Omelettes along US-14 (ScreamingChicken)

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 21:22:19 GMT

For the past 2 Saturdays I've travelled from southern WI to northeastern IL along US-14, so that meant 2 stops for breakfast.

The first one was the West Wind Diner on the west edge of Darien, just off of I-43 and I found a nice sunny booth in the corner.

I like omelettes so ordered the "meat lover's" with bacon, ham and sausage. I asked for Swiss cheese, and hash browns and rye toast on the side.

I expected the cheese to be inside the omelette but what I got was a little bit of American inside and a what looked like a slice of processed Swiss laid on top. The idea was OK; there was a nice amount of meat inside so less cheese was better than more, but I was a little disappointed with the slice on top. Either shredded or sliced would've been OK but it should be the real deal, so while this omelette is promising I'd like to see a couple of adjustments. Nothing wrong with the hash browns, though...fluffy and a little creamy with good flavor, and a nice mix of brown and white. My orange juice refill wasn't free and the total bill with tip came to $14. The waiter was a bit on the quiet side but he did a good job.

This past Saturday I stopped at the Countryside Restaurant, which is located at the intersection of US-14 and CTH-M and just a mile or 2 west of the intersection of US-14, WI-11, and WI-89. The week before I had told my brother about eating at West Wind and he suggested that I'd like Countryside better.

Countryside also has a meat lover's omelette with bacon, ham, and sausage so to keep the playing field level I ordered the exact same thing as last week. It didn't hurt that I also like bacon, ham, and sausage.

The omelette was sort of rolled or folded over onto itself so it looked smaller than the other one, but they both were made with 3 eggs. There wasn't as much meat but this time the Swiss cheese was inside and it made for a nice creamy filling, so I liked this one more. The hash browns were a little more firm and the toast was very good; it felt and tasted like it was from a very fresh loaf of bread and it was generously buttered. I'm pretty sure I wasn't charged for my second glass of juice and the total came to $11. Just like the week before the service was fast and attentive.

These were the first times I'd eaten at each place so I really can't make a solid recommendation other than saying that yes, I'd stop again at either one and try something else. Since I might be headed that way again this coming Saturday it could happen, but there's also Nick's Cozy Nook in Harvard...

Brad