tenney@well.UUCP (Glenn S. Tenney) (07/26/87)
Don't know what happened, but the 1st posting missed, here it is: My family and I just spent a long couple of days at Disneyland eating what can only loosely be called edible. When we left, we were headed to San Diego and encountered a restaurant called "Johnny Rebs' Southern Smokehouse" just before we got onto the freeway. Although it was about lunchtime, the kids still wanted breakfast and the sign calling for Southern Breakfast drew us to pull in. Maybe we had experienced such awful "food", but we were pleasantly surprised to find real food so near to Disneyland (and the Anaheim Convention Center). We were so pleased, that a few days later on our way back from San Diego, we stopped there again for lunch. Looking back, we still feel the food was very good and do recommend it for visitors wanting real food. This place is at 150 E. Katella Ave (on the right, just before you get onto hiway 5) in Anaheim (714-535-REBS) about a mile or two from Disneyland or the Anaheim convention center. This location is a few weeks old, but they have another place in Long Beach that's been there a couple or 3 years. The kids had breakfast -- "pig out" three buckwheat flapjacks (huge), two eggs, and one had bacon (nice thick-cut, real bacon) the other had sausage (two large patties of real sausage, maybe homemade?) -- $3.95 each. We had BBQ chicken ($4.25) and BBQ pork ribs ($5.95). My wife couldn't eat all of her chicken (a leg and thigh were left over) while I DID eat all of the ribs (there weren't many, 4-6 small ones). The normal BBQ sauce was ok, the meat very nicely smoked. They also offer North Carolina BBQ sauce which was interesting (very runny, vinegary, and nicely spicy). You also get a sample of Brunswick stew (a tad sweet, but very nice), homemade biscuits (yep, really made by them), and choice of two of Southern slaw/Cajun Rice/BBQ beans/ fries/greens. Between the two of us we didn't try the fries, but everything else was great. On our return trip, the kids had the BBQ Sausage link sandwich with BBQ beans and a sample of Brunswick stew ($3.75). I had the Lousiana seafood gumbo over rice with hushpuppies ($4.85) which was very good (lots of shrimp, fish and okra amongst the ingredients) and nice and spicy (I like it spicier, but...). My wife had the blackened red snapper (yup, we actually had something "blackened") which was very good, not at all salty, and nicely spicy with rice and hushpuppies ($5.75). Over the two meals there we also tried some of their cornbread (great, a nice huge serving), onion rings (hadn't had real homemade ones in a long time), and of course grits (they come with some breakfasts, but unlike some places I've been they don't force them with every dish). The coffee was actually good, with that nice flavor of chicory (or was it cinnamon?). We didn't try the desserts, but they claim their pecan pie and key lime pie are made right there! The mocha chocolate pecan pie sounded tempting, but we were full and took the leftovers with us. The peanuts on the table and shells on the floor with the friendly atmosphere made it a nice place to eat. All in all, a very nice place at VERY reasonable prices (the most expensive meal would be the Bourbon steak at $6.95). Sorry this was so long, but in a wilderness of good food it was nice to find an oasis. If you followup to this article, think carefully about which groups to include. I've sent this to the newsgroups I thought would be most interested especially with SigGraph happening right there. Glenn Tenney Email me if you go, I'm curious if our palates were deadened by all of the awful "food" we had on our trip. My wife and I discussed it and decided it really was a good place and would go back again!