Denio Junction Restaurant is one of the typical roadhouses that you find while traveling the back country of northern Nevada and eastern Oregon. It's a combination restaurant, gas station, motel, bar, along with a small convenience store, selling all the basics, a few souvenirs, and lots of beer. If you're looking for great food or gas, it would be a great idea to pay them a visit, as they offer the only services for 100 miles in any direction! However, you won't be disappointed with the delicious food, along with the friendly service that Denio Junction Restaurant has to offer...
As you enter the restaurant, you'll be greeted by a friendly staff member, and you'll note the small convienience store at the front of the restaurant, and at the rear where you place your order. The full-service bar is to your right. The full-service bar offers any kind of mixed drink your taste can imagine. I'm not much for mixed drinks, but I love the bottled ice-cold beer. A drink cooler is in the rear, where you grab the soft drink of your choice and pay for it at the bar.
Hot and cold drinks, smoothies, milkshakes, along with food choices are posted on the wall, at the rear of the restaurant. There is no printed menu, so you make your choice from the posted menu boards. The food menu features breakfast, sides, paninis, burgers, sandwiches and more. The food menu is small, but consider the fact that Denio Junction Restaurant is around 100 miles from any civilization. This is truly remote country!
Denio's uses the Nevada version of what I call the "taqueria format," in that you choose your selection from the overhead menu, pay for your order, choose your seat, and your order will be delivered to you when it's ready. "Semi-full" service, if you will, but I always leave a generous tip for friendly and hard-working staff.
From the "Breakfast" section of the menu board, I ordered "Chicken Fried Steak and Eggs." The menu simply describes this delicious breakfast as, "Two eggs with chicken fried steak plus hash browns." Such a simple description for an amazing breakfast, 100 miles from the nearest town or restaurant!
The foundation of the meal was the chicken fried steak, and it was a good size of steak; I'd guess about 6 ounces, which was perfect for my hungry appetite. Like all good chicken fried steaks, the meat was pounded flat, seasoned, juicy and tender. The meat was battered and deep fried to a golden brown. The batter-to-meat ratio was perfect, so the batter enhanced the steak, rather than overpowered it. The meat was covered with rich, thick country gravy, made in-house, using Penny's secret recipe. The gravy was so thick that you could eat it with a fork, and simply delicious, with lots of chunks of sausage. Penny, the owner and chef, knows how to make a delicious chicken fried steak!
The menu listed "Two Eggs" as the first part of the meal, and I always order my eggs fried over easy, and that's how my eggs arrived, over easy, exactly as I ordered them. The trademark of a great chef is how he or she fries eggs, and Denio Junction Restaurant "nailed" my eggs.
My breakfast was complete with a helping of hash brown potatoes, perfectly deep fried to a golden brown on the outside, and a chewy white on the inside. My choice of toast was sourdough, and my breakfast arrived with two pieces of sourdough toast, cut in half, and arranged to make a stunning presentation for a wonderful breakfast.
My breakfast was simply delicious, as everything was cooked to order, seasoned "just right" and everything worked together for a fantastic breakfast, 100 miles from the nearest restaurant. Denio Junction Restaurant may have a "monopoly" on fine dining in this remote corner of Nevada, but the prices are very fair, the quality and quantity of the food is outstanding, and it's just good food, any way you look at it. Highly recommended!
This fine restaurant is 5 stars all the way. When you're in the middle of "nowhere," you owe it to yourself to pay Denio's a visit.