Cafe Amore

Another week, another  delicious Meal of Food! This week, we went to Cafe Amore in Richardson (they also have a location in Plano). Amore is an old favorite of my family's as it is just around the corner from our old house. I've eaten there a lot!

It was the first time that Amore won for MoFF. My two favorite things about Amore are the amazing rolls and the fact that it's BYOB!

I could really just eat these.

We had the Mozzarella and Tomato ala Caprese as an appetizer, and I had pizza for dinner.

I did the Build Your Own option with pepperoni, mushrooms, and bell peppers

I hadn't been to Amore in quite a while, but it did live up to expectations! The food here is really good, and the place is always packed on the weekends. It's a very family friendly place - the prices are very affordable and you can bring your own drinks. One drawback is that the service can be a little slow. It's not somewhere that I would recommend if you are in a hurry. That's not to say that the service is bad - in fact the servers are always very friendly. It can just take a while to get your food. We were happy to sit and chat and enjoy the evening, so speed was not an issue for us. It can also be a little tricky to get a table for a large group as they generally don't accept reservations. We got lucky and didn't have to wait, but that has not always been my experience.

Overall, the food is excellent, and the price and BYOBness make it worth waiting for!

Urban Taco

Our July Fourth weekend was a lot of fun. We got to crash friend's pools all weekend, so I finally got some sun. But we still made it to Meal of Food Friday!

We ventured to Urban Taco in uptown. It's a cute little place with a nice patio. We started out with the salsa trio, and we choose the jalapeno avocado, avocado lime crema, and the roja. I don't eat spicy food, so I stayed away from the jalapeno, but both of the other salsas were great. They had both tortilla and potato chips, both of which were good.

photo credit: dinedsrg.com/ut/mckinney.html

 For dinner, I had the De Bistek quesadillas and Ryan tried the 3 taco special - 3 tacos for $10 is a deal! My quesadillas were really good. Ryan enjoyed his too.

Delicious quesadillas - the dish that I measure all Mexican restaurants against.

Ryan's taco dinner.

The funny thing about Urban Taco was that the drinks cost more than the food. I'm not complaining, I just thought that it was funny. I was low on insulin, so I opted out of margaritas, but I hear from my fellow diners that they were great! Overall, we had a good time, and if we are down in the uptown area again, I would go back.

Hopdoddy Burger Bar

We had our first "regular" MoFF in quite a while this week. No birthdays, out of town trips, or other special stuff. Hopdoddy Burger Bar located in Preston Center in Dallas won the vote. It is known for great burgers and handcrafted beer. Ryan and I had been hearing about how good it was and we were excited to see for ourselves.

When we went to Austin a few weeks ago, we saw the line for Hopdoddy wrapped around the building, so we decided to head to the restaurant early. It was a good thing because the line was already long at 6:30! We ordered drinks and waited in line to order for about 30 minutes. It really wasn't a bad wait - we socialized and tried a couple of different beers. Ryan was excited to get a 512 Pecan Porter. It's made in Austin and very few places in Dallas carry it. I had a Deep Elum Dallas blonde.

For dinner, I had the Classic Burger with cheese and bacon and Ryan had the Llano Poblano. We shared the truffle fries. I'm of the opinion that anything made with truffle oil is probably amazing.

The classic burger. You really can't go wrong with a bacon cheeseburger.

My feelings on truffle oil was proved correct once again!

Hopdoddy was REALLY worth the wait! This is up there on my list of best burgers in town.  It honestly might be the winner. And the fries were really delicious too. The only I had that I'm not dreaming about was the Skinny Dip cocktail, which is a frozen margarita swirled with St. Arnold's Lawnmower beer. It sounded great - two of my favorite drinks in one glass. Sadly, Ryan and I split it and neither of us liked it much. I did have a taste of a friends margarita on the rocks and it was excellent. There was just something about the beergarita that didn't work.

I want to go back to Hopdoddy ASAP.  Just plan to get there early or you will have to wait.

Kreuz Market - Lockhart, TX

When you stop to eat on a road trip you usually end up at McDonald's, Whataburger, etc. On our recent trip to San Antonio, we decided to stop in Lockhart,"The Barbecue Capital of Texas." It was pretty much on the way from Dallas, and we couldn't miss an opportunity to try some great food (hello, it was Meal of Food Friday).

We ended up at Kreuz Market. It was founded in 1900 as a meat market and grocery store and has evolved as a great BBQ restaurant with one usual rule - NO SAUCE. It was a cool place. You walk up to the meat counter, where you can see and smell the food cooking. They take your order right out of the smoker and measure it out for you. Then you go to a separate line to pick out your sides and drinks.

photo credit: www.roadfood.com

We shared the brisket, ham, and beef ribs, with mac and cheese and German potatoes on the side.

Ham, ribs, potatoes, mac & cheese, and bread. A classic BBQ meal

The food stood up to the Lockhart hype. It was all ready good! I was particularly impressed with the ham. I don't usually go for BBQ ham, but I loved Kreuz's. I have to admit that the no sauce thing was weird for me. Despite how flavorful and juicy the meat was, I really misses sauce. That being said, this was definitely worth a detour! 

We had a few good meals on our trip to San Antonio as well. My two favorites were the giant cinnamon role from Lulu's Bakery, and brunch at Liberty Bar.

As seen on Man Vs. Food

Delicious omelet with potatoes and toast. The toast was soo good (random, I know)

We had a fun weekend away. I'm looking forward to visiting San Antonio and Lockhart again some time!