tell you what the previous experiences with this dish were like: So good, you could have just gobbled the whole thing down lickety-split and then ordered another. It used to be packed with flavor, not this poor rendition that was heavy on the bouillon in the boom-boom sauce and the tortillas stuffed with chicken chunks poached as pale as tourist legs on a sunny beach. 

I wasn't the only one with issues. 

Cheese enchiladas served cold, like revenge. 

Fajita Platter Flop: OMG! Just look at the picture. Real grill lines or painted? Dry AF. Does this look appetizing? HELL no. 

Maybe rename them "Faux-jitas"?

 Tacos al Carbon: Dry, dry, dry. Stiff tortillas. And get a load of those bell peppers and onions! Just like the ones on the fajita platter, no caramelization at all. Frankly, caramelized onions & bells are absolutely required for fajitas! 

He gave up and just ate the meat.

So I am here to ask, and rightfully so: What the HELL, Chuy's? What happened to the reliable Chuy's? What was this nonsense? It wasn't even worth the calories! If I'm going to consume that many calories, the food needs to have some FLAVOR! 

Taco Bell would have been a better choice. It's terribly sad to have to say such a thing, but it's true. 

This happened at the location in Katy. I hope these problems aren't company wide. But there were so many! It wasn't just one thing that was bad. That would be a different story. Either something changed with the company, or this location does not adhere to company standards. 

Fix it! You are an embarrassment to Austin, Texas at this point! 

It pains me to have to do this, but you get the mango forks for that fiasco. Fix it! Bring back the good Chuy's and usher the imposter out of the door!

Restaurant Review: Yellow Étouffée? It's an "Etouffail"

 Take a look at the picture above. Does this look like étouffée to you? Yellow étouffée. I have never seen yellow étouffée. When they brought this dish out, my face must have fallen 1,000 miles. WTH?

This pic is from a local restaurant here. I'm not going to name it. People from around here might recognize this "etouffail." Any other inquiries can be made via email.

We decided to stop in for lunch one day. It hasn't been around that long, but forgive me because I can't recall exactly when they opened. We were a party of three. One other person besides me ordered this monstrosity. We both ate what we were served because we don't like to waste food. 

Don't get me wrong though. It was palatable. It wasn't bad. It didn't have much flavor at all, really. It tasted like white sauce with some spices (?). It didn't taste like crawfish at all, and there weren't many in there. I ordered a meal and the "étouffée" was used as a sauce over a blackened filet of unknown origin. I dodged a bullet there, because I almost ordered the standalone étouffée option. 

It was pretty hilarious...actually, hideous and hilarious at the same time. The first thing our friend said was: "What are they hiding?" Indeed. 

What are they hiding? It must be flavor because we didn't find much of that. That has the be the blandest "Cajun" meal I ever ate. Even the dirty rice was too clean. Frozen green beans. I don't mind those in a restaurant (or at home sometimes), if they are prepared the right way. These were acceptable. 

So I'm guessing they just took a powdered sauce, rehydrated it, and added some S&P, maybe some turmeric, curry, or a bit of saffron. Probably not saffron though. Or maybe it was simply a bagged powdered concoction and they added nothing extra. This is pure speculation on my part -- all I know for sure is that it wasn't true étouffée prepared from scratch. The blackened filet was okay, at least it had some flavor. It had no real heat though, unfortunately. 

But that yellow étouffée...I thought it was going to taste like mustard. Thank goodness it didn't. But...yellow? For those who have experienced the real thing: Have you ever seen yellow étouffée...ever? 

I am not an expert at Cajun cooking or Creole cooking -- I can pull off a few dishes really well and I'm always willing to try my hand at others -- but I know étouffée, and Honey, that ain't it! Justin Wilson would have had a coronary if he saw that stuff. 

I completely understand about wanting to add your own twist, but they added so many twists to this one that it spun out of existence. There wasn't even a hint of the "Holy Trinity" present. They didn't use it. 

Frankly, I was appalled; but I held my tongue. We were hungry and exhausted after a busy morning of parade duties in a neighboring town. We ate our meal and tried to drown our disappointment with copious amounts of water & iced tea. 

Cajun étouffée is one of my favorite dishes; sometimes I enjoy the Creole version too. I have had both many, many times over the years. Sometimes I make it at home, if I have time. I have eaten it in restaurants in Texas & in Louisiana. I have eaten it at potlucks. Never out of all those times, have I ever seen yellow étouffée. I did an extensive internet search and I never found any that had even a hint of freakin yellow. I don't know where they got the idea that it is yellow. 

It's pretty much a universal thing, like with other famous (or infamous) dishes. Étouffée has a certain flavor profile. People who order it are expecting that. I don't know how much of this stuff they sell, because people who have had the real thing before are only going to order that crap one time. 

I had high hopes for the restaurant itself, so it was a disappointment. We have been back since then. Once. This time we experienced woefully undercooked shrimp & some pretty terrible coleslaw. I had catfish & shrimp that day. The catfish was passable, but again, hardly any spices at all. If you're going to serve Cajun, DO IT. Especially if it is listed as Cajun. The best thing out of the second meal? French fries. 

