Mr. Cod Update: Opens Friday(not), Good Eats...

Our friends and blog readers Pete and Lydia went to visit Mr. Cod for a pre-opening taste of the product today and send me this important report:

Hi Dave, Pete and I went to Mr Cod for a free food tasting this afternoon. The food is great!

I told Mike and Beatrice about your blog and that you do food critiques of our local restaurants. He said to invite you and he will be glad to show you around and you and Eva can taste some of their food. Mike is from England and is a franchise owner and Beatrice and Jose Luis Gonzales are the owners of this franchise.

The crew came from the UK to teach the people here how to prepare the food in accordance to the Mr. Cod standards. I have to tell you that the fish and chips are great and the fish tacos outstanding. The fish tacos are a local fare and not sold in England or Pakistan. Hope you get to try them out. There is also parking in the back.

They officially open this Friday.

You can't ask for a better report than that! Thanks, folks.

UPDATE: Apparently, not this Friday!

I'm not sure if we can make it there before the opening, but I am so excited about getting some authentic Bloke Vittles. I'm tempted to watch an hour or two of Benny Hill or bust out my old Culture Club records to get in the mood! Kidding. A little, anyway.

Which reminds me. I don't want to take anything away from the big Mr. Cod opening, but this whole thing got me thinking about when I lived in England in the early/mid 1980's. There was a very popular BBC 1 radio presenter (that's what they call DJ's) named Steve Wright. The guy was simply brilliant. He had this cast of regular characters who would either call in or appeared in studio.

My favorite character was a guy named Mr. Angry from Purley (Purley being the name of a small village somewhere). If you recall the Rosanne Rosanna Dana character by Gilda Radner on SNL in the late 70's, Mr. Angry was sort of like that. He would call into the show and rant and rave about something, and usually, it turned out that he had gotten the who thing wrong. It was quite humorous.

I also loved the very tight running of the board and mixing of music on the show. Even though it was all very funny, it had a tight production quality found on the likes of the Glenn Beck radio show now. In other words, even when you thought everything was total chaos and they show was about to fall apart, Steve Wright was just setting things up for the next bit or routine, and things always would fall into place and on time for the next commercial break.

Anyway, the Mr. Cod thing got me thinking about Steve Wright (not sure why other than the obvious UK connection) and I looked him up on the Google the other day. Turns out, he is back on the air and his podcasts are available for download from BBC2. So, I think in anticipation of some good fish & chips, I'm gonna listen to some Steve Wright and see how he sounds 25 years later.

Lunch Report: Mr. Cod...

This is one of those cases where both my wife and I walked into a restaurant planning to throw down our cash, take a few bites, take a few pictures and if it wasn't good, we'd simply walk out and head next door to What-A-Burger. The fact is, with all the bad reports from readers (which we do appreciate, by the way), we could have easily just skipped it and moved on to the opening of the next restaurant in the area.

Thankfully, we didn't.Not even ten minutes before going to try Mr. Cod, our neighbors gave us a mixed review of their own experience. There was an issue of consistency in the cooking, some complaints about fries (chips), no iced tea, and only having ketchup as a condiment.When we walked in, business was brisk. The place was clean, and getting cleaner by the minute as the owner walked around with a spray bottle and towel cleaning windows and doors and tables and such.

The restaurant was transformed from the old Pizza Hut (soon to open across the street), and it is suddenly a lot brighter inside. The booths were clean and comfortable, and the entire seating area seems pretty roomy.

