I've lived in the area my entire life, but only just learned about Soda Jerks when trying to find a place we could walk to while waiting for our truck to get work done. We loved the ambiance of the restaurant, and we liked the look and how retro it was. I liked that the eggs were supposed to be farm-fresh, since that's the eggs we're used to eating.
To start off with: the drinks. My son and I ordered water, which was obviously tap/city water. Anyone who's had Oneonta's water knows it usually tastes like pool water. It's disgusting. My husband ordered a soda, and when it arrived we were told it was made there in the restaurant. I wish it wasn't. It was flat, it had zero carbonation, and it tasted like syrup water. My husband couldn't even finish it.
The pancakes were over-thick and undercooked. They were flour and water, no flavour at all. Even basic pancakes taste good. These did not. The syrup container had an ant on it when it was delivered to us. It was disgusting. The eggs were absolutely atrocious. I don't know if they were bad when they were served, or if they were actually even farm-fresh, but they were absolutely disgusting. We took one bite and couldn't eat any more. We eat farm-fresh eggs on a regular basis, and these were far from farm-fresh. I don't know what they did, but they were disgusting.
The home-fries were okay. They had red and green pepper, which we weren't used to. My husband wasn't a fan and couldn't eat it, I wasn't a super-fan, but it wasn't too bad so I finished it. It was definitely weird and not worth trying again. The bacon was over-cooked and dry. I've never had dry bacon, and I don't know how they cooked it, but it was like trying to eat a piece of bark. Except bark probably would have tasted better. How do you manage to have bacon not taste like bacon? The sausage was okay, but it wasn't anything spectacular. My husband and I both got wheat toast, and had to add a LOT of butter to each piece to make it edible. My son had white toast, and that was about the only good thing that we got between our three meals.
We definitely will not be back. If we had been thinking about more than leaving, we would have complained and refused to pay, something we've never done before.
I don't know what they're doing in that kitchen, but it definitely is not conducive to a good meal. read more