West Side Cafe

I've been teased by Mrs. FWHITW for my devotion to you. B y that, I mean going to the same place two times in one day or even three times in three days. She obviously doesn't understand what we have together.

The West SIYEEEED Cafe was introduced to me as the "best blue plate" in Fort Worth. I happen to have four blue plates in my kitchen so I was a bit suspicious, but then I realized what blue plate meant. On a somewhat recent Thursday I made an initial trip and had the chicken fried steak (no queso here, but good thought). The next day, my neighbor and I went. I had the noodles with brown gravy. I went a few days later for breakfast. It is fair to say that I have the necessary expertise to give you a review.

For lunch on day one the chicken fried steak came with broccoli and cheese, mashed potatoes, and gravy. The broccoli was well prepared and covered in nacho cheese. The potatoes and gravy were hot. But of course you only care about the CFS. It was terrific. Great crispy crust, tender meat, and all well flavored. One of my lunch mates opted for the club sandwich. He cried the entire meal.

On day two, I had the noodles and gravy and beef. Imagine carne guisada on egg noodles and a lady named Flo saying, "Need some moar tea Hun?". I can't remember what else I got but it was all delicious.

The CFS and noodles were two of the lunch specials available. The rest of the available items range from your typical cafe blue plate entrees to what you may remember as school lunch-line stuff. They have meatloaf, sirloin covered in gravy, green beans, other veggies, etc. You can try a lot of different combos before going back to the same thing.

But don't load up on vegetables and CFS, because they also have pie. To be honest, I didn't order pie at first because I didn't think the restaurant could excel in both the meal and pie portions of life. I thought only Carshon's could do that. However, after mentally stabbing my eating companions in an attempt to steal their pie, I decided to order a slice. My coconut pie was covered in whipped cream instead of meringue. The cream was firm and lightly flavored and the pie tasted like a million coconut angels tickling my tongue. It was better than you're thinking right now. Stop licking your monitor because it wont make these words taste better.

After my back to back lunch experience, it was breakfast time. I went on a weekday and the WSC was packed. I screwed up though. Normally the best test of a breakfast place is their regular egg/meat/hashed brown plate. However, because of the cold weather, and worries regarding my cholesterol intake over my two previous visits, I ordered the oatmeal. The oatmeal was good. It was creamy, came with some stuff to mix into it and it definitely hit the bill. Plus, I'll now live until I'm old enough to only eat oatmeal.

So, where is this mecca of affordable down-hominess? On the West SIYEEEED, obviously. But specifically, at 7950 West Camp Bowie, just west of Cherry. The line gets long quickly at lunch but you should go and wait. They move quickly and I guarantee that you'll leave happy. If you don't, I'll give you a free subscription to this blog for six weeks.

Let me know if you've been and if you agree. Also, if there is something else that must be had at the WSC, please share it with us so I can tell everybody about it as though I figured it out all by myself.

George's Specialty Foods

Alright all you Fall Foliage Fanatics, its time to get out and show yourself...so we can judge you harshly. And where is the best place to view the Fort's Fall Foliage? Near the trees, obviously.

George's Specialty Foods on White Settlement faces the Trinity, northwest of downtown and all the large trees along the river bank. When the weather is nice you can sit at the outside tables, feast on a guy-roo and enjoy the foliage. That's right, George's is a Greek place with delicious guy-roos (for more informaiton on guy-roos, please read this previous review), greek sandwiches and all sorts of greek foods and oddities to prepare for your ultimate greek-themed Fall Foliage Festival.

This part of White Settlement is occupied by only three things - the river, Froggy Bottoms (Fall Foliage Followers are not welcome) and George's. The place looks like an old mechanics shop with big roll down windows on the front and a floor that is angled towards the front. Inside, there are about 10 tables. A row of refrigerators filled with greek foods, cheeses and meats lines one wall and the cooking happens behind a set of shelves with all sorts of canned and bottled items. George's also has a selection of olives for those of you who like those disgusting things.

The menu at George's is limited but they focus on serving good food instead of just putting everything they could possibly make on the menu (cough cough...cheesecake factory...cough cough). There are only two things at George's that I have had and they are the only two things I'll ever have because they're all I need and everything I want all at the same time. First is the guy-roo. Second is the item that put George's on the map - the greek sandwich.