My wife and I walked up to the counter, both ordered the lunch special which includes a hunk of fish (cod), a trip to the salad bar, chips and a drink. $5.99 each. As a test, I ordered tea (since one reader mentioned the tea machine was not working), and it was available and good.While we waited for our order, we went to the salad bar to load up on green food. The salad bar is one of those types where things are chilled, so the lettuce and fixin's were nice and chilled (as they should be). The only casualty was a chunk of sliced egg I grabbed that seemed to be frozen. Aside from that, no complaints at all.Before we had even finished making our salads, the fish and chips were delivered to our table. Both of us took time eating our salads, because I think we were pretty much worried about what we would find once we started on the main course.I scooped up the last black olive from my salad bowl and reached for the bottle of malt vinegar located on the table next to the ketchup and the Cholula. Important Note: Though tarter sauce packets are available, do not ruin your British style fish and chips with any other condiment besides malt vinegar. You do not need ketchup for your chips and you do not require tarter sauce for your fish. Simply douse both with the vinegar.I broke apart the hunk of fish and let the steam rise from it, then took a cautious bite into it. I had heard numerous reports of the fish being undercooked, and I am here to tell you that I do not do sushi, at all.

Thankfully, the fish was cooked completely, the fried batter had a nice taste to it and I immediately took a second enjoyable bite. My wife asked me if it was okay to proceed and I told her that mine was fine.She started with the chips (fries) and immediately gave approval. The biggest complaint we had heard was that they were soggy, undercooked, and in one case, clumped together. We experienced none of that. You may not like it, but these are exactly as I recall the chips in England. But please, try them with the malt vinegar for the full affect.

Somebody noted that the fish had the taste of Long John Silvers. I can certainly buy that comparison, but I'd say (at least today) Mr. Cod was much closer to the real British fish & chips I remember. And frankly, I can't even walk into an LJS without needing a shower for the grease in the air.In the end, we both ate all the fish and all the chips and my wife said before I had even thought of it that she could easily see coming back for more. She wondered how the shrimp might taste. So, I went up to the counter and ordered two shrimp (99 cents each). I think they make a batch of them and set them in sort of a holding case or something. I found the shrimp to be slightly chewy.

We have found that a first visit usually makes or breaks whether or not we ever return for a second. The only place I can think of where we gave them multiple tries, simply because they were local was Lone Star Grill on Tezel. I never was impressed per se, but I know several of the regulars here loved the place. In this case, I think several of you gave Mr. Cod an honest shot and will never return for a second try. I can't blame you if that was your experience, but you might consider trying them out again in a few weeks.

As we were finishing up, the owner came over and introduced himself. He asked us how things were and we told him (honestly) we were pleased with the fish. He specifically asked about it being cooked properly and also asked us how we felt about the fries (chips). Again, we were happy with it. My wife mentioned that she would have preferred there be napkins on the table as opposed to the single napkin that comes in the packet of plastic ware. As it turns out, the guy from Ace-Mart was there delivering the napkin holders.

Turns out, just like the opening being delayed, there were quite a few issues of things that didn't get fixed or simply weren't ready on time because the owner was stuck in Mexico City. Yes, remember that whole Swine Flu (H1N1) thing that we were all freaking out about a few weeks ago? Well, this guy apparently got caught up in all that mess. As such, a lot of things that needed to get done, didn't.

He showed us where more work still needed to be done on the restaurant, changes to the salad bar, the signage etc. It is also pretty obvious that he got the message from disgruntled customers and as was the case with our fish today, somebody has adjusted the cooking times.

He also told us about the potatoes. If you ever go to 95% of the restaurants around here, they are using pre-packaged, frozen french fries. That's fine - I think most would agree that McDonald's makes a pretty good french fry and they are frozen and consistent. The Mr. Cod franchise insists on the potatoes being peeled and cut, fresh in the store. I'm gonna be honest, I like it that way. If they seem a little soggy, that is fine, as long as they are cooked.

So bottom line is, we'll go back. I probably won't stray far from the fish and chips, and basically, that was all I was looking for when I saw we were getting this style restaurant.

If you do happen to make a return trip, I'd love to hear how things turned out second time around.

Dinner Report: Mr. Cod, Part 5 (and Final I might Add)...

I owe a huge apology to the numerous people who left comments on my first review of Mr. Cod. You can see the original post and all the negative comments here, followed by my first review and all the negative comments here. In all honesty, we had a relatively good experience the first time around and just assumed that the rest of you people were screwed up. As it would turn out, we were just lucky. So, sorry.

