Surprisingly good food were expectations are low

Cafe Society
1

I’m sure most of us have been dragged to places were we are positive the food is going to suck and when the food arrives and you grudgingly think to yourself, hmm, not bad at all or this is pretty darned good or damn, I’m coming back here again.

For me it was when my then wife took me to this converted 70’s style pizza place into a Mexican restaurant. The decor is similar to Pizza Hut except the vinyl booths are green rather than red. She had been there for lunch before with her co-workers and insisted the food was really good. I rolled my eyes but decided to make the best of it.

The first indication that my first impression could be wrong was the chips and salsa. The chips were obviously just recently deep fried and if the salsa was bought from a third party you could have fooled me ( later I found out that they make their own ).

Still not convinced, I order something safe and get the typical Enchilada variety plate which at least around these parts consists of one cheddar, one beef ( almost always hamburger ), one bean and one chicken Enchilada. The wife ordered Fajitas.

Our meals arrive and my Enchiladas look considerably plumper than the standard mid west Mexican Enchiladas. I cut into the bean one first and I get a nice meaty/smoky flavor…good start. I move next to the beef, what’s this? Shredded Beef and lots of it and with a nice spicy kick to it. The Chicken one was just as good with the addition of chopped tomatoes. The last was the cheese and this was also a nice surprise, it had the standard cheddar but also two other white cheeses and also some of their salsa drizzled inside.

I also tried a few bites of the wife’s Fajitas, the beef strips were still pink inside and the peppers and onions had a nice crispiness to them, in other words the polar opposite of the majority of Mexican restaurants around here. Even the Margaritas were superior. The whole experience was a pleasant surprise.

This was nearly ten years ago and I’m not saying that it was as good as a truly authentic Mexican meal from the Southwest or Southern California ( I’ve had both

) but for less than 30 dollars including a huge fishbowl Margarita, it was great.

So, can you describe some pleasant eating experiences when all you felt beforehand was dread?

2

To be perfectly honest, I have nearly* the least anticipation about large, national chain restaurants. I was recently in a large city far from home with a car and a few hours to kill before a flight. My travel companions and I agreed that we could do better than eating in the airport but they are not adventureous diners and we wound up at a Ruby Tuesday. At the time, I was horrified but it turned out to be an OK meal. And that’s about the best you can expect at a place like that. For around $15pp.

I’m more at home in a tiny dive with ethnic or regional specialty chow. I know its not for everyone but that’s where the deals and diamonds are.

*First prize goes to Chinese buffet-type places.

3

The first time I went to a local pizza restaurant for dinner, I was quite put off by the dining room. A bunch of vinyl covered booth on a cheaply built annex to the building, everything looking about twenty years old, with poor lighting. The silverware was bent and didn’t match.

Uh, oh, I thought. But the place was highly recommended, so I ordered a lasagne.

First they gave us some Italian bread. It was perfect – soft on the inside with a crunchy crust.

Then the lasagne came. Ambrosia. The best sauce I’d ever tasted, as well as fresh cheese, meat, noodles – all served piping hot so the edges were bubbling as they set it on the table.

They still haven’t remodeled after 30 years, but it’s still my favorite Italian restaurant, with chicken parm to die for.

4

That’s rare? Lord, what a horrid culinary wasteland, if even the so-called Mexican restaurants don’t make their own salsa!

Anyway… back to the OP.

A few years back, a buddy and I stopped in a gas station (Woody’s) in Centerville, TX on the way home from a football game.

We knew that it was a bbq restaurant because of the sign, but we weren’t expecting much from a gas station on I-45, to be honest.

When we got inside, we started to think things might be different than we were thinking- we had both black people and rednecks sitting down and eating the barbecue, which is a very good sign for a barbecue place.

The barbecue turned out to be pretty good. Not the absolute best, but head and shoulders better than most chains, and better than most non-chain places also. It’s become a regular stop on trips between DFW & Houston or College Station.

