John’s Place

As I was going to get a copy of my daughter’s birth certificate at the County Recorder’s office, I passed John’s Place, which serves American dishes as well as Vietnamese! What a combo!
I actually like going into places like these… places that would turn off most passers-​by. The time was pretty early on a Summer morning, the local Farmer’s Market was just setting up, and temperatures were rising as well as the humidity. John’s Place had no air circulation at all.
I was just going to order a quick American breakfast… eggs and whatever. But I noticed Vietnamese dishes on the right side of their small menu! Ordered some of their Phở… For $ 5 a bowl, what can go wrong? And my wallet would not be the worse for the experience.
The Phở came in a pretty big bowl, but the soup was in one word… Water, just plain water. And not very much meat. I had to stuff my Phở with the sides that came with the Phở… bean sprouts, jalapeño peppers, etc.
The waitress came over and apologized for the Phở, explaining that the restaurant had to accommodate the tastes of it’s customer base… who disliked unusual spices. The waitresses were nice enough and attentive… But one visit is enough for me.
Hope Unilocalers appreciate this review… took a body shot for the home team with this visit!
Update 12-​22-​2007
I was going to get more records from the County Recorder’s office and thought to myself «Where to go to eat?». After the initial review of John’s Place, I received a message from another Unilocaler to try John’s Place a second time… that the first time was an anomaly.
OK… let’s try this one again…
Disappointment #1:
Ordered a Three Meat Omelette. Let me ask you a question… If you saw Three Meat Omelette on the menu… what would you think? You would think, like I thought, «Wow, an Omelette with three kinds of meat!» You’d be totally wrong!
Once the waiter (maybe owner) asked me what kind of meat I wanted, I knew this was NOT a Three-​Meat Omelette. It was a Single Meat Omelette from a choice of three kinds of meat: Linked Sausage, Ham, or Bacon. Ordered the Bacon (SIGH!).
Disappointment #2:
Once the Omelette came… it looked pretty good. As I took my first bite, I said to myself: «Where’s the Hell is the f****** BACON!!!» I looked inside the Omelette and found bits of Ham and Bacon. What the heck kind of Bacon were they using?
Minor Disappointment #1:
Hash Browns under cooked. Still edible, but definitely needed a few more minutes on the Grill.
Minor Disappointment #2:
New sign on the wall… Only 1 refill of Coffee per cusotmer. WTF??? I don’t drink that much Coffee anyway… but what if I did?
Rating does not change one bit! This is definitely my last visit.