Some of Our Favorite Restaurants!

Hi! Happy Monday! How was your weekend?  We had a great one!  We arrived at my parents' house Saturday morning and have been having so much fun!
I am going to skip my normal "Menu Plan Monday" post this week because we are out of town and I didn't need to plan a menu for the majority of the week! YAY!  

Instead, I thought I would share some of our favorite restaurants from the cities we have lived in over the past 10 years!  I am HUGE fan of the show "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" and I would say those are the places my husband and I typically gravitate towards when we go out to eat.  We love to support local restaurants, pretty casual (but SUPER yummy) food and the funkier the joint- the better!  

Hodad's is located in San Diego, in the Ocean Beach neighborhood.  I lived in San Diego for a summer, my brother lives there and we got married there- so it is definitely one of our favorite cities!  Hodad's is a burger place, it is right by the ocean and it is SO fun.  Their burgers are HUGE and their onion rings are SO FREAKIN good.  They have a VW bus in the restaurant and you can sit in there and eat if you want!  It is super casual and has a very "Ocean Beach" vibe.  In my opinion- this is a must try place if you are in San Diego....grab a burger, some onion rings and a cocktail...then afterwards go for a walk on the beach. PERFECT evening in my book!

Aaron is a born and raised Texan :)  He grew up in Houston, but spent 7 years living in Austin going to college and then working.  That is where we met :)  You can read about our story here! One of our absolute favorite spots in Austin is 219 West.  It was our "go-to" date night spot!  They have an awesome happy hour...including all of their "American Tapas" half price.  The food is fancy casual (does that make sense at all?!?) and the vibe is super chill and very cool.  It is downtown, but very accessible to the Town Lake trail if you wanted to go for a walk after dinner.  Or you could just stay downtown and go check out some other fun bars in the area :)  Either way- I would totally recommend checking out 219 West if you are in Austin!  Totally wish I could be transported there right now for a date night with my hubby!

Chuy's is another one of our favorites.  There are Chuy's all over Texas, some in Arkansas, there is even one 10 minutes away from our house here in the Indianapolis suburbs!!  But the ORIGINAL Chuy's is in Austin.  While all the Chuy's are decorated really funky and are very eclectic....they lack the charm and grit the original location has :)  With that being said, the brand new Chuy's by our house serves the same DELICIOUS food they are serving at the original location in Austin.  The food is Tex Mex and it is SO DARN GOOD.  Ever since leaving Texas, we have not been able to find really good Tex Mex....I about died when we spotted the Chuy's here in Indianapolis!!!  It is definitely hands down one of our favorite places to eat...it is so fun...the food is ALWAYS good and it has a great atmosphere that is very forgiving of loud, rambunctious, precious young children :)

We lived in a Cleveland suburb for 4 1/2 years while my husband was attending medical school.  Shortly after we moved there, we asked a friend for a recommendation for lunch for our 2 year wedding anniversary and she demanded we go to Melt Bar and Grill. OH MY.  This place is AWESOME!  The whole menu revolves around grilled sandwiches.  They are huge and delicious and they have the craziest combinations.  My favorite item on the menu?  Their homemade ranch dressing.  It is SO good.  I may or may not have had my husband buy it for me in numerous containers when I was pregnant with our 3rd and 4th baby :)  There are several locations in the Cleveland area, with the original location being in the super cute neighborhood of Lakewood.  True to form for us...this place is really funky and a ton of fun!  You MUST go here if you are in the Cleveland area and looking for a great place to eat!!

Just recently, my husband and I went on our first date since we had our little James and we went to Bubba's 33.  There are a couple other locations of this restaurant in North Carolina, Albuquerque and a couple locations opening up in Texas soon.  The claim to fame for Bubba's is their burger that is made with 33% bacon.  Um. YEAH.  It is a darn good burger.  I am not even a huge meat eater and I couldn't stop taking bites of my husband's burger!  We ordered their onion rings as a side to share and I have to say they were the best onions rings I have ever had.  The batter was super light, they were very crispy and the onions were cooked perfectly.  The atmosphere is very casual- but really fun.  A lot of people were there watching sports and it seemed like a great place to go for happy hour or with a big group.  If you live in the Indianapolis area- you should totally check out Bubba's!

So that is my short list of fun, funky, casual restaurants we have really loved. One of the things my husband and I want to do once our kids get a little older and we are able to travel more is go and visit places featured on Diners, Drive Ins and Dives.  Three of my favorite things to do- explore new cities, hang with my husband and EAT :)  

Now your turn- what are some of your all time favorite restaurants?  

Any reading from the Indianapolis area that has any suggestions of places we need to try??