Robert O.'s Profile

I've lived here 17 years and today was the first day I ever dined here.  Why?  Well, I used to have a policy that I never frequent an establishment willingly where murders have taken place.  Many years ago there was a murder here.  I figure there's enough places to dine other than the deadly places.

But the family pitched the idea and I figured, "Why not?"  We came here after mass today.

Parking is tight.  Since we had two vehicles and I got the absolute last spot by the railroad tracks, my wife parked across the street.  The diner was hopping this Sunday morning.  Even so, we were seated almost immediately.  A busboy got our drink orders.  We waited a bit before the waitress took our order.  We all had regular menu items.

The food seemed to take slightly longer than it should have.  There are televisions on the walls so I was able to catch a little bit of the news.  Breakfast meals were fine.  My eggs were properly cooked.  The bacon was just how I like it.  While I don't eat hash browns much, I took a taste just to try them.  They had no seasoning that I could discern.  Yuck.  Potatoes need seasoning.  Beverages were refilled.  Service was fine.

The meal is exactly what one would expect breakfast at a diner to be.  The desserts in the case were heavenly to gawk at.  I had none, but they were homemade.

Generally speaking, I like Denny's.  It's a breakfast joint; what's not to like.

I have been coming here for almost 20 years . . . my wife even longer.  The negatives are piling up.  The positives are few.

Parking stinks.  There's no other way to describe it.  The half-circle is too narrow.  Accidents are always inches away.  The help is usually quite blah, particularly the hostess/cashier.  We have had decent waiters.  Today our guy was friendly, but inept.

After mass we discussed where to go.  I like to change things up.  Since we had gone to Friendly's last time, I was up for the drive out here at my daughter's request.  My wife commented it's a seedy area.  Indeed it is.  As soon as I got out of the Jeep, I was approached by a straggly guy begging for money.  I truly don't understand this approach with a cigarette dangling from one's mouth.  A pack of cigarettes is $6+.  Most smokers smoke at least a pack a day.  For that $6, he could have had a meal.  But no, he would rather troll the parking lot on a frigid cold morning begging.

So my daughter and I headed for the restaurant as my wife got the boy.  I noticed our beggar had a female friend.  They both headed over toward the Jeep.  The configuration of the lot and where we were made it so I couldn't see what was going on.  I paused waiting for the rest of my family.  My daughter was clamoring to go inside where it was warm.  I wanted to see my wife and son.  We waited . . . and waited . . . and waited.  Finally we returned to the Jeep.

I saw the beggars were further down.  Apparently my son had thrown a fit and wasn't cooperating.  I was fearful the beggars had done something.  I also wasn't wild about them wandering the parking lot knowing we were just entering the restaurant.

It took a minute or so to be seated, but no real long wait.  Our waiter was friendly.  It took forever, however, for him to make an appearance.  By then we were ready to order.  The drinks took entirely too long.  As did the food.

I have managed a few restaurants in my day.  I get the Sunday morning rush, although it wasn't busy, just steady.  Service was unacceptable.

Ultimately, it's the food that determines whether I'll return.  Admittedly, I have changed the way I eat the last several months.  No Grand Slams for me.  No, I merely ordered three eggs over easy and an order of bacon from the Sides area of the menu.  I pointed to them as I ordered.  I explained I wanted no toast or hash browns.

Well, after the really long wait, food was dropped off.  My plate had my wife's sausage patty.  The side of bacon had but two strips.  I eventually got the waiter's attention.  He explained he ordered me a Grand Slam because it was cheaper than what I ordered and it only came with two strips.  Grrr . . . I guess he sensed my disappointment because two more slices were delivered.

One way high-end restaurants test a chef's skill is by requesting eggs be prepared.  While cooking eggs is not particularly difficult, preparing eggs that are good looking takes skill.  Breakfast joints are known for making good eggs.  Yeah, not here.  How friggin' hard is it not to break the yolk?  And if you do, you re-cook the damn thing!

Never again.  This is the same meal I had at Friendly's last week.  I noticed the prices for the sides are at least 40¢ higher per item.

Nope, piss me off enough and my dollars will go elsewhere.  BTW, this joint is borrowing $400,000 of tax dollars to re-model the inside.  Unbelievable!

Well, we returned here because my daughter requested it.  The things we do for love.  Absolutely never again.

Same restaurant as last year, same crappy service.

Our waitress ended every sentence with "baby".  I couldn't have the healthy fit omelet on the menu because "we are out of tomatoes, baby."  All righty . . . They were out of something else too.