I came home from work this evening and suggested to my wife that we go and give Mr. Cod a second go round, especially considering that they have been in business a full month, but also because we were really impressed when we met the owner. The owner and his wife are trying so hard to make the place a success and if you encountered them at the store, you would want them to succeed.

So we went in and there was a couple in line in front of us, and several other customers who had ordered ahead of them and were seated waiting to get their orders.

I have to admit that I was somewhat put off by the man ordering in front of us. He wanted the person to explain to him how the "chips" were cut. Let's be clear: chips is fries. You don't need to know any more than that. Yes, the Blokes cook theirs to a slightly different consistency, but in truth, they are just fries. French fries if you want to be more specific. But this guy for some reason was trying to display his knowledge of European foods and had to point out - to a British guy who I assumed to be from the Mr. Cod franchise - that they cut the potatoes differently in Italy. WTF?

My wife and I (who in case you were not aware also lived in Italy for three years) just looked at each other. Italians have French Fries just like us. And by the way, I don't think most British people think of themselves as European, but I don't want to speak for them since I only lived there for two years and that was back in the mid 80's when "Wake me up before you Go Go" was some fine sounding music, and George Michael only seemed Gay. Anyway, I just want to point out that this sort of behavior is what the term "ugly American" is all about.

I'm sorry for that minor outburst, but I just couldn't take it. On to my less than tasty meal.

We Americans are always in a hurry. We want our food fast, but more than we want it fast, we'd prefer it to be fully cooked. Some of the complaints received from you readers who took the time to leave comments, was that the cooking left something to be desired. My neighbor for instance had a piece of fish that was burnt crisp on one end and raw on the other end (but just right in the middle, I suppose).

Another complaint was the high prices and the small size. When we went the first time, it was during lunch and we had the special, so honestly, for $5.99, we thought the size of fish was okay. Interestingly enough, I got really good sized fish this evening, but I noticed as we were leaving that somebody picked up an order, and the pieces of fish were literally half the size of my order. Unbelievable.Oh, and this is my favorite. Several complaints from people about the napkin situation. But when we brought it up to the owner on our first visit (and as I noted in our report) they were expecting the napkin dispensers to be placed on tables soon. Apparently, three weeks later is not soon. They actually have rolls of bathroom style paper towels on each table. Egad.So on to it. My wife ordered the Fish Sandwich Combo (I think that is a #5) and it was $6.09, and comes with chips/fries and a drink. She was almost completely pleased with the sandwich. The fish was good, the size was enormous and it was served hot after a 15 minute wait.The only negative was the brown lettuce in the sandwich. A couple with an older lady came in and were seated near us and the lady had a salad. Her lettuce was all brown and the man immediately whipped out the customer survey card and started going to town, writing several paragraphs on the back of it.My wife also ordered the side of calamari for $2.99 which, if you have ever ordered from a place like Sea Island or Olive Garden, that is a pretty good price. Unless it sucks. We always know to eat the calamari as soon as it comes out because it doesn't take long for it to get chewy. By the time it got to our table, we were too late. I had two pieces and left it at that. My wife tried a few more and that was enough.

I ordered up something called the Trio Sampler Platter which comes with fish & chips, chicken and shrimp. Well, mine came with the fish, chips and chicken, but I had to wait even longer for the shrimp. And not worth the wait. It was I think $9.99.The fish was fine. Someone had complained before that it was bland. I have to agree this time around. Though I loaded mine up with malt vinegar - a must - it was not as flavorful as I thought it should be. But still, it was piping hot and it was enough to hit the spot. My two pieces of fish were fair portions and I have no complaints about the size, though as I said earlier, the people I saw pick up the order after us got royally (no pun intended) gypped. As I said, the shrimp was worthless - same as the first time we went.What was really weired was the chicken. For some reason, I just had it in my mind that they would serve chicken fingers or chicken planks or something, not actual pieces of chicken. But sure enough, the meal came with a leg and a thigh, fried up like the fish. I think they use a pressure cooker of some sort the same way KFC does. The only problem was, in spite of the long wait, the chicken was not cooked. Now don't get me wrong; I'm not one of these people who needs food to be completely burnt to a crisp, and in fact, I have had more than one person ask me to throw their chicken back on the grill because I pulled it sooner than most people would like. So if I look at a piece of chicken and it gives me the shivers, then we have a problem.

