Restaurant Reviews 

 
    In the highly competitive restaurant business you vote with your partronage. Restaurants serve what people are willing to pay for. That is why you can influence the nutritional quality, the appetite appeal, the presentation, the ambience, and the variety of dishes served in restaurants. 

    You do have access to more and more variety in dining choices. In  Southern California, the mix of choices intensifies with a greater concentration of international ethnic styles than anywhere on the globe. 

    How can you evaluate quality when food styles and preferences are changing? Where "fusion" (a blend of different styles on one menu or even in one dish) is the latest gourmet fashion? How can you find restaurant with a setting conducive to the occasion and at a reasonable price?

   Restaurant managers are intensely interested in your opinions. They are in a people pleasing business. Their employment depends upon it.

   For example one of the managers of The Country Farmer, a whole foods restaurant in the South Coast Plaza, Costa Mesa, California asked, "What can we do to improve our food service." We responded, "The big servings of thick black bean soup are impressive, but the accompanying whole grain rolls taste quite flat. Please put just a pinch of salt in the dough to enhance the flavor." Perhaps the restaurant is catering a bit too much to the purists of a past who viewed salt as a health risk for everyone (not so, only a small percentage of people need to severely restrict salt intake).

    Make your influence count. Restaurants cater to customers who keep them in business not to a set of immutable standards. They serve what people want, and it is not difficult for them to find that out. Remember when there were no salad bars? Public consciousness of healthy food and concern about calorie concentrated dishes made them almost standard.

   Finally, you may ask how often does Sue Gregg dine out. The answer, "Not much. My husband inevitably says at the conclusion of a meal (while she is suffering from digestive discomfort),  'We could do a  better job in our own kitchen.' "   

    Here are our reviews of some of the restaurants we've visited and recommendations for quality improvement. 

Good Earth Restaurant  rapidly disappearing
    Long ago the Good Earth Restaurant was our favorite place for recipe inspiration. Alas, it has been sold (and resold & and franchised?) to the point where it barely resembles the imaginative menu and wholesome dishes of our memories. We've even named one of the recipes this restaurant inspired "Good Earth Rolls." Cashew Chicken was a repeatable favorite which we preserved for you in our Main Dishes cookbook. It appears that the last remaining Good Earth in Santa Barbara has gone out of business. The story of its decline is sad indeed  

Here is our original rating of the Costa Mesa Good Earth : (It does not apply now!) 
Value for $ * * * * *
Service * * * * * 
Ambience  * * * * 
Healthy Fare * * * * *

©2000-2007 Reviews and photos by Rich Gregg

The Olive Garden nationwide
    A  favorite for its family friendly atmosphere. New dishes are constantly promoted in Sunday supplements. Unfortunately we found most  are just new names on the same-old-same-old. And we've never understood why there is only one unimaginative though large salad on the menu whether you dine in Kennewick, Washington, Indianapolis Indiana, or San Bernardino California. Our favorite chocolate dessert, "Triple Decadence," disappeared off the menu years ago. Local management would probably have kept it on the menu, but apparently little latitude is permitted from corporate headquarters.   (Impressive, entertaining website)

Value for $ * * *
Service * * *  * 
Ambience  * * * * 
Healthy Fare * * * (salad & soups)

©2000-2007 Reviews and photos by Rich Gregg

   
Marie Callender's Southern California
    With lots of heavy oak wood work is a nice place for a business luncheon or even a family evening. But pass on Marie's famous (or infamous) cornbread--very little corn and lots of cake fluff. For real corny cornbread we've got a blender batter corn bread recipe  with real corn crunch and real corn color. Marie got started in the business with her homemade pies. Alas there is very little about them that savors of what we remember of our aunties' homemade pies.

Value for $ * * *  *
Service * * * 
Ambience  * * * * 
Healthy Fare * * * (salads & soups)

    Frankly we've almost completely abandoned restaurant dining. Instead we've focused more on getting everyone involved in kitchen food preparation with the challenge to come up with colorful, imaginative variations on favorite dishes. And we decided to spend our money (though not extravagantly) on developing six different "mini restaurant" dining locations in our home-- formal dining in front of the fireplace, informal in the dining center off the kitchen, a breakfast table by an eastern window where the early morning winter sun beams in, on the patio, under the backyard cape tree for summer dinners (and breakfasts), sometimes but rarely at the table for two or three by the front bay window on the north side.  For celebration events as Thanksgiving we cover the dining tables with 1/8" 4'x8'  bathroom liner material from Home Depot. Then we overlay them with cloths to stretch out the full length so all 12 to 20 guests can sit at the same table. 

