Golden Acres Restaurant

I've driven past here numerous times, and I always assumed it was abandoned. It looks like a run-down diner at the top of a hill that occasionally has vehicles, but it turns out it's open from 6am-2pm, which would explain why I never saw anyone there.

My very first impression was that it is INCREDIBLY difficult to get to. I was heading northbound on 47, and I had to turn left onto Harter road and then turn around to get up there. While leaving, I couldn't turn left so I had to turn right and then left into Waubonsee. Big mistake, but I eventually got out of there. Now, on to the establishment...

The first thing you may notice when you walk in is how it still smells strongly of smoke despite Illinois' smoking ban that's been in place for a while now. The menu is small and the place is smaller, and it's filled with people who are definitely regulars: old guys who look like they just finished some work on the farm, and the only woman I saw (aside from the only server) was someone dressed in scrubs with a permanent scowl. There were different salt and pepper shakers at each table, and everything was dark brown or dark yellow. Mirrors along the walls look like double-sided mirrors, so instead of making the place look bigger, I felt like I was being watched.

The menu has a pretty good, classic breakfast selection. Omelets, pancakes, toast, etc. The prices were pretty reasonable, and I decided to have an omelet and a half-order of biscuits and gravy. My boyfriend had the "Hercules Special" which was pretty much just a lot of meat and eggs. The food came, and the portions were quite generous.

The biscuits and gravy: Okay, this was a weird one. The biscuits themselves were incredible. Like, no joke. Nice and crunchy on the bottom and a great overall taste to them. The gravy, on the other hand... Ew. It tasted watered down, the sausage in the gravy was scarce, and it just overall was not very good. But I think the deliciousness of the biscuits themselves probably saved this review from being two stars. That and...

My omelet: It was quite big, and quite good. It was cooked perfectly, my chosen veggies and meats were good and there were a lot of them, and the swiss cheese was pretty good. My biggest gripe was the fact that the mushrooms tasted like they were straight out of a can. Of course, I could also complain about the fact that choosing my own omelet contents cost me almost 8 dollars, which was almost two bucks more than the standard "Denver Omelets" and whatnot. But it was delicious, so I can't complain too much.

The omelet also came with "American Fries" and toast. American fries were pretty much just chunks of potatoes fried like hash browns. They were okay but kinda bland. Nothing special. The toast was pretty good, but really, how can you go wrong with toast?

Overall, I probably wouldn't go out of my way to go here again. There are other places to get good food around here. Unless you're heading southbound on 47 and you plan to keep going that direction, and you really want a smelly diner full of old farmers and scowling medical staff with only one waitress and presumably one cook to whip up a pretty delicious omelet and some bland gravy to smother over delicious biscuits, then I probably wouldn't suggest this place. Maybe once just to check it out, but that's about it.