My wife took the chicken thigh up to the counter and saw the owner. She discreetly showed him the chicken and he nearly had a cow. He apologized profusely then grabbed the cook and had words as a new batch of chicken went in.

As we waited, we finished up our chips which were sadly, crappy. One of my neighbors had complained about the chips being a big clump stuck together. We had a similar experience today. Not all of them, but several clumps along with some overcooked fries. Overall, just not good.

After at least another 15 minutes, I went up to the counter and asked for the piece of chicken to-go. In all honesty, I was done eating but my wife didn't want to leave without the chicken considering we paid almost $10 for it. If anything, we would give it to the dog.When we got home, I opened up the container and the chicken looked very good on the outside, and in fact, I pulled the skin off (I wouldn't want my dog to get high cholesterol or anything) and ate it. Then, I started to cut into it so I could put it in the dog dish and my wife saw blood again. That was it.I'm sure Gracie would not have minded in the least, but my wife jumped in the truck and drove right back over to Mr. Cod with the bloody (no pun intended) chicken. She worked for 17 or so years in the food service industry and basically went to the owner and told him to cease and desist his chicken sales until they could get their act together. He was kind enough to give her a coupon for $5 off the next purchase of $15.00, but in all seriousness, I'm probably going to put it on Craigslist and see if I can get $3 for it. Okay, not really.

But I won't use it. I will give it to a homeless guy.

This is one of those cases where I wanted so bad for the place to be good enough for me to go there on a regular basis, but it just didn't work out. I wish the owners luck in whatever their next endeavor is, because I just don't see this one panning out.

And to those of you who called this one right from the word go, you have my sincere appreciation for trying to keep me straight! Need to go back and read all the comments? Click here.

Mr. Cod is Coming!

I know. Just like you, I have also been speculating wildly about the restaurant opening up in place of the recently abandoned Pizza Hut on Grissom Road near Timber Path.

A few weeks ago, one of our readers sent me the answer: Mr. Cod. Yea, she walked in and asked the people working on the place, who they worked for. Now, thanks to my thriving network of blog reporters, I get a call from regular reader Anon E. Mouse, reporting that new signage is going up. So of course, pictures are necessary!Today, reader Brenty lets me know that we have an actual website for Mr. Cod, and in fact, this is a company based out of the UK. Check them out here.

I don't mean to get all giddy here, but we could seriously have some awesome authentic fish & chips less than five minutes from the house. Naturally, I'll report when warranted.

Friday: Rain, Pizza, Pasta, Fish, Church, TV's and Vagrants....

Do you remember earlier this week when it was just raining cats and dogs? Great Googly-Moogly! It just so happened that the timing was pretty awesome because my wife had tracked down one of those guys that sits on the corner in a truck with a flatbed trailer full of sod. So, she had him bring over a couple of pallets worth to cover the mistake we made when we tilled up the backyard only to make the weeds grow better.

Anyway, with the grass firmly in place, the sky opened up and we had two solid days of rain, and though that left for crappy driving and lots of closed roads, but the grass is starting to take, and I like that. I should have taken a picture to show here, but I didn't think about it until now and it is already dark outside. Sorry.

So anyway, it was during the first day of rain when I didn't fully appreciate that the tiny little break in downpour wasn't the end of it. I had suggested to my wife that we drive about three miles south on Culebra to that Joe's Pizza & Pasta place that I had misled people into believing was open. A drive that would normally take just a few minutes, even during heavy traffic took us almost half an hour. Of course, it is always fun to blame it on crappy drivers, but in fact, the street lights at both Westover Hills Blvd and Old Grissom were out. Not flashing Red or Yellow, just out!