©2000-2007 Reviews and photos by Rich Gregg

Hometown Buffet claims that ranking as the #1 buffet restaurant in the country from an industry magazine.

Their claim to fame? They're so well-known for their "seconds."







 

   If you feel nostalgic yearnings for 50's food (the music should put you in the mood), the Jell-O cubes, tapioca pudding and dumplings  at Hometown Buffet will certainly sooth your gartronomic dreams.

HomeTown Buffett   Nationwide

    "Serve yourself. No hassle with a surly waitress." That's the appeal of the HomeTown Buffet television commercial.

  If you vowed never again to eat in a college commons cafeteria or a military mess hall, think again. The feast. The challenge. All you can eat. Eat all you can. Middle American meat and potatoes heaven. Nostalgia food (along with Norman Rockwell paintings on the walls), Jell-O, chicken and dumplings, chicken livers, collard greens. Certainly a favorite feeding place of the depression era fried chicken generation. (Bring your marriage certificate on Valentine's Day. If you've got 50 loving years, your meal is free). Apparently a lot of younger people own stock in the company as well. 

   Comfort food.  Fat farm.  Gross Gluttony. You'll witness eating in a way you've never seen it before.

   The Good: Well lit, light, homey decor, real hard wood chairs, clean booths, spacious, carpeted, food highlighted and easily accessible from four sided counters. Cuts of beef and occasionally turkey sliced to order. You can't do better than to pick up a hot baked potato. One may be tempted to sample everything, but there are too many dishes to do it in one visit. The menu claims over 100 made-from-scratch recipes with menu features each day of the week: Turkey on Sunday, Flurries on Monday, Italian on Tuesday, Asian on Wednesday, Corn on the Cob on Thursday, Seafood on Friday, Barbecue on Saturday.  Impressive, informative, clutter free website: www.buffet.com.

  The Service: Servers scurry about replacing trays of food before they are scraped clean. Food is prepared in large family sized containers designed to serve 12 to 20 instead of in huge pots or vats. Bus girls tidy up customers spills and make your used plate disappear while you are reloading at one of the six or seven buffet centers. 

   The Bad: Fried chicken, fried shrimp, fried okra, flavorless fried fish (not even tartar sauce will salvage it), lots of fried.  Lots of sweet, sweet desserts. The style? Overwhelmingly spiceless middle American bland.  Your taco won't get any hot salsa. You have to put Tabasco on.  We suspect that a lot of servings have come out of #10 cans. Some of the Italian dishes do have a little zip. Fortunately no hush puppies, at least  not in the outlets we visited on the West Coast.  Nutritionally challenged white stuff pervades: white bread, white cinnamon rolls, white dinner rolls, white rice. Sugary soft drinks.

  The Best: The salad bar (with the vinegret and olive oil dressings), especially the greens, fresh pineapple, watermelon and cantaloupe, and strawberries in season (although they were not as ripe and not as sweet as those available at local field stands). Don't miss the four bean Southwestern Salad. No alcohol served. Definitely a family restaurant. The price. Where else can you get so much for so little? 

   We Recommend: Start each refill at the salad bar with half the plate covered with greens. That will help you moderate grazing at the entrée counter.

   You won't find anything approximating a whole grain anywhere, except, perhaps for the bland vegetarian lentil loaf. Stick with the water and iced tea at the drink dispenser bar. Serve milk to the kids. Somewhere in the vast array of  dishes one would just hope that one might someday find a small experimental tray of something that said, "Try me, I'm healthy, I'm wholesome, and I taste good." Don't bet on it. Hometown Buffet builds its success on what middle America craves.

