Short Version
Do not let the fact this place is next door to a Home Boys convenience store and gas station sway your opinion. This is a great little spot that serves great food at a fair price. You can play a round of pool or some arcade games. The food is elevated, the atmosphere is open, and the service is great. Worth the stop. It’s also owned by a Rockwall native.
Long Version
Man, this one took me for a ride. Over the last couple of months, I have watched a few reviews come across my feed for this place. Most were pretty short, brief, and to the point, not really covering anything other than “Check out this new place.” One review mentioned the food was great and recommended trying it. Another commented, “Who pays $10 for chips and queso at a gas station restaurant?” The overall perception of this place seemed to be just another throwaway stop in a strip mall anchored by a gas station. Even though we had the perception, we made the 10-minute trip to check it out.
When you pull up, it’s just as I described above: a restaurant in a small strip anchored by a convenience store and gas station, located on the corner facing the intersection. This location is like an island in the middle of a food desert. It’s about half a mile from other options, sitting between a bunch of neighborhoods. If you’re coming here, it’s your destination. You’re not cruising downtown or the restaurant area trying to decide on dinner tonight. That can be a huge benefit as long as the service, food, and drinks are above average.
My immediate thought was that this place could handle serious business with just the local neighborhoods, without needing people to drive over. I had low expectations for the food based solely on the location. I should learn from my past, but old dogs take a while to learn, I guess.
Many people outside of the local neighborhood may not know, but this building has been here for at least seven years that I know of. Prior to Dudley’s, this was Hopper Bro’s BBQ and Bar. Despite being open for about seven years, Hopper Bro’s only had 45 reviews and a total of 10 pictures uploaded to Google, with a rating of 3.8. It is clear they made decent food, but I assume the location was their biggest hurdle. You can serve good food and decent drinks and set up pretty much anywhere, and people will find you. But you can’t be mediocre and be successful anymore. Living in the area and never hearing about or seeing a single review personally while Hopper Bro’s was open is a bit concerning. That is one thing Dudley’s already has a leg up on over Hopper Bro’s BBQ. Again, I do not know the story behind Hopper Bro’s; they may have been very successful and decided to retire. They just were not active on social media and I never came across any mention of them.
I can’t speak to the location setup or if it has been remodeled or updated, but I can say that this place felt new. The entry door is a large brown wooden door adorned with the letter D. When you enter, you are presented with an uncluttered bar. To your left is a game room that houses a bar sized pool table, photo booth, a couple of basketball arcade games, and a claw machine. There are three large TVs and a few tables where you can eat and drink while you play. To the right as you have the bar and dining area. The focal point is the bar. It is a large and U-shaped with all the seating set around the bar in booths or traditional bar stool seating along the edge. The setup is similar to that of a Chili’sf I had to pick a commonly known place.
When we arrived, it was around noon on a Monday, and there were maybe five other tables there during our visit with two staff members working and another person, whom I later learned was the owner, sitting at the bar working on his laptop. The bar has four large TVs on the back wall and another 10 or so TVs along the walls above head in the dining area. I counted seven different channels spread over all the TVs. We were greeted as we entered the dining area and were seated in a booth at what would be 4:30 on a clock face if the bar was the clock.
Both servers took care of us, either filling drinks or running food, and both seemed glad to be there with a sunny disposition. For being so slow, I was a bit surprised. Even the best of places have their staff suffer from RBF (Resting Bored Face)—yeah, I know it means other things, but I felt like clarifying that a bit. When we were handed the menu, we were pleasantly surprised to see some elevated-looking dishes. Not your normal sports bar food for sure. Offering things like deviled eggs topped with smoked brisket and Wagyu hamburgers, we felt like there were some real treats to be had here. That always means that if we end up liking the place, we are now committed to coming back to try it all!
We wanted to play it safe to start and ordered some Chips and Queso for an appetizer. I ordered the Chicken Fried Steak, my wife, Nicole, got the Bleu Burger, and we both had water to drink. I will break down the food items below to do my best to provide a description of our experience.
Aged White Cheddar Queso & Chips – $10
No Menu description.
With no description here, we were not sure what to expect. There is an option on the menu to add a protein if you want. There is chicken or brisket offered as an option, with those being $4 and $6 respectively to add. We opted for just plain aged white cheddar queso. When it hit the table, it was a much larger bowl than we were expecting. The chips were very tasty. They were crispy without being too thick. They held up to being able to scoop out the thick cheese with no problem but were not so thick that you got tired of chewing dense hard chips. There was a drizzle that looked like maybe a jalapeno crème or maybe an avocado purée. Not sure, but it was creamy and had a good flavor to it that added to the queso. We ate the entire basket of chips served and were given a free refill of chips. This was great queso. Like, if I was craving chips and queso, it would be worth the 10-minute drive. The queso tasted like real cheese, not a processed cheese product that is watered down. This set the bar for us.
