50's Prime Time Cafe, Lunch, 09-24-08
This is a picture of one of the menus
These are pictures of parts of the waiting area
Our reservation time was 11:30am. We showed basically on time and had about a 10 minute wait. While waiting you sit in the areas shown in the above pictures. In this same area is the bar, which you can sit at too, I believe I even seen some people eating at the bar while we were there, of course this would totally change the experience of this restaurant.
The restaurant is divided up into smaller areas, each with a theme and what looked to be its own server. Each area looked like it had about 6 or 7 tables. You can still see into the other areas from where you sit, but there are many walls that divide the areas and provide the atmosphere.
For those who do not know... this restaurant is a customer participation experience. After being seated you server, who plays the part of your aunt or uncle comes. You play the part of the children, and the people at tables around you play the part of your cousins. The utensils and napkins are all in the center of the table and someone in your party is responsible for setting the table(usually the kids). Your server will scold or discipline you for various things that are considered to be poor table manners. Now none of this is guaranteed, the experience will vary each time you go, depending on your willingness to provoke and participate, and of course depending on the server you get. Some of the things you can do to provoke attention......refuse to set the table or set it all wrong, elbows on the table, play with your food, don't eat your veggies, wear a hat, blow your straw papers at each other, blow bubbles in your drink, lay your head down, argue...... and more, you get the point .... anything your parents or grandparents would scold you for at the table.
There are some pictures at the end of some examples of the fun we had!
Appetizer
DD & DW
Beer-Battered Onion Rings - served with horseradish sauce $5.99
These are very large onion rings, they had what seemed to be the perfect amount of batter on them and were cooked perfectly. The portion size was perfect for one person.
The sauce was good if you like horseradish, which I do... but the ladies are not a big fan.
ME
Crab Cake - $8.49
LOL.... of course I got the crab cake(I wouldn't want to let anyone down)... this is what I believe to be what they have put on the menu to replace the herb fried cheese which is no longer offered (or at least wasn't while we were there, I asked). I enjoyed this appetizer, but it was one of those crab cakes that have less crab and more cake.
Entrees
DW
Chicken Pot Pie - creamy mixture of chicken, mushrooms, carrots, celery, peas, and onions topped with a flaky pastry $16.99
Mary was entirely happy with her selection. The crust was light and flaky, and there were large pieces of veggies inside, with a large amount of creamy gravy!
ME
Traditional Meatloaf - a blend of beef and pork topped with tomato glaze, served with mashed potatoes, and green beans $14.99
I am not a green bean fan, so I decided to go for the collard greens as an alternative.... "Uncle Tom" went away after taking our order announcing to everyone... "can you believe this guy, I have to force everyone to eat their green, and he orders them on purpose". This was fairly typical meatloaf, and satisfied my meat loaf taste buds, nothing exotic and not drenched in ketchup or gravy to cover up or hide the flavor and ingredients. Again the mashed potatoes and gravy, fairly typical. They hit the mark in this restaurant with the just like mom used to make dishes! The collard greens were kind of bland and still had a fresh firmness to them, you know, you could tell they didn't come from a can, and they weren't drenched in salt. I liked them in their fairly plain state.
DD
Old-Fashioned Pot Roast - slow-cooked until fork tender served with mashed potatoes, carrots, celery and onions $16.99
This was very good! The vegetables were cooked to perfection and the pot roast was very tender, just as the menu description says. The mashed potatoes were the same ones served with the meat loaf good, but nothing special.
Desserts
During the meal I had been noticing that several tables had ViewMasters on them. I was wondering why we didn't have one, and I wanted one to play with.... lol.... I am such a big kid! Well when dessert time came around I finally got to play with one! This is such a neat idea, the dessert menu is on the ViewMaster.
DW
Angel Food Cake - with fresh berries $4.99
A nice light dessert, not on the rich side, and as you can see they were not afraid to put some berries on there!
DD & ME
Bread Pudding - $5.49
I thought skipping the rich creamy things would be a good idea, and I am a fan of bread pudding..... well let me just say "I MADE A MISTAKE"
This stuff is named wrong, it should have been called raisin pudding. I like raisins ok, but this had so many it that there was barely any bread to hold them together. I don't like raisins that much, especially when I had my heart on a normal bread pudding. There was also a lack of a good sauce for it, what was on it I would describe as a runny frosting glaze. Both of us took one bite of this stuff and made an awful face, we then took a second bite to give it a fair chance and the rest was left sitting!
Beverages
We all got ice cream beverages. These were included in the dining plan as a beverage choice. The Peanut Butter Malt was the hit of the 3, they were all very good, and served the old fashion way, with the metal container, but Mary & JoJo were wishing they had ordered what I did.... it was just that yummy! I will be back to get these on every trip!!!
DD
Chocolate Malt - $4.99
ME
Peanut Butter & Jelly Malt !!! - $4.99
DW
Coke Float - Served with vanilla ice cream. - $4.29
this was served with an extra cup of coke to add to your ice cream as you desired
Beverage $ 14.27
Food $ 85.41
Tax $ 6.48
Total $ 106.16
Service
Our server, "Uncle Tom", was just wonderful. When we first got there we were hoping that we would get somebody who was into it, and we most definitely did. He made the meal very fun! He was absolutely friendly and made sure we were happy, very attentive.
Atmosphere
Fun atmosphere with customer participation. The decor of a time gone by is just wonderful. You get your own table for your party, but the tables are very close together and mingling with your "cousins" is encouraged. (cousins are parties seated at the surrounding tables). A very casual place, and not as loud as I was expecting it to be.
Food
A very ordinary offering here. Home cooked style meals. Everything we had (except the bread pudding) was very good. It was served at the right pace and the right temperature. The portions are good size but not overly large.
Overall
We thought this was going to be one of those places you have to try once but wouldn't want to really go back to... we were wrong. While the food is nothing to celebrate, it is good and there is no reason I wouldn't go back for more, and the experience was just lots of fun. Of course, the experience here is going to be somewhat.... what you make it. We are social and outgoing, and not easily embarrassed, so this place works well for us. So an overall great experience. I would suggest this location to anyone who wants the fun of the atmosphere, or for someone who is looking for a nice meal with minimal taste adventure.
The following are a few pictures of us behaving ourselves and making our mammas proud!
Elbows on the table as soon as we got there, lol. And it was quick to be noticed. I discontinued after being scolded but Mary and JoJo decided to keep antagonizing Uncle Tom...... you will soon see what happens to disobedient children like JoJo...LOL
In the corner you go! Along with a scolding from Uncle Tom, the whole area we were in was instructed to publicly scold her too!!!
Playing with our food... how dare Mary do such a thing, the look she got from Uncle Tom... it was priceless! He announced to the room that although playing with your food is wrong and she should be in trouble, he was not going to punish her, because she was so creative!