A Nice Light Dinner…

It’s an all too common problem. Julie and i will be trying to decide where to go to dinner, a daily event. As always, she wants texan food while i prefer local arizonian cuisine. Well, no longer is it a problem now that we found TEXAZ Grill! Finally all of our food problems have been solved. Now whether or not Texaz Grill really does serve a fusion of texan & arizonian food is questionable at best, however they do serve massive, ungodly portions of chicken fried steak so that’s reason enough for me to check the place out! This place is short on space, but what it lacks in size it more than makes up for it in grit and character. This is the place Guy Fieri and Triple-D forgot to stop at last time they were out here. It seems as though every inch of the walls and ceilings are covered with STUFF. random photos, neon beer signs, western memorabilia, old advertisements, past diners business cards, baseball caps, and who knows what else. You could easily spend ALL night attempting to take a mental inventory of the, shall we say, decorations. It’s certainly not the prettiest, but it gives the place a certain fun, neighborhood-like and authentic feel. It’s grungy, it’s tacky, it’s rustic, but that’s part of the whole Texaz Grill experience and appeal. Food like this wasn’t mean to be eaten in some sleek, ultra modern, dimly lit space. Don’t wear your good clothes if you choose to go dine here. First of all, you’ll probably get a weird look if you walk in wearing anything fancy. More importantly though, this is food you really gotta hunker down and roll up your sleeves to properly get into it. Wear something loose too, you’ll need the extra space by the time you’re done eating. If you couldn’t have already guessed by now… it’s simple, southern, heavy, artery clogging, rib sticking, gut busting comfort food. Before you go make sure of a few things….1. make sure you are VERY hungry, 2. make sure you are a BIG fan of the fried culinary art, 3. make sure you’ve got MORE than a few points on your cholesterol test to spare.

Julie went with the fried catfish, chicken fried steak for me, and we started out by splitting a cup of their award winning chili. Of course, before our entrees came out we each got served a small salad to start us off. Really?? What’s the point of this salad? i guarantee you NO ONE came here to eat salad or anything of any nutritional value. was the salad supposed to make us feel a little bit better about the massive fried chunk of flesh about to come our way? whatever the reasoning, they could probably save a few bucks per year by doing away with the salad included with every meal…unless they create a way to batter and deep fry a salad. then i’m all for it! Cup of chili was up first. If i had any idea the amount of fried meat about to be put in front of my face i would have known this cup of chili was completely unnecessary, but alas, i ordered it and it happened to be the highlight of the meal for me. i love some good, spicy, hearty, beefy chili and could see why this was, supposedly, award winning. Up next were our entrees. Whoever is in the back cooking has NO idea what the term portion control means. as julie said ‘god damn thats a lot of fish!’ in the photo of my chicken fried steak you really cannot tell just how big that plate is, and notice how the steak is hanging off both sides of the plate! not only that, but you’re only seeing one piece of steak. there’s an equally big piece of steak hiding just beneath the piece that’s visible. the steak was good, not great. the meat was tender, the crust was light and crispy. even if i loved it, even if it was the most amazing thing i’d ever eaten before in my life there was NO way i could even eat half of what was on my plate. especially when you throw in the small mountain of mashed potatoes and gravy which all that steak was resting on. julie’s fish was ‘ok’. she would have rather ordered it with fries instead of the mashed potatoes which she wasn’t crazy about. i ate as much as i could, yet still left with enough leftovers for 2 small meals. Service was above average. The manager was roaming around checking on everyone, chatting it up, which i like to see. One thing that did stand out to me was the amount of condiments offered to everyone. On the end of each table was a wide array of spices and sauces. every condiment i could even think to ask for, and then some, was right there and considering i put hot sauce on everything, i was happy about that. it’s funny, no matter how much food you eat and how stuffed you feel, you can always find juuuuuust enough room for desert. and of course, when ever bread pudding is on the menu, we order it. i hear the pecan pie at Texaz Grill is really good, but we went for bread pudding and did not regret our decision whatsoever.

Obviously, i knew going into this that this wouldn’t be the healthiest, nor lightest of meals. Everything was as greasy as i had expected it to be. They’ve served over 734,155 chicken fried steaks to date, so obviously they’re doing something right. That didn’t stop me from feeling like death on the way out to the car, in the very small and hard to maneuver parking lot. Between the ungodly amount of food i just devoured, and all the fried grease i just did not feel well after this meal. i felt heavy, slow and sluggish…like a wet sponge. which leads us to the final question…

Would i go back? unfortunately, probably not. everything was GOOD, not great. chicken fried steak is the specialty there, and i’m not the hugest fan of chicken fried steak to be honest. once, maybe twice a year and i’m good to go. considering how small and streamlined the menu is, there’s really not much else there i’d want to order. and like i said, the way i felt post-meal…i’d be happy if i didn’t have to experience that again. too bad, i really wanted to like this place a lot.

Apparently this is something called a ‘salad’.  Might be better if it was fried…

Texaz Red - Award winning homemade chili

Fried catfish - Two river cat fillets breaded in buttermilk crumbs, fried ‘til golden with a side of house made tartar sauce and lemon

Two fork tender pieces of beef lightly battered, fried and topped with our homemade gravy.

Bread pudding with whiskey sauce - French bread in an egg custard with toasted pecans and raisins, topped with a sour mash bourbon hard sauce.