Waffle Fries with Buffalo Sauce and Blue Cheese- 4
This place is exactly what you would expect of the name. Casual walk-in cafe in the heart of Deep Elum. Not a great pic but these really were very tasty. They have a ton of options for the fries themselves and even more topping choices. Your carnivore friends could easily make this a meal with all the meat options but I see it more as a beer-soaker-upper in between bar-hopping of starchy cheesy goodness. 🙂
Mexican Grilled Cheese-2
This just wasn’t very good. The combo of the cheeses and guac spread just doesn’t work and the bread was stale and greasy. The french fries were decent but really I wouldn’t need to have them again.
Overall this is a great place to drink. They are known for their beer selections and they are happy to provide you samples if you’re undecided. The atmosphere is awesome. The service is great. But for vegetarian food? Not so much. My advice is to come here before or after lunch/dinner and enjoy a liquid meal.
Three Cheese Pizza-4
After a long day at work last week I took advantage of Eatzi’s Friday pizza takeout special and I was not disappointed. If you haven’t done this yet, welcome to this weeks Friday night plans. This is a delicious, hot and fresh pizza that is one of my favorites so far in Dallas! And I am a self-proclaimed pizza snob. The crust was actually fairly close to what I long for and miss desperately from the north east. I think next time I’ll try the spinach and artichoke pie. Yum!
Pro Tip- Although you may see a line waiting for the pizzas, you actually have to go to the registers first, pay, and get a receipt which you then hand to the magical pizza makers.
Steel City Pops- 5
I finally understand the long lines. I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to get here! They have a ton of options and I couldn’t even look at the toppings list, I was already overwhelmed with choices! Featured in the pic is coffee brownie which was Awesome. But overall I was actually more a fan of the fruity bars versus the cream bars. The cream bars are delicious don’t get me wrong. But I’d rather just get some ice cream if I’m going to go that route. There is something for everyone and you won’t be disappointed. 🙂
Hummus and Salad Plate- 5
So simple. So perfect. I have deviated a few times and made different selections from the menu and always regretted it. Not because the other options are bad. In general Zoes is awesome. But this is my fave and should be yours. First, Zoes hummus is just delicious. I could eat it in buckets and fortunately they give you plenty of pita because you will want every bite. The greek salad is fresh and I love their dressing. I order mine without olives cause olives are on my ick list but other than than that no changes are necessary. Enjoy!
First time at this place and it won’t be the last! It’s an unassuming dive bar looking establishment below a yoga studio downtown. What a find though! 2 out of 3 dishes I tried were fantastic! Here’s the breakdown 🙂
Skillet Macaroni & Cheese- 2
I know what you’re thinking. How? Why? But friends this was a true (and thankfully only) disappointment of this experience. It was all wrong. The flavor, the consistency, everything. Three hungry people barely finished a quarter of it if that tells you anything. Just no.
Buffalo Cauliflower- 4.5
And they are quickly redeemed! This was the closet thing I’ve had to buffalo wings in over 12 years! And I used to LOVE buffalo wings. I don’t know how they did it but the breading on it is similar to the breading on a wing. I thought it was strange that it was 3 huge pieces of cauliflower instead of maybe a dozen or so small pieces but it worked! The flavor was awesome and it comes with blue cheese or for those of you who are wrong and prefer buffalo sauce with ranch 😉 The only reason this wasn’t a 5 (cause man it was close) was that it was just the slightest bit too hot. I like some spice. Especially in my buffalo sauce. But this was so spicy I actually lost a bit of the flavors in the other dishes and was drinking ALOT of water. Tone that down just a notch and they are perfection.
Baked Avocado- 4.5
I was not expecting much with this dish. A whole avocado stuffed with goat cheese, bread crumbs, bacon (sans the bacon obvs) and pico with a balsamic reduction. Sounds good right? But I just wasn’t very optimistic. But I was wrong! It was Awesome! So fresh. SO tasty. You can (and we did) eat the whole avocado yourself without sharing. I love me some goat cheese with a balsamic reduction appetizer. It’s probably one of my favorites. But throwing it on top of an avocado? Creative and winning! The only reason it wasn’t a 5 was if there were bread crumbs I sure couldn’t taste them. But it was still a helluva good surprise.
Overall, this place is awesome. The service was excellent. Super attentive and helpful. And there were SO many vegetarian options! There are a bunch more I want to try when I inevitably go back! It’s so cool when you walk into a place and assume the only thing you’ll find on the menu for vegetarians will be french fries and instead there are a ton of choices and the food (2 out of 3 anyway) was incredible. Love it 🙂
Migas Taco- 4
This was very yummy! Scrambled eggs, tomato, onion, jalapeño (which I couldn’t taste but that’s a good thing for me), tortilla chips and lots of jack cheese! Easy go-to breakfast taco!
The Vaquero- 5
Scrambled eggs, grilled corn, roasted peppers and jack cheese. SO delicious. I could come back and just get 3 of these but there are too many choices!! The amount of each ingredient is perfect. Add this to your list every time you go. Oh and BTW, breakfast tacos are available ALL DAY on weekends!!
The Heather- 4.5/5
This is actually the one I was most excited about. Grilled queso fresco, organic refried black beans, guac, lettuce and tomato. I mean really, they had us at grilled queso. Am I right?! So it was awesome and I would definitely get it again. So fresh and I usually don’t love the combo of guac AND cheese. I usually go either/or, but this worked. So it’s a solid 4.5. But YOU can make it a 5 by adding their Amazing Salsa Roja. It is garlicy, salsa-ey deliciousness and you may want to put it on everything.
