A couple of weeks ago I told you about 500 Foods To Eat Before It’s Too Late. The book has lots of wonderful recommendations for eating great food all over the United States. I also enjoy getting recommendations from Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, the book based on the TV show on the Food Network. (See my review of the book here.) Whenever possible, we like to check out some of the restaurants featured in both of those books.
The hometown of Guy Fieri, the host of the Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, is Santa Rosa, California. Since we are not too far away we decided to try one of the featured restaurants in that town. We chose Willie Bird’s on Santa Rosa Avenue.
What is unique about Willie Bird’s is that they specialize in turkey. Since I love turkey I chose the Willie Bird’s Special. The special includes thick slices of turkey breast, their own stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, salad and a roll.
It was way too much food. And, I should have asked for the gravy on the side. But – it was delicious. The turkey was moist, the potatoes were real, and the stuffing was almost as good as mine. (I really like mine.) I only ate a fourth of the turkey and took the rest of it home. It made a great turkey pot pie.
They do offer some other dishes besides turkey. Jay had the special of the day – pot roast. As you can see to the right, his meal included the beef roast, chunks of potato and carrots cooked with celery. He was also served a salad and roll.
Pot Roast is one of Jay’s favorites. He said this one was nice and moist, however it wasn’t the normal cut of meat we usually use in a pot roast. We usually use one more marbled with fat which adds to the flavor. This one could have used more flavor.
Overall, we would give Willie Bird’s Restaurant a B- or a C+. It’s comfort food but not really better than what we do at home. It didn’t have that Wow!! factor that I expect from a restaurant that has been featured on national television. The thing that saved the experience for us was the waitress. She was friendly, patient, helpful and didn’t hover. She allowed us plenty of time to enjoy our meals.
We probably won’t visit Willie Bird’s again but that’s okay. There are hundreds more to try from those two books.
Talking about food is a regular feature on my blog and on other blogs as well. Visit Beth Fish Reads for other bloggers who are participating in Weekend Cooking.
I’m looking for that “wow” too and comfort food is easy to make. I like to go somewhere and eat food that I would have absolutely no idea how to prepare!!
I love places that serve comfort food. I much prefer those sorts of places to fancy places (which is one of the reasons why my husband likes me – as he says, “you’re a cheap date!”)
I agree – I’d expect “wow” from a restaurant that’s featured in a book like that. I guess the fact that they specialize in turkey is unique enough to get them featured.
Comfort food it good, but if you can do it just as well at home it kind of defeats t he purposes of eating out. And as muchas I like gravy – that is A LOT of gravy!
Hot turkey,gravy and salad is an odd combination I think – and what a lot of gravy. It’s really interesting to see restaurants like this.
I remember seeing this one on DD&Ds. While I do love turkey, not sure it is worth a visit..assuming I was ever in the area.
I love it that you make an effort to visit the restaurants you’ve seen on the show and in the book. I’ve never seen a restaurant near us featured. I really should check the book out of the library before we travel, it’d be fun to try one of the restaurants.
Sometimes it’s hard to find things that are better than what you can cook at home. There’s lot of BBQ places here but The Big Guy (hubby) cooks it so well, why go out? Same with Italian food – we like our sauce better than any restaurant we’ve been in. One reason I miss living up north so much is the fantastic seafood. That is worth going out for and not trying to cook yourself. *sigh*
I love that you were able to make a turkey pot pie from the leftovers you brought home! We don’t eat a lot of turkey – just at Christmas and Thanksgiving – so for me, turkey always feels celebratory. Looking at your picture and reading your description, I started getting hungry.
I’d love a book which recommends palces to eat here in Wales ;0)
How disappointing – I’d expect a restaurant featured in a book like that to get better grades. Your turkey pot pie was probably even better!
The dinnera look and sound wonderful. too bad that they weren’t flavorful. Comfort food should definitely be high in flavor. It sounds like fun to check out the recommended restaurants on your travels.
I loved reading your review. I would chose your house any time for a meal.
Not too sure how I found this blog but glad I did find it. Think I was looking for something else on google. Don’t know I agree 100% with what you say, but have bookmaked and will pop back to read to see if you add any more posts. Good blog
I’ve always wanted to go to one of Guy’s featured places. Lucky you!! You have a fun blog… fun for me to read. I’ll be checking back.
I didn’t know Diners, Drive-ins and Dives had a book. I love that show.