I was in the mood for a burger, and some reviews on Yelp said this place has pretty good ones, so I…read morethought I'd give it a try. Apparently it's a chain, but being from the Northeast, I didn't know that. Pulling up to the restaurant, I thought it looked kind of cute -- like an old-fashioned soda fountain, something you might've seen in the TV series Happy Days, which is set in the 1950s.
As I walked in, a family was coming out. I asked if they had table service. They looked at me oddly. I said, I've never been here before. They said, "Oh, you just order at the counter."
I figured it just must be a fast food place, but the food didn't appear to be premade and wrapped like at a McDonald's. The menu was displayed above the counter, but not all the items were described. What's a California burger? I asked.
"It's a hamburger with lettuce, tomato, onion, and Thousand Island dressing."
Okay, I said -- let me have one of those and a small strawberry milkshake.
They call their burgers, 'steak burgers", not hamburgers. I don't know why. The patties are very thin, you get two of them in your sandwich, and they're so long they hang out over the back of the bun. I placed my order, paid, and the clerk and I just stared at each other for a moment. He said, "You pick up your order at the window, you're number 273."
I said okay and went to find a table, thinking, I hope I remember my number, since they didn't give me a receipt or anything to show at the order window. Could be chaos if they were busy. But the place was pretty empty on a Tuesday evening, so I figured my number would be the next one called even if I forgot it.
Had I gone looking for a seat before placing my order, I might not have stayed. The place was filthy -- food, french fries, napkins, and other disgusting bits all over the floor and most of the tables. It's a bus-your-own-table setup, and they didn't seem to do much to help. I found the least dirty table possible. At the very end of my meal, as I was walking out, a boy came around with a wet rag and wiped off the front part of the booths he could reach without leaning in. It was a gesture at best.
As I waited for my food at my dirty table, I thought this place could be really nice if the manager bothered to keep it clean. A few minutes later, my number was called. I went to pick up the food which was in a little plastic basket on a tray. The tray was sopping wet, like they'd just sprayed it down with a hose. The tray was dripping on the counter and the floor, water pooled around the basket. Disgusting.
"I ordered a strawberry milkshake," I told the girl behind the counter when I finally got her attention.
"Oh, they make that at the other counter -- they'll call your number again."
I really don't like getting part of my meal at one counter and part at another counter and waiting between these parts to put my entire meal together.
I took my wet tray back to my dirty table, took a couple bites of my burger, and waited to get my drink. A few minutes later, I heard "number 273".
So I left my Burger to get cold at my unattended table while I went up to the counter to retrieve my drink. The milkshake was surprisingly good. It had little bits of strawberry fruit in it, which I thought was rather nice. The burger was OK--not great, but honestly, with everything around me being so filthy, I had a hard time accepting that the kitchen might be any cleaner so I admit that my taste buds may have been influenced by the garbage I was seeing around me.
It's possible I could be tempted to go back for a frozen custard that I eat in my car (something I rarely do), but I don't think I'd order food there again.