Ultimate Chicken Fried Steak – $20
NY Strip, Garlic Whipped Potatoes, Sautéed Spinach & Applewood Bacon Gravy.
The presentation on this was nice. The chicken fried steak is a health sized piece of steak and cupped, creating a vessel to hold all the gravy, then placed on top of the garlic whipped potatoes and spinach. It just looks very appetizing, so that alone elevates the dish. We always eat with our eyes first, and plating matters. I was not expecting this in a sports bar. I was very impressed with nearly everything about this meal. The breading on the chicken fried steak was not greasy at all. It was light, crispy, and crunchy, and held onto the steak well. The perfect bite was a piece of chicken fried steak, drug through the gravy “bowl,” and then the mashed potatoes. Complete and perfect bite right there, without question. I do not know if the potatoes are made from scratch, but they were good and creamy. Not gummy at all, and that’s a big deal for me. I am a texture person, and over-whipped potatoes tend to be gummy and more like wall paste. That was not the case here! Though, there is one issue I had with this dish. The steak was not tenderized and broken down thoroughly enough to be fried like a chicken fried steak, leaving it to have a bit more chew than a properly tenderized piece of steak would have. This was the only thing that would prevent me from giving the whole visit a solid five stars. The flavors were untouchable, though.
Bleu Burger – $17
Brioche Bun, 8 oz Wagyu Beef, Bleu Cheese, Applewood Smoked Bacon, Garlic Aioli & Bacon Jam, Crispy Parm Fries.
Yep, this is a home run. When it was served at the table, my first thought was, “I am glad I got the Chicken Fried Steak” because it just looked like an overcooked burger from a glance. Boy, was I mistaken. I was offered a bite so that I could share my thoughts. I immediately tried to do some plate splitting: half mine for half of hers, and that would not fly today. The first thing I did was grab a couple of the French fries, you know, for science. I wanted to taste them at their prime—fresh, crispy, and hot. They are cooked very well: thin crispy exterior, seasoned well, and a creamy inside. These are not McDonald’s fries! The burger melted in my mouth. Like, I took a bite, and normally with any burger, you are dealing with a piece of protein that is firmer than the surrounding ingredients, and you can discern the meat from everything else. There was a healthy serving of bleu cheese on this thing too. As you can see in the photo, it was mounded on here. When I bit into the burger, my teeth sank effortlessly through the whole thing, and before I knew it, my jaw was closed. It was like butter, in every aspect of the word. One of the juiciest burgers I have had in a while. The flavors were on point, and that bacon jam is a game changer. Such a well-executed burger.
Okay, so this place is a bit of a hidden gem. I was not expecting this to be our experience when we were on our way to eat lunch. Walking in the front door there is a picknick table that is sitting as if it is their outdoor seating, and it was full of guys eating their gas station microwaved lunch from next door.
Now I wonder if the location was changed to a free-standing building instead of anchored to a gas station. If it was marketed as a local eatery and didn’t have the bar experience. Would I rate the food the same? Would I think I have a different set of expectations for this place as I would another? I must wonder if maybe I lowered my expectations and that is why I was so overly impressed with not just the presentation of the food but also the quality of the product used to make my meal. The execution that was done and presented to me and the flavors that were on my plate were on another level than the expectation I had already set in my mind.
I gave that some serious thought for a couple of days. I spoke to Nicole about the experience and her opinion on everything that I had written. The conclusion is pretty simple. I always do my best to judge the food based on only the food. Never allowing my enjoyment of a meal be based on just the atmosphere. It is always focused solely on the quality of the food on my plate, that is it. I strive for that to always be the case and have a way to always find my center that way. That way it doesn’t matter if I am eating at Del Frisco’s Grille, The Capital Grille or Texas Roadhouse. Does the food match the description. Is it plated well? Does the food quality proportionally match the cost of the food? is the quality lower than, equal to, or greater than the price I paid?
So, in conclusion, I can say that after careful reflection that on the quality of the food, the presentation, the value on the plate, the total execution of the dishes was above average if not great. The Wagyu Burger with parm fries for only $17 is heads and tails above a 1/2 lb. blue cheeseburger and large fries from a chain that rhymes with 5 Eyes for $20. Go and give them a visit, eat some great food, watch a whole bunch of shows at one time and leave happy. This place can go the distance, the only obstacle in the path is people knowing about them. I did my part, now you do yours. Thank you again for reading, all the best to you!
Dudley’s Sports Grill
2975 TX-66, Rockwall, TX 75087
(469) 884-6866
Nick Hughes
I’m a devoted father and husband. What you see is what you get. I love God, family, food & baseball!
If you ever see me out and about, don’t hesitate to say hello, or give me a recommendation on the next place I should try! [email protected]
