Lunch Report: Longhorn Cafe and Grille, Leon Springs...

Continually trying to knock out the all important "list", my wife and I took a pleasant drive up I-10 to the Leon Springs exit and dropped into the Longhorn Cafe and Grille for a quick snack.
I must preface this by letting you know that we were extremely hungry by the time we left our house looking for vittles and when we arrived, we took no effort to comb the menu for just the right items to purchase. In fact, before our order came out, I was already kicking myself for not ordering a passel of appetizers like the Jalapeno Poppers or fried mushrooms. Another time I suppose.
The place looks like any number of other burger or BBQ places we have been. In fact, my wife was reminded of Babe's Old Fashioned Hamburgers though I don't recall there being any mounted deer wearing hats at Babe's.
I like the fact that they offered both the picnic table option or for folks like us, the booth. They also had some young lady going around making little balloon animals for the kids and that seemed to be a big hit with the grandchildren crowd although my wife did correct me when I pointed out one grandchild with his grandparents that no, those were his parents. I guess they started in their mid-50's. Nothing wrong with that at all.

Anyway, onto the food. We both ordered from the special menu where you get a sandwich, a side of either fries, tots or rings and a drink for a single price, and only maybe a buck or two more than a meal at McDonald's.
My wife had a hankering for a fish sandwich since we had to drive by the Bass Pro Shop on the way to Leon Springs, and she suddenly was craving the fish at Islamorada. The first thing you will notice is the onion rings. They are huge, the kind that sort of crumble all over the place and in serious need of salt. If you like the onion rings at Clear Springs, you'll appreciate these, just be sure to salt them, add some tarter sauce or ketchup or something. Aside from the lack of flavor, they were very good.
The fish itself looks like two planks directly from Fred's Fish Fry. Local San Antonio readers will understand. I have no issues with square fish like you find at Mickey D's, especially when it is presented on a perfectly grilled bun and topped with lettuce, tomato and some tarter. But overall, my wife just wasn't impressed and it made for a long drive back right by the Bass Pro Shop at The Rim.

I ordered the Cheeseburger combo, also with the rings. Ordinarily, we would have mixed it up with one of us getting rings and the other trying the fries, but I looked over at someone else's order coming up and decided I wasn't intrigued by the thin fries I saw.
I have nothing bad to say about the burger. The highlight for me is the bun and the fact that they are willing to slather on about a half cup of mayonnaise. Any place that will serve it up to the point that the mayo is dripping onto my beard fully understands how to make a burger in my book. For the price, it was filling, it was juicy, and it was consumed in about three minutes. The patty did not look to be fresh but rather from a frozen state - I could be wrong, but again, simply no complaint at all, I would certainly enjoy another one.

I am told that some of the other Longhorn Cafe locations are actually better in quality. The place was not overly packed but we still waited close to 20 minutes from the time we ordered to the time we got the food. That isn't bad considering they make your order from scratch I guess.

Can't make it to the What-a-Burger near your house? Don't hesitate to give Longhorn Cafe & Grille a shot.