Hawkin's Family Restaurant — Restaurant in Daingerfield

You have to eat here.

Please take a moment to understand why I recommend this place, despite what your first impressions of my review might be. It's been a little while since I've been here but I'll never forget this place.

This place is a converted 80s/90s Dairy Queen. Even their menu is a period DQ menu that has been taped/marked over. The shape of the sign outside, the building eaves, the seating, tables, and wall paneling, even the faded photos on the walls are ones they put in DQs of the day.

The food is all cheap. The burgers seem the best pick. The nachos are cheap circle tortilla chips coated with that 1-gallon-can cheese sauce and 1-gallon-plastic-tub of jalapenos. The steak fingers are bulk cafeteria food that has been re-dropped into the fry vat after thawing. The enchilada is a frozen burrito that has seen the same fry vat. The cups are the cheapest bulk styrofoam. The food is served on anywhere from the cheapest paper to cheapest styrofoam plates, if the dishes all get dirty.

The baseboards are stained, the bench seats are slightly discolored from use, the foam ceiling tiles all sag ever so slightly, the A/C vents are dusty.

This place is an American Diner. Not a chain styled to be like an American Diner. The menu promises everything and delivers on a couple things. This place was made to run and keep running, and to do most things good-enough. This is not a mathematically calculated food menu to maximize consumer buy-in with a pallet of frozen food unloaded every week. This is someone picking up from a costco or bulk-restaurant supplier, maybe even running and grabbing some meat/etc from the grocery store, because that's what's available and that's what they decided to work with.

When I was here, it was busy. People come here to sit and eat something simple and chat. I haven't seen a place like this in over a decade - a small-business-place that feels like it's being run to be an affordable restaurant and not the next gourmet burger/taco/pizza/etc joint. It feels like a person makes the business decisions and not a computer algorithm. It doesn't try to be fancy or hope you post about it on social media. If the owner reads this; don't renovate. You can clean up and make things sparkle, but don't renovate. Repair, don't replace. I hope you pay your employees well and treat them kindly.

This place is good for a simple bite to eat with a nice, no frills atmosphere. I worry there won't be places like this in 10 years time; just copy-paste McDonalds chains and $20 gourmet burger joints with 'cool...

Was kind of upset, but didn't raise any fuse just ate and left, but not an outstanding experience. Went in to eat lunch and no other customers were there, and no one in the drive through. The lady told us just a second and she'd be with us. We waited a while, and then two drive through people came, and she took their order in front of us who'd been standing at the counter for about 10 mins waiting. Then when we got the order it was wrong. We didn't complain just ate and left, but wasn't super happy. They were nice, and the food was above decent, just not great service. I'm just not one to make a scene and probablly just won't go back. UPDATE: I typically give a place a few chances. So I went and ordered nachos and tow ice creams. Sat in the drive through while I watched the kitchen make the nachos andthen they just sat there and got soggy. Tried to get their attention and they ignored me. I was mad, but whatever. Third time I decided to give it another try, and will not be back again. Ordered two burgers...thats it..2 burgers. No fries, no drinks, nothing...and it took over an hour. They kept asking me what I ordered, and Id repeat it over and over. Then were rude when I asked for a refund and to cancel my order. I will never return to this place, it is always something. They burnt...

I went in two days in a row last week; on Thursday as well as Friday. On Thursday they had a few small issues in my mind that could be worked upon with the main issue being that it was colder inside the restaurant then it was outside (it was in the mid to lower 40's outside). Coming back in on Friday they had the heaters in the dining area set at 70 and 72 ( I only know because both thermostats were right in front of me). I usually eat burgers with either no onions or with the onions grilled. Here lately I have been attempting to get use to raw onions on a burger and ordered my burger like that. As I began to bite into the burger I thought that the onions were just extra crispy or that they were hotter then I had expected them to be. Halfway through the burger my lips were burning and beginning to swell up. I opened the burger up to find jalapeños on it. I was surprised beyond belief and hated to see what I did as I happen to be allergic to jalapeños. Needless to say I didn't get to finish the burger and rushed out of there as quick as I could. I do appreciate the heat actually working my second day to come in but hated the fact that my airway could have closed off killing me all because someone decided to add something to my burger that I'm...