Hawaiian News

Hawaii plate-lunch trend hits McKinney via new restaurant Mo' Bettahs

Mo' Bettah spam musubi

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A taste of Hawaii comes to McKinney via Mo’ Bettahs Hawaiian Style Food restaurant, opening on January 26 at 6201 S. Custer Rd., near TPC Craig Ranch and Liberty High School, where it is ready to share its island-style barbecue menu, starring the classic Hawaiian plate lunch.

Mo’ Bettahs was founded in Bountiful, Utah in 2008 by Kimo and Kalani Mack with a goal of providing guests with the Hawaiian island barbeque experience they enjoyed while growing up in O’ahu, Hawai’i.

Let's recap what the Hawaiian plate lunch is, description provided by Hawaii's Best Travel: It's a meal centered on a protein such as teriyaki beef, chicken katsu, or kalua pork, plus two scoops of rice, and a scoop of macaroni salad. The dish is believed to have originated in the 1880s when plantation workers in Hawaii would bring their lunches to work. They obviously liked them some starch.

It has since become an iconic part of the state’s food culture shared across the world by chains like Mo' Bettahs. Since partnering with Savory Restaurant Fund, Mo’ Bettahs has grown to 50 locations in Utah, Idaho, Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri, Kansas, and Nevada.

Mo' Bettahs' lineup of proteins includes teriyaki chicken, steak, kalua pig, deep-fried katsu chicken, and shrimp tempura.

The plate lunch is pretty much it, although they are excited about a new item they recently introduced: Spam Musubi featuring a slice of fried Spam glazed in teriyaki sauce and placed atop rice seasoned with furikake, then wrapped in a ribbon of nori (dried seaweed).

McKinney is the seventh Mo’ Bettahs restaurant in DFW, following locations in Plano which opened in 2022, and northeast Dallas which opened in November 2021, and was also concept's official debut in Texas.

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Brunch News

Colorado chain Urban Egg to bring breakfast and brunch to Plano

Urban Egg

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Plano is due for some award-winning breakfast, brunch, and lunch via Urban Egg, a daytime restaurant chain from Colorado which will open a location in the Preston Towne Crossing district at 2408 Preston Rd. #704C, in a former Original ChopShop.

According to a release, the restaurant will open on December 15.

Founded in 2012, Urban Egg does creative twists on breakfast, brunch and lunch classics, including a variety of Benedicts and pancakes, sandwiches, salads, and healthier options.

Signature dishes include Billion $ Bourbon Bacon consisting of thick slices served with a bourbon glaze; biscuits & sage sausage gravy; and regionally inspired items like chilaquiles and shrimp & grits.

There's corned beef hash with eggs, hashbrowns, and jalapeno chutney; avocado toast; and a Garden Bowl with hash browns, peppers & onions, jack & cheddar, spinach, portobello mushroom, eggs, tomato, and avocado.

There are cinnamon rolls, omelets, five benedicts, and "fancy" pancakes in flavors such as blueberry streusel, strawberry cheesecake, and Hawaiian with pineapple, coconut, and cinnamon butter.

This doesn't even get into the lunch situation which includes a bacon jam burger, an avocado cheddar chicken melt, and hello, a Monte Cristo sandwich. There are also cocktails — an essential item for breakfast and brunch chains such as this.

Prices start at $12 and top out at $22 for steak & eggs with sirloin, espresso butter, mushrooms & onions, and loaded hash browns.

Plano is only the 12th location for the brand, and its second in Texas; the first opened in Fort Worth in June 2025. The Plano location will be a 3,137-square-foot space that includes a “wishing wall,” where guests can write wishes, hopes, or mantras on provided stationery.

As part of its commitment to community, Urban Egg Plano will donate proceeds from a mock run — an event where the community can experience Urban Egg before it officially opens to the public — to Minnie’s Food Pantry in Plano.

Urban Egg founder Randy Price says that Urban Egg was always about more than just serving breakfast.

“It was about creating a place where people slow down, connect over a great meal, whether dining with someone or alone, and leave feeling like they’re part of something special," he says.

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