5

I once tried a local Korean restaurant that was supposed to be good. When I got there, I realized I had been in the place before – back when it was a Wetson’s (a mercifully dead burger chain) and where I had to eat the worst french fries in all possible universes.

There was a door into where the kitched used to be, and I went in.

Surprisingly, the interior was fairly nice, and the food was excellent.

But the exterior made you think you were eating at a real dump.

6

I was driving along I-10 earlier this year out in wilds of West Texas. I saw a motel in a tiny place called Fort Hancock. The motel had seen better years (frankly, it had probably seen better decades), but there was nowhere else to stay. There was only one place to eat in this tiny town Angie’s Restaurant. It’s a shack, but the food was really, really good. Generic Tex Mex can be really bad, but this place was wasn’t generic - they even warned me that the salsa that they had made that morning was a bit spicy for a gringo like me. It was delicious.

7

No specific incidents to report.

But most of my “damn, that would be good food at any price” experiences have MOSTLY been at what most folks would consider “dives”.

And I am not some anti-chain-corporate hippie either. I’ll happily and fairly regularly go to taco bell, KFC, Ruby Tuesdays, Sony’s BBQ, or the ubiquitous Chinese Buffet. And once in a great while some of the more “upper class” establishments.

Folks out there need to live a little! If its a tiny dive that seems to stay in business, there is a reason folks! At worst you’ll probably get so so food, but it will probably either be good portions or pretty cheap or both, so at least its not like going to one of those high falutin places where you dump 50 bucks a person and feel like its supposed to be great just because you paid so damn much.

Visit the dives, its worth it!

8

The three oldest eating places in my town are -

Uptown-
Mike’s Grill which was the Grill in the back of a Pharmacy when I was a kid. It’s been the Grill inside of a book/magazine store & now is the Grill inside of a candle shop, but it’s been going for forty years at least now.

Downtown-
Hamburger Hinkle’s - the ultimate greasy spoon/slider burgers diner.
Been going since the 1930’s- was a childhood favorite of my parents.

Roger’s Corner - very similar to the above but not as greasy. Was the grill in the back of Roger’s Pharmacy until the Pharmacy closed.

9

My husband gave me Season Two’s Feasting on Asphalt book for Christmas, so I was all revved up about checking out real Road Food recently. Unfortunately, the last “road trip” was from basically Minneapolis to Chicago, I-94 all the way. Knowing that Good Road Food Shalt Not Be Found on the Interstate, I convinced him to ask a local for a nearby recommendation when we stopped at the Wine and Cheese Chalet.

Got a rec for “Finn’s, just around the corner and down the street.” We’re thinking little Irishesque pub, cool! Turns out it was Fins, one n, not possessive. Like a fish’s limbs.

Fins, in fact. Marine themed, with boat rentals, a large patio and dark windows in front. Kinda looked like a nightmare from an 80’s Tom Cruise movie. Mind you, this was also the middle of winter, so it’s not the most excellent time for a marina-themed restaurant in the middle of Wisconsin.

The owner turned on the lights in the dining room for us (there were a dozen people in the bar) and recommended the fish sandwich with sour cream and chive french fries. WTF? Okay, I considered, thinking of the second rule of road food: Thou Shalt Try the Owner’s Recommendation.

I’ve never had a yummier, more excellently fried fish fillet in my life! Perfectly golden brown and delicious, with a puffy yet substantial batter, perfectly moist fish (and the twain never parted ways prematurely!) The fries were excellent and unusual, my son’s “Cheeseburger Pizza” was incredibly tasty and fresh, and my daughter’s Cream of Broccoli Soup was heavenly, made fresh with real broth and cream and fresh broccoli! She also liked the sliced apples, which were nicely tart, and paired with some sort of marshmallow fluff dip.

There’s a game room and a bar, but it’s nicely separated from the dining room, so I never felt weird bringing my kids into a “bar/restaurant”, and it was quiet enough for relaxed conversation. I think I’d be hanging out there all the time if I lived there.

