Route 30 Family Restaurant

Route 30 Family Restaurant on 30 just east of I-81 used to be Chris' Country Kitchen, closed down, got bought up by new management and seems brighter and cheerier than before:



Dropped by mainly for breakfast, so that's what I'm focusing on. A little more expensive than the previous  kitchen, but their menu's more ambitious, and the portions as big if not bigger.


Hence the Chipped Beef on Toast, served with a slice of cantaloupe and good coffee (to be honest diner coffee's almost always good, as in you have to try very very hard to find bad coffee around town--possible but not easy):




Right away I approve: the chipped beef was in a peppery homemade (not canned) cream sauce, the toast still crisp, the beef tasty. Luz ordered the Pork Lovers' omelet: ham sausage and bacon folded into several eggs--

Which was a meal and a half; the grits didn't make it easier to finish.

But I said 'more ambitious,' and yes they were, somewhat: take the Crab Cake Benedict:

"The what?" You heard me--two large crab cakes topped with a pair of poached eggs, topped with hollandaise sauce, sitting on English muffins and accompanied by home fries. The home fries are a dead giveaway--this is still diner fare, though they're nicely crisped--but you can't help but think the cook was honestly reaching for something a little different.

And what the hey it was pretty good--crab, egg, hollandaise, muffin, and all. 

Before you can demand "where's the beef?" they do that too:  Black Diamond Steak (a sirloin marinated in soy with honey and ginger) served up with a pair of fried eggs, toast and home fries.



Steak's nice, umami from the soy and slightly sweet; dip into the runny yolk (best sauce in the world if you ask me) and eat with the pile of crunchy carbs and you're well on your way to making your dietitian very very unhappy.

But dessert--ah what's a diet-busting breakfast without dessert? And guess what caught my eye: baked oatmeal, an Amish concoction. Basically rolled oats given the bread pudding treatment: raisins, nuts, and if I can trust my senses some toasted coconut, put in a casserole dish and baked till crispy.

And there you go, a heart attack on a plate. Yet to try their lunch and dinner fare, if I get to live that long, which I hope I do: that steak and crab cake meal sounds interesting.