I won't be going back. The food was OK. Nothing amazing but not bad. I ordered 3 cinnamon French toasts. She brought me out a plate that had 3 French toasts, 2 fried eggs, and 2 sausage links. I could understand if she made a mistake and thought I wanted an entire meal, but if that was the case, she never asked me how I wanted my eggs (I would have said poached) or if I wanted sausage or bacon (I would have said bacon).
It's a small town so I was willing to let the outdated and sometimes tacky decor slide, but seeing my syrup come in a squeeze bottle was a bit much.
Anyway, I'm kinda annoyed about it so I'd better stop writing or I'll just start nitpicking.
Meh is right. From the decor (soccer balls on the fan blades? When did we get to a Chuck E Cheese?) to the extremely short (and I don't mean vertically challenged) waitress, everything about this place screamed, "TURN BACK BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!"
Woodhaven would be the reason why. My boyfriend's family and I came here looking for breakfast, what I consider the easiest of the three daily meals to get right.
Let me start off with the menu: What. The. Hell?! Who does your pricing? Seriously. No joke. Tell me now, so I can clue them in on two things I distinctly remember (and this is only because I was ordering these two things).
1. A short stack (2 pancakes) with bacon or sausage costs the same as 3 pancakes with bacon or sausage. However, if you get just the pancakes, the short stack is $1 cheaper than the 3 pancakes. Now why wouldn't the short stack combo be a dollar cheaper? Or even a measly 50 cents cheaper? This makes no sense to me!
2. A short stack with bacon - ordered separately - is 9 cents CHEAPER than if you order the short stack/bacon combo. How is that even possible? Why even have a combo?
Onto the food: The bacon was nice and crisp. My chocolate milk (don't judge) was decent once I stirred it up. As for my pancakes... I enjoy hockey. I do not enjoy eating hockey pucks. The only redeeming quality I can come up with for the pancakes is that they were a good size.
Word to the wise: You'd be better off buying a carton of eggs, a pound of bacon, and some white bread and fixing those up for breakfast. The only reason I gave it two stars is because one of the waitresses had an Avenged Sevenfold tattoo.
I cant believe this has already been reviewed 4 times. I'm guessing since its so close to the large campground that is Woodhaven Lakes.
I've been camping at Woodhaven for 30 years but this is the first time I've been to this small town diner and it was interesting! It's billed as a American/Mexican/Albanian restaurant...and pizza junction. I'll start with the decor first. The best way to explain it would be like your grandmas trailer exploded inside a diner. Random ugly bric-a-brac lining the walls which includes beat up stuffed animals and knit garden wind spinners. There was a white fan with a blue light bulb and blue soccer balls on the blades. Apparently they have raves for 7yo boys after midnight. Grand Ole Opry was on the tv but the local men with caps on proclaiming their "FREEDOM" or which VFW they belonged to couldnt be bothered. And how do these people that are 2hrs WEST of Chicago end up with a SOUTHERN drawl? Anyways, I couldnt help but notice the area where waitstaff pick up food has a little written sign that spells the word "FRUSTRAGTED". Guess they were too frustrated to take the time to spell correctly.
Our waitress was a woman in her 50's that lacked that small town patience and charm. Guess they even get "flusgtered" in Amboy.
So...the food! My friend recieved eggs over easy that she asked for over medium. She also tried the albanian beef sausage which we both thought was pretty good but a bit spicy for her. I tried the biscuits and gravy and their malted 1" thick waffle. The waffle was actually pretty good. The biscuits and gravy were awful. The biscuits werent bad but the gravy was, I'm guessing, a premix since there were some sort of dried green herb in it which I'm assuming was parsely. The flavor was just not right.
Everything was pretty affordable and its nice to sit and be served after camping but this place gets business based on the fact that theres really no where else to go...in my opinion.
And did I mention they sell tylenol, bayer and alka seltzer behind the front counter where you pay for the bill? Are they letting you know you might need a little help in the near future? Hmm.
Nothing special. It's a typical small-town diner with exceptional food. I've had their Albanian style pizza and Swiss melt hamburger at two different times and neither really stuck out to me.
The pizza was good but, I've had way better pizza. The hamburger had no flavor to it.. and it just tasted... off. The pickle that came with the hamburger was not very good.
Service is up to par, nothing amazing in particular. Prices are cheap..
Where do five dirty, smelly, hungry campers go for some down home cooking where they won't be judged... the only place they can, the family restaurant!!
Usually these kinds of place are heart attacks on a plate! But not so much the case here, then again I was REALLY hungry. We all ate like champs, large plates in the beginning and almost licked clean by the end. I had 3 eggs scrambled, white toast, hash browns, double order of bacon, and (something I always have to get in small towns) biscuits and gravy. Though I've had better of everything, it hit the spot before our drive home. Best of all it was cheap and a great way to end a perfect weekend.
Five hungry campers.
One diner in a small town.
$48 = full stomachs.
I enjoyed a ham skillet which came with my choice of toast/English muffin or two silver dollar pancakes, because apparently, a decent sized skillet isn't enough. Â This particular dish set me back a whopping $6.99. Â
So, if you ever find yourself in Amboy, IL, give this little diner a try.