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Friday, March 14, 2008

Watson's Drug and Soda Fountain - Orange



116 E Chapman
Orange, CA 92866
Phone 714-633-1050
Fax 714-532-6531


I had a Restaurant.com gift certificate for Watson's lying around, so I decided to go there for dinner last night. We arrived as a party of four around 6:30 on a Thursday night. There were plenty of people eating at Watson's, but there were also many open tables both inside and outside. Watson's is decorated in the style of an old time soda shop. It's actually been used as a set for many movies, including "That Thing You Do."

We found a nice large both inside next to the counter so we could watch some of the action. Two cooks were behind the counter whipping up dinners as fast as they could and there was a girl making the milkshakes and all the ice cream desserts. They were offering all you can eat spaghetti, as they do every Thursday night, but we could not order it since we were planning on using our Restaurant.com gift certificate. They offer a different all you can eat special every night, but to keep their prices low they don't allow you to use any coupons or promotions when ordering them.

Watson's serves most of their breakfast items all day. They also have a section for both cold and hot sandwiches. They have a dinner menu as well, but it's pretty small. After looking over the menu, I finally decided to order the hot open-faced roast beef sandwich ($7.95) and a coffee malt ($4.95). My wife decided to go the breakfast route and ordered blueberry pancakes sans whipped cream ($7.50) and a side of homestyle fries ($1.50). the other couple we were with, "R" and "J" ordered the pork chop dinner ($10.95) and the hot open-faced turkey sandwich ($7.95).

J's dinner came with a salad and it appeared almost immediately. As she started to eat it though, she said "Ew, they just gave me all the yucky parts of the lettuce." The ice cream girl stopped by a few seconds later and asked "Who ordered the chocolate malt?" I told her that I had ordered a coffee malt. She apologized and went back to make the correct drink. Before she could return, our food arrived. I couldn't believe how fast the food was prepared.

My hot open-faced roast beef sandwich was basically a slice of white bread, covered in thinly sliced roast beef and gravy. It was served with mashed potatoes (most likely from a box) and previously frozen green beans that were sauteed with onion and bacon. The food was actually quite good as far as diner food goes. It was exactly as I expected it to be and I wasn't disappointed with it at all. Of course it wasn't gourmet, but that's not what you come to Watson's for.

My wife saw her blueberry pancakes and was afraid that all of the blueberry topping that was piled on would cause the pancakes to be too sweet. She was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't too sweet at all. In fact, she even poured some maple syrup over her pancakes. She thought they were average and a little too dense and heavy so she could only eat one of them. She felt the potatoes were on the bland side so she added a lot of salt, but at least liked that they were crispy on the outside and soft in the middle.


R seemed to enjoy his hot open-faced turkey sandwich. It was served with the same sides as my sandwich but also came with a little side of cranberry sauce.

J also seemed to like her pork chops. She said that they were nice and moist. She was afraid that they would be dry, like many pork chops are, but was happy to report that they were juicy and delicious.

I drank most of my coffee malt, but since they give you such a large portion here, I couldn't finish it all. Everyone took turns tasting some from the tin and seemed to think it was just as good as I thought it was. Watson's is definitely a fun place to go for a simple meal if you're in the area or have a coupon like we did. The staff were all very friendly and the service was lightning fast.


Watson Drug Store and Soda Fountain on Urbanspoon

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

My wife and I live not to far from Watson's and enjoy going there from time to time. They have good food, not the best in the world by pretty good for a place that's more known it's celebrity status then their food.

I have to make another suggestion, try Arthur's Coffee shop on Tustin just North of Chapman, and also you gotta try the Filling Station, I love their corn meal pancakes, in fact I'm probably having some tomorrow morning!

Keep on reviewing! I did a review for Burrell's over in Santa Ana today.

Griffin said...

DanGarion-
I've never tried Arthur's before. I'll have to get over there. I do like the Filling Station though. I was really sad to see that Earl's in Orange, one of my favorite cheap diners closed down.

Anonymous said...

We tried Earl's and although it was sad to see it finally close I wasn't very impressed with it, the food was below average, but the prices were good.