This is one of my favorite guy-roos in town but I only eat it one way. I order it to go and let it sort of meld together on my way home. It's got the combination of meat, greek yogurt sauce and slices of tomato and it comes in a soft, warm pita. When you eat it there, the greek yogurt is on top of the meat. When you get it to go its all wrapped up like a delicious little baby so when you get home, the yogurt has spread throughout the delicious bab...pita. George's has never failed me in the guy-roo category.

But the sign at George's tells of a different option. George's holds 45 patents on the Greek Sandwich. Its a pita filled with sliced turkey and a greek salad - all in one. It's healthy but delicious. I think you can also get the sandwich on french bread. I've witnessed people ordering this and assume they are reasonable so it is probably good. But I'm a pita man myself.

On a nice day (like the ones we've had lately), George's will sometimes open the giant window-doors and, as the Fifth Dimension once side, "let the sunshine in." From the tables inside with the windows open, or the tables outside, you can sit and view all the Fall Foliage you can stand. And we'll judge you.

If you've never been, give it a try and let everybody know what you think. If you've got any other suggestions on what to eat at George's, lets hear 'em.

George's is located at 4424 White Settlement Road.

If you've got places that I need to eat at, please let me know. Please also remember that if you send me a suggestion outside of Fort Worth, I'll kindly respond but it wont make it as a review.

Mi Cocinita

What happens when you go into the backyard of somebody's house on the north, west or east side of Fort Worth? You get shot. But what happens when you do this on the south side? You're welcomed in for a delicious plate of Mama's best homemade Mexican fare. Seriously. Just walk down the driveway at Mi Cocinita, into what would be the garage and ask the nice lady for lunch and you'll get it. Note that not all houses are lunch friendly on the south side.

I'm tempted to not actually tell any of you where this place is, but then that would be against the spirit of this blog. Plus, you can easily find it on the interweb if you're familiar with what a google is. Mi Cocinita is at 3509 Bryan Avenue and you'll notice it by the big sign in the front yard and the dozen or so cars packed on the street.

If you've never been, you're missing out on one of the Fort's institutional hole in the walls. When you turn onto Bryan Avenue, look for the house in the middle of the block between other houses with a sign. Don't be scared, but you'll actually walk down the driveway to the "restaurant". In the back of the building there's a counter with a nice lady behind it, some colored paper with entrees and a limited menu. The friendly lady yells behind her to Mama to get started on your dish while you sit down and wait for a drink, chips and salsa.

The chips are thin and crispy and the salsa is lightly spicy and a bit sweet. Very tasty. If you don't agree, go tell Mama. I'm sure she'll appreciate your critique. While you're sitting and waiting for your food, notice that there is a patio taking up the backyard and the fence on the outside of the building also works as an advertising area. It becomes quickly apparent that this is an organic restaurant that has expanded as necessary and also doubles as the backyard of the house which people actually live in. Sweet. Why can't we eat in more people's backyards?

As mentioned above, there are a number of entrees, or plates, you can order. These generally include a mixture of tacos, enchiladas, tamales and rice and beans. A couple different plates were ordered at my table and it appeared as though the Outsider was the overall favorite. It had a brisket enchilada, chicken enchilada, a tamale, beans and rice. The enchiladas have a traditional tex-mex sauce/gravy with lots of flavor. The beans and rice aren't just throw-aways and the overall simplicity of everything makes you wish this place was open seven days a week. I'm not sure you could go wrong with whatever you order.

Mi Cocinita has been around for a long time and Bud Kennedy recently pointed out that a change was coming to Mi Cocinita. Fear not gentle reader. Mi Cocinita will still be around but Mama is soon retiring. Some cousins are taking over and the restaurant will begin serving hamburgers, brisket....and of course great mexican food.

So are you hungry yet? Well guess what...only get hungry for this place three days a week. That's right. Mama only serves her delicious wares Wednesday through Friday from 10:30-3.

If you've been, let me know what else you like. If you haven't been, head on over there, but let me know so I don't have to wait in line.

Mi Cocinita is located at 3509 Bryan Avenue and I'll let you figure out how to get there.

Cafe Bella

Do you ever hear about a restaurant, call it by that name, get used to that name, then later realize that isn't the actual name? An old guy I used to know called a favorite mexican restaurant Mexican Annie's. It's name was La Mexicana. I call my favorite chinese restaurant "Golden Pagoda". I still don't know what the actual name is. Turns out, Cafe Bella actually means "Bella Pasta and Pizza" in Fort Worth. So keep that in mind when reading this blog. I've already messed up Chadra Mezza.