Overall this place is vegetarian heaven. There are 5 vegetarian lunch tacos and 8 vegetarian breakfast tacos. Oh AND you can build your own! It’s super casual and there were several people in line getting it to go. About that line, it can get longgggggg. But I promise my friends it’s worth it. I’ve already decided what I’m getting next time which will probably be in the very near future!
Jess Special- 4.5
And I’m back already! Eggs, migas, jack cheese and avocado. So simple. So delicious. I chose a flour tortilla but you can also choose from corn or wheat. I’m starting to think you can’t go wrong with any taco you order here. The table next to us ordered a giant taco salad and I may need to try that next!
Chips and Queso- 3.5
The chips are perfect. They serve them in their own individual bags so they are super fresh and crisp and the flavor is great. BTW this is the medium size. There is an entire second bag they gave us not pictured! The queso is tasty but I’ve definitely had better. There is an interesting black pepper flavor but it grows on you. But what it really lacked was some thickness in consistency. This was a bit too runny for me but that said the tacos are so amazing I can’t help but still love this place.
Huevos Con Papas- 4.5
This was SO delicious! I couldn’t decide between the Migas and this dish and my server suggested this. I wasn’t even hungover and I could already imagine the comfort this would bring if I had been! Eggs, cheese, peppers, onions, potatoes and homemade salsa. Yes yes yes.
Pancakes- 4
My fellow diners disagreed with me on this and think I should’ve rated this higher. Don’t get me wrong, these are darn good pancakes! And they better be given the name of the establishment! But honestly I’ve had better. That said, for a traditional buttermilk pancake with maple syrup, you can’t go wrong,
Overall, very casual, family friendly restaurant. You’ll wait awhile during peak brunch times and you won’t be able to reward your wait time with a mimosa (no bar). But, you will have a delicious, generously portioned meal at a very reasonable price.
The #17 Cheese Combo Sandwich- 4
Once upon a time when I was a meat eater, sandwiches were one of my favorite foods. I’m basically Joey Tribbiani. I love me a good sandwich. Wawa hoagies? OMG. But I love piggies more than I love ham so some sacrifices must be made. Thankfully, there are some places that still make a helluva good veggie friendly sandwich and Great Outdoors is definitely up there. What makes this so good is not only the freshly sliced cheeses but what they call The Works- lettuce, tomato, red onion, red vinegar, oil, salt, pepper, oregano. Simple right? But SO Good. This particular sandwich comes on wheat but I may try the white roll next time or maybe even a croissant! They bake all breads in house. Yum. 🙂
Tortellini with pesto sauce-4
This was an option in the make your own pasta section of the menu. And it did not disappoint! The pesto was the besto! That’s right. And the perfect ratio of sauce to pasta. It was missing some flaky bread to dip in after. 🙂 What it did need however was for the pasta to be cooked for a bit longer. I’d say this was about a minute before you get to al dente.
Tortellini Boscaiola-2.5
As you can tell from the picture, it was just a bit dry. It needed a lot more sauce. It wasn’t bad, just not very flavorful.
Margarita pizza- 3.5
Ok so this was actually very tasty. But a bit misleading… This is definitely not a traditional margarita pizza. It is a cheese pizza with some basil on top. That said, I’d probably get it again. It’d be perfect with an ice cold beer.
Foccacia- 2.5
This was a disappointment. Again, not bad, just very misleading. In no universe anywhere is this focaccia bread. This is closer to a flatbread with garlic than anything else. And it’s more crusty in texture than anything else so it’s not even what you want to soak up your sauce with from your pasta.
Cappellacci- 4
Pumpkin filled pasta with brown butter. Yes please! This was very tasty. A bit out of season perhaps but I’m not upset about it.
And now…My First Dessert Review! OMG so much fun! There ain’t no meat in dessert! Am I right?!
Chocolate Budino-3.5
One of my girlfriends ordered this and loved it. I thought it was definitely good. But a whole lotta places do the chocolate lava cake thing and I thought this one was just average. That said, it’s still warm chocolate deliciousness. So, ya know, I’ll still eat the whole thing.
Cappuccino Pie- 3.5
This is probably exactly what you’d expect. And worth mentioning, the only dessert they don’t make in house. The flavor is very good but it was served almost icy. It needs to sit out a bit before it heads to the table.
Cannoli- 2
I did not care for these. My date liked them and ate the whole plate however. So I’m sure there are many who would think I was wrong. But hey, I’m from the northeast and I know cannoli.
Nutella cheesecake-3.5
As much as I like this place, I really feel like their menu needs a rewrite. This is the third item I ordered that the name and description were misleading. This was cheesecake. Very good cheesecake I will add. But if there was Nutella in there anywhere I sure couldn’t taste it. There’s like this decorative drizzle on the top but it doesn’t taste any different than the rest of the slice. Just call it cheesecake friends and enjoy.
Overall, I would recommend this place. The food is very tasty and the atmosphere is relaxed and casual. Definitely family friendly, but a chill date night too. I can’t say enough good things about the service. And we went on a night when they were donating 15% to a dog rescue called Cody’s Friends from all food sales. I mean any restaurant that demonstrates that kind of generosity for a good cause will have my repeated business. 🙂
Dallas Veggie 