Beto's Tex-Mex

Grand Prairie

Lunch & Dinner

$$-$$$

Best in the Southwest

Since we posted a picture on facebook of the food at Beto's, we've had quite a large response to people who have never heard of this restaurant. Initially, we decided to go to Beto's just to blog, but after getting caught up in our experience, we opted to go ahead and review it because we really enjoyed the food...and needless to say there was no blogging going on that day.

  Beto's is a pretty large venue, which you can't really tell from the outside.  Filled with high ceiling rafters and plenty of booths and tables, the place was jumping; especially considering that it's off by itself on Great Southwest Pkwy. One note about the location: the map we followed had us go too far on I-20 (slightly wrong address listed some places online), so be sure and get off at the Great Southwest exit.

 First off, they served us a hearty bowl of chips and salsa. The chips were delicious, thin, and crispy and the salsa was good as well. Pictured here is the "Grande burrito", which is a dinner size portion. They do have lunch specials, but because we had a Groupon, we could only order from the dinner menu. As you can see, it lived up to its name. We ordered it with the mexican potatoes instead of rice, which were excellent. The burrito was packed with beef fajita meat, rice, cheese, onions, bell peppers, tomatoes, and was smothered in queso. There were plenty of leftovers to take home and share. We also ordered the classic chicken fajitas. The chicken serving was massive (dinner portion that could probably feed three), and was both moist and flavorful. This dish was an amazing $12.99, which is a steal for such a huge meal. The burrito was $10.99, and considering that two people could easily share this, it makes the price per person very reasonable. 

   Overall, we were extremely impressed with our experience and with the food, and would highly recommend making the drive if you like good food and a great deal. It was a nice change of pace from the well known chains in South Dallas. Please make note this is our first rating of "Best in the Southwest". We hope you feel the same!

Tons Palace Chinese

Lancaster

Lunch & Dinner

$-$$

We'll Be Back

   Those familiar with the Lancaster area may have run across this restaurant without even knowing it.  It is tucked away off of Hwy. 35 to the left of Lancaster Movie 14.   We were excited to try Ton's because there aren't very many privately-owned Chinese restaurants in the Southwest Dallas area.

   The restaurant is relatively small and to put it nicely has lots of "character" it won't bother you if you don't mind a little dust here and there.  You can't get much more literal than calling it "a hole in the wall."  Despite the skeptical first impression, the food spoke for itself and we've already been back since our first encounter.

   Moving onto the meal, we ordered the Sesame Chicken and the Chicken Cashew lunch specials.  These meals include an egg roll, soup, steamed or fried rice, and an ample portion of the main dish for under $6.  We loved the little bowl of crunchy egg noodles that they served complimentary as an appetizer.  I even put them in my Won Ton soup for a delicious texture.

   The Sesame Chicken dish was one of the best meals we have tried to date.  It came with a large portion of chicken in a sweet glaze that was fried to perfection and sweetened with the right amount of sauce.  The egg rolls had a unique taste that was different from the traditional egg roll flavor.  The Won Ton and Egg Drop soup were served hot and tasted good.

   The Chicken Cashew dish came with plenty of chicken in addition to a hearty amount of shrimp and mushrooms.  With this particular dish I would have preferred a sweeter sauce with more flavor, but for those who are all about the meat, then you might like this.  If you really enjoy cashews in your Chinese food, you might want to request extra nuts because there were too few in the dish.

   Overall, we were pleasantly surprised by the quality and portion-sizes of the food.  For both of us there were plenty of leftovers to bring home and honestly we could have split one lunch portion between us.  The dinner portions are twice as much but you also get twice the food; enough to feed 3 people.  It's hard to find Chinese restaurants in this area, and despite the fact that it was aesthetically lacking, it was well-worth the trip!