Hacienda on Henderson
2326 North Henderson Avenue
Dallas, TX 75206-7024

Hacienda on Henderson, spanish for "Little house with BAMF patio"

They're open til 2am! I like their rice!

Hacienda on Henderson has gotten a bad rap.  Do them a favor and don’t google their reviews.  Just read Foodgarbl, the obvious choice in food critiquing.  We went here a couple weeks ago for lunch and the patio was perfect for one of our signature life discussions.  You know, where you sit around a table and everyone gets their iPhone out and doesn’t talk to each other?  You’d think we were antisocial but in those moments of silence, 72 point words are played, angry birds are slung at pigs, facebook statuses are updated and grocery lists are made.  Even though the main purpose of lunch is to get outta Dodge, we’re still hungry so we do indeed look forward to the food.  Bring on the white queso:

Queso Blanco. Healthy because it has tomatoes on top.

As a Texan, chips and salsa is as essential to my body as oxygen.

Chuy's salsa wannabe

My first bite of the queso was nothing memorable.  But after dipping my 12th chip I was like, “oh damn.”  Each additional bite added Flava Flav.  The salsa was good, definitely used fresh ingredients.  It was just nothing out of the ordinary, though.  It was watery like Chuy’s salsa with chunks of fresh tomatoes, onion and cilantro.  Could have had two bowls without a glass of water.  For the main entree I went with the grilled fish tacos.  SHOW THEM:

These were fantastic.  The fish was seasoned nicely and had fresh slaw on top.  The rice had grilled corn mixed in and was a pile of buttery goodness.  As sacrilegious as this might sound, I wish some restaurants would offer other options besides beans and rice.  It’s just so 1990 now.  My friend asked for and received a side salad with her chicken tacos and she was very pleased with her substitution.

Salad substituted for beans and rice. You gonna getcho money's worth.

I know it’s easy to make a huge batch of rice and beans in the morning and serve it all day but how much harder would it be to grill up some corn or offer a mango jalapeno slaw?  We need healthy options!  So we can go back to the office and order Tiff’s Treats!  Here are the brisket tacos that were raved about:

Brisket rhymes with Triscuit.

And Slow Moh tagged along to conquer some dessert:

Sopa People

The best part of Hacienda on Henderson is not the food, however.  It is the kickin patio:

We will most def go back to HOH for the patio alone.  The food did not blow me away but it was better than I expected.  I wish Hacienda had a signature dish or something that would make them stand out.  As it is, they are just another Mexican restaurant in Dallas.  Unless you count infused tequila as a competitive advantage.  Remember oxygen bars?  Yeah. Neither do I.

Hi Laura Bush!

Rusty Taco
4802 Greenville Avenue
Dallas, TX 75206

Rockin patio and plenty of parking for BMW's

We hit up Rusty Taco today for lunch after hearing lots of press about their grand opening.  At the corner of Greenville and University (Hi Serene!) in the former Just Brakes location, this new taco joint is a magnet for SMU students, SMU alumni, parents of SMU students and friends of SMU students visiting from UT.  They just opened this week so they are still working out the kinks but there was already a line out the door.  The line went pretty quick and I ordered two grilled fish tacos and a breakfast taco (said they served breakfast tacos all day).  To my disappointment, they stopped serving breakfast tacos by lunchtime.  Said they were still trying to figure out the logistics on that.  And here I was taking IHOP for granted all these years.  Oh well, I added a brisket taco and drink, paid my $8 and sat down.  The layout of this place really is cool.  It’s about to get hotter than a Network Engineer from Oklahoma with the Texas summer heat around the corner so the open air format won’t last long, but for now it is perfect with the open windows and patio seating.  We sat inside, but technically we sat outside toos.

Network Engineer from Oklahoma aka Texas Hotness

Line Was Out Tha Doe! At $8 a pop that's pretty ballin. Why don't I open a taco stand?

They bring you your order. And if your name is Sara they sing to you.

Cerveza cooler. I want one of these to sit in after long runs.

Now, to the important part – la comida mexicana!!  Although that is misleading because to sum up Rusty Taco in two words, I’d have to say, “GRINGO TACOS.”  For $2 per taco it’s hard to complain but I’d be willing to pay a dollar more if the tacos had flavor.  These are not your neighbor’s to the south tacos.  The grilled fish taco and brisket taco were nothing memorable in my opinion.  They throw some red cabbage, cilantro and chipotle cream on there but the fish flavor was pretty pungent.  The beef was meh.  And yet I heard a girl next to me say “did you try the brisket taco?  It is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good.”  She also had a margarita, just saying.  A few of my lunch whoa-di’s ordered the queso and salsa so we could garbl those as well.  The queso tasted like 90% Velveeta, 8% tomatoes and 2% Lost island polar bear clumps.  Rusty Taco queso is to Bob Armstrong dip as Mark Cuban is to the Situation.  Although Mark’s back on my good side for investing in South Dallas.  And because the Mavs PWNed the Spurs tonight.

