Good Eatin'

We have recently eaten at three new (to us) places that are worth mentioning.

The first one was driving Jenny crazy as they were building it. They never put a sign up to tell people what it was. She's usually pretty good at looking at the construction and being able to say what it is going to be. This building has a huge play area behind it, a drive thru window and at the front, it looks like a barn tilted to the right! Asking other business' in the area got many responses from "a new style Burger King" to "a daycare". Jenny eventually called the city to ask what was being built!

When a new restaurant opens in our restaurant starved little town, it is over booked, crowded, long wait to be seated, for about a month. So we wait. Chicken Reds was no exception, at first. After only a couple of weeks we noticed the parking lot was not too crowded so we decided to see if we could get in. Come to find out, Chicken Reds is fast food. You can't tell it from the outside as it is a big building with the sit down restaurant look. They have really good chicken strips with their own sauce. The chicken sandwiches were just alright. The kicker, though, was that they make their own waffle cones, so of course we had to have dessert. There is also a play area for the kids inside. I guess they are too new because I can't find a web presence at all. This is the only location.

The next place we tried was Qdoba. This is easily compared to Chipotle, but with better food and more choices. When we walked in, we saw the similarities right away, but once we sat down and started eating, the food was noticeably better than Chipotle. Fresh ingredients, kid friendly, good service and lots of food choices made this a great experience. Best of all, you can try it, too. They are all over the country. To help out my friends and family reading this, they have locations in Baltimore, MD;Jacksonville, FL; North Carolina; Bellevue, Seattle, Spokane, WA; Hawthorne, CA and Phoenix, AZ. Unfortunately there are none in New Mexico and the only ones in Texas are here in the Metroplex. Check out Qdoba's web sight for more info.

The next hunger buster was Shady Oaks barbeque. We had been wanting to try this place for some time, but for some reason just never got around to it, until this past weekend. A fair assessment to this place is a combination of Spring Creek BBQ and The Railhead BBQ. They bring you out a loaf of pull apart bread covered in garlic. The sweet tea was perfect and their home-made sauce brought out in a bottle warm was slightly sweet yet tangy. The sausage was good and the sliced beef was tender. The fried okra was seasoned perfectly and the potato salad was just right. We were completely stuffed when all was said and done. We look forward to eating here again when the thought of BBQ hits us.

If you know me, you know I enjoy eating. I recommend all three of these places. If there is one near you, try it out!

And That's What I Think!