The Tradinghouse bar and grill is an authentic Texas Roadhouse, not some chain based in another state taking advantage of the Texas name. In all honesty, I have never eaten in the restaurant side, but have on numerous occasions had an excellent dinner while listening to some great music on the bar side of the Tradinghouse. There is absolutely nothing fancy about either the restaurant or the food, but it is good authentic Texas cuisine at a reasonable price. I usually end up with the half order of chicken fried steak as the full order would be enough for dinner and lunch the next day.

I move down to Texas from Illinois a little over ten years ago, and while I was able to find plenty of barbecue and Mexican places that I loved, I was at a loss for a decent place for pizza. Well, Rosati's is now that place. I'm a fan of the Chicago style pizza and to have a place that not only serves Chicago style, but is also a chain based in the Chicago area is a god send.

Now keep in mind that a Chicago style pizza is going to cost you more than the average pizza, but each slize of that pizza is going to be a meal.

The Chicago dogs, and Italian beef are also great and unique to the area.

It's funny that I read the first review of this place and what was listed as favorable in that review is exactly what I don't like about Common Grounds.

The shop is filled with Baylor faux hipsters (the real hipsters are down in Austin), who are there to see and be seen, which is fine, not what I'm looking for in a coffee shop.

Parking in miserable.

I don't want to drink any over priced, over sugared drink, of which there are many to choose from here (they know their market), so I haven't been going to Common Grounds all that frequently. However, I recently heard that they have switched to Cuvee for their espresso and would be switching to some of Cuvee's offerings for the brewed coffees as well. Now anyone that knows coffee in Texas should be familiar with Cuvee, who is the big dog of the high end roasters in Texas. I think their Meritage espresso can hold it's own next to Intelligentsia, Counter Culture, Verve, etc. So, I went down there last week to try a cappuccino. While the drink was better than it has ever been at Common Grounds before, it still wasn't where it should be considering they are using a premier roaster. The foam was too loose and simply piled on top of the drink.

As long as they are staffed by baristas (if they can even call themselves that), that are more concerned about their ironic t-shirts, cool tattoos, and bandanas, than they are coffee, they aren't going to be able to take that next step and make truly great coffee.

I am hopeful however, that they may indeed put forth more effort now that they are serving Cuvee...and at least there's a place in town that I can buy some espresso for home when I run out.

Waco does sorely need a real coffee shop

While there are better meals to be had in town, I find it hard to believe that there is a better value to be found.

I hadn't been to Cheddar's in quite a while but went with two other people last night and had an excellent meal. We all had more than enough to eat and one person got a drink, and our total bill before tip was under $30.

One of the best bets is to get one of the meals that they offer a lunch portion of (lunch portion can be had at any point during the day). The lunch portion of the Salmon last night looked larger than the dinner portion at a lot of other places and was excellent.

Cafe Cappuccino does serve up a nice breakfast/brunch however, do not let the name fool you into thinking that they are a coffee shop. While they do have an espresso bar and offer a variety of drinks the quality of the espresso based drinks is sub-par at best. I haven't tried any of the flavored "dessert" drinks so if you have a sweet tooth, those might be serviceable.

I did have an espresso which was served in an 8-12oz cappuccino or latte cup and had about 3oz or 4oz weak espresso and also had a coffee, which was better but I would still prefer to drink my coffee at home and then come for breakfast, or, god forbid, stop at Starbucks first.

I just don't understand how a place that named itself after an espresso based beverage doesn't seem to know how to properly prepare and serve a basic espresso.

All in all, I would go back for breakfast but would just get some OJ to drink.

Five Guys is a bit of an oddity in the world of burgers. They aren't really a Fast food joint as the burgers are far too good to be classified as such, and yet they aren't really a sit down restaurant either.

I'd say that Five Guys has the best "quick" burger around.

The highlight for me ist hat there is no extra charge for toppings (other than bacon and cheese) and that I can get sautéed mushrooms and onions as well as the more standard toppings.

I would say for the type of place that it is, the prices are best described as moderate but the helpings are truly monstrous in size. A helpful tip would be to split an order of fries for your whole group as opposed to getting individual orders as I have yet to meet a person that could eat a whole order, along with a burger, by themselves. I also often get the "little" burger which comes with one patty as opposed to two and along with my portion of fries I have yet to leave Five Guys less than full.