The Original Neal's Restaurant

We first visited Neal's many years ago, before the reboot.  Mr. Neal himself is a pretty interesting character.  But we found the food bland and did not go back.

I just tried it again for lunch recently--had one of their specials on the board, a fried pork steak with sides and dessert included.  Got grilled zucchini and mashed potatoes for the sides.

The fried pork steak is really chicken fried pork loin, served with cream gravy.  And it's quite good, nice and tender with a very crunchy, flavorful outside.  There's enough seasoning in the gravy and breading to notice--mostly salt, but that's fine.  I would order chicken fried steak here.

The zucchini was OK, it had some seasoning and a little texture left.  The mashed potatoes were interesting.  They are real (I asked), but they were very smooth and just a little watery--they eat like a box mix.  So if you like box mix (and I know some people do) then you would be OK with these real ones too.  I ate them but would probably get something else next time.

For dessert I had the banana pudding, and it was a very good finish--sliced bananas and a cookie (not a nilla wafer, something else) all together.  Everything is served at once (even though the waiter was attentive and refilled my drink twice), but the bowl kept the pudding from warming up too much.  I don't know if they do this for dinner service.

The service was first-rate throughout--polite and attentive.  The restaurant was pretty empty but I've eaten in empty places before and not gotten good service so I don't take it for granted.  The bathroom was clean and ready to go.

This puts it back on my list as a place to think about.  If a group wanted this kind of food I would suggest Neal's over Cotton Patch, even though they don't have chicken fried bacon.

My Yelp Review