AT&T Stadium (Arlington, TX)

I was given an opportunity to take a free ticket to the Cowboys’ preseason game against the Dolphins and since I’d never been to AT&T stadium, I snapped it up. I’d looked at tickets to the game against the Seahawks last year, and since standing-room only “seats” were going for over $100 for a regular season game, I sure wasn’t planning on buying my way into the stadium anytime soon.

Emoji review: ⭐,🍔, 🔵🧀, 🍣

Mixed Up Burgers (Grand Prairie, TX)

Now that I’m working down in Grand Prairie, I have the opportunity to expand my review circles a bit. Mixed Up Burgers has an interesting concept – instead of putting everything atop your burger, most toppings will be mixed into the burger itself.

Emoji review: 🍍🍔,🍕🍔 = 🎅🎁

Whataburger (Irving, TX)

Whataburger is the second restaurant my family and I ate at when we moved to Irving last year, yet I never took a photo of the food! We arrived at the right time in 2015 – the Sweet & Spicy burger (above) was on the menu, our cashier was super nice and helpful when we informed him that we’d just moved to Texas the day before, and everything was fresh off the grill/out of the fryer.

Emoji review: 🍬🌶🍔,💯; no 🍬🌶🍔, 🙅

Kenny’s Burger Joint (Frisco, TX)

Recently, the Bacon and Egg burger from Kenny’s Burger Joint made Texas Monthly’s 50 Greatest Hamburgers in Texas. Online reviews are equally effusive about the place, which ensured I’d have to check the place out when I was in Frisco recently.

Emoji review: 🍔🍳🐷=😕, 🍟=🙋, 💁💸

MOOYAH Burgers, Fries, & Shakes (Allen, TX)

I didn’t plan on going to MOOYAH. I was in Allen to catch a Champions Indoor Football league game and catch up with some old friends, as the San Angelo Bandits were in town to play the Texas Revolution. After an extra 40 minutes worth of traffic beyond the bloated time Google gave me to get to the game, I didn’t have much time to search the area and MOOYAH happened to appear while I was walking around.

Emoji review: 📑, then 🍔🍟🍟🍟🍟🍟 

Dutch’s Hamburgers (Fort Worth, TX)

Hooray! I had a great opportunity to visit Fort Worth again recently and my trip brought me right into Dutch’s neighborhood. I vowed to attack this restaurant the next time I was in town and I lived up to that promise for you, my readers*.

Emoji review: 🍔 = 👌, 🍟 = 🆗, 🅿 = 🙅🏻, overall 🍔🍔🍔🍔👀

Rodeo Goat (Fort Worth, TX)

First things first: This was supposed to be a review of Dutch’s. I had occasion to go to Forth Worth twice since moving to the DFW area. I got free tickets (as a veteran) to the Armed Forces Bowl primarily to eat pre-game at Dutch’s, the winner of the DFW.com 2015 Burger Battle. When we got there, the restaurant was closed for the week for repairs or upgrades or some other reason that did not satisfy my hunger. You can’t eat an “I’m sorry, we’re not open” sign, Dutch’s!

I then had another opportunity to go this week, but ended up at Rodeo Goat, the winner of the same competition in 2014 and the People’s Champ in 2015. It was closer to where I was, after all.

Emoji review: 🍔🍟🍺 = 😋😋; 💸 = 😬

Smashburger (Irving, TX)

I’ve been to the local Smashburger a few times now, but hadn’t taken a picture before this outing. I needed to go get some food before catching a couple of great, late Pac-12 games (Oregon vs. Stanford, WSU vs. UCLA).

I had some coupons from work, so I grabbed the $3 off an order of $10 or more deal and headed out to buy some burgers (Kara had already gone to sleep, so no need to worry about chicken nugget availability).

Emoji review: 🍔👌+🍟👌+🏈-💵💵=😀👌

Steak ‘n’ Shake (Irving, TX)

Okay, I’ve eaten at a bunch of places since moving here to Irving. I’m at the point where I struggle between eating somewhere I know is good and somewhere that may be even better. Irving is known as one of the most boring cities in America, and they literally took “number of fast-food chains” into account in the process. Fortunately for me, I’m boring and I like fast food, so this place works out pretty well for me.

In any case, I’m starting my reviews of local restaurants to help me keep track of the places I like to eat most (and give me an excuse to eat at places I really liked the first time).

The first place I started taking pictures with the family was Steak ‘n’ Shake, which was probably the last fast-food restaurant in the area we actually ended up trying.

Emoji review: 🍔🍟🍦🐔+🚚🎨-(🍦💵)=👍👍