You put the lime on the taco and you eat it all up.

Gringo tacos

Clumpy and Lumpy walked into a bar...

The salsa was a fan favorite. So was the Hugh Grant lookalike but you had to be there.

House made chips were ver tasty! How much!?! $3 for salsa or queso with chips. Recession proof.

Corner slot is no eight ball, it is a chicken bone.

The above picture shows a chicken bone found in my friend Serene’s taco.  Serene is well known throughout all of Dallas for her unbelievably amazing Lazy Cake and she knows quality like nobody’s binness.  (in Gilly voice from SNL…) Rustyyyyyyy?  Did you put a chicken bone in Serene’s chicken taco?!?!?!  Sorree.

Rusty Tacos is still a bit…well…rusty.  I think they need to fix a few things (breakfast tacos served all day, Nickelback removed from the Jukebox, chicken bone discount, google a new queso recipe) but they have a neat concept, a great location and cheap prices.  Those 3 things alone will keep Dallasites coming back for more…

UNTIL…TORCHY’S OPENS!  That’s right kids.  You heard it here first on Foodgarbl.  Torchy’s is coming to Dallas!  Sorry Rusty, but it’s about to get BROUGHTEN.

Torchy’s Tacos Torchy’s is hitting the big city! Torchy’s Dallas location is opening in about 75 days! Dallas folks are you ready??? We’re gonna rock your world…;)

Here are pics from my last adventure in Austin at Torchy’s:

I liken Torchy's to a Mexican Disneyworld of sorts, minus the characters. Unless the characters can be mango habanero salsa and avocado cilantro creme sauce.

Breakfast of Champions. Champions = those who eat 3 meals before dinner.

I'm drooling

You tell me that doesn't look good. Just try. Can't do it can you?

I was so excited about the Torchy’s news that I went for a run tonight to try to get to my goal weight before they open so I can afford to gain 15 lbs.  Give or take 10.  After the run we decided to do refrigerator/freezer cleanout so I made us some smoothies using frozen nanners, blueberries, raspberries, almond milk, Chobani strawberry yogurt, half a cucumber, some flax meal and almond butter.  It was one of my better smoothies.  Wasn’t sure about throwing a cucumber in there but the Vitamix works wonders and smoothies are a great way to save veggies that are nearing the end of their life cycle.  Jason took his shirt off, did 50 push-ups, roared like a lion, then grilled veggie burgers for us (hippie fail).  I threw a little goat cheese crumble on mine and it was delicious.  We use the Don Lee Farms Veggie Patties from Costco and they really rock my world.  Gonna do a quick workout video, race the dogs up and down the stairs 5 times, shower and play words with friends.  I’m even jealous of my own life.

Chuy’s
4544 McKinney Ave (at Knox)
Dallas, TX 75205
(214) 559-2489

I learned two things on Friday (Promotion Day): a) you are pretty much expected to tard out all day and b) sometimes tarding out leads to rapid weight gain. We had two hours to kill before the big promotion party so we decided to T the F O at Chuy’s.  People typically either love or hate Chuy’s.  They love it because it has jalapeno ranch dip and the Elvis Room.  They hate it because they refuse to accept pigeons as people too.  We started off with the Chuy Gooey, a myocardial infarction topped with varicose veins and double chin sauce.

Jenny Craig Likes It!

It was too greasy for my liking.  That and there was frickin jalapeno ranch dip sitting there doing nothing in front of me.  I kid you not I probably consumed my weight in chips and ranch sauce before our entrees even came.  I’m fat.  But it’s okay because I know where to buy water belts now (Academy).  My main course was the Friday special, the Hatch Chile Chicken Enchiladas, which were coincidentally topped with more queso sauce (WINNER!).

The X is for Malcom

Mohsin ordered the chicka chicka boom boom dish.  He really liked it but kind of thought the chickens were jackin his style, trying to copy his swagga.  Wendy ordered the Chuy Special and raved about the blue corn tortillas.  Jane and Hudson both had the Friday special with me and noted the special kick that the hatch chiles provided.

On a side note, have you ever eaten so much your armpits got bigger?  Have you ever kept eating because you’re nervous that you may never eat again?  The only thing that probably kept me from continuing my gorge fest was the fact that there were a flock of pigeons on the patio dominating leftover chips and refried beans.  Note to those that want to enjoy Happy Hour at Chuy’s on the patio: the pigeons pooped on your table…enjoy