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At the last minute last week we got an email about Uchiko Plano having a Father's Day omokase so I got us a reservation. I documented what we ate on my instagram starting with the special menu.

When we started eating at Uchi and Uchiko when we moved to Austin almost 20 years ago (yikes) Uchi was more formal and Uchiko was more casual. Not that Uchi was ever really formal, just that the level of service was more formal and the menu was a little more upscale. Now that there are Uchi and Uchi variants everywhere, they all have a kind of personality, and Uchiko is the one with the wood grilled bold flavors.

This was our first time at the Plano Uchiko; it's less than a year old, IIRC. Our foodie friends from Austin were not impressed with it for an early try-on. It's still stumbling a little in the service: our dishes arrived out of order, we got an extra dish and a second dessert for the delay, and with a 7:45 reservation we had to rush to get our car out of valet hock at 10 pm. The food, however, was amazing and up to standard. The highlight was the duck confit, but everything was very good.

I would go back to Uchiko again, but I would park and walk so I could get my own car if they ran late and it would definitely be a Monday or Tuesday night kind of thing in the hopes that a slower evening would improve the order of food from the kitchen. That said, we're also very happy with making Uchiba our regular spot in the Uchi kingdom, so it's not a high priority. We have a list of sushi places we want to eat on our list and maybe Uchiko will come back after we've tried some of the ones new to us.

One of our little treats is ordering out every other Wednesday for lunch so we can avoid messing up the kitchen on the day the maid service is here. Usually we order from one of our staples in the area like Rodeo Goat, but today we tried The Empanada Cookhouse, which we've been thinking about for a while. (We miss Marini's Empanadas in Houston something fierce).

We got a six-pack of three different kinds: the Pork Tamarindo (sweet and spicy), the Pork Al Pastor, and the Beef Chimichurri. The beef was the weakest of the lot, which surprised me, but I just wasn't feeling the chimichurri, which wasn't the kind I like. I also ate it last and the Tamarindo and the Al Pastor were delicious. There were also some tots with cheese that didn't really survive the car trip and would have done better if we'd re-crisped them in an air fryer or something, and a Nutella sweet empanada for dessert that would have done better if I had warmed it. It was still really good though, and I don't think it needed a crisping, just a warming.

Verdict: it stays on the list, and I want to eat at the restaurant to get the empanadas warm and fresh. Based on my experience at Marini's back in the day, it does make a difference.