So, we finally get into this Joe's place and get out of the truck in the now, once again pouring rain. We can see the lights on in the place and even can see tables with place settings on them. Sure enough, as I pulled on the door to open it, I could see taped to the inside of the mirrored glass the sign that says they are closed for two weeks.

The worst part of it is, as we were pulling out, another couple was pulling on the same door we had and reading the sign. I told my wife that I sure hoped they hadn't gone to try the place on my lousy information! They looked a lot hungrier than we did. 'Course, I generally look like I just ate a big meal anyway, so that doesn't mean a whole lot.

It doesn't end there though. We decided that heading back up Culebra with all the jacked-up traffic mess was not the way to go, so we decided to go west on Potranco toward Highway 151 in hopes of finding some vittles. And as we were driving, of course the traffic people come on the radio and tell us that there is a huge wreck at Potranco and 151. That would explain the back-up.

So we cut through Richland Hills, over to Wiseman Road and picked up 151 just before 1604. It occurs to me that readers unfamiliar with San Antonio have no idea what I am even talking about here. Suffice it to say, we took a big huge circle and another half an hour to get through the rain and traffic to end up at the new Pizza Hut on Grissom and Timber Path, not a quarter mile from Silver Creek 78250!

You'll recall we ate at this Pizza Hut before. This time, we decided to skip the pizza itself and split one of those special Supremo sandwiches. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT waste your time on the Supremo. I've had bologna sandwiches that were better. But we do love that cheese bread they serve. As we were sitting there waiting for our food, I looked across the street and could see Mr. Cod through the rain. I casually mentioned to my wife that we should give them another try, now that they have been in business for several months without closing down.

I guess that was the hint my wife needed because when I walked in the door this afternoon, she was ready for a fish sandwich. Instead of taking a long circuitous route around San Antonio, we drove straight from the house to Mr. Cod and both ordered the #5 which is a fish sandwich, fries and a drink.
I have to tell you, while it was a bit of a wait (they don't cook your stuff 'til you order it), it was a welcome surprise. The fish sandwich is huge and served on very fresh bread like a submarine sandwich or something. And it was fully cooked!
As usual, the place is remarkably clean and the owner recognized my wife from our first visits back when they opened.
The fries are different now. These are not what I recall as the "chips" they served originally. I guess that just didn't go over well. But they were hot, not over cooked, and good, especially with malt vinegar on them. Of course, as they say on the Internet, your mileage may vary.

Hey, I don't want to make a big deal of this and I'm only even posting it because I found the whole thing to be kind of odd - even strange.

I was on my way home from Home Depot (which I'll tell you about in a minute) and I was driving down Timber Path through Emerald Valley, The Commons, and Ridge Creek on my way to Silver Creek. Anyway, I saw several of these bandit signs dotting the landscape. Besides the fact that these signs are against San Antonio city code and against our HOA deed restrictions, I wasn't ready to pull over and start tossing them into my truck for later disposal.

But when I was at the stoplight at Tezel and Timber Path, I got a close enough view to read the sign. Apparently, this Origin Church is setting up shop at Fernandez Elementary School. Even then, I thought perhaps it was just some sort of rummage sale or something like that, but I went to the web page and sure enough, according to their own web page, Fernandez Elementary is their new home.

Now don't attempt to paint me as one of those separation of church and state people. It's crap like that that makes our students come home saying things like Winter Festival instead of Christmas or Fall Celebration instead of Thanksgiving. But are you serious? Has the North side Independent School District gotten so short of cash that we are now renting out the school as a church on weekends? WTF?

Oh, I had to stop into Home Depot today to grab some sheetrock for a project I'm working on. I always save time when I leave by driving back behind Home Depot and HEB and Party City so I can avoid all the traffic of people darting out into the parking lot and such.

