Restaurants

The selection of good family restaurants here in Southern New Jersey is extensive. All the way from the southernmost tip of Cape May, up through Long Beach Island, Manahawkin and Tom’s River. This area of course, includes our own area of Atlantic City and surroundings. There is an exception, and that’s the famed Atlantic City Boardwalk. There used to be a lot of good family eateries on the boards, but today you’ll find mostly fast foods and pizza slices. The boardwalk casino’s aren’t included as most families don’t duck into a casino for a fast meal. There are some notable exceptions, one of which is the Country Kitchen in front of the Boardwalk Days Inn, located on Morris Avenue @ the Boardwalk, across the street from the Tropicana. The Country Kitchen is open all year beginning with breakfast at 7am. Closing time varies according to the season. The earliest it stops serving is 7pm, and during the summer months, 9pm. The menu changes according to the seasons. This particular Country Kitchen is ranked in the Top 3 nationally for the amount of meals it serves all year, and some months is #1.


We’ll start with Breakfast. The listings are quite extensive and what is really nice, they serve breakfast all day and the prices, by anyone’s standards are extremely reasonable. Example: 2 eggs w/bacon, ham or sausage, hash browns, toast or 2 pancakes, $5.49. For only $2 more, you can go with their Barn Buster, 4 eggs, 4 slices of bacon or 4 sausage links, 4 pancakes and 4 slices of toast. I don’t know if that’s a barn buster or a tummy acher. Country Kitchen’s feature what they call Breakfast Skillets and that means everything comes in a skillet. The prices go from the Farm Skillet which contains eggs, grilled sausage, onions, and green peppers served on a bed of hash browns, $5.99. The other skillets, Skillet Scrambled, the Fiesta, Double Up, and Potato Skillets are all in the $6.29 category. And there’s Pancakes as well as French Toast. Cinnamon French Toast. The cakes come in several varieties that include Strawberry, and Cinnamon Apple. $4.79 thru $6.29. There are numerous appetizers and salads including a $6.99 Cobb Salad which is more well known on the west coast but is a meal in itself with strips of turkey, hard boiled eggs, peppered bacon, tomatoes, cucumbers, and green onions all layered row by row on both iceberg and leaf lettuce served with bleu cheese. This is a great salad when you think our really not hungry, but still feel the need to eat. You get filled without that filled feeling. I know, that’s really clear. If its sandwiches only, Country Kitchen has a full list of burgers and other meats from the carving board like their San Francisco Melt that includes slices of Roast Beef and Turkey, a blend of Wisconsin Cheeses, grilled onions, lettuce and tomato, on grilled Parmesan sourdough bread. $6.49.

The dinner sections are equally as extensive beginning with the traditional Spaghetti & Meatballs with garlic toast at $6.29. The top of the line Texas size T-Bone is served with seasoned vegetables and a baked potato for $15.99. The Country Kitchen brags that if you can eat two, they’ll award you a free T-shirt, not to mention a sofa to take an after dinner nap. In between these two prices, you’ll find Double Smothered Chicken, a Pot Roast Skillet Dinner, Country Fried Steak, and even old fashioned home style Meatloaf.

There’s another section of the menu that I find parents will appreciate greatly and that’s the separate section for the kids under age 10. The prices are small fry also. Here are a few examples: Mr. Chippy is only $3.29 for 2 chocolate chip pancakes with whipped topping. Mini Corn Dogs, they don’t have a clever name for these, are served with seasoned French Fries and an ice cream sundae for again, only $3.29 and they even have individual pizzas also with the ice cream sundae, $3.79. Makes me wonder how they get those little delivery cars into the restaurant. After all of this, there had better be room for dessert because there’s even a separate page for Pies, Apple Dumplings, Wild Berry Johnnycake, a Butterscotch Kiss, Hot Fudge Cakes, Strawberry Angelfood Cake, and Ice Cream Sundaes all in the $2.79 to $3.79 range. For your beverage, don’t pass on the Raspberry Iced Tea with a free refill.

Even though I frequent a lot of the gourmet restaurants in the market, the Country Kitchen is one of my favorite non gourmet places because the food is much better then fast food, and is just as quick for the most part. I temper this because during the busy season, it does get crowded for breakfast and lunch, and service does slow up a bit. However there are rarely lines during dinner time. The pricing structure leaves you with money for your casino visit and the room is always clean, with families welcome.