Kellogg's Country Kitchen was reviewed in the Enquirer a few weeks ago, and Terry made a beeline to try it. He gets a craving every once in a while for food that reminds him of home, and he figured that a country kitchen would fit the bill. He sent me a picture, taken on his camera phone, of his breakfast (while I was at work, of course) but it never got to me. He said it was comparable, style-wise, to a Cracker Barrel sort of place, but better and he wanted me to try it, too.
So a couple of weekends ago, we decided to pop in there on our way to see The Great Trailer Park Musical. It was around noonish, so more of a brunch experience than breakfast, but there were still several tables full, and the menu said that breakfast was served until 3 PM.
Kellogg's is inside an antique mall, and anything you see on the walls, you can buy. There are old movie posters, tin signs, and tons of kitsch. The tables are mostly the sort you'd see in your grandma's kitchen-- big, wooden and with straight backed chairs. It's essentially Cracker Barrel chic, but without that corporate, trying-too-hard vibe that chain restaurants tend to have. It's quaint, and the clientele seemed to mostly be older couples-- generally a good sign in a place known for breakfast. There were also several families with children, and they seemed to be accomdated well.
We each ordered the same thing, two eggs with hash browns and our choice of meat and bread. We both got two scrambled eggs, but I decided on an English muffin and bacon. The eggs were soft scrambled like I like them, the bacon was thick and a touch maple-y-- none of that super-thin stuff you get at most breakfast chains-- the hash browns were a good balance of soft and crispy (though I prefer mine to be a bit more on the crispy side) and the English muffin was an English muffin.
Terry was happy with his hash browns and eggs, but unfortunately, he had a bad experience with the rest. The first time he went, he had country ham and grits and biscuits, and he was really happy with them. The ham was real country ham, with a bit of the bone in, and the grits and biscuits were good. This time, the grits were lumpy-- the size of a large marble, a cardinal sin in the South, I hear-- yet somehow watery, and the country ham, well, wasn't. It seemed to be some sort of processed ham roll instead of the real deal. The biscuits weren't fresh-- they were impossible to crumble with your fingers and hard as a rock-- so he gave up on the biscuits and the ham and just ate the eggs and hash browns.
(The grits aren't pictured. Grits don't photograph well.)
(The grits aren't pictured. Grits don't photograph well.)
So this is one of those reviews where we had different experiences at the same table. My food was good, standard breakfast food at a reasonable price. His, however, just didn't turn out right. We wondered if it was time of day-- we weren't in the breakfast rush-- but I figure that if you serve breakfast until 3 PM, that it should be just as good as if you'd come in at 8. So my advice would be to definitely try Kellogg's-- just go earlier.
1 comment:
I ate there a while ago and really don't remember what I even had, let alone if it was good or not. I preferred it before the antiques on offer went up-scale... There used to be a lot more fun junk thrown into the mix catering to the likes of me, but ah well... Anyway, Julie, I'm writing to ask if you can make any suggestions as to which restaurant I should take my hubby and 2 year old daughter while in West Chester. There are so many to choose from, I thought it would be best to ask you. It can't be too formal, obviously, but I want to make the best choice given the fact that we don't drive up there that often at all.
Thanks!!
Sarah.
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