Meatloaf Was Wrong: Two Out of Three IS Bad

In my last two reviews of the Chicken Manor Family Restaurant, I detailed my equally positive and negative experiences. At the end of my second visit, I vowed that I would give this restaurant one last chance to prove to me that the first time I visited wasn't just a fluke. So, at around 5:30 PM this evening, I pulled into the half-empty parking lot and decided that it was finally time to try the signature dish, the fried chicken.

After being seated at my table, I was handed my menu. Since I didn't photograph it either time before, I thought I'd do that now:


Almost immediately my server brought me a bread basket to the table:


This was nothing special, just your standard dinner roll. It was fresh, so that was nice.

With your dinner, you get your choice of three sides, with a garden salad counting as two sides. Looking at the salad dressings on the menu, it said that they were "homemade". One of the dressings listed was blue cheese, an all-time favorite of mine. So when the waitress came to take my order, I asked for the salad with blue cheese dressing. When she inquired about my other side, I asked her if the mashed potatoes were homemade. Sadly they weren't. But she insisted that they were very, very good. Knowing that just because something is homemade doesn't guarantee that it will taste good, I decided to take her word for it and ordered them.

First up, the garden salad:


I've had this salad on a previous visit and other than the pickled beets, it really isn't all that noteworthy. The salad dressing, however, is. When I see homemade blue cheese dressing on the menu AND it costs $0.40 more for that option than the other dressings, I expect a stellar dressing. Thick, rich, creamy dressing with wonderfully tangy chunks of blue cheese strewn throughout. Sadly, I was disappointed. Barely tiny discernible specks of cheese with a generic bottled-tasting dressing. When I asked her about it later on, she admitted that only the Italian and Ranch are homemade. It would've been nice if the wording on the menu mentioned that, don't you think?

Soon afterward my dinner platter came out:


Now, I don't exactly expect foie gras and caviar when I go to a place like this, but would it kill them to put a sprig of parsley on the plate? I mean, nothing like a tan platter that holds tan food.


The fried chicken had been coated in seasoned flour and then deep fried until done. Unfortunately, "done" for these chicken breasts meant dry-as-the-Sahara done. The coating was nicely crisp, but because this was deep fried instead of broasted like they do at Das Dutch Kitchen, the inner part of the skin was flabby and undesirable. Both breasts were seasoned nicely and the chicken wasn't overly greasy, but the dryness of the meat sent me to my water glass time and time again.

Finally, the mashed potatoes and gravy:


I wouldn't even call these mashed potatoes. These were textbook reconstituted potato flakes. And a very bad version of even that. I guess the bright side of getting this dish was that I had something to dunk the chicken pieces in that would aid in chewing and swallowing. Needless to say, the waitress's version of "very, very good" and mine have significant differences.

Overall I have to say that for me, eating at a place named the Chicken Manor Family Restaurant and having two such poor experiences with their namesake ingredient is quite disappointing. I have to believe my first visit when I received that wonderful fried fish may simply have just been dumb luck. I suppose these chicken joints are a quaint piece of Americana, but honestly, if I had limited dinner dollars to spend, I'd suggest picking someplace else that can deliver more consistent food.

Friday Night Fish Fry

As so often happens on my way home from work last night, I decided to stop for dinner along the way. This time I choose another local mom and pop place called the Chicken Manor Family Restaurant located at 8043 Cleveland Avenue N.W. in North Canton. It's a fairly good sized place that even has a banquet room. It reminds me a lot of those "family restaurants" from the late 70's and early 80's. It still has that particular charm. I had eaten here one other time and was pleased with my meal, so I thought I'd stop in and see if anything new was on the menu.

My very cute waiter made some suggestions off the menu, but then added that they were serving a fried haddock fish dinner. This particular dinner came with three sides and dinner rolls and was modestly priced at $9.25. I'm always a sucker for a good piece of fried fish and he insisted that it was very good tonight. Having been steered wrong in the past by servers who assured me that the fish was awesome, I was wary. But, like I said before, he was cute, and based on the meal I had had there before, I decided to give it a try.

The dinner started out with standard dinner rolls. They were average.


The kitchen must have been banging on all cylinders last night because shortly after receiving my rolls, my dinner came out as well. Noting that both the corn and green beans came from a can, I opted for french fries, applesauce, and something called hot sauce for my three sides.


Now let's talk about this platter. From noon, going clock-wise, you have the hot sauce, the french fries, the applesauce, the fried haddock, and the tartar sauce. First the average things on the plate: the applesauce. Plain Jane, straight from the jar. The hot sauce was okay, a nice try to make something unique, but it lacked character of its own. It was more of a rice in a tomato-y liquid than anything else. It had a bit of cayenne in it and I could feel it at the back of my throat.

On to the good things. The french fries were just how I like them, crisp and not greasy. They were a tad darker than I would've preferred, but they were still tasty. The fish was stupendous. A nice thick cut with a very light but extra crisp coating. The fish was hot and juicy and had a lovely fresh taste to it. The coating had just the right level of seasoning in it. To complement the fish was a housemade tartar sauce with a surprise ingredient, sweet bread & butter pickles. The pairing of the sauce with the fish actually elevated the fish to a new level. Sweet, savory, juicy, creamy. It all worked very well. It's probably the best piece of fish I've had in quite a while.

When confronted with my inevitable questions at the conclusion of the meal, the server confirmed that yes, the fish was fresh not frozen and that they did make their own tartar sauce from scratch. You could really tell. The server also managed to get me to agree to take a piece of the homemade cherry pie home with me since I was too stuffed to eat anything more. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture until I was half-way through the pie, but it was a decent rendition. Homemade crust with pre-made filling. The crust was nice, the pie filling was sort of average.

Next time I go back, I'll have to get the house specialty ... fried chicken. Who knew?