R&D KITCHEN

What took me so long to go here?  I think that I heard someone mention R&D Kitchen as a very good restaurant, so it went left on my list for a couple of months or so.  I recently became curious again since I starting reviewing and writing in my blog and it was so close to home. 
I had a craving to out for Italian food up to the Barrington Court or across the street to Enzo & Angela's.  Then miraculously I remembered that I wanted to try the spaghetti and meatballs at R&D.  Heck, I needed to drink my smoothie before I could possibly eat lunch at 1:00.  When I saw the restaurant right away with a parking space available, I knew that was a good sign.  I walked in to be warmly welcomed by Sydney.  What a doll!  She told me that it would be a 15 or 20 minute wait.  I was glad to finish my smoothie in the warm sunshine of the day.  She quickly came to get me when I had chatted up the father and son going in before me.  They like the sandwich special sometimes, but overall like everything, except something off with the spaghetti, maybe too large of a dish.  They commented on the slim selection but what they did was well done.
I was seated at a nice table, well lit, and after settling in noticed a burning candle next to the stainless pepper mill, which I always need to ask for in a restaurant.  Their was a lot of detail and care put into the table arrangement.  I opened the white linen napkin to find a beautiful knife, solid, with a great handle.  I forgot to look for the name on it.  I need new knifes, especially like this. 
My server, Elle, greeted me with a warm smile.  When asked of her recommendations she named a few items but when she mentioned the chicken sandwich, she face lit up.  I told her my thoughts of ordering the spaghetti but instead, ordering three side dishes.  I definitely am glad that I did.  Elle even asked me if I wanted it to all come out together or separately.  No one seems to ask that and I appreciated the extra touch of customer service, which kept occurring throughout this lunch experience.  Elle and another server brought such positive energy to the day, adding to the experience again.  Elle asked if I wanted ketchup or their spicy mayonnaise.  I vacillated a moment when she suggested both and asked if I would like to try their thousand island.  I ended up with all three.  Yepee!  I received a flat long narrow white dish holding five proud deviled eggs, perfect with the Halloween theme of evil, and then mixing it with an angel food cake.  Then came a stainless cup and paper inside holding beautiful golden fries, not too skinny. They were very good, well seasoned, and salt too.  The best fries, actually, that I've had anywhere else.  This was a huge compliment.  The first sauce I tried was the best, thousand island, which I don't really like.  It is a secret recipe of chives, parsley, red pepper, chipotle and mayo, as far as my detection could tell.
I now was in anticipation of seeing the chicken meatballs.  OMG, they came three meatballs, in a white oval dish.  They looked great but the first thing I thought was that there was too much tomatoes for my acid reflux to handle.  They were excellent, and then my thought was maybe I should have ordered the spaghetti to accompany them.  No, no these meatballs desired showing on their own and held up, hands down! 
Now I'm eating the French fries and keep going back to them.  The deviled eggs will have to wait their turn again.  They didn't capture me but the crunch of the small cubes of celery did.  Mustard was the first thing to come out after first bite.  Elle came by again to check on me and I asked about the restaurant's owner and long it had been there.  She said that it is a family owned business with George Bile, the proprietor, and his son David now managing the chain of restaurants. They opened in Nashville, Tennessee in 1976.   I was amazed that this was a chain restaurant, with so many elements to make a successful restaurant, especially consistency.  It is hard to control everything that could go wrong and make it work out.  When I complimented the deviled eggs for the crunchiness I was told that it is also a secret recipe from Grandmother Ding.  How cute is that!  Also the ground chicken meatballs consists of a secret cinnamon, pickle relish. 
I was now being asked if they could bring me a fresh cup of fries.  Are you kidding? Who does that?   I was reminded that they do that but not a lot of people know about it.    I graciously accepted and my water was refilled, right on time.  I laughed as I looked across from me to see a woman putting a black moustache on her face.  Their companion told me that their shrimp Louie is the best in town and referenced Musso and Frank's Grill in Hollywood, a legendary restaurant, know for their shrimp Louie and most certainly, their martinis with olives.  My neighbor went on to say the R&D Kitchen's food is all good, simple and they do it well. 
And yes, it get's better, Elle now offers me a desert.  I accepted and gave her an honest compliment of her genuineness, etc.  I saw a beautiful, golden crème brule in front of me now.  OMG again!  At first bite was the sound of the top cracking, lovely. 
Sydney told me as I was leaving that Bandera, next to my apartment, is their sister restaurant.  Hillstone Restaurant on2nd Street is also theirs.  I was in heaven with this whole experience and I was caught off guard, not expecting what I received.  This was the best experience I have had in most of my years, for many reasons.  With the staff, the atmosphere, the quality, taste and presentation of the meal, it ranks highest marks.