I have eaten here many times, over the past few ye...

I have eaten here many times, over the past few years. It's a little pricier than Jenning's Cafe, down the road, which compare as opposite styles of American casual restaurant or diner, but for that extra money you get more formal decor and service, following a much more rigid script, and even classic dishes "Mamma use to make", like meatloaf with a mushroom gravy, will have less a flavor of "Mamma" and more a taste of the red wine that exposes some French legacy in their recipes. The potato dumpling gnocchi is a rich and filling way to avoid meat, the meatloaf was alright, to add variety over one with simpler dressing, and the pot roast / roast beef based dishes are delicious, though you shouldn't lie down afterward, for fear of some ferocious heartburn, since they obviously don't removed any of the tallow, and instead incorporate it into the gravy.

I am here to re-review this restaurant, because as I had previously never had a bad meal here, and always enjoyed how late they are open and how well I was treated, tonight was finally a moment where I saw them slip. I didn't get a chance to read the menu in the few moments it took for decaf tea to arrive at the table, which I assume was the first bag to be grabbed, since I don't think the default of anything should be decaf, so I requested a little more time to decide what to order, and like an experience at a diner where the waitress is obvious about not wanting to be there, I was left alone for about 10 minutes. I wasn't annoyed or in any kind of a rush, but I actually forgot that I was waiting to order, because it had been so long, so the waiter caught me by surprised when he finally turned up. I'll say right now that it feels like a punishment when you don't spit out an immediately order after a 30 second drink run, so you are given 10 minutes to hang out, even though the place isn't packed. It all came out in the wash, because another waiter was happy to exchange the tea bag before my water was cold, and the bartender asked me if I needed anything, as if to emphasis that they care, as an organization, that the customer is happy. I didn't need anything, so I thanked him, and sat down.

I wouldn't have taken the time to rewrite the review, especially since the waiter treated me professionally for the rest of the meal, but I decided to order fried chicken breast with a lemon and butter gravy, mashed potatoes, and spinach, which looked delicious, but oddly not filleted. I can understand that some people may want an entire, inch thick half-breast of chicken, but in such cases, as in every case, the breaded chicken should be free of grizzle, and this chicken wasn't trimmed well, so there was a web of tough fat that ended up on my plate. If they hadn't always hit the ball out of the park on their other food, on so many other visits, over the years, I would have risked sending it back, but once you start sending food back, you open the door to all sorts of other problems I am not going to get into, and very rarely have I seen it help, in the end. Their track record speaks for itself, so I'll be back, but I'll never order that chicken again.

One finally comment will be that the atmosphere is one that the patrons are aware of, and seem to help preserve, so I have never had to eat around shouting people in this place. If I was trying to bring someone on a date, and didn't think it was appropriate to take them to fast food restaurant or a saw-dust on the floor cowboy bar, it would either be this place or one of the better Indian restaurants, because it is more of a value than Catonsville Gourmet, for decent enough food and experience, and still retains its sense of being more of a gourmet restaurant than most places with diner in the name.