To the Mac's

Mac's Steaks & Seafood

From the heavy wooden furniture to the surf-n-turf menu to the opulent bar, there’s something appealingly retro about Mac’s Steaks & Seafood, celebrating its sixth year in Colleyville. It feels like a place you would have gone to with your parents, or even your grandparents, on a special night out.

But located in the middle of a competitive restaurant row along Texas 121 — near Rio Mambo, La Hacienda Ranch and J.R.’s — Mac’s has also updated that formula, combining good-quality steaks with some steakhouse sides and classic fish and shrimp dishes, while keeping reasonable prices.

Let’s start with the beef, since that’s what the place is known for. Though the prime rib (three serving sizes, $15.95-$24.95) was tempting, we’d been craving a steak. The 12-ounce rib-eye, ordered medium rare, was served precisely so, with a pink center that was just a tad cool; for the price, $18.95, it was an excellent, tender cut.

We added a couple of sides, both big enough to serve two: The creamed spinach ($3.95) was appropriately rich, with a strong nutmeg accent. Crunchy-on-the-outside sweet-potato fries ($2.95) were so good that even without the slightly bland cream gravy alongside we kept eating them long after we should have.

The starters covered the expected territory, such as peel-and-eat shrimp, fried calamari and onion rings. The standout here was the restaurant’s signature smoked crab cakes, ($8.45), two meaty cakes full of smoked shrimp, scallops and good-quality, flaky crabmeat, moist in the center but seared on the outside. The roasted-pepper sauce, kind of a cross between a salsa and a marinara, set off the smoky flavor of the seafood perfectly.

The fish special that night was tilapia — not one of our favorites — so from the regular menu of shrimp, trout, crab and other seafood, we picked mahi-mahi en papillote ($15.75), a large portion baked in a classic parchment casing.

It sounded like the perfect light dish for a hot August night. But the firm fish was a touch overcooked and way underseasoned; of the chipotle, cilantro and lime said to be featured in the sauce, we could only taste the citrus. But the terrific lemony wild-rice pilaf and perfectly cooked matchstick vegetables served alongside salvaged things.

Service was earnest, if a little unpolished: Our waiter was quick to bring the warm bread and whipped butter that start every meal but was a bit clumsy opening our wine.

A minichain — there’s a sister restaurant in Plano and the mother ship in Arlington — Mac’s is smart enough to add the other things that 21st-century diners care about: There’s a children’s menu, a must in family-friendly Colleyville. And there’s a decent wine list with some good if not unusual choices — La Crema, Jordan. But they’ve done it all without sacrificing that retro, comfortable charm.

This review originally appeared in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram on Friday, Aug. 25, 2006.