Anyways, Cafe Bella is an Italian/Albanian (known as Italbanian since the Yalta Conference) restaurant located south of TCU that could possibly be the greatest little strip joint Italbanian restaurant in all of Fort Worth Proper. "WOW!!" you're thinking. "What a bold statement." That's right. So bold it didn't even need to be bolded.

You know how you go to some places and they expect you to pay for certain things? Like when you go to restaurants they want you to pay for your food and drinks. Well what if you didn't have to pay for part of that? Your meal would be cheaper. Much cheaper. Unfortunately, not all restaurant bathrooms have windows and sometimes your wife is too slow to outrun the waiter, so you normally pay. Well, at Cafe Bella, worry not. Your meal can be cheap and you can walk out the front door. Or stumble.

Cafe Bella is BYOH. That's right. Bring Your Own Hooch. Some of you more intelligently minded people are going to point out that you have to pay for the hooch at some point. Some of you are also apparently less adept at breaking into your neighbors' houses and stealing their hooch. To each their own ... snobby bastions of morality. The rest of you, like me, realize that the cost of a glass of wine at a restaurant is usually the retail cost of the bottle. Therefore, at a BYOH place, for the cost of one glass of wine, two people can guzzle a bottle. And I don't actually mean guzzle. Cafe Bella is classier than that. Please use their glasses.

If you haven't been, you're missing out. The prices are cheap, the atmosphere is casual but refined and the food is terrific. Everybody I know that goes here, goes often and goes with friends. Why? Well, keep reading and go for yourself and you'll see.

First the food. I have yet to have a bad meal here. From the basic pasta dishes with meatballs, to the baked dishes, to the chicken parmigiana. Everything is delicious. I have not had the pizzas yet but they are reportedly worth trying. My personal opinion is that the sauce makes these dishes so great. I think its one of the better marinara sauces here in the Fort. I have confirmed with the owner that licking your plate is not only acceptable but expected in Italbania.

Another significant but often overlooked aspect are the rolls that come when you sit down. Not the "I've eaten too much pasta over the past four weeks and now my shirt can't cover my" rolls. But those do come later. I'm talking about the hot, greasy rolls that come out when the waiter decides you are worthy of the Cafe Bella treats. I always order extra rolls when my food comes. The rolls dipped in their marinara will tempt you to stray from your spouse. But don't try it. The rolls wont still love you after you have rolls of your own.

If you go at lunch, they have a large selection of lunch options that come with a salad and are very affordable. If you go at dinner time, the basic pastas on the left side are sufficient for a meal and also very affordable.

As for the atmosphere, its nice. The restaurant has two main rooms and a patio. The tables inside are all easily movable so you can combine them for large groups. You don't have to dress up to go, but it seems like a place where you wont see a lot of "Life's a Garden, Dig It" sleeveless t-shirts. There is enough noise that you can talk without feeling like everybody can hear you, but its not so loud that you can't hear across the table. It's a good date place, good meet up with friends place and a good "sneak off from your spouse to spend some time with your marinaramour".

Give Cafe Bella a shot and let me know what you think. If you've been going for awhile now, what do you suggest trying?

Don't forget your wine and please don't judge me when I'm respecting the Italbanian tradition of licking my plate.

Cafe Bella "Bella Pasta and Pizza" is located at 3548 S. Hills Avenue. It's on the south east corner of the shopping center with the City Market.

Daybreak Cafe

Do you remember what your principal told you before the TAKS (TASS) test? "Stay at home if you're stupid." Not really. They told you to eat a balanced breakfast beforehand so you wouldn't die during the test and count as a failure.

So where can you get a balanced breakfast? Nowhere good. But you can get a delicious and cheap breakfast at Daybreak Cafe. They even balance the cheese and grease components to make sure you're getting equal portions of both. But most important about Daybreak revolves around the decoration. After the review I'll talk about the ambiance created by the decor.

Daybreak is on White Settlement, near Angelo]s and has a combination of traditional breakfast fare and mexican breakfast foods. As your liaison for food, I attempted to eat both kinds of food on one morning. You're welcome.