There is this little patch of trees where I occasionally see panhandlers taking a break and sipping a quart before they had back out to the Alamo Ranch intersection at 1604 and Culebra to relieve you charitable types (fools) of your hard earned change. (I'm just kidding; I pass out five dollar bills to the unfortunate vagrants all the time.)*
Anyway, I spotted this TV parked up on that little clearing and thought to myself, I wonder where they plug it in. Strange.

*I was kidding the second time. Don't give money to these people, they really drive Cadillacs and drink better beer than I do.

Mr. Cod Update: Soon...

This has turned into a daily drive-by, and I don't mean the duck and cover kind. Ever since we thought that Mr. Cod was going to be opening for business last Friday, my wife and I have put dinner plans on hold pending the Go/No-Go decision I make when I drive by the place on my way home from work.

Since then, we have had Goomba's, Sea Island, ChaCho's, Bill Miller's and even What-a-Burger. You'd think that we would just throw something on the stove and eat like normal people, but that anticipation of trying a new place - especially the British Fish & Chips - it has left us completely out of whack.But I have some good news. Today, I saw some movement in the situation. We have an actual message on the signage saying "Open Soon." A neighbor even stopped in and demanded answers. The owners have no idea that our entire community is set to bust down the doors, just to try the place out.

The inside poop is, possibly Thursday.

Yea. If so, we eat there tomorrow. As a back-up though, I'm thinking maybe we could just heat up some regular vittles here.

Lunch Report: Islamorada Fish Company at Brass Pro Shop...

My wife and I were out and about for our list of Sunday errands when we found ourselves over in the vicinity of The Rim looking for a few odds & ends at World Market. Just a quick question for those of you who frequent the shops in that area.Can you tell me why they have these creepy looking butterflies hanging off the beautiful stonework entry of The Rim? Is this some Christmas in July sort of thing? Anyway, since it was lunch time and we hadn't planned on any special trip to find someplace new and exciting, we decided to give the restaurant inside the Bass Pro Shop a try. We have never heard a bad thing about the place, so there was always a chance we could find something to complain about, and that would be fun.I can't pronounce it, but the place is called Islamadora Fish Company, and they are part of a bigger chain of fish places of varying names - Hemingway's, Blue Fin, White River Fish House and the like. This one, IFC is quite a grand thing. It is very large and actually fits well with the huge Brass Pro Shop it is connected to.

I should tell you now that I failed to take loads of pictures inside the Bass Pro Shop because I was sure that I had written about it before. We went there not long after it opened, and I was sure I gave a full report. But a quick search of the blog did not turn up any evidence of it. So, suffice it to say that A) my wife was right and 2) you ought to go by there even if you aren't an outdoors enthusiast. I dig the clothes they offer and there is lots to see by way of displays. Like Cabela's in Buda, Bass Pro Shop is a zoo for dead things.Our waiter came and took the drink order and offered us a loaf of bread that seemed extremely fresh. Did you ever go to the Wonder Bread factory when you were little and get one of those little loaves of bread? I thought of that when he brought it out. But it was not sliced, it wasn't in a Wonder Bread wrapper, and for some reason, they sprinkled sugar on top of it. The hell? Really; stop doing that.

When I was little, I would sneak into the kitchen and make sugar and butter sandwiches. Two slices of fresh bread, slathered in butter then covered with sugar and smashed together. No wonder I'm such a fatass. The bread itself was good but please, reconsider that sugar business or at least bring it as a free dessert after the meal.
In spite of the sugary start, my wife wanted to get an appetizer, so we went with the fried calamari. I thought it was really good but my wife went total Happy Dance on me. She insisted it was the best ever. The breading was very light and the dipping sauce was good. If you like calamari, I promise, you'll enjoy this.

