Review - Big Boy (Nationwide)

I hadn't been to Big Boy in probably 10 years, so I thought today would be the day I returned. I have been seeing advertisements for the soup and sandwich lunch deal and the food looked so good, I had been wanting to try it.

I walked into the restaurant (Grand Blanc, MI) and was met with chaos. So many people just standing around everywhere (I assume to pay), no sense of order, no definitive line for the register, no greeter, just chaos. I ducked into the bathroom to wash my hands and OMGoodness the smell! Wow! It smelled like something crawled up an animals butt, died, and was pooped out of the dying carcass! I won't be going back in there again! When I came out the chaos had dissipated, but there still wasn't any greeter, nor was there anyone at the register. I finally walked up to the little old lady in the blue big boy shirt that was straightening up the salad bar and asked her if I can sit anywhere or should i wait to be seated. I figured that was a reasonable question, but she looked like a dear in the headlights. After taking a few moments to process what I had asked she said I could sit anywhere and she'd bring a menu to me. Once seated and with menu in hand I set about the task of picking my lunch.

It's a pretty standard diner menu, but they had a few new items that sounded good. When the server arrived and asked what I would like I asked her about the soups. As soon as she said Cabbage Soup I forgot everything else as I started having nightmare flashbacks to the "Cabbage Soup Diet" that my mother forced me on when I was in high school (yes my mother has a sadistic side). I decided to skip the soup/sandwich combo and went with a Texan Jack BLT (one of the new menu items), fries, unsweet iced tea, and a hot fudge ice cream cake for dessert.

The sandwich was lettuce, tomato, bacon, Pepper Jack cheese, on Texas toast...if you could really call it toast. it was slightly brown, but mostly soft bread. I would have liked it toasted a little longer. The cheese was cold, and the bacon was pathetic consisting mostly of very thin bacon crumbs. The lettuce was the typical iceberg lettuce (aka: crunchy water), and I picked off the tomatoes. I like tomatoes, but I'm allergic so I don't eat them often. The fries were really good. They were fresh, hot, and lightly salted. I was impressed with the fries. The hot fudge ice cream cake was ok. The cake was dry, the ice cream was good though, and the hot fudge was amazing. It tasted like Sanders hot fudge. The hot fudge and ice cream would have been better by themselves.

Overall, Big Boy was pretty much as I remember...ok food, for ok prices. Typical diner. I think in the future if I want diner food I'll pick one of the little mom and pop places in the area rather than a chain with mass produced food.