Every once in an while I get asked about my bias towards mom and pops or local owned restaurants versus chains.  Certainly there are a lot of good chains out there that deserve to get reviewed and to be eaten in.

The Black Eyed Pea  used to be one that I enjoyed going to for their great comfort food.  They are a smaller chain that has restaurants in Colorado and Texas and used to be a favorite.  Even though it is a larger chain it still had its origins in Colorado so I enjoyed going there at least once a month or more.

But my last few visits here though have been pretty dissapointing.  They seem to go through cycles of ups and downs in food quality and I keep hoping that they will get their mojo back.  A couple of years ago they were flying high with  a great combination of good food and service.

While the service is still pretty good recently their food seems to have taken a dip, and a big one at that, in quality.  By the time that the food got to our table it was lukewarm.  The chicken fried steak that I had and the pot roast my dinner partner had (both of which used to be their specialties) were both sorry copies of their former selves.

The chicken fried steak was bland and overcooked.  The pot roast was so over cooked it came in the form of stringy strands of beef and potatoes and carrots that had obviously been cooked seperately then combined since they had none of the robust beef flavor that a good pot roast gives to its vegetables.

All in all it was a pretty sad birthday lunch for my freind and we ended up going someplace else the next day to make up for it.  Hopefully the peole at the Black EYed Pea will get their stuff back together again but I know that I am not going back for a while.  Give me bad food once and I’ll write it off as a bad night but three times and I’m spendin my money else where.

Denver is having one of its frequent winter storms today.  And with the storms comes the question; go out to eat or order delivery.  During times like this I always like to be lazy and order from one of my favorite restaurants that serve one of my favorites.

I’m always willing to pay an extra tip to the delivery driver so that I can sit in my nice warm apartment.  Many of the places that I order from are Chinese or Japanese.  I especially like these because they have nice hot soups that are especially tasty when its cold outside.