Cj's In Franklin

Closed. RIP.

Transformed into a Mexican restaurant / bar... ( <a href="http://www.yelp.com/biz/centenario-ranch-elk-grove">http://www.yelp.com/biz/…</a> ).

No longer CJs it is a crappy Mex restaurant. Don't waste your time or money in this dive

CJ's is something of  a Franklin institution.  A dozen years ago, it was one of the very few places to go out to eat in the Elk Grove area.   The front of the restaurant doesn't look like much.  It's on the right side of the road if you're driving south on Franklin; it's just past the King Skate roller rink.

It's a place to go for a good dinner where you'll be surrounded by a "locals" atmosphere.  It's a country restaurant.  The decor is simple and rustic.  Very comfy.

Two of us ordered the beef ravioli, one ordered the seafood pasta, and one ordered the steak dinner.   The service was pretty quick, and soon we weren't paying attention to the CNN channel on the wall-mounted TV set.   The ravioli was pretty good!   The flavor was good, and the portion was generous.   i couldn't finish it all.  I also tried a bit of the creamy seafood pasta dish and ~really~ enjoyed the flavors there.     The pasta dishes came with slices of very buttery toast that was delicious!  

The person who'd ordered the steak really enjoyed his meal, too.  It sure looked good.  

It's a sign that the meal is going well when conversation stops and all you can hear is the sound of forks and knives tucking into the dishes.

The cook in the kitchen definitely knows what he/she is doing.   The quality of the food is almost surprising compared to the rustic decor of the dining room.  There're all sorts of local area memoribilia tacked onto the walls.  You could spend quite a bit of time checking these out..

(I didn't notice if all the tables were likes ours, but ours had only one central post to it.  It was best not to lean too hard on the edge of the table if you didn't want to shake up the plates too much.)