Rollngo - Dallas (Upper Greenville Ave)

A friend and neighbor of mine asked if I was available to go to lunch today. I said sure. He initially mentioned Chipotle but then asked if I'd ever been to Rollngo. I've never even heard of it. He said, "Man, we're going to Rollngo then!" I said, "I'm good for whatever" since I'm not a picky eater.

The prices at Rollngo are pretty reasonable — almost too low — which made me think the food portions must be related to price. My friend assured me that the food portions were generous. As long as they weren't really skimpy, I wouldn't mind so much for the cost around $5-$6. As I've never been, I entrusted my buddy to pick the dish to eat. He suggested #67 but with double pork versus pork and shrimp.

After we ordered, another neighbor/friend happened through the door. I went to give him a handshake and he wanted to fist bump. WTF!? We're not tweens, teens or even mid 20s. Fist bumping is not my first intuition. I'd high five you before I'd think about a fist bump...anyway, that's off topic sorry.

We waited about eight minutes to get our order even with how busy they had gotten. Seating inside is not abundant. They have these cool stainless steel bar stools that raise up and down like an office chair, if needed. However, there are only maybe a max of ten inside. They did have an outside patio but today it was too sunny, hot and humid to enjoy outside dining. My buddy said they used to have an awning but they probably lost during the crazy storm we had a week or so ago. There were two-tiered glass-top tables with chairs for outdoor seating but the thing that really was disconcerting was the little red ashtrays they had in between the tiers of glass.

TANGENT:
Why would you promote smoking at a restaurant-only in Dallas much less one that seems to have put some thought into a clean design and decor of the restaurant as well as halfway decent outdoor seating!?
END TANGENT

We got our food to go and ended up eating at the comfy, spacious dining table in his house.

Taking the food out of the to-go bag, I could see that the to-go containers had clear tops which allowed me to see the food...which looked plentiful. There was a pretty good amount of vermicelli and A LOT of pork...remember we basically got a double order of the pork. Opening the containers wafted a wonderful smell which made my mouth water. Now that could be because I was starving but it really did smell good and tasty! The meal came with what I call filler such as green onion, lettuce, bean sprout, cucumber, and carrot. I think it also included an egg roll, because we each had one, but I can't be sure since my buddy gave the order.

Overall, the food was very delicious and good portion at a pretty decent price. I will definitely go back to try other dishes or even the same. Two things that I will point out that I didn't like: (1) they didn't seem to have any fountain drinks. They had a cooler of drinks or smoothies you can buy but no dispenser for buying a cup and getting free refills and (2) the chopsticks were some of the cheapest quality I've ever eaten with. They seemed to come soft out of the package like moisture had gotten to them. They didn't stand up very well to my use of just grabbing particular foods to shovel into my mouth. It made it slightly frustrating to eat and I ended up using a fork!

Other than those two minor complaints, I think anyone would enjoy eating here or at least trying it for the price and size of the meal.

Galaxy Drive-In Theatre - Ennis, TX

I went to Galaxy Drive-In Theatre in Ennis, Texas last night with my youngest and her friend.

Galaxy Drive-In is about 37 miles, an approximate 30-45 minute drive from my place of residence in Dallas without traffic. It's right off Interstate 45. You can't miss it. Years ago, I would drive past this place to/from Palestine, Corsicana, Houston, or Galveston. I'd always think to myself, "I'm going to come see a movie here." How many years later and I can finally say that I "came here to see a movie."

Truth be told, I started looking at the Coyote Drive-In in downtown Fort Worth. It's about the same distance and time as Galaxy. It looked pretty cool on the website but the problem was that they paired two movies together that one wouldn't typically pair together (well, I wouldn't) or paired together movies people wouldn't WANT to see together. For instance, they put The Amazing Spiderman 2 with Draft Day and Rio 2 with Captain American: The Winter Soldier. How many kids, pre-teen and teen, want to see Spiderman 2 and then they have to watch a more mature movie like Draft Day...or they can leave before the second feature. Same with Rio 2. It's very pre-teen and then the follow-up is Captain America. I'm sure they'll say something like they don't choose the pairings and they are tied to what the movie people want.

However, you take a look at Galaxy Drive-In and they paired Spiderman 2 with The Winter Soldier, Spiderman 2 with Rio 2, The Quiet Ones and Oculus, etc. Their pairings match each other more. So, would they not have to follow the same rules as Coyote Drive-In? I would think so.

Anyway, we ended up seeing the pairing of Spiderman 2 and Winter Soldier. If I remember and get around to it, I'll do a brief review of those two movies in another post.

We got to the theatre a little more than 45 minutes before the first movie was listed to start. Their website recommended it and I think it was a wise recommendation. It wasn't really busy at that time. I drove right to the entry booth, paid $18 for three people, and drove to our screen.

The last time I'd been to a drive-in movie was in the very early 80s in Grapevine, Texas. I remember one showing was a horror movie called Deadly Blessing.

Galaxy Drive-In was a cool old-school way to watch a newly released movie. There was the occasional happening of some dumb asses turning on their headlights when they had to turn on their vehicle to make sure their battery didn't die. I was more thoughtful of my potential fellow movie watchers and Googled how to turn off my daytime running lights. There was also the nonfunctional speakers attached to the pole by my vehicle. We had to listen to the sound through my vehicle radio but that required me to have the vehicle running or at least in the "On" position and then occasionally turning it on to make sure the battery didn't die. I asked an employee about it and he basically said, "tough shit, you'll have to deal with it." That's not good for customer service. Granted there is an alternative way to listen but I shouldn't be required to use my vehicle when I paid for the experience of a drive-in movie.

Some people left after the first feature but we did not. Because of the change of seasons, the sun goes down later. The first feature didn't start until almost 9 p.m. when it was scheduled for 8 p.m. This in turn caused the second feature to start late and by the time it was over, we left for home around 2:00 a.m. Put that into perspective from start to finish, it was a long evening/night from 6:30 p.m. until 2:45 a.m.

Will I go back? Sure. In fact, I might do so around the end of May although this time around I may run my vehicle the entire time since the weather is getting warmer. It was actually pretty windy last night and it got cooler to the point that I'm glad I brought some fleece blankets for us all to use...especially me since I was sitting in my camping chair.