Call us weak, but when we need a little beef, we don't stray too far from the house, and when I'm not throwing a few slabs of beef on the grill out back, we have the Texas Roadhouse just down the street at Loop 410 and Ingram.
My daughter had a hankering for a good steak; she reports that New Jersey and the assembled restaurants within an hour of her home are simply inadequate in the steak department - and she needed the lovin' that can only come from TRH in SA.
On a side note and totally unrelated to this story: You can purchase the steak knives; you don't have to steal them. In fact, my wife has purchased enough Texas Roadhouse steak knives, complete with burlap sack pouches, that we could probably start our own franchise. We'd just need some steak. And some plates, and a place to cook the food and such.
They start you off with hot bread and some cinnamon butter. I could do without the cinnamon, but what the heck. Yum.
I've told you before, I love their house salad. Chilled bowls and fresh ingredients. Awesome.
I had the 1/3 rack of ribs and loaded baked potato (the potato is still in my refrigerator, due to the fact that I'm a lightweight.)
My wife had the 6 ounce steak cooked Medium well...
And my daughter had the same steak cooked medium. The medium simply melts in your mouth. Yea, after I inhaled my ribs, I had little tastes of the steak.
So, in case you need to get some meat, I'm still happy with the Texas Roadhouse, and you should hit it - just call ahead.
Yesterday - Valentine's Day, I got off work and got home as quickly as possible so I could pick up my wife and zip out to someplace to eat. By 5PM, we were in the truck heading out of the neighborhood and I was on the phone to Texas Roadhouse to do the ol' call ahead deal. It isn't reservations, but they do put your name on the waiting list at the time you call, so for a long wait, you at least have a head start.
Apparently, everyone of you had the same idea! I call and the girl takes my name and then for the first time, reads me some long disclaimer about the circumstances of my call. She tells me that she is putting me on the waiting list, that it isn't a reservation, based on my expected arrival time I was only getting a ten minute head start in waiting and such. I mean, it sounded as though she was trying to talk me out of the whole thing. Finally, I interrupted her and asked, "Well just how long is the wait?"
"Oh" she says as if it was no big deal, "with your ten minutes off, about 80 minutes." Did I mention we call Chili's the ol' standby?
So we walked into Chili's, were seated immediately and I decided that I was going to have something different. I always get the chili and salad, everytime I go. But I figured, tonight, I was going for something different. For the first time ever, I ordered a steak from Chili's. 
But first, my wife ordered some kind of new version of onions. This isn't the onion blossom, and it isn't onion rings like you'd think of onion rings, these are sort of fried, then sauteed onions, almost like what you would put on a burger.
I'm almost embarrassed to say that we ate the whole order, because these things have extreme gas written all over them. Thankfully, the mashed potatoes we had with dinner seemed to counter any disturbing affects. Or effects, I never can remember.
So my wife gets her little steak - it is some sort of Honey Barbecued kind of deal. She likes her steak cooked medium well and is happy if it is closer to well than medium.
I got the steak (ordered medium, but got still kicking) and baby back ribs. Now before you get all grossed out at the picture, I didn't take a photo of half eaten food - but the waitress wanted me to cut into everything to be sure it was done enough before she would leave. Of course, my steak is still raw, but there is no way in hell I would send something back to the kitchen. That's just asking for a sweaty guy to do an around the world on my steak, and I'm not interested in what he's servin'!
Needless to say, for lunch today at work, I had a steak cooked in the microwave so as to get it to at least a medium, and it was mighty fine. My ribs were awesome! I swear I inhaled them, sucking the meat off the bones then wildly licking at my mustache and beard in some circular motion with my tongue to get the rib sauce off. I guess it was a scene; some creepy old guy walking by the table winked at me and gave me a thumbs up!
Anyway, that was dinner at Chili's. By the time we got up to leave, the crowd, most likely tired of waiting at Texas Roadhouse had made their collective way to Chili's because the line to get in was backing up outside. Ha!
