Restaurant Review: The Brazilian Cowboy Steakhouse and Grill, Plano

The Brazilian Cowboy Steakhouse and Grill

$$- $10 to $20 per entree

1320 North Central Expressway
Plano, TX 75074
(972) 881-8600
www.braziliancowboy.com

Husband rating: 2 out of 5 stars
Wife rating: 2 out of 5 stars


What we ordered


Two adult dinner buffets
Flan
Papaya Creme


What We Thought


The hubby and I found ourselves kid-free on a Saturday night and since we've moved to Denton, we have a whole new area of the metroplex to explore. We opted for a movie in Plano and decided to try something new for dinner instead of familiar. We got on www.restaurant.com which is a great resource for dining discounts and a great way to find new and/or small independently owned places to eat. We decided to try The Brazilian Cowboy (http://bit.ly/q96e8r). It boasted traditional Brazilian Churrascaria at a fraction of the price of other Brazilian Steakhouses!" We're both big fans of Texas de Brazil so we thought it would be worth a try.

The salad bar was really disappointing. A typical lettuce mix with six different dressings and a few odd looking pasta and bean salads. They had a few hot options at the end that consisted of white rice and a few different stroganoff type sauces. They also had cinnamon-sugar covered bananas which was by far my favorite part of the whole meal. They also had these cheese rolls that were really good. I could have just eaten bread and bananas all night. :)


Hubby and I tried a few of the salad bar offerings but, being underwhelmed, moved quickly to the meats. For a small steakhouse they offered a decent selection of meat. Three different types of Picanha, the traditional Brazilian style meat, top sirloin, bacon wrapped chicken, sausage and a few others. The first piece of Picanha I had was the last one on the stick so it was WELL done and I don't usually like my meat that way so I had a few bites and set it aside. The flavor was great and not too salty like some churrascarias. The bacon wrapped chicken was wonderful but how bad can anything wrapped in bacon be? The garlic beef was really chewy. The sausage was ok. The next time the Picanha came around and they gave us a slice, it was so rare, I'd venture to call it raw. And I like my meat medium-rare so that's saying something.


We had our fill of meat and opted for desserts. (Hey! It was date night afterall...) Hubby got flan and I tried the Papaya Creme. Hubby enjoyed his flan and my Papaya Creme was ok. It basically was like a runny smoothie. The manager/owner came by and drizzled a sweet liquor over it and it made it a little better but I still probably wouldn't order it again. 


The manager, you could tell, was a hard-working man. He was busy running around the room making sure guests were happy. He even brought us a coffee made with his secret recipe (vanilla ice cream, coffee, Bailey's Irish Creme and Khalua) at no charge. It was pretty tasty and packed a decent punch. He really made the experience better.


All in all, I doubt we'll be going back. We both went to the movie stuffed full but at $18.95 per adult, I don't think it was worth it. I was glad we didn't pay full price for it or I'd have definitely been disappointed. 

Restaurant Review: The Red Cactus, Fort Worth

The Red Cactus

$- under $10 per entree

3005 South University Drive
Fort Worth, TX 76109-5608
(817) 927-2933

Open daily, 9a-9p

http://www.redcactusrestaurant.com/

Husband rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Wife rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Kid rating: 4 out of stars

The family and I went out to dinner tonight and we decided to try The Red Cactus. It's on University Drive just across from TCU. We've driven past several times and have wanted to try it so when Josh requested Mexican, we headed that way.

What We Ordered

Me- Shrimp fajitas on a bed of sauteed peppers and onions. Served with hot tortillas, rice, beans, sour cream, guacamole, and salsa.

Josh- Tacos Planchados, four grilled flour tortillas stuffed with shredded beef, refried beans, and Monterrey Jack and Cheddar. Served with rice and beans. 

Anna- Kids flautitas, crispy shredded beef taquitos. Served with queso, rice and beans.

Chips and salsa and two margaritas

What We Thought

There are two kinds of restaurants in the TCU area- hoity-toity, high priced dining and casual, student and family friendly dives. This place is definitely the latter. It's a cute place, with brightly colored walls (including a TCU purple wall) and modern art prints hung along the long wall. There's a cute little patio in the back that would be perfect for late night hang outs (although I think I'll wait till the weather is a lot cooler!) The atmosphere was really nice and we were greeted warmly when we walked in. 

My shrimp fajitas were pretty good. The shrimp was perfectly cooked and although they were tiny shrimp, there were plenty of them. They came on a bed of sauteed red onions and green bell peppers that were cooked just enough to be soft but with a little bit of crunch still left in them. The portion size was more than enough and at $8.99, I feel like I got my money's worth. That being said, it didn't have a lot of flavor. It tasted good but didn't leave anything memorable. 

Josh's tacos looked good. I really liked that they grilled the soft taco shells to give them a little crisp. But he reported them to be rather bland, supporting my opinion of my fajitas as well. Good, but not great.

Anna was done with her dinner before Josh and I hardly got started. She loved the cup of queso to dip her flautitas in and the bland flavors were perfect to not assault her kid pallet with spicy flavors. It's definitely a family friendly venue.

The margaritas were nothing to write home about. Initially they tasted pretty good, but there was so much salt on the rim (HUGE salt flakes!) that by the time we were less than half way through it pretty much tasted like salty water. 

The tastiest thing we had there tonight was by FAR the green chile sauce, nonchalantly served on the side of our dinners. It was mild but really yummy. It gave the tacos and the fajitas a little bit a life!

All in all, I think I'd be happy to eat there again. I want to try the Faji-Papa which is like a Mexican-style loaded baked potato. I don't think I'd go out of my way to eat there, but if we were in the area, I wouldn't turn it down.

Try it out and let me know what you think!