Fred's Texas Cafe - Western Center — Restaurant in Fort Worth

Loose the kids meals…

I have never in my life posted a bad review, we are living in crazy times and I feel like we need more good than bad at this point…but after the treatment we received today I felt like this needed to be said, DO BETTER. The food was great, & the drinks ice cold, so what happened? My sister, her wife & myself we’re here around 2:30- 3:00 pm to enjoy same family quality time. This being the prime time for us to go out because we understand no one wants to hear our kids on a Friday night. In tow we had two babies, a toddler, & my teenage daughter. Our mistake, assuming Fred’s was a family friendly place, them having a kids menu & high chairs, but you know what happens when you assume. As soon as I was greeted by the waiter he told me he’d be clocking out in 5 minutes. I thought no big deal, gave him my order, tipped him over 20% as did my sister in law. How ignorant was I when twenty minutes goes by and we haven’t been greeted by a different waiter and the man who said he was leaving continued waiting on other tables around us. And honestly I didn’t even care until I put all the pieces together. So at this point, our kids might have been a little too high pitched here and there, my niece skipping around our table, her sweet little heart so innocent & happy. I personally never thought much of it, being mid day and It’s a restaurant/bar, the music was playing and there was a decent amount of crowd background to where I thought the noise level blended well. We would never try and “ruin peoples experiences” like we were told. We were approached by a fellow customer and told “We were running peoples experiences, that there have been multiple complaints on our table” My heart dropped, how could this stranger say this? No one on the staff had told us about the complaints. I am not saying we were perfect, but is this not a family friendly place? Our kids aren’t allowed to be kids at all? My 9 month old needs to sit quietly?? I looked around and realized the music had been turned off, the table next to us was talking rudely where my teenager could hear and were glaring at us, and then it clicked, they didn’t want us to be there. That’s why we weren’t being waited on. I felt so uncomfortable, so unwanted, and I didn’t want my family anywhere near this kind of behavior. My sister-in-law said it perfectly, “Would this man ever have approached us if a man had been sitting at the table?” HOW SAD IS THAT. At the end of the day, we will never come back here, I will raise my children to behave better than this, to accept and to love one...

So Sunday I usually take my family to a local spot to show community support and enjoy local cuisine. Burger spots are some of our favorites. Upon entry we were greeted rather quickly by a young man. Not much for a welcome in but still efficient nonetheless. We weren’t offered indoor or patio (little hot out so understandable). Patio is pretty spacious and seems inviting on cooler days.

The place is pretty cozy and kinda warm but didn’t get that super excited to be at work vibe from staff. Got a pretty quick greet but not much of a personality as far as what I expect from server’s in small business settings. You really gotta love on your guests to thrive against the chains nowadays. Didn’t get the guys name and that definitely makes it more of a transaction than an experience. Still friendly and nice but not a memorable encounter. You can really tell when they really care about the guests or if they just wanna get you in and out.

Drinks came pretty quick (place was mostly empty on a Sunday afternoon as expected) and we placed our order. Got a Melt and the Todo burger with a couple kids plates. Food came in a timely manner. Wife and I agreed the Todo was the winner by far. Flavors were very complimentary and burger was pretty juicy but a little bit well done for my taste. We weren’t asked how we like the burger temps to be so I guess med-well to well is the default? Not sure honestly?Tell you what though, they are not stingy with the fries and they’re tasty. Even on the kids plates. Peach margarita was pretty good.

Pretty typical for a local burger spot but could use some guidance as far as hospitality and guest retention. Overall decent experience but would probably just do a takeout if we do it again. I’m sure it’s a cool hangout if you live super close but all in all, nothing I would deem spectacular. Maybe I’ll give it another shot and catch the bar next time. That’s usually where the talent is.

Thanks for hearing my opinion...

The food was amazing. We went there last night (Saturday night at 5:30) for our family night out. There were 7 adults and 3 children. We had to wait a while for a table. I don’t know if they take reservations or not, but I’ll check next time for sure. They have new twists on chicken fried steaks (I got the Outlaw Chicken Fried with a stuffed poblano pepper). I loved it. Someone at the table ordered candied bacon and it was spicy and delicious! I will definitely be ordering that again. The 3 people at the table who ordered hamburgers said they were great but that the fries were horrible. They looked horrible. Very soggy and bland. If you want good, crispy, fries go somewhere else. If you get a hamburger substitute your side or request that the fries be crisp. The waiter was great. I don’t remember his name, unfortunately but he knew his business. Very efficient. My only really negative thing about Fred’s is the atmosphere. It was so incredibly noisy that we couldn’t even talk to the person sitting next to us. People were yelling all over the restaurant trying to visit. Now, having only been there this one time I can’t say if it’s always that noisy. And to be fair, there was a large, very happy party sitting at the table next to us, which was a hefty chunk of the noise. Bottom line: Fred’s is great if you don’t mind a...