Asleep at the Wheel

We went to Coopies in Firewheel Town Center (190 & 78 in Garland) for dinner last night. This is sort of a spruced up version of Babes (the chicken dinner place) with a few variations. It was just OK, but I offer we were late- about 8:30 when we arrived, and that probably has a lot to do with our experience.

This place starts with a family style bowl of green salad with "southern made dressing" (oil and vinegar?) like Babes, but much better- they have added shredded cheddar and croûtons! Yum!

The generous portions of Chicken Fried Steak ("CFS" for short) and chicken tenders were very good, but had a lot of black pepper. Wife loves black pepper so she loved them. The CFS came with a tiny cup of creme gravy on the side- which I love it on the side- the crunchy goodness (texture!) isn't lost by the soaking up of the gravy. I often wish I could get orange chicken at the Chinese joint served that way. Well, maybe I should try asking. Anyway, bless them for thinking outside the box. However, the chicken tenders were served WITHOUT gravy. Hummm, whats up with that? Well, we coulda asked!

The King Ranch Casserole too soupy to be a true casserole (in our collective opinion), no cheese to be found to hold it together- my kid threw it back cause it was "not like moms". I ate it and it was tasty- with lots of peppers- but I can accept people make thing differently.

As for sides- tiny portions were served- mostly in tiny cups like Bone Daddy's used to do. But you do get three. Sort of a “sampler”. I suppose you could just order three of the same if it was one you really liked. I liked the mashed potatoes. I thought I found a dumpling in them. Odd, but actually kinda good. Anyway, they could use some sour cream. The English peas (called green beans here) had fresh chopped onions- the chili-lime bean salad had lots of fresh chopped onion. I am simply not a fan of raw onion. Both could be fine without it. I never tried the mac and cheese, but others said it was good (tiny, but good). the yams were simply half a small yam dropped on the plate. Oh, and the waiter made a point to inform us the potato salad was mayonnaise based- isn't that Yankee style potato salad? Well, they do advertise themselves as "home cooking", they just didn't say where that home was located! LOL

Wait staff was slow- in the beginning, it seemed as if none of them wanted to wait our table. I actually saw three of them debating it. We did come in at 8:30, so maybe they thought they would have to stay late if they took us? You know teenagers, they have things to do! Well, the industrious (and likely profit motivated!) guy who took our table seemed to end up with too many tables to serve, while the cute chicks sort of flittered about looking busy. Anyway, I always had an empty tea glass, we never got the home made cheezy biscuits we were promised twice (“they are making a fresh batch”), and nobody had any idea if the coconut cream pie had coconut IN it. Our waiter did volunteer to go ask. Manager said “just on top”. I skipped it as I don’t like pie that is just coconut flavored pudding- and the wife ordered it. It was LOADED with coconut IN it- and whipped cream on top instead of meringue- just the way I like it! Go figure.

Wife and I decided it was good enough to go back, but we would carefully pick our battles- go for the fried stuff- ask for more gravy- get there early enough to have someone actually WANT to wait on us-carefully pick our sides- or pick out the onions. Anyway, I say check it out if your in the neighborhood. I think this place has promise.