The menu is full of wonderful options and we mulled it over for some time. They have buffalo burgers and alligator. But being a seafood place, we both decided to give it a try.My wife ordered the Fish & Chips. In this case, the chips are not french fries, but actual sliced potatoes like potato chips. The huge pieces of fish were batter fried just right and having tasted a hunk myself, I can assure you the taste was excellent. Mr. Cod could learn a thing or two about portion for price and cooking times. I admit, when the plates arrived, I thought they might be a little overdone, just based on the color. The fish was fine, but I thought the chips were a tad overcooked - maybe IFC could learn a thing from Mr. Cod! Either way, my wife loved them; so there ya go.I had to try the catfish and I was not disappointed at all. If you have read this blog for any time, you will know that I use Clear Springs Restaurant as the standard for comparing catfish. Without question, when someone has asked me where to get some good catfish, I have never hesitated to offer up Clear Springs (and I still won't), but I must tell you that the catfish I had today, combined with the tarter sauce, IFC was better tasting. I suspect my grandfather is spinning in my grandmother's grave (long story) as we speak. He loved Clear Springs but I suspect he would give a thumbs up to IFC as well. It was that good.

I should also throw in kudos for the Cole slaw. Not too dry, nice and creamy and just a good match with the fish.

The price is a little steep for the frugal minded, but not for the quality of the food and the atmosphere. I guess what I'm saying is, don't go into Bass Pro Shop and then slip into IFC thinking it is like the K-Mart Diner where you can get the daily special for $4.00. Appetizer, Iced Teas, and two entrees came out to $37.00 before the well deserved generous tip. But it was well worth it.As our waiter was taking our plates, something happened and a small bowl of tarter sauce fell from a plate. You should have seen it! The tarter sauce shot out in a skipping motion and streamed across the carpet. Nobody was injured, though some lady walking by did seem to flinch a little thinking that some sauce might hit her shoe. Good times!I often look at the Yahoo and Google reviews that people submit about places we go, just to see how we compare. I suspect the IFC here got off to a bad start based on what I have read. Ignore them. If our experience today is anything like what they are doing on a regular basis, it is safe to go in and enjoy. In fact, Islamorada Fish Company is a Tasty Treat, and we will go back for more. I gotta have the Buffalo Burger.

Back in The Five Oh...

In spite of various weather related situations, we arrived back in San Antonio safely and even a few minutes early. Sadly, we went through Memphis, and as wonderful as it smelled, we literally jumped off of one plane and boarded the next without being able to grab a pulled pork sammich or any other Memphis BBQ.

But, we had a great trip to visit our daughter and her husband in New Jersey, got to see lots of really cool places and enjoy numerous gut-busting meals. We will no doubt require a resumption of diet and exercise, abandoned for a full week. Okay, who am I kidding; abandoned for a while.

At the end of the day, I took close to 1,200 pictures, enjoyed a Texas Style Karaoke Night for my daughter and her friends on her 21st Birthday, went to Philadelphia, went to New York City, watched a Naked Cowboy fondle my wife and daughter in the middle of Times Square, saw the Liberty Bell (or was it a replica?) rode trains, subways, carriages, drove amongst the alleged worst drivers around (though I suspect San Antonio drivers are a lot worse) and got to see my daughter's dog Panda and her new sister Penny.

I have lots of material for those that are interested, and in the next few days hope to show more pictures and relay a few of the details.

Most importantly, now that we are home, we will try out the much discussed Mr. Cod. My wife commented tonight at how nice it was that so many of you stepped up in our absence and reported your experiences with the newest restaurant in our area. Several comments were left here but even more e-mails; and they were brutal! And by tomorrow, You'll know how I feel about it.

Lunch Report: Cheddars at 410 and Military...

I don't think we have had a restaurant opening so greatly anticipated since... Mr. Cod..., but the new Cheddar's has finally opened for business, and against better advice, we made it in for lunch on Day 2. And they were ready for us!The parking lot was packed and there were two or three full rows of parked cars away from the building which we later learned were the employees. Upon entering, you couldn't swing a dead cat without hitting a member of the wait staff or a manager or greeter. Off to a good start in my book.

