Follow the Cheap Bastard as she scours the city, looking for a good -- or at least non-lethal -- lunch for less than 10 bucks.
Dusty Christmas decorations count: 27 Warm, cuddly, Tex-Mex fuzzies count: 400
Some days, you need a food hug. And not just a side-hug food hug. You need that full-front-hug food hug. The kind that lasts a little longer than you're comfortable with, but you relax into it and find yourself in a good, for-real hug-moment. The moment a regular hello-hug turns into something warmer and more meaningful and band-aids all the cuts and scrapes on your soul. And then -- obviously -- you start to make out real hard. Like, angry-happy, Jimmy-Stewart, It's-A-Wonderful-Life hard.
Lucky for your comfort-food-needing ass, Dallas has you more than covered in the cheap comfort food department. We have you so covered, in fact, that there are categories of cheap comfort food. Do you want burger comfort? Chicken-fried steak and mashed potatoes comfort? Tom kha comfort? Or, do you just need a big-ass enchilada plate worth of feel-good?
If it's enchiladas you seek, it's essential that you hit up Casa Navarro.
"Casa Navarro" is Spanish for "House of yeah, our flautas and sour cream enchiladas are the fucking shit, man. If you're craving some good-ass bean soup, get over here and open your mouth on it."
I order the sour cream enchilada and flauta plate ($7.59). A shiny, dusty Christmas ceiling streamer with a star at the bottom of it shivers as the front door opens and closes. It's the middle of January, but that faded streamer is still hanging from the ceiling. It's seen things.
I refuse to order my meal by number, as it's the Number 3. And saying, "I'll have the Number 3," would seem like a creepily accurate forecast of my future. Ceiling Streamer smirks in agreement. Ceiling Streamer always gets it.
Here, every plate comes with a free bowl of bean soup. Plus, you get free chips and salsa, which means your free-shit-o-meter is in the green at Casa Navarro.
In the back corner of the restaurant, a quiet, cowboy-hatted gentleman butchers the word "quesadilla." Ceiling Streamer winces a little.
When the world has shat upon you and you seek true comfort in the form of a combo platter, this is the place. A quick cuddle with a sour cream enchilada and a side of beans and rice here can cure pretty much any bout of The Dumb.