The breakfast plate which includes eggs (fried hard for me), bacon and hash browns was good and was very affordable. I can't remember the price now because of my weekly stroke but I remember it was cheap (because I paid). I also had a chorizo, egg and cheese breakfast burrito. I'm not actually a chorizo fan because I'm not sure what its made of. I mean, if it was pork, why wouldn't it be called puercizo, or if it was beef, couldn't they call it carnizo? No. Because its made of chorros (spanish for food reviewers).

The eggs were fried hard with no runny yolk, the bacon was chewy (which is how I like it) and the hash browns had a little crisp on the top and were warm. All in all it worked. The burrito, despite my chorizo avoidance, was delicious. It was very large for the size and definitely worth the cost. I would recommend all of these options but not at once. I only got about half way through my food reviewer burrito and half way through my breakfast plate.

Now to the decor. The restaurant looks like a place that started as one size and then expanded. It's decorated with lots of stuffed animals (taxidermy style, not pile on your kids' bed style). This isn't necessarily unique here in the Fort. Something is unique, however. Atop a coke machine in the back corner sits something I've never seen mounted before. A deer, a female deer. But more than that. A fawn. So either somebody killed a fawn with its spots...and mounted it. Or this was found and donated like you see at museums. For my imagination, I'm going to imagine a grizzlied hunter tracking down a fawn. This may bother some people but I found that it added to the ambiance. Seeing deer on the wall in the morning gets the hunter going in me and makes me prepared for the day. Those that don't have the same experience are obviously the spotted fawns sititng atop coke machines.

If you've been and have recommendations, please let me know.

Daybreak is located at 2720 White Settlement Road.

Love Shack

Did you hear that Chef Tim Love, of Iron Chef and Top Chef Masters fame, has opened a new love shack? (Note to self, make sure to capitalize the name of the restaurant)

In honor of this blog, Chef Love opened a restaurant with a giant wall on the outside, filled with holes. Thank you Chef Love. Can I use a picture of your wall as my new blog photo? I will take your silence as an affirmative answer. I will take your refusal as a sign that you are being coy.

For those of you who have been living in a Chili's, Chef Love opened the original Love Shack in the stockyards, to great acclaim, and provided our lovely tourists with freshly made, high quality burgers, fries, onion rings. hot dogs and milkshakes at an affordable price, right next to the White Elephant saloon. I have not been to this location but only because parking in the stockyards confuses intelligent people and...well, you've read this stuff.... But I have been to the new location on Matisse.

Where and what is Matisse you ask? It's an artist and a street just south of 7th Street in the SO7 development. That's the first development you'll come to on the south side of 7th, just west of the river on the west side of downtown. The restaurant is behind what will hopefully be my new blog photo and consists mostly of outdoor seating.

I have been a big advocate of outdoor seating at restaurants here in the Fort. Chef Love obviously heard my pleas. The inside seating is open to the outdoors and the outdoors is outdoors. But don't fret, there are umbrellas to keep you in the shade and we're entering fall so it should be very comfortable. The outdoor patio includes a stage, the bar-safe version of horseshoes (bean bag toss) and lots of tables. There is also half of a bar. The other half is inside.

On the inside you can order your food, find a few tables, and possibly meet Chef Love. Which is exactly what I did. I ordered my food. And met the Chef himself. For those of you who watched Top Chef Masters and Iron Chef, I have a major announcement: Tim Love does not always wear a cowboy hat and take shots of Tuaca. At least he wasn't doing these things when I met him. He was, however, confused as to why he had a male groupie.

I have been to the Shack of Love a couple times for milkshakes and can report that they are good. But don't go on vanilla day because its a waste of time. The flavored ice creams, however, are delicious (vanilla is not a flavor - its a level of bland). Each day they have a new homemade flavor so call before you go.

I have also been for lunch. When I went, I had the Love Burger with cheese and fries. I also tried my lunch-mate's onion rings. First of all, I have to tell you my view on burgers. I'm not a big fan of the notion that there is a "best burger". I think different burgers should be judged on their own characteristics and sometimes, burgers cannot be compared with other burgers. The Love Burger, for example, is one of those burgers because of the uncomfortably named, Love Sauce.

If you like a burger that is slightly crispy at the edges but juicy in the middle, with a unique sauce, you'll like this burger. If you don't, you wont. The burgers are all cooked the same way and everybody I was with was satisfied with the preparedness. Everybody was also pleased with the Love Sauce. I will admit that I liked it though I'm normally a mustard and ketchup type of person. So, the burger was a success.

