Address:
Danbury Cafe
56 N 8th st
Danbury, CT
The Dish:
Ranch Burger
Fries
Cheeseballs (as appetizer)
Diet Coke
Apple Pie a la mode
$9.12 (tip and tax included)
Grade: 1 spoon
Greasy spoons are hit and miss. Sometimes you know that it is going to be worth your time to ignore the fact that your food could literally slide off your plate and table with out any help whatsoever, because the service, taste or whatever your liking is just so good. Other times it is almost an embarrassment to be caught at one. There are chain greasy spoons, the best in my humble opinion is Waffle House and there are others that just don’t compare.
Being in Connecticut for the first time ever I thought it would be best to see how the New England ma & pa compared to the Midwestern ma & pa. Perhaps
Ambiance: Good greasy spoon feel, however sometimes that look should be thrown to the way side if your walls have at least and inch and a half of greasy residue, dust, and Lord knows what else. The ceiling tiles were in poor shape and showed signs that this “non-smoking restaurant” only recently obtained that label. The table I was at appeared solid, however the table next to me wobbled every time the poor souls next to me moved or sneezed. The few pictures of “farm life” they had on the wall gave the indication that they had no idea what “farm life” was really all about as they had pictures of happy jolly farmers with endless harvests. The floor was probably the cleanest thing and that is not saying much. I am not even sure which was cleaner, the carpet they started to tear up and left cut or the original tile that was under the carpet.
Menu/Price: Breakfast is the most prominent thing on the menu here, however as it was almost 1:15PM when I walked in, I felt it was not appropriate to have breakfast that early in the afternoon, had it of been 2:15PM or even 2:17PM I might of tried one of the omelets (the couple next to me in the wobbly table got the Texas Omelet which looked good). Anyway, they also had the normal main street café America items like specialty sandwiches, burgers, chef salad, and mini-diner items. Pricing was decent enough, $3.99 could get you a soup and a sandwich and $12.56 would get you the sirloin special.
Meal: Where do I start with this, I ordered cheese balls because joints like this are usually the best place to get fried items like that, however the “balls” were over fried and lacking cheese. Not a good way to start. The Ranch Burger was a hamburger that was a preformed patty that had, get this ranch sauce (dressing) and cheese on it. Wait a sec, the menu said that it was a burger with secret ranch flavorings, lettuce, onion, cheese, and pickle. I am missing a few things and ranch dressing as the secret? Come on!? I asked my waitress about this and she replied, “oh yea we changed the menus a bit.” Isn’t that false advertising? Moving along though, the fries were equally over fried to the tune of I only ate four. The apple pie (I figured) would be the saving grace but even that was ruined because it had cheese on it. I did not ask for cheese on it, I did not see it on the menu… I didn’t press the issue because I forgot “the menus changed.” The ice cream also was disappointing as it was evident that it was de-thawed and refrozen at some time.
Service: The service was ok, did not have to ask for refills and outside of the “menus changed” speech I really did not have any complaints. Others around me appeared to be on a first name basis with the waitress, perhaps they were locals. At any rate I was treated the same as they were, maybe that is why the “menus changed” bit took me off guard. A local would know this with out asking, I was not a local.
Overall: I really can’t think of anything good to say about the place, they did have ice cream so I cannot give them the knife rating I wanted to give them but I might have to reconsider my scale and come up with a new rating of a spife or a knoon, something in-between a knife and a spoon.