Restaurant Review of the Golden Jersey Inn Located in Yellow Springs, Ohio

The Golden Jersey Inn, a restaurant established in 1998 and located near Young's Jersey Dairy in Yellow Springs, can accommodate about 170 guests at a time, but the evening we went, there had to be over 250 in and waiting to be seated. As a matter of fact, they had run out of those handy buzzers, and the wait was about 65-75 minutes according to those taking names. So, it is 6:30 on a Saturday night, what do you do? Your choice is to wait or leave - only to exact the same fate at another establishment. We were hungry, but decided to wait. In a conversation with my husband, I (tongue-in-cheek) said, "I'm going to take my sweet time eating dinner." Oddly enough, I had no choice.

We were seated after waiting an hour (our choice), but then our server didn't make it to us until after about 15 more minutes to take drink orders. After a few more minutes, she returned with drinks to take dinner orders of which included complimentary sweet potato bread, coleslaw, and applesauce. Good thing, we were starving....but it took another 20 minutes for that to show up. I would, however, recommend the sweet potato bread and coleslaw. The bread was much like pumpkin bread and full of cinnamon-y goodness, while the slaw was the creamy kind. The applesauce was ok for chunky cinnamon sauce, but it was just ok. So, it is now about 8:30 and we ate the complimentary stuff quickly (remember we were starving).

It came time for dinner...my husband received his salad about 4 minutes before his meal. It was lovely, however. A nice raspberry walnut salad with dried cranberries, veggies, mixed greens with a razz-vinaigrette dressing. He barely got to eat it before his dinner came though. My son ordered Grandma's Meatloaf ($11), in which he received three healthy pieces of tasty loaf full of green pepper, onions, and other spices topped with brown gravy. He really liked it and ate about half of it. He also received fries and cinnamon spiced apples (similar to Cracker Barrel's). Fries are fries, so they were ok, but he didn't like the apples. He said it was similar to the applesauce - just ok. I ordered the Roast Beef Hot Shot, a roast beef sandwich drenched in brown gravy with lump mashed potatoes. I also got the apples and liked mine fine, but the boy was right - nothing to write home about. The sandwich was yummy, good portion, right size and it was the right price - about $10. I ate all of mine, but I was still hungry after a very busy day. My husband got a Gorgonzola Steak Penne ($13) with green beans and loaded baked potato. So, the penne pasta was just that with some veggies thrown in and there were pieces of sirloin steak atop and sprinkled with the pungent cheese. Not what my husband envisioned, but said it tasted ok. The green beans, he said, were mushy restaurant-style and he didn't even eat the baked potato. He said if we ever ate there again he would definitely get something else.

With drinks, our dinner came to $50 and we didn't leave until close to 9 pm. The kicker for me was when we went to check out (that doesn't happen at the table), I asked the cashier if this is how busy it usually is because we were new to the area and had never been there before. This young lady looked at us and smiled while she proceeded to tell us that we should be thankful to have only waited an hour. WHAT?!? Are you serious? You are telling me, a paying customer this? She went on, "Sometimes our waits are longer than two hours." Well, after arriving at the restaurant at 6:30pm and not checking out until 9pm, I can see how that is possible. Some of the problem lies within the meter in which food arrives to the table. Hello!?! I have eaten a 9-course meal in that amount of time; even if just we had been seated sooner, I'm afraid that we still wouldn't have gotten out of there under an hour. It was a good thing I wasn't in a hurry. Now, please understand, we had a long day, we were hungry but we didn't want fast food - part of the blame is ours. Do not go to this place if you are looking for a quiet night out. My parting remark for potential frequenters of this establishment is this - go knowing you will wait, expect that the food will take a while, and prepare to enjoy this very family friendly environment.

So to recap: The food was good quality homemade restaurant food - as close to home as you can get for restaurant. The atmosphere was definietly family friendly - so bring the kids, screaming or not! (WARNING: Do not take a date there for a quiet romantic dinner). Waitstaff were pretty friendly, but not apologetic for the wait time - which can exceed an hour. If you don't like to wait, pick an off hour to eat....and make sure you aren't in a hurry because they aren't in a hurry to bring out the food either.