10

It’s been my experience that this only works if there is a unique regional cuisine - barbeque in the south, southwestern/ Navaho food in New Mexico, seafood in the northeast, etc.

I’ve been to a ton of dives in Utah and Wyoming and Idaho that serve overcooked meat and bland potatoes with some limp veggies on the side. Pretty much all of the midwest can go in that category as well, with the exception of the parts of Iowa that serve that pork tenderloin.

11

I, too, find big corporate chain restaurants highly suspect and I always avoid them.

Once I was thwarted in my attempt to go to a sandwich shop that I like, and the only nearby alternative was a Chevy’s Fresh Mex. I sighed and went in, and ordered myself a shrimp fajitas salad.

It was about the best main dish salad I’ve ever had in a restaurant. They brought a big bowl of full of romaine, toasted pumpkin seeds and crumbled cotijo cheese and a fajitas sizzling platter thing full of shrimp, roasted poblano chiles and onions. The waiter combined everything in the big bowl with a cider vinegar/chipotle dressing, tossed it, and served it up.

Yummy! And if you asked him to keep the dressing on the side, it was even low-cal!

12

I LOVED Wetson’s fries! They were shoesting fries and they were PERFECT! Perfect I tells ya!

13

My husband hates Ranch dressing, but tried the Avocado Ranch dressing at Ruby Tuesdays and it was love at first bite. It’s now our favorite dressing and we make our own version at home: Light Ranch with avocado (some cubed, some mashed.) So good!

14

Many years ago, I was driving cross-country, and I stopped at the Pueblo Cultural Center in Alberquerque. Cool little museum, I thought, and decided to lunch at their restaurant for convenience’s sake. Museum restaurants are usually pretty mediocre food, but I was hungry and didn’t want to have to drive around looking for a place to eat.

It was years ago. I have not yet had a burrito that surpassed the burrito at the Pueblo Cultural Center for sheer objective deliciousness.

Daniel

15

My god, I never expected to see anyone mention Hinkle’s!

There’s also the bakery nearby that sells iced cinnamon buns with chocolate chips on top, do you know it?

16

Taqueria El Castillito. The one on Mission Street at 18th. Right next to the porno store. It’s a complete dump, and they make the best fucking burritos and nachos I have ever had, and I’ve had a LOT, both in San Fran and in the Central Valley, where the Mexican immigrants really know how to cook…

Joe

17

I’m thinking you’re talking about the downtown branch of Horst’s Little Bakery Haus. I go to the hilltop one occasionally but haven’t had those.

18

I was on an airplane going from Dallas to Orlando when we were served these little sandwiches that came in individually wrapped packages. Just like you might see in a vending machine. Being hungry I went ahead and took a bite and I was shocked at just how good this sandwich actually was. What I expected to be at best an edible meal turned out to be something tasty.
Odesio

19

I’ll second this.

Unfortunately in my town, when a new restaurant goes in, if it’s locally owned, you can almost count on it being horrible. Not always - but most of the time.

At least with a chain, you have a chance that it will 1) bring some different food into town and 2) be at least mildly edible.

The local places tend to be either the same ol’ bland food as everywhere else makes, or they try to do something innovative that usually fails. And we’re in the “big town” of my area. Get out into the wilds and it gets even worse.

There’s awful, awful food in the midwest. Not always, but you really can’t count on “find a local place” with any level of success. Midwesterners as a whole like bland, overcooked food.

20

When traveling in Utah, my family shacked up in this little, dank motel in a very rural area. We set out to find a diner or some other local eatery for dinner. Honestly, there is pretty much NOTHING out there. As luck would have it, about five miles from the motel, there was a restaurant called the Cafe Diablo. It turns out that this restaurant was owned by the executive chef of some trendy place in New York City. He was spending the summer in Utah and prepared some of the finest gourmet dishes I’ve ever seen. Totally not expected.