A co-worker asked me last week if I had ever heard of the Rib House. Ever heard of it? I love the Rib House, I just hadn't been there in quite some time, even though my wife taunts me with tales of good eats every time her and her mom stop by for some of their famous ribs. The idea was in my head and by Friday, it was a done deal, we had to get over to the Rib House so I could get some of their catfish.
I know that sounds odd, but having never tried the catfish before, I had this big plan to get some!
This restaurant is located just north of what is now Port San Antonio, formerly Kelly AFB, on Old Highway 90. If for some reason you look at the Google Map and it has the place located in Castroville, just ignore it. The address is 757 Old Hiway 90 just west of 36th Street. If you can't see or feel a big C-5 flying over head, you aren't there.
So we get there right at opening and commence to inspect the menu. I have to confess, I had this sudden unsettling idea that if I had the catfish, I was missing the entire point of going to the Rib House. I mean, they don't call it the Catfish House, right? And this is why I have problems at restaurants. Too many options is a recipe for disaster.
There were three of us in our group and after serving us our tea, it was time to actually place the food orders. I opted to go last hoping that in the remaining few seconds, I could make my mind focus on the benifits of catfish over ribs.
The first guy ordered the two meat lunch - beef ribs and pork ribs and for sides, yams and fried okra.
The second guy went with the brisket (which I have had many times before - delicious) and green beans and Cole slaw.
It was suddenly go time for me. I had the sides down for sure. I was going with the green beans and potato salad. As soon as I was about to say catfish, my mind made some sort of left turn at Albuquerque and my mouth announced, "two meats, beef and pork", all on its own. As the guy left, I almost felt like I was having an out of body experience because I really had catfish on my mind. Really.
But I was not disappointed at all. First, I am a huge fan of Bill Millers green beans. I love them and would eat them daily. The green beans at the Rib House do not have the same pica-factor (they aren't spicy hot), but they have a great home made flavor that I truly enjoy. Order them and you will agree. The potato salad is good - I wouldn't turn it away and I surely licked my plate clean. The ribs are simply to die for and I don't mean maybe. I like the beef and the pork. One of our group said that he liked the beef a little more than the pork but followed that with, "It was like the difference between an A and an A+". Hard to go wrong with that.
No offense to the fine people at Tony Roma's (I haven't been in years), but the Rib House puts them to shame. Shame, as in give me back the hundreds and hundreds of dollars I spent there over the years thinking I was eating "The Best".
Now, before you gather up the entire family reunion or want to take your seventy nearest neighbors over for a little feast, you have to understand that there are some limitations. First, there is no parking to speak of. Second, the restaurant itself is not very big. I don't know how many they can hold, but it can't be more than 30 at a time. Having said that though, you can get it to go.
But if you have a small group of 4 to 10, I'd say they would be able to hook you up, just get there early.
So as soon as I got back to work, I whined over and over to my friends that I should have gotten the catfish. I'm guessing there is going to be another trip in the near future.
Bottom line: Tasty Treats. If you even think you like ribs and you don't try this place, you are missing out. Say Howdy to Miss Taylor - she'll be there waiting for you.
My daughter had a hankering for a good steak; she reports that New Jersey and the assembled restaurants within an hour of her home are simply inadequate in the steak department - and she needed the lovin' that can only come from TRH in SA.
They start you off with hot bread and some cinnamon butter. I could do without the cinnamon, but what the heck. Yum.
I've told you before, I love their house salad. Chilled bowls and fresh ingredients. Awesome.
I had the 1/3 rack of ribs and loaded baked potato (the potato is still in my refrigerator, due to the fact that I'm a lightweight.)
My wife had the 6 ounce steak cooked Medium well...
And my daughter had the same steak cooked medium. The medium simply melts in your mouth. Yea, after I inhaled my ribs, I had little tastes of the steak.
