Let me tell you a story about a guy whose parents would every once in awhile go to this restaurant / nightclub years ago when he was a kid. Now this guy is in his thirties and figured he’d check it out for dinner one night with his wife. You would figure a business that has been open since 1971 would actually have a reason it’s been open for over 35 years, but for this particular business you would be wrong.
I have a question for those of you reading this at home or the office is it wrong to expect a restaurant to actually serve their food the way it is described in the menu? (I want you to think about that question and answer me back in the comments…)
When you enter Bobby’ McGee’s you realize this isn’t your normal restaurant, all the staff from the hostess to the bus boys are dressed like it’s Halloween. Of course there really isn’t a theme to why or how they are dressed, Super Mario, Indian Jones, Rainbow Brite, and a Football Referee were seen during our meal. My wife and I were fortunate (or possible unfortunate) to be waited on by Super Mario, no Luigi was to be found. The menu was basic and takes no risks whatsoever. The prices however make you think the food might be really good, if only that was actually the case. We both saw that they had garlic and herb fries when you order sandwiches so we had hoped to get them in place of a side, but our waiter smashed our dreams by saying they didn’t serve the garlic fries anymore (Strike #1). Mrs. DanGarion ordered the fried shrimp, along with the shrimp she was to get steamed seasonal vegetables and a baked potato ($16). I ordered the baby back ribs which came with cole slaw and GARLIC and HERB fries ($23). After our waiter left the bus boy delivered a just out of the oven loaf of sour dough bread. We hoped it was a sign of good things to come and we devoured our loaf. The waiter asked us if we wanted more bread, we declined since our meal was arriving soon. We waited for about 20 minutes, which is probably right since the ribs were grilled and not smoked (which is fine as long as they are prepared well). Then the moment of truth arrived! My wife’s plate consisted of a baked potato surrounded by 6 breaded jumbo shrimp that were drowning in melted butter that was on the potato, with veggies to be found (Strike #2). My plate was a bed of thin PLAIN fries covered by a rack of lamb, and no cole slaw (Strike #3)… How hard is it to get the menu straight? Maybe the problem was that we weren’t celebrating anything, since according to their menu and website they are “The Best Place to Celebrate Anything”. But to me the lack of a correct menu is like trying to celebrate your birthday without a birthday cake. The food wasn’t even good. The shrimp were over breaded and heavy (probably from the oil not being hot enough and then being overcooked). The ribs were ok; they were meaty but were tough; I don’t want to fight with my food to eat it (Tulsa Rib Company, Blake’s Place, and Chili’s have no competition here). At least the BBQ sauce I asked to use with my fries was serve to me hot, I love it when you get hot BBQ sauce it enhances the flavor.
So after our meal was over Super Mario took my debit card for our payment. It took awhile for him to come back because in between he decided to serve the meals to a party of 12 that he was also waiting on. Once he got back when our check our debit card was missing. We then had to wait to try and flag him down and tell him our card was missing (Strike #4?). It took him about 5 minutes to track down where he misplaced it. We left the minimum 10% tip since the service had been flakey the whole meal and quickly left for home.
Granted Bobby McGee’s isn’t a total failure I joked with my wife after we left that at least the costumed hostess was cute in her outfit. Amazingly she knew I was going to bring it up. Other then that the bread was good, and it was free…
Don’t even get me started on the looks of the place; it needs more than just a fresh coat of paint. Nothing appears to have been updated since the mid 80s. I guess this is what you get from the few restaurant / nightclub establishments that are still alive from the 80s. We will not being going back to Bobby McGee’s for food ever again, we might attempt to go there for dance some night but we’d probably have to be really desperate.
Unless you want some good free bread we both suggest you steer clear of Bobby McGee’s, you won’t be disappointed if you do.
I’m usually very forgiving with my ratings and probably too nice but Bobby McGee’s is a big cup of FAIL.
[xrr rating=1/5]
Bobby McGee’s
200 S State College Blvd
Brea, CA 92821
(714) 529-1998
[ad]