As we were seated, the hostess told us about some appetizer or something that we ought to try and seemed not only friendly, but genuinely professional, not like some disinterested ditz we may have interrupted from an important text message.We have never been into a Cheddar's before, but assumed it to be a standard mix of Chili's, Friday's, Applebee's, Bennigan's etc, and I suppose it was, but for some reason, it just seemed, a bit more upscale, at least in appearance. Perhaps they just have better designers. I liked the brickwork and huge planters around us, and in the center of the place, they had this huge horizontally rotating fan system. They also had a really nice aquarium set-up, so I won't have to take my wife to Corpus Christie this year to see fish.

The menu offers up a fairly wide variety. Between the short time that our waiter took our drink order and brought them, we had both changed our minds numerous times on what to order.

By the way, speaking of waiters: we have had some good luck recently. I mentioned a few weeks ago the waitress at Spanky's being exceptional; our waiter James G. at Cheddar's was so on the spot professional that I suspect some business owner will come in for lunch and attempt to lure him into the business world. The guy was simply impressive. We never felt like we were being pressured, but he would casually suggest items or simply work the idea of dessert into the conversation. Ask for him when you go.On to the vittles. As an appetizer, we had to order the onion rings. They come neatly stacked on a plate and the order is easily enough for a table of four people. They were good and I would gladly order them again. I could have stood to have them cook for even another 20 or 30 seconds, but they were certainly tasty and not too crunchy. I do not like crunchy onion rings.My wife finally decided on the chicken pot pie. We didn't know what to expect, but she was pleasantly surprised with the thick golden crust and the piping hot contents. I even had a taste and it was enjoyable.She chose the house salad as her side and I would say it was comparable to what you get at Chili's. Fresh croutons and a good size for a side. Not shown in the picture here (because either I was too slow with the camera or she was too fast with the bread) was a really soft and delicious croissant that came with the salad. It was fresh and good.Because I could see myself being stuffed on onion rings, I opted to just get the triple cheese hickory burger. You will notice that the plate came without a side of fries or anything. I like that. Since we ordered the rings as an appetizer, there was no reason for me to get fries or a salad or anything else, and with the burger, the side was an option. That means the price of the burger was comparable to What-a-Burger. For the size, at a sit down restaurant, I'd say under $5.00 is pretty good for a burger. And it was good. No, I won't go as far as to single out this burger as a favorite, but it was certainly very acceptable and well delivered.

As we sat there enjoying our meal, there was some commotion at the booth behind us. There was a family of four and from what we could see, they had also ordered onion rings as an appetizer. One waiter came out and delivered the onion rings and within a matter of seconds, a second waiter came out and delivered the rest of the meal. The mom in this group seemed to go a little overboard in my opinion, but her point was that they had waited way too long for the appetizer, and now, with it being served with dinner, what was the point?

A third waiter quickly came to the table to hear the complaint and as he was talking to the folks, another person went to retrieve a manager. By the time the manager arrived (20-30 seconds, max) the waiter had defused the situation by telling the loud lady that the manager would make things right for them.

From what I could observe and hear (the manager kept things very calm and quiet), there was simply no excuse for the bad service and he would be adjusting the bill accordingly. Further, before anyone could even ask for it, someone was bringing the husband at the table a new beer (even though he had only taken a few sips of the one he had) and I suspect it was on the house.

The point in my mind was, these people were not happy, and in order to gain their future business, this manager and staff were going to do whatever was necessary to have them come back for another visit. And I bet they will.

And we will return as well. Look, you go go to any number of places and find bar & grill food at pretty much the same price. If the Cheddar's folks can deliver on service like we received (or have managers that can fix it like the people behind us received), on only the second full day of operations, then they are well on their way to becoming a favorite choice for us.Don't wait a month, they seem ready for you to visit now, and my wife promises you'll be doing the Happy Dance too!