I don't order fried food very often, so I was doubly disappointed on our second visit. And that coleslaw...UGH. We had better coleslaw at a chicken joint I worked at in my youth. (Finely shredded, fresh ingredients, good recipe.) This one...well...the salad itself was slightly discolored, but there was no bad odor, so I ate mine. The cabbage had a strange cut, and the coleslaw had a lot of the thicker leaf stems in it, which would have been fine if the cabbage had been shredded properly, but as it was...no. 

So at this point, we don't really want to go back again. They call themselves a steak & seafood joint,  but after all of that, I'm afraid to order the steak, or even a burger. 

It's too bad. They pretty much cornered the market on seafood here. Aside from them, there's a fast food seafood joint that's independently owned. Other than that, we have about 42 Tex-Mex restaurants 😆, and some other offerings unrelated to seafood. Oh yeah, and too many fast food joints. 

We'll either enjoy seafood when we go out of town or we'll prepare it at home. I am not planning to go back there again. Oh, it could happen, but it is less & less likely the more I think about it. 

Mainly because they just don't seem to care. They open this restaurant, knowing that they have an advantage opening one here. Then they serve subpar food. I'll bet a lot of it is pre-made too. It's a damn shame. 

My scathing(?) review will not affect their business. I am not an "influencer" on Instagram or on any other platforms. But I decided to speak up about it anyway. Bottom line is, don't waste your money. Unless fried food is your thing, but they even screwed that up as far as the shrimp were concerned. I can't speak about the steak, but if the seafood is any indication, then the steaks aren't much better. They might be like the ones people used to sell door to door. Yeah, I bought some of those. Once. Decades ago. 😆 I don't know if anyone does that now, but don't buy any if they do. 😄

A shrimp po-boy is a thing of beauty...

I don't dine out very often. Recently I had the opportunity to eat at "Antone's," and that opportunity was one I grabbed with both hands and with great enthusiasm.

It was hard to make a decision because Antone's has expanded its menu over the years.

The shrimp po-boy won the coin-flip this day. At first glance it appears that there isn't enough shrimp in the sandwich. Let me assure you, there was. It had the perfect amount.

It was DEEEEEEEEEEEEEEElicious!!! If the shrimp had been a little spicier, I would have been happy but the coating was still good. The vegetables were super-fresh and the French fries were nice and hot. They were generous with those puppies, too.

On this same day, I heard the sad news about Antone's closing its original location in Houston. I haven't confirmed this news yet, so don't quote me on that. However, I encourage you to stop in for lunch anytime you can, particularly at this location, which is at 610 and T.C. Jester in Houston.

Shrimp Po-boy

A Restaurant Review to Tempt Your Taste Buds

UPDATE: Unfortunately, this restaurant closed several years ago. 

Bad me! I haven't posted since October! I've been really busy lately with many things, including an additional writing gig with examiner.com. The presidential election also had me spellbound and I had some articles published with Yahoo! Contributor about the local scene during the election. I have a lot of material for the blog that I need to add as soon as possible. In the meantime, here's the link to a review of a restaurant I visited in October. It was a most excellent meal! Click on "Feast" below to visit my review and then go visit the restaurant itself if you're near Houston. Add it to your itinerary if you're planning to visit Houston.You will be happy you did!

Feast

 

A Few Words about Chicken Nuggets....

Last week my cousin offered me a sample of some chicken nuggets that she'd purchased at a local fast food restaurant. I'm not going to mention any names here but one of the main colors used by this establishment is orange. The other is white. 

I bit into a chicken nugget. At first chew, it tasted okay and I was pleased to see that appeared to be made with real pieces of chicken, rather than the "mechanically separated" and "glued back together" version. 

I hadn't finished chewing completely before the horror struck my taste buds. Whatever they use in the batter for these nuggets tastes extremely bad--they're too salty, for one, but the chemical aftertaste was far worse.  Whoever had this "bright idea" for a recipe should have to go to a chicken farm and clean out the chicken coops for a week! Terrible! Awful! Yuck! 

I am disappointed in this establishment. These were some of the worst chicken nuggets I've ever tasted, and that includes the ones that don't use whole chicken pieces. I think they should remove them from the menu post-haste.

I might not have noticed if I had dipped them in any sauces first, but I doubt it. It could be that my taste buds just won't tolerate this kind of junk anymore...I eat fast food on VERY rare occasions, so my palate is not subjected to a lot of processed food. 

I used to eat burgers from this establishment occasionally, but I haven't in many years. The last time I did, they were still making burgers to order. They were okay. Nothing to dance in the street about, but okay. I think they should stick to burgers, really. 

Maybe I'm not being fair and I should give these nuggets another chance. I ate a total of four...all that my cousin had left in her box that she didn't want to eat. I guess I should have asked her the real reason she didn't finish them. I only ate them because I didn't want to seem rude by refusing her offer. Mistake! But I do hate to waste food and I certainly wouldn't have fed those things to any animals....so I went ahead and took a bullet. (Four of them, to be exact). 

Should I give them another chance? Not on my wallet!