Bob Evans - with emphasis on new star attraction
Written: Sep 09 '06
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Good variety, clean, friendly
Cons: Too much starch, too much waiting for things to arrive.
The Bottom Line: Overall: Not bad, very filling, service was lackadaisical, menu had variety, meals are heavy on starches. We're not going back.
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| dolphinboy's Full Review: Bob Evans |
My family had not been to a Bob Evans Restaurant in about twenty years, mainly because our last experience there was unthrilling, and the nearest one is further away than many good restaurants.
Two things tempted us to try it again: we love their mashed potatoes with sour cream and chives (buy it in the supermarket and microwave it), and their big advertisement campaign for "knife-and-fork sandwiches."
We had the following items:
Knife-and-fork turkey sandwich
Chicken pot pie
Grilled salmon with herb-garlic sauce
Beef vegetable soup
Glazed carrots
Rolls/banana-nut bread
Coffee
Knife-and-fork turkey sandwich: Start with a piece of mediocre Texas toast, add a scoop of delicious mashed potatoes (no sour cream or chives, but still great), a pile of bread-and-herb stuffing (very good, heavy on the sage, but too many onions for me), two slices of carved turkey breast, and "pan-roast gravy." The sandwich was good, but very heavy on the starch and skimpy on the turkey. All the ingredients were above-average, but not in the right proportions, for me. Grade: B
Chicken pot pie: Served very hot, the emphasis here is on, in descending order: pie (crust), gravy, vegetables, chicken. Like the turkey sandwich, the ingredients were fine, but the proportions were off, making it filling but not very satisfying. If you ordered a chicken dinner, and got this amount of chicken, you'd walk out. Max and Erma's, when they carry it, has a much better chicken pot pie. Grade: C
Grilled salmon with herb-garlic sauce: A nice piece of salmon, but dry, without the sauce. It might have been overcooked into dryness. The sauce was tasty, but too thick for me. You could also get it with a "fiery" barbecue sauce, which we did not try. Grade: B
Beef vegetable soup: Tasty, but more emphasis on vegetables than beef. Grade: C+
Glazed carrots: Mis-labeling warning! These baby carrots were not glazed. They were good fresh carrots, with a nice sweet taste, and I liked them, but they were not glazed. My guess is that they were boiled in sugar-water. Grade: A-
Rolls: Nice big, browned rolls, with some crispiness to the crust, but not enough. They were, oddly, a bit sweet. I bet they were really good, when fresh out of the oven. The banana-nut bread was very tasty, but a bit mucky (turned to goo when chewed). The third bread option, that none of us picked, was biscuits. It was nice to have three choices. Grade: B-
Coffee: Good, rich, hot, fresh coffee. Much better than standard fare. But, see next section. Grade: A
Service: Our wait-person was very pleasant and informative, and she made no mistakes. However, we were almost to the point of launching flares, in order to get coffee refills. Also, after we requested the smoking section (one of us does smoke), we were seated in non-smoking, and did not realize it, until noticing the lack of ashtrays on all tables. Grade: C-/D+
Atmosphere: When you come in, there is a little store, that sells scented candles, knickknacks, and "Pennsylvania Dutch" candies (although I never thought of Tootsie Rolls and non-pareils as Pennsylvania Dutch). The decor was nice, the noise level was tolerable, and everything was clean (including the restrooms). Grade: B
Menu: While there was an emphasis on breakfast items, there was a fairly wide variety of sandwiches, salads, and meals. Entree selections included: Meat Loaf and Gravy, Country-Fried Steak, Open-Faced Roast Beef, Chicken-N-Noodles (A crock of thick country-style egg noodles simmered in a rich broth with tender slow-roasted chicken and vegetables), Sirloin Steak Tips and Noodles, Fried Chicken Dinner. The prices were moderate to good. Our meals ranged from $6.50 (my sandwich) to $10 (salmon).
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
dolphinboy
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Member: Chris McCallister
Location: The Great Lakes of Michigan
Reviews written: 541
Trusted by: 223 members
About Me:
I am a psychologist, new author, and a reviewer on several sites.
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