Restaurant & Taqueria Lupita's

Oh, honey. Have you ever gone out on the town and then gotten the munchies after? Not the "let's go to IHOP and freeze our rears off waiting on the food" munchies. No. More like "let's take advantage of this heavenly buzz and go eat tacos and enchiladas" munchies.

Ah... have I got the place for you. There's a nice little taqueria located on Henderson right outside East Dallas. This is a terrific place. The food is good and the chips and salsa rock. For you clubhoppers, the place closes at 2 a.m. Monday through Thursday and at 5 a.m. on Fridays and Saturday. If you want to go Sunday night, though, you're out of luck. Sundays they close at 3 in the afternoon. :)

Not only have I tried this place out late, late at night (or is that early in the morning?), a friend and I also tried the place for pre-club tacos. Either way, the place rocks.

When you go, may I suggest the tacos al pastor? They're served with the traditional cilantro, onion, and lime, with salsa on the side. Yummy!

Just the other night I tried the El Paso plate. It comes with a cheese enchilada, a bean chalupa, a fajita taco, beans, and rice. All for only $7.00. Yes, Lupita's has terrificly reasonable prices. Especially considering that no other place in the area keeps the same hours. Lupita's blows IHOP and the Waffle House out of the water.

We've never tried this place for happy hour, but it looks like a nice place to go. Happy hour is from 8-10 p.m. Monday through Friday. Margaritas are $2.00 and domestic beers are $1.50. Not bad, huh?

What? You say you can't drink without being entertained at the same time? Tuesday nights you can see Oscar Palacios and his female impersonator show. Thursday night is for comedian Julio Cesar Cabellero and Freddy Lopez on the keyboards. Friday nights are for mariachis Estampas de Mexico. Sunday nights are for live music by Furia Calentana. Lol. What more can you want?

Place? Restaurant & Taqueria Lupita's
Location? 2107 North Henderson, Dallas, Texas 75206
Number to call when you get lost? (214) 827-1850
Cost? Very inexpensive.
Kid-friendly? Yes.
Date-friendly? Yes! It's the perfect place for after-hours tacos.
Place to meet those of the opposite sex? Um, I've never tried this and wouldn't suggest it.
Place to go with friends? Yes!!
Bathroom cleanliness? Try to drink enough so that you don't notice. Either that or think happy thoughts when you have to pee.
Good service? Absolutely. Unless the waitress is jealous of you for some reason. I have no idea what that was about!
Would I do it again? Absolutely!

Los Lupes

Some friends and I got together to go to one of our old (lunchtime) stomping grounds in Irving. Back in the day we'd normally head to Los Lupes for good fast Mexican food and a few beers. Boy, how times (and restaurants) change!

Shortly after getting there, we asked about the happy hour specials. The waitress informed us that due to the recent time change the computer didn't know what time it was. Since the computer didn't know we were there during happy hour, we'd have to pay full price on drinks. Yes. Really. So I bit the bullet and ordered smallish $2.25 drafts.

When my first beer arrived, I was dismayed to find out it was in a dirty glass. No, not one of those glasses with lipstick prints on it. It can be hard to remove lipstick from a glass, so that would be nasty but understandable. No, my glass was dirty because it tasted like the drink it contained previously. Seriously. My mug rim was sweet. Ewww!! The waitress brought me a replacement beer. No apology, just the beer.

Picture of the not-very-fresh chips we were served.

Luckily the food was pretty good. Sour cream enchiladas, an old standby. (Hopefully just not standing by in the kitchen...) I just tried to concentrate on the tastiness and not on how nasty the kitchen must be if even the beer mugs aren't clean. Yes, I'm a little ray of sunshine and optimism.

All in all, we won't be back. It wasn't the nasty mug, the fact that there were humongous stretches of time when we didn't see a waitperson in sight & we were dying of thirst. It wasn't the non-happy hour prices. Nor was it the glaring overhead lights that we had to fix by taking out lightbulbs and softening the glare of the last remaining bulb with a paper napkin. No, it was not any one of these things. It was all of it put together. lol!

Place? Los Lupes Mexican Restaurant
Location? For the moment it's 2849 West Airport Freeway, Irving, 75062. However, 183 (West Airport Freeway) is going to be widened so Loops will soon be relocating to Irving Mall where Fuddrucker's used to be.
Number to call when you get lost? (972) 870-1500
Cost? Very reasonable
Kid-friendly? Yes.
Date-friendly? Yes.
Place to meet those of the opposite sex? Perhaps in the bar during karaoke.
Place to go with friends? Yes.
Bathroom cleanliness? Clean enough.
Good service? Um, sort of. Just not very attentive, knowledgeable or helpful. Hmm... Maybe that constitutes bad service?
Would I do it again? Absolutely... not!

Quesa-D-Ya's

The other day I found this terrific place that serves amazing quesadillas. Not a Mexican place, Quesa-D-Ya's is a concept brought to life by Paul, the owner with the most beautiful sparkling eyes ever. When I walked in, he immediately introduced himself and explained how his place works.

Quesa-D-Ya's is like a combination pizza place/sandwich shop... except they make quesadillas. The most rocking quesadillas ever. You can choose from several different sizes. There are several set recipes from which to choose. Or you can build-your-own. Unlike pizza places, there's no charge per topping. Only a $2 charge per meat. Everything else can get piled on a tu gusto. Not only that, you get amazingly delish chips and salsa free with every order!

Since I was having friends over, I ordered a large size 'dilla. This size is so big that it's given to you in a nice-sized pizza box and should serve 3-5. It actually served three of us. There was enough for us to keep going back for more and even a few pieces for me the next day. (Score!)

When choosing ingredients, Paul suggested that I try half and half. So I got the Traditional with beef steak and the Seafood. Ah... it was sooo good. The seafood half tasted like a cross between the Great Balls of Fire from Joe's Crabshack (just without the fire) and the filling that comes in the Rat Toes at Razoo's. Yummy!

I also got some of the white cheese queso (good) and guacamole (just eh). 'Dilla-eater Rocio absolutely LOVED the jalapeno ranch dip. So much in fact that she took it home with her and plans on getting a bunch of it next month for Christmastime tamales.

Not only is the food and service terrific, Quesa-D-Ya's is a community-minded organization and a "green" place to boot! So, if you're ever on lower Greenville and get the munchies, hop on over to Quesa-D-Ya's. Tell Paul I sent you. He surely won't remember me, but I've always wanted to say that. :)

Place? Quesa-D-Ya's
Location? 2820 Greenville Avenue, Dallas, TX
Number to call to place an order? (214) 823-3927
Cost? Not cheap, but pretty reasonable
Kid-friendly? Yes
Date-friendly? It would have to be a very casual date!
Place to meet those of the opposite sex? Not at all.
Place to go with friends? Yes!
Bathroom cleanliness? I'm not sure they even have a public bathroom.
Good service? Yes!
Would I do it again? Yes!

Rio Bravo

Most surely a bar in a previous life, Rio Bravo is a fantastic place to hang out with buds after work or on the weekends. When you walk in, the tightly packed tables and the mirrored walls might throw you off. As well as the singing keyboard player stationed next to the miniscule stage. Don't worry, his singing isn't bad. In fact, he's pretty good at getting his covers down. The multicolored lights are a nice touch as well.

They serve fresh, hot tortilla chips with some pretty good salsa. If you're there during happy hour, be sure to get the $5 beef fajitas. They come with the traditional fixings- delicious refried beans, rice, sour cream, pico de gallo, and your choice of corn or flour tortillas. Just remember that the special is for the beef ones. Chicken fajitas are twice the price. Although they're quite good, do you really want to pay $10 for chicken when the beef is only $5? Yeah, I thought so.

Save your money for a pina colada instead. These run about $5 each for the small ones (still a pretty respectable size). They are frosty and strong with some kind of red swirl going on. Guys, don't be embarrassed. Apparently, at Rio Bravo pina coladas are a manly drink. There were some pretty tough-looking guys drinking some when we were there. Do your thing. We won't judge.

If you go to Rio Bravo on Fridays, there is a terrific female impersonator show. When were there, they had Shakira, someone else, and Vicente Fernandez (a hit with the ladies). These are good guys (or girls?!) and they put on a good show, working the crowd. It's not unusual for one of the female impersonators to come and ruffle a male patron's hair a la Jessica Rabbit.

Note: Jessica pic borrowed from here

Risque-ish behavior and jokes notwithstanding, this is a place where people can bring their children for a good meal and a few drinks. While we were there a somewhat inebriated gentleman started dancing on the postage-stamp-sized stage with his somewhat embarrassed children. Later on these same kids lost their inhibitions and were up on stage dancing to Shak-he-ra's music and taking pictures with Vicente of their own free will. Yeah, it's a fun place. :)

All in all, this is a good, clean place for good, clean fun. When you're in this part of Grand Prairie, maybe you should stop in for some fajitas and a cold one (or two or...).

Place? Rio Bravo
Location? 317 E Pioneer Parkway, Grand Prairie, TX
Number to call when you get lost? (972) 642-8007‎
Cost? Pretty reasonable during happy hour**. After that the prices jump to $4/bottle of beer! Yeah, be careful on that...
Kid-friendly? Yes.
Date-friendly? Yes. If it's a very casual date. Not for a first date.
Place to meet those of the opposite sex? Not really, unless you get lucky and are seated close to a hottie. The tables are set so close together that it's easy to start up a conversation with someone seated near you.
Place to go with friends? Yes!!!
Bathroom cleanliness? Um... not filthy disgusting, but definitely not the cleanest. Especially as the night goes on. The soap dispenser was running low when were there, too. Not a good thing.
Good service? Absolutely. Try getting seated in Claudia's station. She's a sweetheart of a server with these killer dimples.
Would we do it again? Oh, yeah!!

** Happy hour runs from 3-8 pm 7 days a week and all day Tuesday and Wednesday.

Happy hour prices:

Draft beers $1.25

Margaritas $1.49

Domestic bottles $1.99

Chicken nachos $2.99

Beef nachos $3.49

Daily specials:

Monday and Wednesday- Enchiladas for $2.99

Tuesday and Thursday- Chicken fajitas $3.99

Wednesday and Friday- Beef fajitas $4.99