Denny's (Coquitlam)

You would think that the last place I'd end up on my birthday for dinner would be Denny's, well you guessed wrong.  Okay, I didn't suddenly hit my head where Knight & Day can now be considered gourmet food...  Rather, the Asian in me took over any common sense and we found ourselves at Denny's for my free birthday dinner.  Okay, cue the haters - even Viv was dissing my choice.  Whatever the case, I made up my mind and nothing was going to change it.  Alright, I understand blogging about Denny's is as exciting as standing in the lineup at Costco, but it's still food.

Seeing how the kiddies enjoy almost anything fried, I tried them with the Appy Platter which included fried cheese sticks, chicken strips and fried jalapenos (the last one was for us of course).  Well, everything on the plate was kissed by the deep fryer (I swear the menu at Denny's is in various shades of golden brown...) where crunchy was the name of the game.  To be fair, the chicken strips were not dry while the cheese was melty.  I didn't like the peppers much though, it wasn't my thing.  For my main, I tried the Pot Roast and you know what?  It was pretty decent.  The chunks of beef were fork tender while the gravy was on the saltier side.  Nothing exciting, but decent nonetheless.

Viv decided on the Prime Rib Melt which was served on a somewhat dense roll.  The pieces of prime rib were sufficiently tender, yet not remarkably moist.  There was a good amount of melting cheese along with grilled onions.  The sandwich was a bit messy to eat as it fell apart with things falling out all over the place.  It was okay, but not something memorable.  For my son, he had the kid's Cheeseburger and fries.  For many years now, Denny's had been hand forming burger patties with fresh beef.  It looks like they have continued doing so which in turns results in a juicier and meatier-tasting patty.  The side of fries were pretty thick which ensured some potato texture beyond the crispy exterior.

My daughter had the Spaghetti with tomato sauce and garlic bread.  As you can clearly see in the picture, the pasta was a typical kid's version with not much to rave about.  The pasta was past al dente while the sauce was tart and a touch sweet.  Wished there was meat in this one.  As if one visit to Denny's wasn't enough, I returned with Milhouse and Lionel Hutz after Friday hockey.  Yah, I think we fulfilled the Denny's quota for the next 5 years!  We ended up sharing the Nachos which was topped with some chili-like concoction along with diced tomatoes and far too many raw onions.  This ended up to be quite wet and not really all-that-appetizing.  The flavours were too pungent.

To keep things simple and safe, I had the Clubhouse on whole wheat bread.  Other than the fatty bacon (which was crispy btw), the rest of the ingredients were fresh and well-portioned.  Can't go wrong with a clubhouse right?  Well, not really, but this one did the job. In actuality, we had even more items including a few breakfast plates.  But I'm not going to talked about them because I'm getting bored writing this post.  I'm sure it is not lost upon everyone that Denny's serves a purpose.  It's still in business because it offers up eats (as questionable as some of it may be) at a reasonable price 24 hours a day.  Breaky is still a decent choice as well.

The Good:
- Open 24 hours
- Okay pricing
- Free meal on birthday?

The Bad:
- Some things are very generic (probably the whole point of it all)
- It is what it is (in the words of the great Bertuzzi)