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| - The food we ate deserves a solid 3-stars; it was exactly what we ordered, tasted as anticipated and was hot and fresh. But, there is no gastronomic magic or surprise, because, well ... it's a diner. A solid, reliable, archetypal diner. Food combined with service gets it four stars.
We chanced upon Michael's for a late lunch on a Friday afternoon; it was about 2:30 p.m. Admittedly one of the driving factors in trying Michaels was the fact that they were advertising their Friday fish fry, and my partner is a real aficionado of battered & fried fish ... the fact that it was only $8.99 for AYCE was another motivator.
Now the fact that Michael's is in a shopping center with nothing but a lighted sign to indicate that it is at all different from the supermarket or hair salon that occupies the same flat building front does not build confidence at first. And when you enter and see the flea market artwork of bright colorful kitschy landscapes, or the pastel vinyl booths, or the big screen TVs promoting keno, these may also give you a moment of insecurity.
We were seated right away by a no-nonsense woman in her mid-50s, with a with a non-specific Eastern European or perhaps Baltic accent. We never did figure it out. I thought initially that she was going to be a problem, because she didn't seem that friendly.
As I looked around I took note that only two other tables that were occupied at this hour. We were about 30 minutes past the end of any lunch rush there might have been, and the place just seemed dead.
When the woman came back to our table, we had already made up our minds about getting the fish fry, but we had a few questions as well. There were a number of potato choices one could have with the fish, including mashed, home fries, and french fries. I asked for clarification about what the difference was between their home fries and french fries, and the woman began to explain how they make their home fries. As she explained - the details are lost because I got the french fries - it became clear that she didn't just work there, but that the restaurant belonged to her family. She knew how the food was made and she seemed to take pride in the fact that it was "home made," and not from a can or mix. She seemed to warm up a bit as we talked and she became rather matronly during the remainder of our meal.
A great example of this was their soup. In addition to the AYCE fish, the meal came with the salad bar and soup as well. There were two big tureens of soup at the end of the salad bar: cabbage & noodle and New England clam chowder.
My partner also loves clam chowder, so that was his first stop as soon as we had placed our order. He had a salad plate in one hand and was about to set it down to fill the soup cup with the ladle, when the waitress/hostess lady appeared at his side and offered to do it for him. He was going to take the filled cup from her, but she held him off while she set it on a saucer, because, she pointed out, it was very hot and she didn't want him to burn his hand. That's the sort of matronly attention I was referring to earlier.
Back to the soup ... he was quite impressed. Again, this was not haute cuisine, but it was good clam chowder. I have to take his word, because I don't eat shell fish, but he said it was a good balance of cream and clammyness, without too much potato and not excessively thick, like many packaged chowders tend to be. I had the cabbage & noodle soup, and it was fine. I think it could have used a touch more sweetness, but overall it tasted just dandy.
The salad bar had most of the usual salad fixings, but it also had a number of prepared salads to choose from: potato salad, cole slaw and macaroni salad. There were also a few other items which I wouldn't have expected like spiced apple slices and cubes of bread pudding. Personally, I didn't really care for the potato salad. I found it bland. The macaroni salad was uninspiring, but passable. I quite liked the cole slaw, however; it went well with the fish.
As we sat down to start noshing on soup and salad, the afternoon crowd started to roll in. 4-5 more tables filled up while we were there, and the hostess/server seemed to know most of the people as regulars.
Our fish came out within about 10 minutes of our ordering. It was hot and the fish was rather tasty. The server continued to check back with us at regular intervals, but not too often so as to be obnoxious.
They fry the fish to order, so when we got seconds, the server asked us how many pieces we wanted and brought it out to us on a separate plate. I really liked that I could ask for just two more pieces or six more pieces, so that I wouldn't wind up with more than I could eat and waste it.
All in all, we quite enjoyed Michael's; the food was good; the service was good and the price was good. We live about 15 miles away from them, but I could definitely see going back on a Friday afternoon for more fish ... but not every week.
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