Today Vince and I went to Abilene for a dermatologist visit. I was expecting bad news and got good news so that always makes the day more fun. More good news . . the dermatologist is opening a satellite office in Brownwood so I can soon see him without having to go back to Abilene.
By the time we finished at the doctor, we were starving and needed to eat before heading home. We’ve never had much luck with restaurants in Abilene. It’s weird because when we lived in MO, we could go to Joplin or Kansas City or even Pittsburg, KS and we always had wonderful meals at some of our favorite restaurants.
Vince mentioned Chinese . . no, I had Chinese once this week already and once every 6 months is enough for me.
Then he mentioned sushi. I knew he was just doing it because I love sushi but he isn’t crazy about it so I said no . . let’s think of something else.
Then he mentioned a Mexican restaurant and even though we’ve eaten there before, and I wasn’t impressed, it wasn’t terrible so I said ok. We got there. They put us all the way in the very, very back (and we had on decent clothes today!). Our waiter was grumpy and doing a poor job. Then they put 4 tables together and about 25 ladies came in for someone’s birthday. They were nice and having a great time but they were so loud. We still didn’t have our food, our drinks had not been refilled, it had been 10 minutes since the waiter said he would bring more hips and salsa so Vince said . . I’ve had enough . . and we left!
There was a new Mexican restaurant in town so we went there. It was so new that there was a long wait and it was well past lunch time. We couldn’t really wait because we didn’t want to be too late getting home to deal with the chickens so .. we let there.
I said . . let’s go to Arby’s! I really do like Arby’s and we don’t have one. Vince said “No! There has to be some place better!” Heck, I’m still kinda wishing we had gone toe Arby’s.
At this point, I would have been happy to stop and get a Dr. Pepper and a bag of chips and head home but Vince remembered there was a restaurant somewhere so we were going there. I was looking up restaurants on my phone and I said “I wonder what Hashi Teppan Grill might be. Do you know where Rebecca Lane is?” No, he did not but then . . at that very moment, I looked up and there it was! Rebecca Lane. I screamed “TURN HERE!”
It was in a little strip mall that we’ve passed before and I’ve always noticed a BBQ restaurant in there that had lots of cars. There was a policeman in the parking lot and Vince asked him if any of the restaurants in that little strip mall were good and he said they were ALL good! Hashi Teppan Grill is kinda like a Japanese restaurant. There’s also a Greek restaurant and a burger joint, in addition to the Hashi and BBQ restaurants.
Hashi Teppan was wonderful! Really, really good. The best Japanese/Hibachi food I’ve had in a long time. We’ll definitely go back.
I told Vince . . there’s a reason none of those other restaurants worked out for us. None of the other places we tried to eat would have compared to what we ended up having.
It’s a bit over 1-1/2 hours each way for us to get to Abilene but it is the most boring trip ever. Flat ground. Nothing to see. No places to stop. You have to go out of your way to stop at a bathroom or gas station. I wish I didn’t dislike that trip so much.
Sherrill says
I LOVE Japanese Hibachi..probably my next fav after Mexican (or, as my son insists, Tex-Mex–brother!). What excuse will you have to go to Abilene after your doc’s Brownwood office opens?
JudyL says
I never like going there because the drive seems so long and boring. There’s no telling how long it will be before we go back. They do have Sam’s Club, Hobby Lobby and Academy, that we don’t have here.
Susan says
Is there anything half-way in between? I ask because if I ever manage to get out of here, Abilene is at the top of my list of places to move. I know we used to eat somewhere we liked there, but I’ll be darned if I can reach back all those years and remember where it was – and it’s probably gone anyway! I was happy it had a Sonic and a Dillard’s and a quilt shop. =)
JudyL says
I know there are great place . . there has to be . . but we’re just not finding them. We don’t go over there very often, we’re short on time and we end up eating at the first place we see or find online and until yesterday, we had not done great but I think we found a goldmine with those restaurants we found in that one little strip mall yesterday.
Kaholly says
My daughter went to college in Abilene. There’s a family owned Italian restaurant here .. Spano’s .. that’s out of this world.
JudyL says
Thanks but, according to Google, it closed in 2007. I was all excited to try it and checked Google to see where it was located and apparently it is no more.