| rev:text
| - I went to My Mother's for dinner with a large group of family members (16), including 6 kids ranging in age from newborn to 8 years old. While the decor was generically bad "down-home" from the 80's, the staff was very nice and seated us in a side room with plenty of space for all of us.
The meal started with homemade bread which was warm and soft. This gave me hope that the meal wouldn't be in keeping with the general feel of the place. Alas, my hope was not long lived and I soon felt like an Obama supporter watching McCain win the election.
After ordering, I made my way to the salad bar. This seemed quaint, considering that salad bars aren't really popular anymore, unless you're at Souper Salad or Sweet Tomatoes. The salad bar was not entirely scary, but wasn't anything worth going back to. I'm fairly certain everything came out of a can, bag, bottle or box. The freshest thing may have been the red onion, which obviously had been poorly sliced by hand.
Moving on to the main course, I had Mother's Meat Loaf dinner. My meat loaf came with rice pilaf and green beans. Once again, food from cans and boxes made an appearance, as my beans were canned and my rice must have come from a box mix. The meatloaf was actually made from non-canned meat, but wasn't all that exciting. It had been cooked with ketchup slathered on top, yet was served with gravy on the side (probably originally made from a powder mix). I ate most of my dinner because I was hungry, not because of the quality.
Hoping for a come-from-behind win in a big electoral state, I ordered pie for dessert. They tout their homemade pies, but seem to think that "homemade" means making pie from canned ingredients. My cherry pie was not spectacular, as the preprocessed cherry filling was encased in crust which attempted to be light, flaky and buttery, but only managed to be dry and chewy.
My Mother's was saved from a one-star rating by two things...the graciousness and patience of the staff, and the low prices. For two dinners and a huge slice of pie split between my wife and I, our total bill including tax and tip was $35.
My advice is to keep your hope in homestyle cooking and stay out of My Mother's Restaurant.
|