Perkins Family Restaurant on U.S.1 In Port Saint Lucie, Florida

My grandparents celebrated their wedding anniversary on Saturday and we decided that we would go out to celebrate the occasion. It is hard in my family to have a uniform decision about which restaurant to go to and usually things fall apart before we end up even going out. Well, my grandparents are fans of the local Perkins family restaurant on U.S.1 here in Port Saint Lucie, Florida. Everyone in my family seemed pleased with the idea of going to Perkins and that is where we went. Now Perkins is national chain of restaurants that you can pretty much find across the country, but the quality of the restaurant varies from location to location.

Atmosphere:
The Perkins in Port Saint Lucie recently renovated the inside of their restaurant in late 2006 and so the atmosphere is really quite pleasing. Booths are spacious and can accomodate a family of four or five easily and the tables are spread evenly throughout the restaurant so that there is always a clear walkway. The restaurant inside is very clean, except for the bathrooms, but all public bathrooms seem to be subject to this curse. The air conditioner is kept at a low temperature always, which is a double-edged sword in Florida. In the summer time it is nice to have a cold place to eat, but in the winter it becomes bone chilling, but I always remember that the air conditioner is there more for the hard-working staff than the customers.

Service:
Speaking of the staff at Perkins, it is a very well-oiled machine. The service, from the hostess to the wait-staff, are all extremely nice and their "niceness" seems to be very sincere. If there is no wait, then you are promptly seated and if there is a wait, the staff works quickly to get you seated and I've never had a wait time at Perkins for more than fifteen minutes. The waiters are very nice and return often to ask you if everything is alright with your meal and if there isn't, you are brought a new plate with no questions asked. The only problem with the Perkins in Port Saint Lucie is that the manager there is really a little dictator and treats his staff with an air of contempt, but sometimes you have to take the good with the bad.

Food:
For some reason, I love Perkins' Honey Mustard Chicken Crunch Bread Bowl Salad. Perhaps it is because it contains a lot of what I like: honey mustard, chicken, bread and salad, it is really a full meal in one healthy serving. The salad I got this night was better than usual and I really enjoyed it. My grandparents both got the pork chops, with mashed potatoes and green beans. They both said that the pork chops and mashed potatoes were very good, but it was obvious that the green beans had probably been from a pot that had been cooking all day or otherwise they were of the frozen variety. They opted not to send them back because, as they put it, "they aren't that bad." The iced teas we all drank were a little weak, but were better on the refills.

Price:
The price tonight only came to thirty-five dollars. Considering that three people ate there and the outstanding service we received, this price was very fair. Our waiter, a young man that serves us most of the time we go in there, was given a five dollar tip. So overall, the meal came to forty dollars.

Overall:
I would definitely recommend that if you're looking a for a good place to eat when going out and you're in Port Saint Lucie, head over to Perkins.