Facebook farce

Jim and Nancy do not disclose the fact that they will review a restaurant before they attend, ensuring their reviews are unbiased and uninfluenced by their position with My Sun Day News.

Jim has been bugging me to try a restaurant for months now that he repeatedly saw on a Facebook ad. He said it looked really good, and the owner owns a farm nearby and they offer farm to table ingredients. I wasn’t too excited about the restaurant, but I finally gave in since we had to make a stop at the DMV which was nearby. So, with high hopes we made our way to Isabel’s Family Restaurant in Woodstock.

The minute we walked in the door at 12:45, we knew something was amiss. There was only one other couple in the restaurant. Undaunted, we sat down at one of their 12 tables. They also had 10 booths and counter space.

We perused their lunch menu and decided to order from their Thursday Lunch Specials menu to save a few bucks. We nixed an appetizer today so we could have a nice fountain creation for dessert.

All “specials” are served with your choice of potato (baked, mashed, French fries, hashbrowns) or rice, a vegetable (cut green beans), soup or salad, and a roll and butter. Notice we said “roll” not rolls.

Jim was excited to try the Chopped Sirloin with grilled onions ($16.95). For his sides he chose mashed potatoes with gravy and taco soup.

Nancy hasn’t had chicken tenders since she had to eat the leftovers from when the grandchildren were in town, so she ordered the Crispy Chicken Strips ($16.95). She chose a salad and hashbrowns for her sides.

Jim was impressed with the chef’s resourcefulness when he received his taco soup. In our opinion, it seemed like this soup started off one day as minestrone, then beans were added another day and it miraculously became pasta fagioli, and now with the addition of a few tortilla strips on top it became taco soup. This soup was not a good start to the meal.

Nancy’s salad was the smallest salad she has ever had. Once she removed the wilted brown lettuce leaves, there was hardly anything left to eat. She was very disappointed since she loves her salads.

It was about this time we noticed we didn’t get our “roll” with butter, so Nancy asked the waiter for her roll. That is exactly what we each received. A roll packaged in cellophane on a plate with two pats of butter. Even wrapped up these rolls have seen better days, they were dry, dense, and crumbly.

The surprises continued when Jim got his meal. The chopped sirloin resembled a smashed dried out hamburger patty with grilled onions that looked and tasted older than the rolls. The mashed potatoes had a light-colored chicken gravy on top which went really well with the chopped sirloin. Seriously???

Nancy’s chicken strips looked really good, but after the first bite or two it had a different “plastic” taste that we are still trying to figure out. Her hashbrowns were the star of her meal.

Hope springs eternal. We decided to try their One Scoop Sundae ($5.95) for dessert. I had the caramel sundae and Jim had the strawberry sundae. He asked if the strawberries were fresh or just sauce and was told they were fresh strawberries. He received six slices of a strawberry that was delicious. However, upon checking the bill we noticed the strawberry slices cost us an extra dollar which the waiter did not inform us about beforehand. The sundae was the highlight of his whole meal.

FYI: This restaurant is handicap accessible.

This restaurant is NOT a keeper; it’s lucky they received a rating of one egg from us.

The price for this “Facebook Farce” was $58.37. Contrary to popular belief, everything you see on the internet is NOT true.

Jim’s take: The sundae was delicious, but $1 for six strawberry slices???

Nancy’s take: The caramel syrup on my sundae tasted more like butterscotch to me, but the hashbrowns were awesome.

Have comments or restaurant suggestions for the Dining Duo? Send them an email at thediningduo@gmail.com

---