So we ordered my son a grilled cheese sandwich.  Don't you know, it comes with tomatoes.  Who has ever heard of such a thing?  Granted, they were slices of tomatoes, not diced tomatoes like the omelet would have had.  I guess they don't have a knife in the kitchen.  

Service was horrible.  Food took forever.  Food came out in spurts too.

As much as I love my daughter, she will not get her request next year.  We're staying next door at the Hampton Inn.

I'm not sure what this place is.  I think they are a moving company.  That's not why I was here today.

This is the second consecutive year that I have helped pick up my daughter's Girl Scout troop's cookie order.  Today it was a mere 100 cases.

The parking lot was improved from last year's divots.  I was there early, but they had the order ready on the loading dock.  Apparently, they moved 7,000 cases today.  Wow!  

This place definitely had their act together.  Very pleased!

We have been here several times over the years for events.  The seats are comfortable.  Sight lines are good.  We have never experienced a problem here.  Staff has always been friendly and helpful.

The theatre itself is rather blah-looking.  It's pretty much four walls, some seats, and a stage.  There is nothing interesting architecturally-speaking.  As for the rest of the center, I haven't a clue.  There's a long hallway I wait in every December to gain entrance to my daughter's Christmas performance.    Other than that, the actual theatre is all the experience I have with this joint.

We came here when it first opened several years ago.  It is a store of cheap products for not the bargains it makes them out to be.  Yes, they carry Phillies clothing, but it's the cheap stuff we don't like to wear.  The workout clothes are see-through.  Seriously!

The entire vibe of the store reeks of "dollar store mentality".  It is no surprise to me that the store is closing up shop.  We have not returned since our first visit, where we purchased nothing, until the sales.  The sales are hardly sales.  Marking down overpriced clothing to a lower-overprice price does nothing for me.

I am not particularly keen on health food stores.  I think they sell a lot of expensive products to people looking for a "fix".  Haars is no different in that regard.  It does, however, have some products that we like; most notably, Gert is fond of the fresh all natural peanut butter.  Yup, they dump peanuts into a grinder, turn it on, put the container underneath, place the lid on it, and then hand it to you.  It doesn't get more fresh than that.  She eats copious amounts of the stuff.  They also sell cashew butter prepared the same way for twice the price.  I have been able to find a few specialty items here over the years.  Many of these (coconut oil and flour) are now found less expensively in Shop Rite.

The staff has been helpful and friendly every time I am here.

For a few years we had a subscription to the Walnut, but gave them up this year as we anticipated our new theatre to be completed in town.  Unfortunately, it is not.  Anyhow, we did travel up this week to see the annual performance of The Christmas Carol.

As always, we enjoyed ourselves.  All seats in the theatre have good views.  The performance, designed for children, was well executed.  The staff was helpful and friendly.

We will be back again when a show strikes our fancy.  

The one drawback is parking.  The theatre has none.  The lot right next door is replete with stories I could tell.  Each time we park there there is an episode.  This past time was the $18 for the 75 minutes we were parked there.  Sheesh!  Arrive early and park two blocks away.

For some reason I am not a huge fan of this franchise, but frankly, there's nothing that has ever been terribly wrong.  I think it is more I am not impressed with the help.

I don't eat a lot of fast food these days, but we found ourselves here in-between events.  Food was prepared properly and promptly.  No issues.

The drive-thru is usually accurate, which is something to behold these days as most seem to frig things up around here.  The parking is tight, and it is weird coming and going with the Boston Market attached here.

My wife introduced me to this restaurant many years ago.  She's a fan.  I like it.  But I have evolved on restaurants like Don Pablo's; they're just like the big-box stores of Home Depot, Best Buy, etc.  It's all-processed and because of that, not particularly appealing to me any longer.

I ordered a ribeye and a double order of veggies.  It was a rather low-grade piece of beef; lots of grissle.  My grandmother would have loved it.  The chips were plentiful, but the salsa was just this side of ketchup.  No spice at all.

My wife's taco salad was typical.  She enjoyed it, but did not rave about it.

My daughter was not wild about the cheeseburger, but frankly, that's because she's weird, not that there was anything wrong with it.  The Boy's quesadillas were unappealing but bland as they were designed to be.

Our waiter was friendly, but not particularly Johnny-on-the-spot.  He sat for a considerable amount of time at the booth behind us talking to a patron (who may have been a manager).

We came here because Gert likes it.  We'll be back next time she has the urge.  As for me, eh . . . I'll probably never recommend it, but it's okay.