Waiter Rant had a great post on bad restaurant desserts. And I posted a comment there that I can’t resist reposting here, because those of you who live in New Bedford may well know the restaurant I’m talking about in the second paragraph….
Ah, the joys of restaurant desserts…. Once when my partner and I were driving across country, I tried apple pie at every restaurant we ate at. The diners with their allegedly “home-made pie†were the absolute worst:– crappy pie without much in the way of apples, soggy crust, badly microwaved, tasting worse than a McD’s apple-pie-in-a-box. So much for the much-ballyhooed diner food. The absolute best apple pie I ate on that trip was at a Bob Evans — probably my least favorite chain, but they probably turn over so much food that at least the pie was relatively fresh.
On the other hand, bad desserts can be really good under the right circumstances. Here at home, the fancy restaurant in the next block over from our apartment serves really bad apple crisp. I mean really really bad. They buy it from someone who uses those canned spiced apple slices covered with sweetened goo that isn’t even crispy, and then at the restaurant they barely heat it with a microwave so that some bits are cold and some bits are hot. We love it anyway — we order it at the bar because (sick but true) it tastes really good with a martini. Yeah, OK, you have to drink half a martini before it tastes good, but whatever.
I was over at the fancy restaurant down the street earlier this week, and I think they now have cut down on the microwave time for the apple crisp (maybe they’re trying to save power?), and this time only the corners were vaguely warm. I ate it anyway. Yum.
So what I really want to know is this — have you ever gotten good apple pie at a restaurant? In fact, have you ever had a good dessert at a restaurant?
Absolutely, I’ve had good desserts at restaurants! The key is to not order the apple pie, or similar comfort foods (they’ll never be as good as your mom’s) but to go for something gooey rather than delicate. My favorite guilty pleasure is the blonde brownie with walnut butter cream sauce at Applebee’s. And most places can’t screw up a hot fudge brownie sundae.
If you should happen to drive west to attend GA this summer, make sure you stop at Connor’s Cafe on the outskirts of Burley, Idaho, just off I-80/82. They have great pie, including apple, made fresh every day by a little old lady in Burley. You can get buttermilk pie, oatmeal pie, beebopareebop rhubob pie, all kinds of berry pies and cream pies. And it’s cheap. I know that’s not what you asked, but it’s what I’m answering.
In the South, there’s a kind of restaurant known as the “meat and three,” the three referring to vegetable (but not always vegetarian) side dishes. Bread comes with it, too: corn or white loaf, usually. Drinks are extra and sweet iced tea, made in-house, is always the best choice, if you’re stopping with your plate lunch.
But meat-and-threes almost always serve dessert, some of the best I’ve ever had. Pass the limp cobbler unless you know something about the restaurant. Pie can be very good, but choose sweet potato, pecan or (coconut) custard: I’ve never had good apple pie at a meat-and-three. Apple pie really is a Yankee dish, isn’t it?
But the real deal is banana pudding. It’ll make you weep with delight, but I can’t eat it and have sweet tea in the same meal any more, so “I’ll have a diet Coke ‘n thank ya’ ma’am.”
The best apple pie, hands down, is from Wesler’s Farm Market in New Paris, Ohio. Okay, so it’s not a restaurant, but this is seriously good pie. Sweet and tangy, flaky crust, serve it warm with vanilla ice cream. oh my it’s heaven. Jennifer Wesler and her mother in law Wanda Wesler make it. Fresh. From apples picked on the farm. You can’t get better than this pie. It’s worth a trip. Follow the signs off US 70, western edge of Ohio.
OK, now I’m getting hungry…. I notice that these good dessert recommendations seems to be from the middle parts of the continent, not the coasts. Might be a cultural comment here….
There’s a pie place on the road from Florence to the Euge (if you stay in the Northwest for a little vacay…). It’s called Alpha-Bits, in Mapleton. Total Carol sort of place. Go camping at Tahkenitch. Stop for Chower at Mo’s. Much to do…
See you SOON!
xom
Yes indeed, I’ve had good dessert at restaurants. Even good apple pie. Through fall and winter, my favorite restaurant in Seattle, Stumbling Goat Bistro, served an apple tatin (a French sort of upside down apple pie) with home made pumpkin ice cream (and despite what the Waiter says, I know the chef at the Goat makes his own desserts), and it was fantastic. Oven-warmed, puff pastry crust, perfectly heated with that cold spiced pumpkin ice cream, and a little candied ginger on top.
As you (Dan) probably know, every dessert at Dalya’s resturaunt in Bedford, MA is good.
Also, I remember from years ago that the apple pies almost always were good at the diners along US highways (the Interstates had not yet been built). I just followed the old advice to stop where there were lots of trucks parked.
I live in Wisconsin, so there are many restaurants owned by people of very European descent who know how to make one heck of a dessert. Take for example New Glarus, WI. There is a restaurant there called the New Glarus Hotel. New Glarus is a Swiss Town which is made up entirely of chateaus in the downtown. They can make a MEN dessert there. Just sayin’. :)
Woops…MEAN dessert. :) Though the men like it too, I imagine.