J. Macklin’s Grill — Restaurant in Coppell

Came here for a friend's birthday, large group with an innumerable scattering of random small children. Friend's wife made reservations and they were able to accommodate us shortly after we all arrived. The patio outside was set up really nice, the inside was similarly well set up and clean. This isn't a knock on this restaurant specifically, more just in general - most restaurants should look into adding acoustic panels or something that'll help control some of the ambient noise in the space, but I realize there's only so much you can do about a lot of people talking over each other in a relatively small enclosed space! Our server was wonderful and the food was great. Prices were reasonable. So this last bit - totally not hyperbole, every once in a while I get the craving for a good chicken fried steak and I saw someone else order it on the patio when I was waiting outside. So I ordered their chicken fried ribeye - and it turned out to be the best got dang chicken fried steak I've ever had in my 41 years of existence. The meat itself was tender and the crust was light, flaky, and crispy (perfectly fried). Green beans and mashed potatoes were a bit bland but overall - I would come back just to...

What was to be a fun evening with the family with a dinner out turned out to be very disappointing experience at J Macklin’s. What was once a fine restaurant has become a shadow of it’s past self. In the past, I always enjoyed their short ribs but it was not on the menu. So I ordered the rib-eye chicken fried steak. What arrived was a total embarrassment and inedible - soggy oil breaded piece of meat topped with a splash of gravy. The ribeye tasted odd, like fried in old oil !!! Even the mash potato was barely a scoop portion and was tasteless. The only platted edible was the string beans. My grandson ordered the child’s cheeseburger plate and found the hamburger portion very skimpy. He remarked the bun was tasty !!!! My son’s order of chicken salad who asked the waitress to eliminate the cheese came with cheese !!! He remarked the quality had deteriorated from the past. I was unable to eat my meal for fear of getting sick !!!! I have never done this. Curiously, the waitress never asked when she cleared the table why my meal was left uneaten. Maybe it’s the training, because the salad order was not right earlier. A real sad ending to a evening...

We're from out of town, in the area for a concert the night before, and we just stumbled onto J. Macklin's Grill, and we're very glad we did!

It's a fantastic trendy sort of restaurant. Not too big, not too small, excellent selections on the menu (it all sounded so good, it was hard to choose just one!). Even though we came in just before closing time, the staff was very friendly and welcoming. Our waitress helped to answer our questions about the selections, and pointed out that they could do substitutions and "swaps" between menu items, which really helped. The GOAT salad was excellent, and, even though it sounds almost sacrilegious to even contemplate using a ribeye in such a manner, the ribeye chicken fried steak was outstanding! Very tender, much better than the standard tenderized round steak that's typically used for the dish.

It's a shame that right now (mid-August) that it's just so HOT outside, because this would be a wonderful place for an outside dinner on their rather expansive patio, which looked very inviting, if not for the upper-90 degree temps at...