Two Chicks Cafe

Two Chicks Café is located on Summerhill road in Texarkana, Texas and at the old location for Old Time Burger. This small café recently opened without much fanfare so I decided to try it out. On the Friday before Hurricane Ike hit Texarkana as Tropical Storm Ike, I visited the drive through of the café. The first thing I noticed was there was no outside menu at the time. I figured I should have called ahead with my order, but when I reached the window, the people were friendly and notified me that they had a menu. The menu presented decent prices on things from chicken (not surprising) to hamburgers and other various items. They offer a daily special and the special that Friday was fish.

I took the special and returned to my office. The fish was better than I had expected. The portions were large and the sides modest. I found both the taste and portions far better than some restaurants offer in the Texarkana area. I would recommend Two Chicks Café for families or lunch during the week.

A note of interest I found positive for this new café. They were given an “A” by the Texarkana-Bowie County Family Health Center by the Food Inspections department. Found at http://www.txkusa.org/health/foodinspections.htm you can see a wide list of restaurants from the Texas side with grade listing. More importantly, you can see restaurants that have been graded to possibly cause sickness to you or your family. It’s a great list that I like to consult and it is updated by the department as needed.

McDonald's - St. Michael's Drive

Tonight was a night to take the kids out to see Star Wars: Clone Wars (great movie) and grab something to eat right afterwards. You can imagine what kids wanted, McDonald's for the new Star Wars toys. We chose the McDonald's on St. Michael’s drive for two reasons. First, we didn’t want to deal with all the kids at the Stateline location, and second we didn’t want one with a playroom for us to have to have a major fight with the kids when it was time to go.

The McDonald's was clean and well stocked with friendly people inside. There were signs that the recent rains had penetrated the room as water spots were on some ceiling tiles. The kids got the Mighty Kid Cheeseburger meals, my better half got the Big N Tasty meal, and I got the Chicken club meal. We did notice that service seemed a little slower than is usual for McDonald's.

Once the meals arrived, we ate and watched the kids play with Star Wars toys. The basic order for the kids was correct, except that we had ordered the cheeseburger meals and they received the regular double meat burgers with no cheese. The kids didn’t notice.

After the meal, we decided to give in to further temptation and ordered Sundays. I paid and waited. While the worker prepared the Sundays, my wife noticed that the worker dropped one of the lids on the floor, picked it up, seemed to think about it, and then stuck it on one of the Sundays. She pointed this out to me. Once the Sundays were done, I told them that they could keep them as I was no longer sure which one had the lid that the worker dropped, but that we could go somewhere else for ice cream. To the credit of the manager on shift, she immediately intervened, and offered a refund. When I told her a refund wasn’t necessary, we were simply not going to eat the Sundays when one of the lids had been dropped; she immediately threw the Sundays away and started making new ones herself.

We ended up leaving with the new Sunday’s because our youngest decided to throw a fit about the chocolate on his Sunday. In the end, the warm air outside claimed our Sundays and they ended up in the trash anyway. I obviously have a problem with the way the employee handled a dropped lid. However, I have to commend the store’s on-shift manger for doing everything in her power to make it right. This manager apparently knows how to keep customers and what it takes to offer good, fast food service. McDonald’s should be commended for keeping such managers on at all times when the store is open.

Pizza Inn

Here in Texarkana we have an outstanding group of pizza places to enjoy eating in. You can go to Dominos, Papa Johns, CiCis, Pizza Hut, Pizza Inn, or even have pizza at the local mall. However, despite all the choices, my favorite remains Pizza Inn.

Pizza Inn’s buffet is consistently great. They provide a variety of pizza without cutting ingredients. Unfortunately, many pizza buffets seem to have the unsaid goal of filling you up with bread. This is not the case with Pizza Inn. Further, Wednesday night is my favorite night for pizza.

You may not know this, but eat in or carry out on Wednesday evening is half price on medium and large pizzas. This along with great service, friendly people (consistently of employees is a huge plus at Pizza Inn) and the great food makes for great midweek break for cooking.

Last Wednesday evening was no different from any other. We ordered our pizza, picked it up and found it to be outstanding. The combination of half-price on medium and large pizzas along with the other benefits makes Pizza Inn my choice Wednesdays and just about any other day of the week too!