J&J's Pizza On The Square

This is a post that has been on my to-do list forever. Probably nearing a year. Let's pretend it was just time spent doing in-depth research or something.

I love this place. I don't know if I can say it has the greatest pizza, nor the greatest service, or the most comfortable dining experience. Nope. It is good enough. It feels local and not corporate. Big Chain places like to provide a feeling of locality by displaying pictures and jerseys of home squad teams and such. For example, McCalister's Deli has a few pictures of old-timey Denton on their walls. J&J's feels more real to me. I suppose for the hipster in you, it will be most attractive.

Foodily speaking, their breadsticks are the bees' damn knees. No kidding. They are bready and tasty and awesome. They beat Luigi's garlic bread in the "Let's just stop there and grab some" category.

The best part of J&J's is the location. The Square in Denton is much less Fratty than Fry and much more of a Hipster scene. This is evident in the fact that I called it a 'scene'.  Somebody punch me now.

I've eaten there on a nice breezy fall afternoon, a sunny spring day, a cold-ass winter frozenland, and a hot-as-hades summer's death time. All great. It was that breezy fall evening whilst I inhaled slice after slice with The Woman looking oh so beautiful that I thought to myself "Dammit  I could live in Denton for a long, long time." This was a momentous occasion because usually I say about Denton, "What a shitty little town" and "Wow, this place is kind of gross-looking, huh?"

If you aren't a cynical bastard like yours truly, then you won't question the look of the place and wonder how much of it is purposefully scruffy and appreciate it for what it is. When I squint and hold back my raging cynicism I do just that. Go there. Eat. Sit outside eating pizza and laughing with your friends about whatever and pretend you are the coolest cat in Denton.

From The Woman:

This review has been a long time coming. We've eaten here enough times now that I consider it one of my favorite restaurants, and definitely one of my top pizza places.

When I think of J&J's I think of pizza and wood. Not wood in an inappropriate way (perverts), but rather that it seems everything in this place is made of wood. It's hipster saloon meets pizza parlor and I dig that about it.

While I must admit that I can't recall ever feeling very comfortable when dining in, because it's either cold or crowded or my chair wobbles, I must also admit that I really don't mind.

The food makes any discomfort well worth it. The pizza is always delicious and the toppings look and taste extra fresh. And the breadsticks. The breadsticks are inexpensive and hot and flavorful and fantastic and I can't get enough.

I have yet to try anything else on the menu but I'm sure everything else is just as wonderful as the pizzas and breadsticks.

I give J&Js 4 out of 4 jalapeños because when it comes to rating the quality of a food place, the food is really all that matters.

Oriental Garden Restaurant

Oriental Garden

We went to this place a few weeks ago.

It all started when Friend Rudy came up from a little town called Arlington. Heard of it? That's cool now let me finish.

So Rudy spends a good hour on urbanspoon looking for a place to grab some grub. After narrowing it down to like nine places, we decide on Oriental Garden because is has a similar rating to Mr. Chopsticks -- which the Woman likes-- but it someplace new -- which I like.

Burger Extra!!!! -- Burger Extreme?

Burger Extra!!!!

The post title may confuse you. It confuses me. So we are in the same boat.

Location:

301 University Drive Denton, Texas.

If you are any kind of familiar with Denton, you will remember that this used to be another burger place. I want to say MG's Burger and Grill. I also want to say that I think I am wrong. Whatever it used to be called, The Woman and I have eaten there before, so now that we saw Burger Extra!!!! with it's bold new sign (read: crappy) occupying said space, we decided to try it out. Also, we were hungry.

Funny story: As we were walking in at around 4pm-ish we saw this sign:

above: sign. 

No joke. We had this exchange:

Her, "Is it open?

Me: "You don't see the sign?"

"Yeah but I meant right now"


The Food:

Bacon Cheeseburger

Decent. I ordered a bacon cheese burger with fries and a drink. This is what they gave me. The fries were a little dry and bland. Kind of greasy (which is not a big deal-- I kind of like greasy). Look at that bun though. Doesn't that look cafeteria-like? It tastes like it too. The bacon was crispy and awesome, however. I don't like soft and chewy bacon so that is a major plus.

Their menu looks like this:

Pictured: Menu complete with real pictures! 

Mitigating Factors:

I was really hungry. I probably am overrating this place. It just seems like they threw it together. It isn't bad but its not a place that you have to visit if you are in Denton. It is just one of those spots that you go to because you've been everywhere else and want to check it out.

So my rating: 2/4 jalepeños. 'Cuz I'm brown.

Postscript - Menu edition:

Apparently this place used to be called Burger Extreme. I found that out when we were trying to remember the name of the place later. I reached into my pocket to read the receipt. "Burger Extreme" I reached for my phone to look at the picture. "Burger Extra!!!!"

Why is extra better than extreme? That, dear reader, is for you to find out.

Programming note: Come back later for The Woman's review!

Ramen Republic

By The Woman ---

Today we tried Ramen Republic for the first time.


The original destination was Fuzzy's but as we turned the corner from Hickory to Industrial I noticed this place I didn't remember seeing before and had to change the plan. I'm a sucker for noodles so I was a little biased going into it. When we walked in I was pleasantly surprised with the style of the place, though it definitely still needs work. The menu/how-to board looked very temporary as did the table being used to hold the order cards. It had a nice layout though and felt spacious. It at least looked more finished than the more well established Hot Box next door.

The price to food ratio seemed fair. At first I felt a little ripped off being charged 50 cents per additional ingrediant, but if you can do without certain extras--like fresh mushrooms or spinach--you get to add all the free condiments you want once your order's up--like cilantro, carrots, cabbage, corn or celery.

There are both table and booth seating. The booth feels a little weird to sit on, not as good as

The food was read pretty quick and I enjoyed it so overall I found it a satisfactory

My main criticism is that it looks and feels unfinished. I'll give it a month and return for try #2.




By NTM ---

Ramen Republic is sparsely populated. The food is eh. The drinks are even more eh. It feels like a demo of a foodery. (Yes I said foodery). I ate the food but wasn't thrilled by it. Like The Woman said, it is on the list of things to try again, but as it was, it gets a 2/5 from me.

Rooster's Roadhouse: A Review

Sorry for dickin' around with the post so much. Like I mentioned via twitter,, we accidentally podcasted. Rudy didn't want to write up his portion of the review so I dragged out my laptop so he could just talk it out. I was planning on maybe transcribing it or (at the very least) summarizing it. After we were done, we saw that we talked for 24 minutes! I was not going to go back through all that at that hour, nor at that  level of buzz.

Thus the podcast was born.

You can find the media dump post (as I shall call it from here forth) HERE.

Here are my thoughts (that I am sure you are dying to read)

Food: Good.

I've eaten there like five times. They have really greasy, really filling food. It really is a good place when you want to eat like your body is immune to grease and beer.

Service: Decent.

They were pretty busy that day, so they weren't right on top of things but it wasn't horrible or anything. Although near leavin'-time, we were wondering how long we would have to wait to get our checks.

Price: Decent

This is a relative thing. If you are a broke-ass then maybe you should hold off on eating out. That said, this isn't gonna break you. It isn't Hannah's. 

Overall: Good.

Despite what Rudy said in the podcast, the beer selection is just alright. It is a great place to have lunch or eat dinner which is all I ask for.

Rooster's Roadhouse

This is Rooster's Roadhouse. 

Podcast:


Actual proof of Hell Burger beat down:


Rudy gets beaten down by the Hell Burger.

Finally some pics to show what we ate: