A return to Shoney's

When my truck was broke down in Greensboro, having a Shoney's next door to the hotel meant I had several opportunities to try offerings at a place I had never been to before. As you may (or may not?) recall, last time I was there, I loved the Kentucky Hot Brown and had a surprising disappointment with their strawberry pie. This time the opposite happened: dinner was slightly disappointing but dessert was phenomenal.

That night I decided to try their steak. I've had what passes as 'steak' at truck stop restaurants so I was longing for an actual steak. So I ordered what to me would be an average size cut (8oz I think?) with mashed potatoes. I think the soup and salad bar was included in that.

It arrives and it looks perfect...until I cut into it.

Now I order my steaks medium rare. This thing was still rare, which tells me the grill was too hot. The outside, again, looked perfect, the inside, not so much. So I worked on everything else on my plate first hoping the server would come back around to ask how things were so I could send it back for a couple more minutes on the grill.

Finished the rest of my salad, nothing. Started on the potatoes. Nothing. Finished said potatoes, nothing. Finally I figured he just didn't care to check back on me so I ate it. I've had rare steaks before, not my preference, but whatever. The outside was well seasoned but to some it may be a little too peppery. It was one of those rare times that I didn't need A1, which is always a good sign to me. That's pretty much how I judge how well seasoned and cooked a steak is: if I need A1 with it or not. So I'm happy to report that they at least did get this part right and sauce wasn't necessary. Now if they could have just cooked it right, I would be doing cartwheels and singing their praises. Ah well, can't win 'em all.

However, dessert was a different story. Forget the strawberry pie, this should be the dessert they promote the most. It's a hot fudge cake. 2 pieces of chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream in between with hot fudge drizzled/poured on top. It...was....HEAVENLY. And I'm not just saying that because I'm a woman and therefore have the "Any kind of chocolate is amazing" gene. A few friends do not have this gene so therefore, your argument is invalid. Wait, you weren't even having an argument? Well now this is awkward. Let's just move on to the picture then....

Just look at that piece of magnificence right there. It's tantalizing. It's appetizing. *ahem* It looks like the picture in the menu (I had to throw that jab in there). It tastes as good as it looks. No actually it tastes even better than it looks. It was heavenly. It was wonderful. It was delicious.

You should really try this. It's incredible. It could create world peace. It's just that good.

Subway's Apple Orchard Chicken Salad

Now, I don't know about you, but I'm not a big fan of complex tastes. Simple dishes usually turn out the best and adding too many things to a dish can actually ruin it. With that in mind, let's go over to Subway and try their Apple Orchard chicken salad.

Chicken salad, by itself, is pretty easy to make. Diced chicken, mayo, maybe some celery for crunch. However, Subway felt a need to kick it up a notch and add fruit. Why? I'm not exactly sure. How does it taste? I'm not exactly sure.

So take that basic chicken salad and add in: diced apples, yellow raisins and cranberries. Voila! You have Subway's Apple Orchard chicken salad. Who in their right mind adds raisins to anything? I can see the apples if they would have taken out the celery, but now you're getting a little too crunchy in my opinion with both. The raisins and the cranberries though, I'm not exactly sure why those were mixed in. The mayo it's all mixed with kind of washes out the flavor of both. It adds some interesting texture, that's for sure, but I really couldn't differentiate what was what while I was eating it. It all kind of ...blended together. I could taste the chicken, I could taste the mayo, I had some crunch that I determined was either apple or celery and then I had these mushy things that just seemed to add some bulk to the mix.

It wasn't the best, it wasn't the worst. Would I order it again, most likely no.

Arby's Spicy SantaFe Sandwich & Other Offerings

"Holy cow my lips and tongue are burning!"

That's my last thought of this limited time burger from Arby's. According to the website, it's limited time and limited availability. Green peppers, onions, pepperjack cheese and a spicy red jalapeno ranch sauce on top of roast beef and gently cradled (or slapped depending if the cook's in a hurry) on a sesame seed bun.

Here's a picture and info (including nutritional info): Arby's Spicy SantaFe Sandwich

This sauce packs a punch! While I was slightly wincing from the spice and reaching for my lemonade, I was also enjoying the fact that this sandwich was actually spicy. I can't tell you how many times I've tried something labelled as spicy and it's hot for a second and then it fizzles away. This hit me at first bite and I was both loving it and hating it.

While this won't replace my usual beef and cheddar (or reuben if I'm in the mood), it was a pleasant break from the norm, so my suggestion is: if you're in the mood, try it!

Another more recent menu offering of theirs is their house made chips, sprinkled with their Arby's sauce seasoning. Last time I asked for them, the lady behind the register told me they were out. Guess they ran out...of potatoes? This makes me question what part of it is 'house made'. Do they actually start at the beginning in-house and slice the potatoes, or do they get potato slices in frozen, then fry and season them in house? It's a mystery to all of us on this side of the counter, really. I was able to try them today and I am happy to report my reaction was....blah. They didn't bowl me over. They weren't 'omg amazeballs!' but they weren't awful. They're better than soggy, limp, clumped-together-because-that's-how-they-fried curly fries.

Nutritional info and pictures are also available on their website if you just follow the link from above. The chips are also listed on the Limited Time menu.

Now here's the kicker. These chips come in at 450 calories, and it's a one-size bag. So you can have these, or a small order of curly fries, which comes in at 400 calories. I would say this bag of chips is probably similar in size to a medium fry which is like 540 calories, so I guess they might be the better option? I dunno, I'm no nutritionist (by any means), I'm just looking at the numbers and making comparisons.

Another limited time menu option is their Triple Berry Milkshake.

GET IT!

Who cares about what berries, and what it looks like and what it comes with and what that swirly crap is on the inside of the cup. Doesn't matter. Just get it. Get it! Get it! Get it! Oh here it is: blueberry, strawberry, blackberry. Hey, how often do you get blackberry anything at a chain fast food joint? Exactly. Get it! Does it need the berry swirl crap on the inside of the cup? No. Chances are you're going to down this thing in no time so all you're left with is a clear cup with red lines around it. You can take a spoon and get it out but who has time for that unless you're stuck at a long red light. You can try to scrape it off with your straw but now you're treading into distracted driving territory and nobody wants that.

Once again, a rather tantalizing picture and info is available on the Arby's website and this one can be found under Shakes and Desserts.

So in conclusion:
Arby's Spicy SantaFe Sandwich - Yowsers! Try it if you're in the mood, has a pleasant kick to it.
House-made chips - Take it or leave it. Healthier than the fries (unless you order a small fry).
Triple Berry Milkshake - GET IT! GET IT! GET IT!

Why pictures aren't actually necessary here.

I've noticed that for food blogs, in order to be considered for some groups, there must be pictures on 80% of the blog posts. I'm sure that's all well and good for food blogs of local restaurants and such but um, I'm only focusing on restaurants and fast food chains within truck stops. And the beauty of such places is that they already have pictures on their menus of many of their items. Therefore, I don't really feel it necessary to take pictures of what I'm eating because someone else already did that and it's up on the menu. They pay professionals to do that. I could take pictures but to me it seems redundant. Also, how often does the item you unwrap look like the picture?

Now granted I'll take a picture if it's bad. That Shoney's Strawberry Pie is a good example of that. But if it looks close to what's on the menu or if you can go to said restaurant and see it right up there on the menu, I don't see a reason why I need to post a picture as well.

If that's going to keep me out of food blog circles, then I guess I'll just deal with it.
I could be lazy and steal pictures from the company websites but I think that's copyright infringement and I like staying on this side of the prison walls, thank you.

Welcome to Moe's!

I think the hardest part about writing a glowing piece talking highly of a restaurant is trying to not make it sound like a blatent advertisement for the place. I could go on and on about fresh ingredients and meat choices and so on and so forth to give a detailed description of the place but it's all going to sound like an advertisement and that I got paid to write about the establishment, which I haven't. In fact I haven't been paid by anyone to write good articles about them. So there you go.

Anyway, on to Moe's Southwestern Grill. I love Moe's. I really, really love Moe's. I guess southwestern grill would be better than calling it Tex-Mex. They have the usual southwest faire. You can get tacos, burritos, quesadillas, you can get your burrito in a plastic bowl which makes it a lot less messy to eat (my preference) or you can get a taco salad. They even have a limited breakfast menu but, psh, I'll stick to my Ear Muffs with chicken.

Oh, yeah, that's another thing about Moe's...the names are kinda...odd? I mean a burrito named the Homewrecker? A vegetarian burrito bowl named the Art Vandelay? I know that's a Seinfeld reference but I don't get the connection. When I go back in for dinner tonight I'll ask and see if I can get an answer.

You may have heard about Moe's. They were on Undercover Boss. They also do that signature "Welcome to Moe's!" when a guest walks in. Thankfully since it was 7am they nicely said it instead of yelling it. It's too early to be yelling anything.

Another thing I love about Moe's is their staff. Now the location I'm speaking about specifically is the Flatwoods WV Moe's at the Pilot. The manager there is very energetic, very nice and very upbeat. Always quick to start a conversation while making your lunch/dinner. He's fantastic, I wish every manager I came across was like him. This morning I believe I was helped by the assistant manager and she remembered me from last time and not just by recognition but vaguely remembered what I ordered. For a place I only get to come to maybe once every couple weeks, I love feeling like a regular and having the staff remember me even if it's just "that tall chick who orders the burrito bowl"

Yet another thing I love about Moe's is that they offer tofu! How many chains do you know of offer tofu? It's grilled with some southwestern seasoning. I tried it once and I enjoyed it! Granted I enjoy chicken more, but tofu was a nice change and it gives the vegetarian crowd something else to have. Now I don't know if they cook it right next to the beef or chicken, thus negating the vegetarian concept (I hear Burger King does that when cooking their veggie burgers) but I'm not a strict vegetarian. Actually I'm not any kind of vegetarian, but if you are, you'll probably want to ask just to be safe.

They also have a salsa bar! Their offerings range from mild to hot. So far I haven't tried a salsa that was bad. I prefer some over the others but that's personal. I did try the one labelled hot and while it had a little zing to it, it wasn't "omg my tongue is on fire!" hot. There's one that I particularly enjoy, and of course curse me for not remembering names, that I swear has a little touch of fruit in it. It's quite good, I get a cup of it for my burrito bowl all the time. The hot salsa I tried with the complimentary chips they give you.

Oh..yeah..the chips. They're a little generous with the chips. Everything you get comes with a side of tortilla chips. They have a little chip oven so they're toasty warm and I think just about everything you order comes with chips and a choice of queso or guacamole. The queso is good, it can thicken a little bit when left out, but it's good. If you get a side of queso, you get a nice amount of chips to go with it. If you get the larger cup of queso they practically give you a full bag of chips. If you get the larger container of queso, I think they have a dump truck full of chips pull up next to you. They're a little generous with the chips. I'm not even kidding, I ordered the cup of queso last time. I had so many chips left over, they were my snack while driving the next day. By the end of that day, I didn't want to see another tortilla chip for about a week.

Now this is new to me, but it's starting to become "a thing". One last feature of Moe's is their customized drink machine. I really don't know what else to call it. It's touch screen. It has the thingy you push with your cup for ice, then you set it down on the metal grate. Then you go through the touch screen menu to decide what drink you'd like. After deciding on which Coke product you'd like, THEN you also have options for flavored syrups. Do I want an orange Coke? Maybe a raspberry lemonade? Maybe just Dasani water. Oh, or cherry Diet Dr. Pepper? There are so many choices that while I stood there dumbfounded, the menu actually reset. I usually end up getting Minute Maid lemonade and whichever flavoring I haven't tried yet. I think today I had the fruit punch. :)

However, there's a tiny catch and it's based on location. (there's always a catch). When I was in Greensboro NC, one of the malls had a Moe's. It was not the same as a regular location Moe's! There was no salsa bar. There was no custom Coke machine. Even the chips and queso were already pre-portioned out for maximum efficiency. As I said in my review on Yelp, it was like Moe's Lite. Coincidentally, the manager of that Moe's read my Yelp review and thought "Moe's Lite" was awesome. But yeah, a mall food court Moe's doesn't do justice to a regular location. So, if you want to get your Moe's on, go to a regular location. If you just want some of the goodness, go to a Moe's Lite.

Oddly enough this mall also had a Sonic in their food court. How do you have a Sonic without servers on roller skates?! That's ridiculous!

But this isn't about Sonic, this is about Moe's, and I love Moe's. You should really go here.

..no really, you should.

Moe's Southwest Grill. Flatwoods, WV. I-79 Exit 67. You'll see the signs.
Check out www.moes.com for more information and locations. They also have a smart phone app.

Off the Beaten Path - When fantasy meets reality...at Shoney's.

Since it was my first time at Shoney's, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I heard good things about their buffet but it wasn't ready when I stopped in there today. I had arrived a little bit early. Other patrons arrived early, too, and they started on the salad bar while waiting for the dinner buffet to start at 5p.

I decided to try something from the menu first: the Kentucky Hot Brown. Sounds like a dirty sex act but it's not and it's actually quite delicious! Turkey and more turkey and more turkey piled up with some tomato slices and cheese and some brown gravy over toast and cooked in a hot skillet. It was quite delightful and very good. Yes I know I've complained about the use of two sauces in a dish before but in this case I didn't care because it was really really good. However, a knife was required to slice through everything and I felt really guilty about using a knife on what looked like a cast iron small skillet. I mean, you're not supposed to right? Couldn't it scratch the metal and ruin the seasoning that you do after you get one before you start cooking with it?

According to their website, they're known for their strawberry pie. In fact they even made the world's largest strawberry pie and it was on some TV morning show. The menu states that it's fresh, made from scratch, and something they're well known for. So naturally, I had to try it to see what all the hype was about. The picture in the menu and table card made it look scrumptuous with strawberries and their special glaze and whipped cream and a flaky crust. One slice, please!

....and then it arrived.
For your convenience, the top is from the table card, the bottom is what arrived at my table.

I don't recall ordering the strawberry soup.

So to recap:

Kentucky Hot Brown - great! order it!

Strawberry Pie - bring a straw.

Denny's Red, White and Blue Plate Specials (July 2013)

Recently, I stopped in to the Denny's located at the Flying J in Peculiar MO. Funny name for a city, isn't it, Peculiar. That always struck me as interesting. Anyway, where the heck is Peculiar? Why it's south of Kansas City on US-71 aka the NEW! I-49. Well, I-49 isn't new I mean it runs north/south through Louisiana. Then I think it stops in Arkansas and goes back to US-71 and somewhere around Joplin Missouri it starts back up and runs up to Kansas City.

But I digress. Denny's has a new special menu for July and while I've only tried three items, they're worth mentioning.

First and foremost, if you want to try something new at Denny's this month. Even if it's the only thing new you try at Denny's this month, make it the Bourbon Chicken Skillet. Y'all, this was incredible. I'm pretty sure it comes with mushrooms but you can ask to have it made without. Unlike some restaurants (*ahem* T/A) they can do that. Honestly, it's not a complicated dish by any means and that adds to it's greatness.

Copied right from the Denny's website:
"Two grilled seasoned chicken breasts covered with a delicious sweet bourbon glaze topped with mushrooms and fire-roasted peppers and onions. Served with broccoli and seasoned red-skinned potatoes on a hot skillet."

This dish was incredible. The sauce totally makes this dish awesome. I don't know who makes it, or if it's their own recipe (must be because they don't give credit to anyone in particular) but this bourbon glaze was one of the best things I've had this year. I couldn't get enough of it! I was dragging my broccoli through it. I was dipping my potatoes in it. I was scooping it up and trying to get more of it onto the chicken I had cut up. It's like they put crack in it, I could not get enough of this sauce it was phenomenal.

Denny's started a good thing when they introduced their skillet dinners because many of them are really good and this one is no exception. Try it! Hey if you want it with mushrooms, get the mushrooms!

The next dinner I tried was the BBQ Pepper Jack Country-Fried Steak. I would have gone with the crack laced bourbon chicken skillet again but I thought, no, let's try something else. So I went with this. It's not a skillet, it's a regular dinner.

Here, once again, from the website:
"Our dinner-sized Country-Fried Steak smothered in Pepper Jack cheese sauce, topped with fire-roasted peppers and onions and Onion Tanglers.™ Drizzled with BBQ sauce and served with your choice of two sides and dinner bread."

Well, it wasn't as good as the chicken skillet, let's just get that out of the way right now. Overall, it was..okay..but it wasn't my favorite. It didn't win me over. The onion tangler thingies on top kind of got in the way and made cutting up the country fried steak more of an interactive experience. The cheese sauce plus the BBQ sauce, I think, is another example of them trying too hard. They did this last month with the macaroni and cheese bites. Either sauce, I feel, would be just fine on it's own. Pepper jack cheese sauce on top, fine. BBQ sauce on top, fine. Put them both together on top and it seems a little too much effort to go above and beyond.

The plus side to this dish is, like most of their dinners, you can choose what two sides to have with it. I opted for broccoli and the cheddar mashed potatoes. It comes with dinner bread, too, which is a simple way of saying "cibatta bread cut in half and buttered." Yeah the same bread that buffalo chicken sandwich and the smashed meatball sub come on. That's how we save on food cost and help our profit margin, people!

The disappointment came in the form of a Lemon Icebox Pie milkshake. They have 3 new milkshake flavors this month, strawberry cheesecake, blueberry cheesecake, lemon cheesecake icebox pie. I mean that's really what it tasted like, a lemon cheesecake. It had the little cheesecakey crumbles in it along with lemon ice cream or lemon flavoring to the icecream. In my opinion it needed more lemon, which could be attributed to either not enough lemon ice cream in the mix, or not enough lemon flavoring mixed in. I don't want to be bowled over by lemon every time I take a sip of this, but enough to where I think, "mmm, lemon" would be nice.

Here's what Denny's says about it:
"Made with premium vanilla ice cream blended with lemon, cream cheese and real cheesecake with a dollop of whipped cream."

So there you go, just call it lemon cheesecake and be done with it! Like I said, I felt it was lacking. It could have been better. A little more lemon I think would have been perfect.

Speaking of lacking, let me rant about the dinner service. Well first, let me talk about lunch. Lunch is where I tried the bourbon chicken skillet. Again, phenomenal. The lunch service, also phenomenal. My server was very attentive, very nice, and she stayed on top of things...mostly. I can't blame her, it looked like they were short staffed for lunch service. I saw one cook, two servers and one manager, so this poor girl had to handle most of the dining room by herself and she did a fantastic job. Well she tried to. If there was a delay with my order, which there was, she brought it to my attention, told me they were making it and it will be just a few minutes, and apologized for the delay. I can't get mad at someone who's being upfront and honest with me about that. She knows they're backed up and trying their best with who they have available, I can see their short staffed and trying hard, so I let it slide, it was no big deal. The manager was trying his best, too, running food or helping to expedite plus running the cash register when needed, plus seating people. Luckily he asked me how my lunch was so I got to rave to him about how incredible this bourbon chicken skillet was.

Now. Let me talk about dinner service. I'm pretty sure this was at the same location but my mind is drawing a blank and of course I can't find the receipt to compare store numbers. It may have been a different location, now that I think about it. Can't tell you where, I'm trying to retrace my steps and coming up empty. No maybe it was the same location. I don't know, let's move on. So I was seated. Wait, I remember on FourSquare someone left a tip that the service was really bad here. Okay sorry, back to the story. So I was seated in a different section from lunch. They were doing an actual rotation for dinner. And I noticed it was taking a long time to even be greeted by a server. Unusual for Denny's standards. The lady finally took my drink order and asked if I need a few minutes, to which I said yes. So she came back a few minutes later to take my order and I ordered the cheese quesadilla as an appetizer (I did this a lot the last few months, it's great as an appetizer and only $2!), then the new country fried steak special. She verifies my order and leaves to put it in. About 5-10 minutes later she comes back with my appetizer, sets it down and says 'enjoy'. (there's something still missing here, have you guessed what it is yet?)

A few minutes later she comes back to check on me and to ask how everything is. By this time my inner bwitch has come out and I flat out told her, "Look, I hate to be a b**tch about it but..." and then I pointed to where my drink would normally be THAT SHE STILL HASN'T BROUGHT ME YET! She immediately says "Diet coke!" and I respond, "Could you please? I'm dying of thirst over here." So she runs off and comes back with two.

A short time later my dinner arrives and during the course of the meal she brings a drink refill. She seriously saved her ... rear by being very friendly and conversational with me after she brought the drinks and let me chill for a little bit. I was ready to tip her nothing before the drink arrived but since she made an effort to talk to me and have some nice conversation, I decided it was fair to give her 15% (I normally tip 20%). Sure 10% would have sent a message, but I think after knowing she screwed up and seeing that 15% I'm sure she realized that she got lucky and was fortunate I was able to forgive her.

So what have we learned from reading this today?
-Bourbon Chicken Skillet = good.
-BBQ Pepper Jack Country Fried Steak = okay
-Lemon Icebox Pie milkshake = needs improvement
-Don't forget my drink order