I also ordered the fries with my combo. The fries are completely different from what you would expect. For some reason I thought the original shack had hand cut crinkly fries. The SO7 location has thin fries. But not like you'd think. They aren't potato strings. They are as wide as a traditional fry, but flat. Paradigm shift. I now understand that fries can be enjoyed in 2D. The big plus side to these fries is that the entire bite is crispy. Good stuff. Thanks to a generous lunch-mate, I also got to try the onion rings. They are the super stringy, pile 'o fried onion stuff. They were delicious, but if you like the traditional onion ring, you'll be disappointed. Luckily I'm not as close minded as you so I enjoyed them.

For eight bucks, I got a Love Burger, fries and a lemonade. That's not a bad deal considering that I also got to meet a celebrity and stole twenty dollars in ketchup and sweet 'n low (hahaha, just sort of kidding).

The Love Shack is open late and has great prices for really nicely done food. The location and atmosphere are also great for casual gatherings. If you go at lunch, be prepared for a line. Also be prepared to convince your coworkers that they have to stay.

If you've been, let everybody know what you thought. Please also voice your support to Chef Love regarding my use of a photo of his wall for the main photo on this blog.

I think the SO7 location is at 817 Matisse. The stockyard location is at 110 East Exchange in the stockyards.

Chubby's Burger Shack

Presumably named after each customer who leaves, Chubby's is a new hamburger joint on Camp Bowie between 183 and Cherry. Chubby's has a western/sports/casual/fuddruckers style that screams "we're new but we look old". It works because they're in an an older area that doesn't have very much new development.

Chubby's is currently working on getting a license to sell beer and wine, but for now it has TV's, a cart of fresh toppings and baskets of burgers. Its a casual hamburger joint with a unique twist. The unique twist is that they've taken the fuddruckers approach to burger toppings by providing you with a cart of fresh toppings and a surprising variety.

On my recent trip, the Rangers game was on, some casual Texas country was playing and my waitress, Flo, called me "Hun". This is always a good omen. Especially for a burger joint. I took my seat at a table in the corner so I could leer at a nearby table. The options generally range from burger to cheeseburger, fries and onion rings, and a few other items. I ordered a 1/4 lb cheeseburger and a side of fries.

My stomach, however, ordered the Chubby Challenge. For those of you with larger arteries than me, this is your place. Right now, there is a 3 pound burger and 2 pound side order of fries, waiting for your domination. Eat it all and they name it after you as you're rushed to the hospital. If you fail to eat it, everybody in the restaurant gets to laugh at your shame. For those of you who are bad at math, a 3 lb burger equals twelve of the burgers I ordered. Twelve. I couldn't eat that in a week.

Anyways, Flo brought me a cup to fill up the soda of my choice at the soda fountain. Generally, I like waitpeoples to bring me what I'm waiting on, but I'm a fan of the refill at your own pace idea. Plus, it gave me a chance to check out the toppings cart. For such a small cart, there were quite a few options. You can add regular mustard, spicy mustard, mayo, lettuce, tomato, pickles, red onion, white onion, jalapenos, and pico de gallo to your burger. Quite a selection for a small cart, if you ask me, which you didn't.

The burger came and I went with a my favorite toppings. All of the toppings were of good quality and I have nothing to complain about except I would prefer fresh jalapenos over pickled ones. But again, nobody asked me.

Of course, toppings don't make a bad burger good. Not a problem here because my burger was terrific. The meat was well flavored and cooked perfectly. The bun was nicely toasted and the cheese was copious and meltious. I will go back just for the burger. I will also order the onion rings next time. The fries had a texture as though they weren't cooked enough. They were skin on fries so they could have been fresh cut (which would be great), but they were a bit raw (which is not great). The onion rings, based on my leers from across the room, looked awesome. They were stringy but friedy. Too of the more delicious adjectives.

The prices are a little high for the food, but the burger was definitely worth its cost. The fries would be worth a pass unless it was just opening pains. If you've been and had a better experience with the fries, please let everybody know.

Chubby's Burger Shack is located at 7618 Camp Bowie West. Let me know if you've been and had a different experiences.

Coming up soon - the Love Shack and my run in with Tim Love along with Cafe Bella.