Critic's Review
Looking for breakfast at noon on a Friday and I found my self at a Waffle House.
I was greeted by a white, middle aged manager and we were the only 2 white people in the place; at 12:05pm the place was slammed. I didn't want to sit at the counter, so I had to wait for them to clear a 'counter' booth; which is a booth that is serviced from the kitchen.
The kitchen was like a Chinese wedding; it seemed like a lot of people to make eggs and hash browns. It's a strange place because there's no register, but really no service either.
I got coffee and ordered some eggs; $8.95 for steak and eggs. I ordered the steak medium rare and the eggs over easy. They have weird stuff like smothered hash browns, and I was afraid to order bacon here. I saw the kitchen staff.
Music here fits the clientele; dance music and more dance music.
The food came out in 7 minutes.
The eggs were certainly not over easy; they were somewhere between. The hash browns are superb. Much better than the junk I got at the Weston Diner.
The steak wasn't very good. Cooked medium-well with no seasoning, it was nothing more than a slab of protein. They used to have a T-Bone option, but now they have this. Who knows what cut this is.
White toast was served unbuttered. I had to flag someone down to ask for butter, and she threw (literally) a bunch of these on the table.
Surprisingly, by 12:30 the place was empty. From no seats to an empty restaurant in 1/2 hour. I guess a lot of people eat a late breakfast on Friday.
Yikes! This stuff is still legal?
Conclusion
This is a particularly uncomfortable restaurant, from it's fast food seating to the clunky "service", if you can call it service. They have a strange way of cooking eggs; they cook them in oil in little stainless steel pans. I'm guessing it's a maintenance thing; the eggs don't stick to the pots and they dont need to keep the grill as clean, but I can tell from watching that the "cook" wasn't much of a cook. Ordering something cooked a particular way has little correlation to how the food will be cooked.
Review 10/12/12
I'd never been to a Waffle House before. Not this location nor any other. I almost went in once before, but couldn't pull the trigger. Today I took the plunge.
Eating at the Waffle House is like eating at a small McDonald's. There are some tables so close to the kitchen that that you might brush up against the people cooking.
I got a booth by the window and started looking over the menu. A server came over and I ordered coffee. A few minutes later he came over to tell me they were making a fresh pot. I guess they were out of coffee at 2:30pm.
Regardless of the freshness, the coffee is junk. I guess now that we drink designer coffee at home, it's difficult to drink the regular stuff at places like this. I couldn't decide what to have. They have a lot of unusual choices; steak and T-bone, steak and pork chops, waffle combos. I wondered about wrestling with a T-bone on the small, formica table. Wanting to stray from my habits, I ordered the regular pork chop and eggs dish. The "regular" comes with 2 chops and the "meatlovers" comes with 3.
As I was waiting, the not-so-bad silence went away as someone fired up the jukebox. Horrifically loud and bad music filled the air; Freddie Jackson and Joe. And with this location right on Powerline Road, the view isn't so hot either.
The good news is that it didn't take too long. It's a lot of food for $6.59.
The eggs were competently made, with lots of hash browns and bad Wonder style toast. The pork chops were skinny and clearly made on a flattop grill.
I don't eat pork chops very often; restaurants charge as much for pork chops as they do for beef and it's just not worth it to me. They were actually pretty tasty, but I'd forgotten what a pain bone-in chops are to eat. Little strips of fat and gristle everywhere; it's an exercise in surgery. The hash browns were almost as good as iHop's; definitely better than the ones I'd gotten at the Plantation Diner last week.
The food was actually quite good; with 3 cups of bad coffee it came to $8.53; $10 even with tip. It's better food than Denny's or iHop, although Denny's is a nicer place to eat; if you can call Denny's nice. The Waffle House really is like eating at McDonald's