Ej’s Home Plate Restaurant

Don’t go to this restaurant if you want, and are used to good food! No one at our table of 5 liked any of their meals. The food was substandard, tasteless and over priced for the junk that was served to us. This restaurant seems to cater to folks who aren’t used to having good food… and the price is the main consideration. Yes, it’s cheap, but if you pay a couple of dollars more for your meal, you can eat anywhere else and have good food. Yuck… never again!

This place is the kind of place you want to go to to have a cup of coffee and talk to locals. It’s not the cleanest of places, but the service is friendly. The food is also good. Nothing gourmet by a long way, but it will fill your belly for less money than most places around.

We’ve been eating at this restaurant on and off for about 10 years. They’re located in a small plaza on 11^th street (US933), which also houses a Martins grocery store and a handful of other small businesses.
Prices and food quality have remained fairly constant over the years, though I think they do serve better lunch and dinner items than breakfast, which is generally not the case with most restaurants. Hard to mess up breakfast, but their pancakes are a bit «wheaty» (hard to find good pancakes anyplace here!) and their omelets seem to be assembled by someone who doesn’t actually eat them, if that makes any sense.
Lunch and dinner items though are good, and typical for a sit-​down, medium priced restaurant. Club sandwiches, beef and mashed potatoes, salads, and I believe they also have a fish fry every Friday evening.
Management of the restaurant seems to have changed hands a few times over the years and it’s beginning to look a bit threadbare inside. I’ve noticed some businesses, specifically hotels, follow a pattern from the time they open to when they fail wherein they start changing hands, maintenance/​upkeep falls off, they hire a lot of cheap labor, and eventually the place hits critical mass. Based on this model I’d have to say that they’ve got about 4 – 5 years left unless they do some serious revamping, and maybe restaff the place. IMO.
All in all though not a bad place to eat. Recommend.

What’s an Asian guy doing in Niles? No, I don’t work at Happy House or Great Wall. I married into the Michiana area. Niles is home of the wife. So I’m in Niles twice a year and the in-​laws like Home Plate. Why do they like it? Probably because it has a broad choice of food for anyone and everyone.
It’s like an IHOP, but I think Home Plate is cleaner and the waitstaff is 10 times more awake at the least. The last time I went, I got the Gyro sandwich with American Fries. Let’s stop here for a moment.
What exactly are American fries? I’m from America. I was born in Texas. I’ve heard of french fries and steak fries, small fries and curly fries, seasoned fries and shoestring fries. American fries? Never heard of them, so I just assumed they’d be another fry to the tune of «Freedom» fries. I was wrong, oh so wrong. American Fries are like hashed browns.
So the Gyro sandwich was. okay. The pancakes were average. Oh, and the american fries? They were okay for hashed browns, but I was expecting freedom fries. I guess the saying, «Expect the worst and never be disappointed» applies here.
The service is above average and that’s even serving a table of 7 of us. The waiter was attentive and quick to return with refills and condiments.
They may not have hit a home run, but as with any base hit, you’re always looking for Home Plate. PLAY BALL!