Texas Hold 'em BBQ

Texas Holdem BBQ has moved around Ft. Lauderdale for years, and, like a cat who knows which house puts out the treats, I have followed them from Sunrise Boulevard to Downtown Ft. Lauderdale, and now to their new location on US1 and 26th Street.

Their building that they are now in has housed many different restaurants and bars over the years, and I have probably tried all of them before they went belly up and out of business. One of their incarnations had a big []_[] on the wall, so we went there for a game, and they even managed to screw that up. I decided that the location was cursed.

Texas Holdem has always had good food, and they've gone out of their way to take care of their customers. I told Jim and Angela that this would be a good test to see if the building was, indeed, cursed.

I believe that it is.

Their food has never been cheap, and it remains that way. The waitress finally shows up for our order -- there were two servers and a total of four tables occupied. Jim and Angela each ordered the Half Baby Back Dinner with Two Sides. It was listed as $18.95 on the menu. I ordered the 'bucket' of Rib Tips (also $18.95). They promise three pounds of the stuff. I figured that I would take home the rest.

Angela and Jim get their food. The half rack consists of six very meaty ribs. They both enjoyed it.

 When my order finally comes, it hardly looks like there is three pounds of food on the plate.

When I asked about it, she told me that I didn't order the bucket (I had two witnesses), but if I wanted to change my order, she would do it. A little later, the Chef Guy brought another plate with about twice as much as the one in the picture.

For those of you keeping score, I ate them all.

The check comes. It has the Rib Meals listed for $22.95. When I questioned it, she told me I was wrong (again!), muttered something about Baby Backs costing $3 more, and stormed off to get a menu. When she brought the menu, there was nothing on the entire page that cost $22.95. Nothing. And there it was: Half Baby Back Dinner with Two Sides... $18.95. She stormed off again.

Ten minutes later, she brought a new check and said, "It's fixed. Sorry about that." We were impressed that she didn't yell at us until I saw that she had the two rib meals for $19.95. Closer this time, but still not $18.95. When I told her that it was still wrong, she argued again, finally storming off a third time, and telling us to talk to her hand.

When she came back again, Jim and I were on the phone. She told us (while we were talking) that "the restaurant has only been open THREE MONTHS, and they're still working on the computer system." We ignored her and finished our calls. When we hung up, she told us that she was trying to talk to us, and we should have hung up our telephones. She said that she took another $2 off of our check, and was apparently disappointed when all we said in return was, "good." She huffed and walked away again.

We paid and left like a $3 tip. I voted for zero, but Jim wanted to leave something.

For all I know, she is the same idiot waitress that worked there for all the other restaurants and came with the building. The guys on Sunrise Boulevard certainly never lectured their customers -- they thanked us for the business and encouraged us to return. The place is cursed.

It doesn't matter how good the food is, if you're putting a moron on the front line to deal with the customers, they're not coming back. I can not imagine that the management there is condoning this level of service, but that's not our problem. If we're going to drop upwards of sixty bucks on LUNCH, don't have your help abuse the customers.

I eat out a lot, and have been doing the blog since the beginning of March. Go back and read -- I don't complain about the service that often, and certainly not at the level of this place, where I will forgo good food because of the lousy service.