Chuy's Tex Mex, A Chain Restaurant that Gets SOME of the Details Right

    I'm notoriously not a fan of chain restaurants. I make exceptions for small local chains like Neomonde (I love you Neomonde...) and places that pay enough attention to detail and freshness that they don't come across like a chain. For instance, judge me all you want, I like Bone Fish Grill, and I don't care who mocks me for it. They put hearts of palm on their salads, have consistently scrumptious food and damn good sangria to boot, so sue me! Anyway...I digress. A friend recently cajoled me into trying out a new Tex-Mex restaurant called Chuy's that's all the rage in North Hills. Chuy's is a chain out of Austin, Texas, but I figured at least Austin has a solid reputation for great eats. Chuy's was packed! We waited for an hour to get a table, and helped ourselves to the salsa and tortilla chip bar. The salsa was almost the consistency of a pico and tasted extremely fresh (I later found out they make it hourly, so no wonder!) The chips were evidently freshly made as well. The decor was fun, but definitely gave off a chain restaurant atmosphere.  After we FINALLY got a table, I was super excited to see that the tortillas were being freshly pressed. Definitely a good sign! There were a substantial list of homemade sauces to top off your order, so I decided to sample a bunch of different things by getting the "Elvis Presley Memorial Combo" with three types of enchiladas, a crispy beef taco, and somewhat randomly, a couple of tostada chips dipped in chile con queso. Geez Louise what a giant plate of food! It was definitely two meals worth, even for a big eater like me. Everything tasted fresh, but I wasn't terribly impressed with the enchiladas I had. They were fine, but the sauces weren't that great and certainly not enough to sell me on the place. The hard taco was quite good, but not particularly unique. The pre-dipped tostada chips were definitely a mistake, as the chili con queso on them becomes cold and therefore unappetizing by the time it reaches your table. I wouldn't get the enchiladas again, they weren't bad, but I wasn't blown away. I really wanted to like the place more on my first visit, the food was fresh, it wasn't greasy and didn't give me the sickly rock in the stomach feeling that all to often come from some Mexican restaurants, but overall I just didn't get the hype.

      I heard great things about the "chuychangas" and went back to try them with the picky man in tow. There was another hour long wait that he patiently endured for fear I would take him to an Asian restaurant instead.  This time I was more sold. The chicken chuychangas were creamy, rich, and sinfully tasty. The lightly crispy layers of flour tortilla were filled with hand pulled oven-roasted chicken, cheese, cilantro and green chilies. I wish they had more filling inside, but I would definitely get it again regardless. I paid the up-charge to get the queso on top. It came underneath rather than on top, a smart move that kept the chimi from getting soggy.  However the queso was entirely unnecessary, the chimi was rich enough on its own and I'm partial to a queso blanco versus the unnatural velveta looking (although decently seasoned) orange queso served here. There are numerous signature sauces to choose from. I tried the deluxe tomatillo on the side which is a creamy tasty choice for a chicken dish. I'm eager to try the creamy jalapeno sauce and one of their signature green chile sauces on my next visit...which I'm already planning. I'm hoping to take my sister before she moves to Austin next month so she can compare it to the original. I've heard the rumor that it can't compete.  Mr. My idea of Mexican is Taco Bell, ordered the crunchy beef tacos and proclaimed them "yummy." He (unsurprisingly) left his rice and beans untouched, but said he would definitely want to go back.  As for the drinks, the ritas contain fresh lime juice and even though I only got the house version (underfinanced, remember?) my only complaint with the margaritas was that they weren't big enough. So while all menu items are not created equal, this is a chain where they do put some degree of care into the details (although that's hard to gather from the mediocre service.)  Is it Mexican? No not really, so don't go in expecting that. However, if you're craving a tasty Tex-Mex version of a taco or chimi it's a decent place to go, provided you're willing to wait while the hype is still at a high.

Picky McPickerson's Beef Tacos. Don't mind the presentation, he had already started digging in before I took the picture.