If Cowboy Chow’s Identify Sounds Lazy, Wait Till You See the Meals

No person thought after they heard that the AT&T Discovery District was opening a restaurant known as Cowboy Chow, that it was going to be any good. However I don’t suppose any of us anticipated the actual number of unusual that Cowboy Chow is.

It’s a sports activities bar that isn’t totally sure easy methods to be a sports activities bar; once I visited for lunch final week, a number of of the TVs have been paused on a freeze body of a industrial from a recreation that had already ended. It’s additionally a restaurant that isn’t totally prepared to be a restaurant. After we have been seated outdoors, we tried ordering meals, solely to be advised that if you happen to’re outdoors, you’re restricted to appetizers solely.

A few of Cowboy Chow, in fact, is strictly what you’d count on from a restaurant with that unappetizing identify. The host greets each buyer with “Howdy, guys!” Subsequent to the entrance door, a pair of glass instances home very fancy saddles. The music is 20-year-old nation tunes (“I Don’t Need to Be Me Until Monday”). The menu options chili, burgers, and a preposterous “Massive Sky” plate that includes three totally different sorts of hen.

What stunned us most was that Cowboy Chow appeared completely unprepared for chowtime. It opened with out a web site or social media accounts, which exacerbated the confusion that stems from its option to recycle the identify of a earlier, now-closed Dallas restaurant.

The restaurant opened its doorways on Oct. 31, however after we visited per week later, it was nonetheless in “gentle opening,” a reality I realized once I tried to order the steak and enchiladas combo plate and was advised it wasn’t prepared but. Not one of the Massive Sky plates are prepared but. (By the best way, what’s Montana’s slogan doing in a Texas-themed restaurant?) So we got here inside from our failed try to dine on the patio, sat underneath a financial institution of televisions airing the Pat McAfee Presentand ordered the 2 most generic meals in America: a burger and a fried hen sandwich.

“I really feel like I’m at a Chili’s,” my lunch companion stated.

Our appetizer cup of Texas chili got here in a espresso mug—a pleasant contact, evocative of meals across the campfire with restricted tableware provides. It’s a liquid chili, with the consistency of pasta sauce that you simply haven’t completed cooking down. No beans, loads of pepper, and as an alternative of both spaghetti or cornbread, it sports activities a aspect of yellow sponge cake, possibly pound cake. OK, the menu says it’s “candy and spicy cornbread.” Good strive. I’ve eaten cornbread earlier than.

Talking of good strive: the burgers are marketed as smashburgers. This, too, is a lie. Our burger patty was a daily previous fast-food skinny patty. (How are you going to inform a smashburger? A minimum of two methods: the irregular, craggy form, and the deep caramelized colour and taste.) Our Whiskey BBQ Burger got here topped with a handful of brisket, some very thick and crunchy fried onions, and barbecue sauce.

The hen sandwich may be very closely battered and comes with a creamy slaw that spills all over so you’ll be able to eat it with a fork. I ought to level out that the hen sandwich is $15.25 and the one Whiskey BBQ Burger is $16.75. Our espresso cup of chili with aspect cake was $8.75.

The perfect factor right here is the aspect order of chicharrones tossed with purple pepper flakes and served with jalapeño ranch. I type of suspect that each of these issues are purchased in reasonably than made, however snack is an efficient snack. Plus, they may allow you to eat it on the patio.

Cowboy Chow, 309 S. Akard St.