A while back I did at guest post over at Eatinburgers. It was from a visit to a local place called Buffalo Bob’s Family Restaurant. It wasn’t a great review, the burger I ate was one of the driest and most tasteless burgers I’ve ever eaten. We did have half price gift certificates and if we had used them all that evening, I would not be writing this now.
I went with the wife and daughter. As usual. we were early birds, arriving around 5:15. We were escorted to our table and our waiter immediately introduced himself. His name was Jeb and he told us this was his first ever experience waiting tables. He also apologized in advance for his service.
Not wanting a big home-cooked style dinner, I went with a simple grilled reuben with a side of fries. I was a little concerned getting the fries, the last time they were cold and soggy. I also ordered a plain iced tea (hate the sweet tea they push around here) and in a flash Jeb returned with our drinks. I added one packet of Equal and squeezed in a lemon slice. Unfortunately, I think they were running low on tea bags because my drink tasted like unsweetened lemonade.
Jeb was back with our meals on a tray in no time. He struggled with setting it down but managed to get our plates in front of us without a problem. This visit he apologized for being clumsy but he actually came across as very personable and friendly. My meal looked pretty tasty. I’m a big fan of the reuben sandwich and couldn’t wait to dig in and see what this one had to offer.
Of course, my first thought after hunger left my mind was the Schnitzers’ rye from Seinfeld. ”Shut up, you old bag!” …”Stop thief! Stop him! He’s got my marble rye!”
My next thought was, why in the hell is the bottom of this grilled reuben soggy? Looking at it I thought it could be the kraut wasn’t drained enough or the sandwich wasn’t grilled enough. When I tasted it I immediately knew that it was the juice that was poured on the plate along with the pickle slices. Fortunately, I love pickles and the corned beef was thickly sliced and very tasty. I didn’t want to send Jeb into a flat spin and have him return something from his first table. I also don’t think he tossed all that juice on the plate so I sucked it up and ate it soggy.
It turned out to be really pretty tasty. The house-made Thousand Island dressing was really tangy and I used it to dip both my sandwich and my fries. This time the fries were hot and crispy and it wasn’t long before I was staring at my wife as she finished her whitefish dinner. Both the wife and daughter enjoyed their meals and Jeb cleaned off the table and brought us our check. The total was $30, $20 of that was paid with gift certificates.
We are all out of gift certificates so I have doubts if we will be going back to Bobs. I give this meal a soft 7 out of 10. Soft like my reuben.
As for Jeb, keep at it buddy. We really enjoyed being your first.
