Restaurants in Garland

he first Lenny's Sub Shop® opened in 1998 in a suburb of Memphis, TN to satisfy cravings for authentic subs and Philly Cheesesteaks. Lenny's provides an unmatched value for our guests' hard earned dollars.

When The Island Spot owner Richard Thomas was growing up in Jamaica, his mother, Mama Joyce, would always make dinner for the family. On Sunday, they'd head to the farmer's market for mango, passionfruit, soursop, and other fruits to make into juice, which she'd serve along with dishes such as jerk chicken and curry shrimp to a crowd of extended family. Today, Richard uses those recipes to give diners at The Island Spot an authentic taste of the Jamaican food he grew up eating—chicken and beef patties, or meat pies, braised oxtails, smoked jerk chicken, and escoveitched fish fillets.

"I would bathe in the rub they put on that chicken," wrote a D Magazine reviewer about The Island Spot's signature jerk chicken. The Dallas Observer named The Island Spot's jerk chicken the best in Dallas in 2012, due in part to its smoky flavors and the experience of digging in: a "burst of perfume that starts as a wisp and builds to a billowing smokescreen."

Diners sipping rum punch or playing Jenga with a plate of jerk-chicken nachos can admire Richard's family portraits and snapshots of his favorite places in Jamaica as reggae, soca, or steel-drum music plays. On the first Friday of each month, a reggae band treats diners to live jams that transport imaginations to a breezy, sun-soaked island.

When The Island Spot owner Richard Thomas was growing up in Jamaica, his mother, Mama Joyce, would always make dinner for the family. On Sunday, they'd head to the farmer's market for mango, passionfruit, soursop, and other fruits to make into juice, which she'd serve along with dishes such as jerk chicken and curry shrimp to a crowd of extended family. Today, Richard uses those recipes to give diners at The Island Spot an authentic taste of the Jamaican food he grew up eating—chicken and beef patties, or meat pies, braised oxtails, smoked jerk chicken, and escoveitched fish fillets.

"I would bathe in the rub they put on that chicken," wrote a D Magazine reviewer about The Island Spot's signature jerk chicken. The Dallas Observer named The Island Spot's jerk chicken the best in Dallas in 2012, due in part to its smoky flavors and the experience of digging in: a "burst of perfume that starts as a wisp and builds to a billowing smokescreen."

Diners sipping rum punch or playing Jenga with a plate of jerk-chicken nachos can admire Richard's family portraits and snapshots of his favorite places in Jamaica as reggae, soca, or steel-drum music plays. On the first Friday of each month, a reggae band treats diners to live jams that transport imaginations to a breezy, sun-soaked island.

At BoomerJack's Grill & Bar and BoomerJack Wings and Grill, diners feast on spicy and savory dishes, complemented by refreshing drinks and the frequent shouts of cheering sports fans. Appetizers include hand-battered and fried mushrooms, pickles, and the restaurant’s eponymous Boomer chips, freshly sliced jalapeños served with a homemade sauce. Chefs also sculpt a half pound of ground beef into a behemoth of a burger, adorned with aged cheddar or blue cheese crumbles. Lemon pepper or Cajun seasoning spices up a fillet of farm-raised catfish, while grilled peppers and onions top Ray’s sizzling sausage sandwich made from ground filet mignon and pork.

The menu at PD Johnson's Dog Day Deli teems with 33 sandwich varieties that fall into four categories: hot, cold, light, and meatless. Possibilities range from the traditional—the Hot Johnson slathers hot roast beef and turkey in barbecue sauce and horseradish mayo—to more unexpected concoctions such as the Mad Dog, which caps a grilled black-bean burger in avocado and pepper jack. Patrons can also build their own sandwiches, acquiring the proper permits from city sandwich officials before choosing from five breads, more than a dozen meats, cheeses such as muenster and cream cheese, and sauces including thousand island dressing and wing sauce.

Ketchup Burger Bar’s inventive chefs bake their own brioche buns, handcraft black Angus beef, ahi tuna, and lamb burgers, and personally mix a quartet of ketchups, each with a distinct flavor quality. They use only organic ingredients for their specialty house burgers. The spiced ketchup unites a complex bouquet of cloves, cinnamon, and cardamom, and the chipotle ketchup bears a smoky flavor with a spicy kick. The ketchup burger, like a losing contestant on any Nickelodeon game show from the ‘90s, is drizzled with the sweet and tangy house ketchup, along with piles of tillamook cheddar, veggies, and grilled red onions. Crisp zucchini fries and garlic chive fries act as dams against tomatoey overflows, and creamy shakes and root-beer floats cool off palates still all hot and bothered from their burger indulgences.

Romantically lit by sconces jutting from brick walls and track lighting overhead, the restaurant’s interior pleases the eyes with burgundy wood accents. Flat-screen televisions hang over the full bar, their comforting glow reflected in glasses of wine and draft and bottled beer. The burger boutique offers free valet parking at lunchtime, along with ample underground spaces, ideal for those who like cave diving, but only from the comfort of their SUV.:m]]