Value for $ * * * * *
Service * *
Ambience * *
Healthy Fare *

Located: Nationwide 
Website www.buffet.com

    In preparing this review we've dined on numerous occasions at at least seven different different locations of HomeTown Buffet and Old Country Buffet restaurants in California, Oregon and Washington. Some locations provide a separate room for groups and overflow. We found management at our local restaurant eager to accommodate groups at anytime, however, we found the management at the Yakima, Washington site quite unaccommodating when it came to reserving the room. Advance calls yielded "We don't have space on a Sunday evening." and "People who make reservations don't show up." responses. Finally after our family reunion group of 20+ (including hard of hearing depression era octogenarians who really needed a quiet place) did show up all at once at a half empty restaurant, it took the sympathetic persuasion of a 17 year old bus girl to convince the management that our cause was worthy. What a hassle. May she never forget our $10 tip!

Website: http://www.oldcountrybuffet.com/

©2000-2007 Reviews and photos by Rich Gregg

        Chicken Pot Pie 

Turkey Royale Sandwich




31 Southern California Locations and expanding toward Texas

Mimi's Cafe  Southern California expanding nationwide
      You might wonder why Mimi's is called a French Café when the menu says Café Burger, Artie's Fettuccini, Chinese chicken salad, Thai Chicken Wrap, and Blackened Chicken Tacos. Two things-- French onion soup but especially the decor with the rooster presiding over the whole affair--will have you mumbling first year French, "Mais Mousiour, parc que the rooster still attached to his head?  I would expect him in the pot."

      It's the distinctive and imaginative decor, evident from the exterior and extending throughout the four separately designed dining areas transports you across the Atlantic to the French country side via New Orleans. Wicker wire chairs, high gabled ceilings, decorative balconies, dramatic and jazz posters, cows, and especially the roosters make it "Country French." Should you be waiting in the foyer on a busy evening you can make the wait time pass by counting the hens nesting overhead or the roosters preparing to crow..

      The garden room, features a high château ceiling with enough knickknacks and suspended furnishings to keep your eye distracted until your main course is served.  The bar seating opposite a row of booths transitions into a formal dining area as you pass the single "bistro bridal" booth secluded by arched brick work (but actually in full view of all the looky loos passing into the formal and patio garden rooms). Paintings with distinctive French themes hang on walls bordered with heavy oak. 

      Enter the indoor patio garden and you'll be in a completely different restaurant sided with French window panes, light and airy with plants hanging all about. In mild weather (spring and fall in Southern California) you may even find the outdoor patio open. Even a visit to the restroom provides esthetic pleasure as you gaze at the golden wash basins. You might even forget what you went there for.
     The refreshing variety of ambience brings us to this restaurant again and again. It is airy yet cozy, stimulating but comfortable.

The Menu
     Once you get over the attractions (or distractions) of the ambience and on to the menu ranging from French to Asian, Cajon to Mexican, Italian to meat and potatoes Middle American you'll realize that there is an  appeal for every taste.
      
Value for $ ****
Service****
Ambience *****
Healthy Fare***

Website: One of the most informative, entertaining, and colorful sites you'll find in cyberspace. Enjoy the ambiance of a virtual tour without ever visiting a Mimi's. You might even be inspired to redecorate your home. Read the history (sorry no French chefs) of the real Mimi.  (Impressive, entertaining website)

http://www.mimiscafe.com/  

©2000-2007 Reviews and photos by Rich Gregg

                  
                          El Torito

El Torito

The Menu
      Mexican dishes only with monthly specials introduced. Our favorite  recalls the memory of the time when we ducked into a Mexican Cafe in Valle de Bravo 60 miles west of Mexico City during a sudden downpour or tropical torrential rain--warm Tortilla Soup with a mild spicy afterglow with Mexican Cesar Salad plus a traditional Flan for dessert. For something healthy to cover your chips order the guacamole prepared tableside as an appetizer.
      
Value for $ ****
Service****
Ambience ***
Healthy Fare***

Website: http://www.eltorito.com/

WISCONSIN
Randy's Family Restaurant at 1132 West Mac Arthur Ave, Eau Claire WI 54701 715-839-8449 is a 130 seat restaurant that caters not only to families but more and more to a health conscious mature adult clientele. Randy Schneider, owner, is experimenting with SueGreggCookbook recipes. Welcomes your suggestions.

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