09. Jack's Place

!!!!FIRST ALERT!!!!

This is our first morning meal, yaaaaaaay! With guidance from John, Richard made a choice to visit Jack's Place.

Jack's is a little hole in the wall place that serves what John described as "the best breakfast and lunch." They don't do dinner, which is why we aren't eating dinner here. We also needed our food fast, because we were gonna go see Gran Torino immediately after our meal. So we called ahead and were on our way!

We got to the little shop and noticed it was just like going to visit a bed and breakfast in Colorado.

Here is one of the walls, decorated with family pictures. Pictures of someone else's family that you don't necessarily care about, yet appreciate because they all look so happy and there's so many of them that you can't think but help "hey, this is a really close, camera-friendly family" and then you smile to yourself. We ended up eating right next to this wall, and there isn't a single awkward photo up there. There's also a Washington Capitals flag there in support of local hockey, but don't let that fool you!

Here's the Colorado part! Jack's Place is the #1 breakfast/lunch restaurant in Virginia fan of the Denver Broncos! And Denver is in Colorado! So if you hate the Broncos, don't come here. If you like the Broncos or do not have feeling towards this, or any, sports team then you will still like it here.

Order's up!

Ahmed: Sausage and scrambled eggs.

Richard & John: Lee St. Sandwich.

Technically, Richard & John are breaking the "don't order the same thing" rule, but as you can see here:

Richard does not care because he's hungry and everyone was in a hurry for Gran Torino. John and Richard both agreed that the sandwiches were awesome. Ahmed wasn't a total fan of the eggs, but he did love the sausage, which in turn made him love the eggs.

We left and oh man, we saw Gran Torino!

Absolutely fantastic movie. Both hilarious and poignant. Clint Eastwood sings in it and acts just like we imagine Clint Eastwood does on a day to day basis. If he doesn't live next to Asian people now, it's evident he has in the past (and hates them) (or does he...?). Go see Gran Torino, and by that I mean buy it on DVD cuz it's way out of theatres now.

SCORES:
John: 7.5
Richard: 7.5
Ahmed: 7
TOTAL: 22

GRAN TORINO SCORES:
John: 10
Richard: 10
Ahmed: 10
TOTAL: 30

08. Royal Restaurant

Against all odds, only 8 restaurants in and John chose a restaurant that Ahmed was about to choose! Crazy! We ended up in Royal Restaurant! Not seen: neon signs when you pass by that advertise their SEAFOOD and SPAGHETTI. Will we order their advertised, therefore superb, seafood and spaghetti?

They voted, probably for Cynthia McKinney.

Off the bat, Ahmed explained how he's eaten here before and doesn't like it, and originally wanted to choose it to try to beat the low scoring Tiffany Tavern for "worst place we've been to." However, John wanted to eat here based on a very favorable review from his brother. Richard was stuck in the middle, like a child with divorcing parents.

Inside: the decor inside was very middle of the road, but we liked it. It seemed like a cool hangout spot for a college town, and thought it was unfortunate that no colleges were nearby. However, Pizza Pan is nearby so we decided to try to found a college specifically for Pizza Pan and Royal.

The waitress was something else. Her accent was weird. Not in a foreign way, but in a "she's obviously faking that" way. Richard figured out that she was an actress in acting school and her coach told her to be a character all day, even at work. She went for the Audrey Hepburn in the first half of "My Fair Lady," but ended up more like Ralph Hepburn in the 1933 Indy 500 race! (You see, he's a race car driver so I'm assuming he's a terrible actor. Like she was that night. Zing.)

Our drinks! Ahmed ordered a coke, John got a Michelob Ultra despite his desire to get a Michelob (they ran out), and Richard got... wait a minute...

No, Richard didn't take any of his drink. He ordered an alcoholic beverage (a fancy one, the name didn't get written down), and he got it served in half a glass. We did not like the lack of fancy alcohol cups, the place was half a bar!

WE'RE HUNGRY FIRST: We got the appetizer platter! Because if a place has a platter of some of their appetizers, it's a good taste of how well the food will be. Three of each appetizer, so one for each of us! The mozzarella sticks we loved, the chicken tenders were meh, and the wings... the wings weren't terrible, but John and Ahmed were underwhelmed. What did Richard think?

Richard took a brilliant picture of this lone wing that he couldn't eat. Yes, couldn't. It was absolutely burnt and uneatable. It was as hard as rock. At least we got some art out of it.

But then the food came out!

Ahmed: Meat loaf and cabbage

John: Chicken Fried Chicken

Richard: Bacon Cheeseburger (another art picture. For future reference, if it's a terrible picture it's taken by Ahmed, if it's a great picture it's taken by Richard)

Not pictured: Free bread and butter! And the butter was garlic butter, a definite plus for us. Also not pictured is the seafood and spaghetti, because none of us ended up ordering those items.

John highly enjoyed his chicken fried chicken, especially how moist it was.
Richard enjoyed his burger, also.
Ahmed enjoyed his meat loaf, mostly because last time he ordered meatloaf at Royal it was cold. It was not cold this time.

After a bit of a mixed bag experience, we decided the scores:

Ahmed: 5
Richard: 5
John: 5.5
TOTAL: 15.5

This place seemed more like a breakfast/brunch type place, why is it even open for dinner? If you want a decent dinner or presumably a really good morning meal, visit Royal Restaurant at 734 N Saint Asaph St

07. Esmeralda's

A review is coming soon, but here are the scores!

John - 3
Richard - 5
Ahmed - 5.5
TOTAL: 13.5