Find old-fashioned home cooking, plate lunches and pies between Dallas and Fort Worth

Bud Kennedy
·2 min read

Has your favorite diner or cafe changed?

Here are two that haven’t.

Mama’s Daughters’ Diner, 2 miles south of Airport Freeway in Irving, still serves breakfasts, Southern “meat-and-three” platters like meat loaf or chicken-fried steaks, and pies the same way the Daughters have for 35 years.

Prices have gone up, but not much: A complete lunch or dinner costs $11.50, with a roll or the Daughters’ classic cornbread.

Mama’s Daughters’ Diner in Irving is from a Dallas family with 58 years’ experience serving plate lunches and pies.
Mama’s Daughters’ Diner in Irving is from a Dallas family with 58 years’ experience serving plate lunches and pies.

If you’ve lived on the 817 side of Dallas-Fort Worth forever, you might not know about Mama’s Daughters’ Diner.

Mama was the late Norma Manis of landmark Norma’s Cafe, another Dallas plate-lunch standard for 55 years in Oak Cliff.

A visit last weekend to the Irving location, 2412 W. Shady Grove Road at Story Road, found the diner virtually untouched by time.

At 2 p.m. on Saturday, when most cafes are nearly empty, the dining room was still packed with breakfast and lunch diners coming for chicken-fried, roast beef or the Saturday special. chicken and dumplings.

The pie selection was down to coconut, chocolate, apple and “maybe” pecan, the server said.

Coconut pie at Mama’s Daughters’ Diner in Irving.
Coconut pie at Mama’s Daughters’ Diner in Irving.

This is a country-cooking cafe on the level of Fort Worth favorites such as West Side Cafe — maybe better.

There’s a choice of eight daily specials and about 10 sides.

If you’re on your way to or from Dallas, or meeting friends between Dallas and Fort Worth, it’s an easy drive to a south Irving back road.

The traditional counter at Mama’s Daughters’ Diner in Irving.
The traditional counter at Mama’s Daughters’ Diner in Irving.

Once, it was considered among Texas’ best chicken-fried steak cafes.

Now, it’s graduated to become almost a cherished keepsake.

The Irving location of Mama’s Daughters’ Diner is open for breakfast through dinner weekdays, breakfast and lunch weekends; 972-790-2778, mamasdaughtersdiner.com.

A Lewisville location, 1288 W. Main St., is closed Sundays. Other locations are near downtown Dallas, Plano and Forney.

A plate lunch with meat loaf at a Mama’s Daughters’ Diner location in Dallas in 2004. (It hasn’t changed.)
A plate lunch with meat loaf at a Mama’s Daughters’ Diner location in Dallas in 2004. (It hasn’t changed.)
Chocolate pie at the Joe’s Coffee Shop location in Watauga.
Chocolate pie at the Joe’s Coffee Shop location in Watauga.

Pie special at Joe’s Coffee Shop

Another old-time cafe near Airport Freeway is the Irving location of Joe’s Coffee Shop, 425 W. Irving Blvd.

It’s the same as the familiar Joe’s in Watauga, 5912 Denton Highway.

Both locations are known for their innovative specials on the choice of eight to 10 different meringue and fruit pies.

First, the Joe’s menu offers a phenomenon unknown anywhere else: the concept of “pie as a vegetable.”

For less than $2 extra, a slice of pie can replace a vegetable with the meat-and-three plate.

There’s also a “pie happy hour” after 1:30 p.m.

Joe’s doesn’t have the classic diner look or broad menu of Mama’s Daughters’ Diner, but both locations are a tradition in downtown Irving or Watauga.

Joe’s is open for breakfast and lunch; 972-253-7335 in Irving, joes-coffeeshop.com, or 817-788-9583 in Watauga, joescoffeeshop.net.

The pie case at Joe’s Coffee Shop in Watauga.
The pie case at Joe’s Coffee Shop in Watauga.