Lunch Report: Bud Jones...

My wife and I found ourselves on the south side shortly after noon today and when the topic of lunch came up, she casually mentioned Bud Jones amongst a list of several other eateries we had not been to in years.Bud Jone's has been around since the late 1950's and is one of those places that everyone seems to know about. I know I had been before, but I couldn't tell you when it was or what I had - it must have been easily 10 or 15 years ago.

So we pulled in and found parking in the back lot - the place was doing an extremely brisk business, which I suspect is pretty much the way it is all the time there. In case the location might make you nervous, I will tell you that there was a security guard perched in a little deer blind dutifully watching the lot for any shenanigans that might be going on.We were seated directly across from where people enter and wait to be seated. I wasn't exactly thrilled about the location at first, but after a while, I realized it was a good place for inspecting the clientele. My wife asked me at one point if I thought that many of the patrons seemed to be a little "odd"? Oh sure, I could have simply set the camera up and photographed each party arriving, but that might have been noticeable. Please don't get me wrong; there were plenty of your normal people entering for some after church lunch or perhaps a family get together. It just both struck us that during our 45 minutes to an hour sitting there and seeing every person who entered or left, there was an above average number of circus freaks, twins, oddly shaped individuals and people who seemed to be from other planets. But I like that in a restaurant; it makes me feel at home.Our entrees came with a choice of soup or salad. My wife had the vegetable soup and I had the house salad with Ranch. The soup was good and the salad was just right. Oh sure, I would have liked some croutons, but I'm not complaining.My wife ordered up a platter called "The Net" that came with two planks of fish, some shrimp and some great onion rings. The onion rings were simply awesome, though you do need to eat them while they are hot (as it should be). The onions had a sweet taste and the breading was done just right. The shrimp were also excellent. Butterflied and fried, not too crunchy. The fish was Alaskan Cod and my wife enjoyed it enough to join the clean-plate club.As soon as I saw the catfish on the menu, I knew that was what I would be having. It came with 2 smallish jalapeno hush puppies that were tasty, though not as jalapeno'ee as I expected. The catfish planks were huge. In fact, it was almost tough to work with them on the size of plate they give you. I guess I'm more of a catfish nugget person, but the taste was good and like the onion rings, the breading was just fine. The tarter sauce was also good. The plates are really loaded, and though I realize I am not required by law to finish everything they give me, it just tastes so good. I did leave the fries, since I had been stealing onion rings and shrimp from my wife's plate, but my wife says they were good.There are several dining areas within the place and it seems like they have quite a large staff running around to serve everyone. In spite of it being a large place, it feels very homey and old style diner like. I think they probably could stand to remodel, but then again, why bother as long as the food is good, and for us, it was.Have you been to Bud Jones? Got any favorites from their huge menu? Tell me about it or leave a comment below.

Lunch Report: Hungry Farmer...

My wife and I just happened to be on the South Side around lunch time and started thinking about where we might get a bite to eat. It had been years (probably ten) since we had been into Hungry Farmer, so we figured, why not?Something I don't recall from our last visit is that they seem to have a second restaurant attached called Uncle Barney's Old Fashioned Hamburgers. I'm not sure why they would need a separate place for burgers when you are already at a steak place, but who knows?Anyway, along with the old tractor in the front and the cows on the roof, the inside of the place looks the same as it has for as long as I can remember.I really like how the minute you are seated, they hand you a little house salad. We had to laugh at the huge celery stalks, but aside from that, it is your standard house salad, minus any of the good croutons you'd get at Texas Road House.

They were having some sort of special where you can get a T-Bone with popcorn shrimp and a side, then get the second one for half price. That sounded like a deal to us, so we were in.For her side, my wife ordered the French fries. They are cut the way she likes them but unfortunately, seemed to be undercooked. Her steak was done just right - no need for any A1 or other offensive sauces, and within a few bites she was all worked up in a Happy Dance frenzy.As we were ordering, I inquired about the onion rings. Kudos to our waitress for telling me that I wouldn't like them. Instead, I ordered the baked potato and it was cooked just fine. The idea of the packet of sour cream always seems strange to me - at least for presentation purposes, but it all tastes the same.My steak seemed to have two personalities. I started to eat one side of the T-bone and there was a reasonable amount of gristle and fat, I suppose. As my wife continued her little happy dance, she watched me strategically maneuver my way through the steak looking for a good piece. The other side of the T-bone was seriously, melt in your mouth, wonderful. I guess that's how steak is sometimes.

The popcorn shrimp was okay since it seemed to be something they just throw in, so I didn't expect it to be Sea Island quality. It probably came from a frozen bag like the onion rings. But I ate it.

All in all, I can't complain. The steaks were huge, the waitress provided outstanding service and given the deal (second steak half price), the price was reasonable. If you haven't been to Hungry Farmer in a while, give it a try - tell me what you think.

Strange in 78250: Or There Abouts...

I am not here to poke fun at the crippled, injured and less fortunate amongst us, but this is simply too Beverly Hillbilly'ish to not report. I mean, I fully expected Jethro Bodine to be driving this truck.So apparently, someone in the family needs to use one of those motorized chairs. And to get the thing from point A to point B, they have these hoist systems that mount to your vehicle to make transport easy.Yes, I know these things are expensive and not all insurance companies cover the full cost to retrofit your daily driver with one of these but c'mon folks. The strange thing was, with all the extra chains hanging off the back of it, it almost looked as though maybe ol' Granny had been strapped to it. Geeze, I hope she didn't fall off somewhere down Southwest Military Drive!