Last Saturday when it was all crazy rainy and stuff, I had to take my car in for service for it’s very first (and hopefully only) recall. It was going to take hours and they wouldn’t give me a rental, so I had to blow off most of my Saturday for that. Luckily Jake was willing to come and pick me up and entertain me while my Shiny (yes, that’s what I call it – Firefly thing) was getting looked at. Originally we went over to the Original Pancake House but the wait was 40 minutes so I quickly found another place on Yelp – Country Waffles – and we went there instead. Ho hum.
I had seen another location for Country Waffles down off Midway Dr., but I didn’t realize it was a California chain restaurant until afterwards (there are four locations in San Diego – Pt. Loma, Chula Vista, El Cajon and Clairemont). They quoted us a wait time of about ten minutes. They offered us a booth but we insisted on a table so had to wait a bit longer for a table. At that point I wished we had just waited at OPH.
The weird thing though was that they HAD tables open… one table (of the three open) was reserved for another party so I didn’t understand why we had to wait so long for a table that was clearly open. While we were waiting, I was looking around and thought the place was kind of kitschy… though it looked like someone barfed flowers all over the place.
It was definitely something else with pots of fake, dusty flowers above us and these interesting paintings on the wall.
For entertainment (and for sales) they had this game at every table. I remember playing this when I was a kid at a place called Po’ Folks but it had nails instead of plastic pegs. Po’ Folks also had a “Moon Pie” bush that I loved for some strange reason, since I don’t really even like Moon Pies all that much. I guess the idea of a bush that “grew” snacks was more than my little mind could handle.
You could also buy one of these for a mere $8.56 if you loved it so much your heart was gonna burst without one. My first time around I ended up with four leftover and three the next time. Jake was a smarty pants and left two pegs. T couldn’t quite get past leaving four pegs. We still love him.
[bacon & eggs]
Jake and T split the Bacon & Eggs breakfast (which I think was in the $8 dollar range). It came with three eggs, four pieces of bacon, hash browns and your choice of biscuits, toast or pancakes.
Their hash browns looked better than mine. Jake gave me a taste of the bacon which was limp and tasted a bit undercooked. Not crispy enough for me!
They opted for the pancakes. I also had a bite but the pancakes had a weird, bitter taste to them. Almost tasted like they didn’t mix the baking soda in all of the way or something. Pancake fail.
I got the All American Breakfast (in the $9-ish range) with corned beef hash. My hash browns were on the limp side and tasted a bit greasy, like the oil wasn’t hot enough to cook them properly. I gave the eggs away to the boys since I still don’t like eggs right now. The corned beef hash was my favorite thing, but it looked like the stuff from a can (but less salty).
I opted to get half a waffle (which was one of my choices with my meal). I really wanted to try the waffle since it’s called “Country Waffles” and all but didn’t want to commit to a whole waffle. I wish they had put that giant daub of butter on the side instead of letting it pool in the middle of my waffle.
Now the menu promises “crispy waffles” and let me tell you something… this waffle was not crispy at all. Sure, it’s cooked all the way but there are not crispy little pockets of love in this waffle. It was limp, not crispy, and overall just “okay”. It didn’t really float my boat and wasn’t quite what I was imagining. I ate only half and gave the rest to Jake and T.
Oh well. Sometimes you have hits and sometimes you have misses. This breakfast was a bit of a “miss” that day. I don’t think I’ll be returning anytime soon.
Country Waffles
(located next to Taco Bell at the base of an office building)
5252 Balboa Ave., Ste. 101-D
San Diego, CA 92117
(858) 279-0200
That restaurant is near my house! It always seemed to be in a weird place but a tall office building. The first Country Waffles I went to was in the Philippines (Makati) and even at that time, I wasn’t impressed. But I did like having an American breakfast again. With that and your opinion, I don’t think I’ll be going there anytime soon especially with saggy bacon. Unforgiveable!
Hi Darlene – It was kind of hard for us to find since we were looking for a separate building. It looks weird being at the bottom of an office building, like a restaurant shouldn’t even be in there! I didn’t know they had them in the Philippines! That’s a fun fact, even if was a very unmemorable meal.
Man, i’ve NEVER heard of this place and there’s one in CV too? gotta look that up or drive by or something.
update – just looked on yelp and it’s near the corner of H and 3rd, near St. Rose of Lima church. It’s in the newish big office building area. It’s really easy to miss. I only recognized it because someone put a photo of the exterior on yelp (which I actually feel is helpful). too bad the food sucked and the service wasn’t that good. 🙁
That wallpaper just HAS TO GO. It just assaults your senses. And not in a good way.And those paintings? The smaller one on the left looks like a tiny version of the one that my parents used to have…from what I can see, it looks like a red covered bridge with a dog. Yes, we had a painting like that….in the 70’s!
Hi CC – The one in Clairemont is kind of hidden, too. Must be some kind of weird theme… the wallpaper is pretty bad. I could also see the dust on the fake flowers hanging above us. I really wish we had waited at Original Pancake House instead… oh well, lesson learned, never to return. Funny your parents had a painting like that one, ha ha!
Sorry the food was kindof mediocre…however “barfed flowers all over the place” is the most perfect description for that wall I could ever think of…hahahah.
Haha I thought so 🙂
Hi Mary – This place is terrible, tried it about 3-4 times when we moved a couple of miles away. Bitter orange juice, SYSCO products at it’s worst……
Hi Kirk – Wow, you tried it 3-4 times?! I’m glad someone else can confirm that it wasn’t just me who had a bad meal!