Day and Night All American Grill
Had dinner for the first time at the Day and Night All American Grill located at 1310 Old Bayshore Highway in Burlingame. This is the restaurant that had been Sizzler for many years and was recently re-opened. Not much has changed inside with the exception of the salad bar being removed from the center of the restaurant. Otherwise, looks much like it did after the last Sizzler remodel, quaint and warm. As soon as we walked in we were immediately greeted and seated at a booth by the window. We were asked if we wanted the blind drawn, as the sun was beginning to go down and would likely be shining right in our faces soon. At that point I was expecting a great experience, as I always need to ask for the blinds to be lowered, never do they ask me first. Big bonus points for that alone.
Thankfully, the experience only got better from there. Our waiter quickly arrived at our table, bringing a pitcher of water and asking if we had any questions about the menu and if we wanted anything else to drink besides the water. We placed our drink requests and as soon as he returned with them he asked if we were ready to order. As it was our first time eating there, and they have a large variety of items on their menu, we requested a few more minutes to decide. Not a moment after we put down our menus our waiter returned to take our order.
The majority of their menu is breakfast items and since I have no trouble eating breakfast foods morning, noon, or night, I chose from their abundant offerings there. As an avid aficionado of pancakes, I ordered the Everything Pancakes. You can get either two or three buttermilk pancakes in the order. Bananas and blueberries are cooked into the batter and they’re then topped with strawberries, powered sugar, and whipped cream. They are also accompanied with your own personal pitcher of warm maple syrup. I love pancakes, but there are very few restaurants that make them well, so it is often with trepidation that I order them. I am extremely happy to report that I now have a third restaurant where I can safely order them and know they will be great. They were just the right flavor with the exact right amount of sweetness. They were crispy on the outside and tender on the inside and perfectly cooked. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had tough and flavorless pancakes when eating out, but not here. Fruit is always another perilous venture in many restaurants. Frozen strawberries are so often the norm, even when the menu says fresh, that I often lower my expectations going in, but I needn’t have done so here. The strawberries were indeed fresh and wonderfully sweet. The bananas and blueberries within were also perfectly fresh. Kudos to the restaurant staff for not only making a perfectly cooked pancake, but for also for making a quality one. This is a rarity and I am very appreciative of it.
My fellow diners ordered the Light Sandwich and the Smoked Salmon Omelet. The sandwich consists of toasted wheat bread with cream cheese, avocado, sprouts, and cucumber. We ordered minus the sprouts. It is accompanied by a small salad and fries. The biggest bright spot to this item was that the avocado was perfectly fresh. So many times you get brown avocado, often even black, in restaurants, which is a huge issue for me. To have brightly green avocado on this sandwich was a true treat. More kudos to the restaurant for serving truly fresh foods. The Smoked Salmon Omelet is salmon with cheese, hollandaise sauce, and capers, and is served with hash browns and bagel bread. The bread was great, lightly crispy on the outside and semi-chewy on the inside. The only complaint was that there wasn’t enough salmon in the omelet. Everything tasted great, however.
We all enjoyed our food choices. The quality of the ingredients and the care in putting them together is very evident. Additional pluses were that all of the staff were friendly and attentive, and the utensils and glasses were very clean. Something that should be expected in any restaurant, but often is not the reality. The only downside to the menu is that they offer no true dinner items. I think a couple of entrées or special of the day dinners would go a long way to increasing the patronage of the establishment. While we were there they only had one other customer and this was on a Saturday night. Another downside were the bothersome gnats. There were only a couple, but they were constantly in our faces and our food. Continuously needing to swat at flying creatures while eating is never fun. There were several dead ones on the counter in the bathroom, as well, which tells me they are trying to do something about them, but the problem hasn’t been eradicated yet. My only real complaint was that there were a couple of staff members, clearly bored as there were so few customers, speaking in Spanish in the eating area. In my opinion this is never okay. It was clearly personal conversations, which aren’t appropriate in front of guests regardless of the language in which they are occurring. That being said, my family had an overall enjoyable meal and we will definitely return in the near future. I highly recommend you give this restaurant a try, especially if you are a lover of breakfast foods.
Menu
http://dayandnightgrill.com/
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