Greece Ridge Family Restaurant

3400 West Ridge Road, Greece
Visited Aug. 23, 2011
Written by Tyler




In general, we love family restaurants, as we’ve mentioned before. Usually there are a lot of similarities between them, but each decent one (B- or higher) has a few characteristics that makes each unique.

Most offer breakfast all day, but we saw no trace of breakfast on our menu at Greece Ridge, and couldn’t even find the restaurant’s hours to figure it out.

Actually, even the name of the restaurant is also a question mark. The sign says, “Greece Ridge Family Restaurant” but the menu says, “Greece Ridge Restaurant and Café.”

Whatever it is, it looks like a run-of-the-mill diner, and it is exactly that.

The menu was quite extensive and took a while to ponder, but I ultimately opted for a hickory ham and chicken sandwich at the last second, and Drew ordered a barbecue cheeseburger.

The service was insanely fast, as our meal arrived in just a few short minutes. As great as that was, maybe it was a sign.

For the most part, my sandwich’s components were very simple. Nothing had a ton of flavor. The grilled chicken breast was one of the blandest ones I’ve had, with no seasoning evident. The only thing that wasn’t completely generic was the roll.

That being said, I still ate the sandwich very fast, using honey mustard that also didn’t as much flavor as I would have liked.

All Drew could say about his burger was that it was weak, bland and didn’t sit well afterward. He had fries along with his meal that looked like they also fit that description.

We agreed most of the items were a tad overpriced, with most sandwiches around $7-9. Mine was around $9 including a side item.

I had a basic side salad, which was alright, but I was disappointed this family restaurant didn’t have home fries on its menu. I have never seen that before at this type of place.

To be fair, there were several menu items that sounded appetizing, like the Cuban sandwich or some of the various paninis. Whether they are or anything unique or not is another story, as everything we had was generic.

On a positive note, the service was phenomenal, and it had a decent at-home feel inside.

There’s no rush to return, but I wouldn’t completely rule it out.

Ratings

Service/Atmosphere: Service was excellent, and the inside appeared and felt homey, just as a family restaurant should.

Food: A lot of intriguing options, but it seems like a lot of generic ingredients.

Value: Slightly overpriced, but nothing ridiculous.

Overall: Very generic, with nothing about the food that made it stand out. Positive marks for service, atmosphere and selection, though.

Grade: C

La Famiglia Pizzeria

3208 Latta Road, Greece
Visited March 4, 2011
Written by Tyler



I remember enjoying La Famiglia’s pizza the only two previous times I had eaten it, which were a handful of years ago. I remember a thick crust and a good helping of delicious red sauce making for a tasty pizza, and I wanted to check back and see if it was still the same.

My grandma and I stopped in last month, and it immediately seemed different from how I remembered it. It used to be more of a take-out place, but now it has a decent amount of seating and regular table service.

The menu isn’t terribly extensive for a pizza place. For pizzas, you can choose from three different sauces, four different crusts (based on thickness), more than 20 toppings and six specialty pizzas. There are also calzones, wings (eight types), subs, fish fries, pasta and the typical fryer items.

We decided to split a small cheese pizza (10 inches, $6.99 plus $1.10 for each topping), with pepperoni on my grandma’s half and grilled chicken on mine, with thick crust.

After a decent (though bearable) wait, I received a pizza that wasn’t close to what I remembered. The crust was hardly what I’d call thick, the toppings and sauce were relatively scarce, and the pizza was a bit greasy.

It was good enough for us to finish, though I helped her with one slice, but I wasn’t particularly impressed by either half.

There wasn’t enough sauce or toppings. The toppings that were there tasted OK, but there were nowhere near enough.

The crust was also OK, but it was too thin for my liking. I would have been slightly more impressed by the thin crust if I hadn’t specifically ordered thick.

I wouldn’t call this pizza generic, but it was disappointing because the pizzas I had previously had at La Famiglia in the past were really good. I will give it another chance, but I’m not exactly counting the days before I return.

Ratings

Service/Atmosphere: The service could have been better, and there wasn’t much atmosphere. There weren’t many others eating there. It lies somewhere between a basic pizza joint and a basic family diner – perhaps too basic.

Food: Typical pizza-place menu. Our pizza was kind of skimpy in most areas. I don’t know much about the rest of the menu.

Value: Not bad, but I’ve had much better bang for my buck elsewhere.

Overall: Not how I remembered it, which is unfortunate because it was very good the first two times I had it. It may get a return look someday, especially to see if anything else on the menu is worth it.

Grade: C

Tillman's Village Inn (Wednesday B-B-Q Buffet)

14359 Ridge Road, Albion
Visited June 9, 2010
Written by Tyler



While driving through Orleans County two weeks prior, Chad and I noticed a sign that immediately caught our eyes: “B-B-Q Buffet.” I don’t recall any other specifically barbecue buffets around, off the top of my head, so we decided we had to try it soon.

So Chad, Greg and I made our first blog venture outside Monroe County to try the Wednesday night buffet, which costs $10.95 and runs from 5-8 p.m.

The Village Inn, housed in a 19th century tavern and carriage shop, is a relatively upscale restaurant, with many similarities (both in menu and prices) to Hilton’s Arlington, but much larger. We glanced at the menu briefly, but knew we were getting the buffet.

The buffet offerings included chicken, ribs, pork (not pulled), corn muffins, salt potatoes, baked beans, macaroni salad and potato salad.
We all agreed the chicken was the best item available. Picking around the bones was a little annoying, but the chicken was cooked well and the runny sauce, though seemingly generic, was balanced in well to keep from overpowering the chicken.

The baked beans were good, but also very generic; perhaps right out of a can. The corn muffins were fairly sweet, but weren’t warm, and also seemed rather generic.

Overall, Greg was not very pleased with the buffet.

“The ribs were disappointing,” he said. “Bland with very little flavor, while cooked too softly with no texture; like eating Jell-O off of a bone.”

He also said the potato and macaroni salads were disappointingly basic, as they contained just potatoes and mayonnaise, and macaroni and mayonnaise, respectively.

We all were very impressed with the atmosphere, which Greg compared to a grandmother’s dining room. It felt very welcoming and the relatively dim lighting added a comfortable touch.

While Greg probably wouldn’t return for the B-B-Q Buffet, we all agreed we would be interested to come back and try a regular lunch or dinner, perhaps even the Sunday Brunch. We have heard good things about the Village Inn otherwise, and they advertise “Award Winning Prime Rib of Beef, au jus,” along with other meats (especially steak), soups, salads, sandwiches and seafood.

We also agreed we probably weren’t the target demographic for this buffet, as a great majority of the clientele was senior citizens.


“The only reason this place is historic is because you have to be an artifact to eat there,” Greg joked.

Chad and I agreed with Greg that the barbecue wasn’t up to par with other places we’ve been to, but the novelty of a barbecue buffet is something that’s hard to criticize. I wasn’t expecting world-class barbecue anyway, and I feel like I got what I paid for.

It’s not fair for us to give the restaurant overall a grade because we all had the same thing, and it’s clear barbecue isn’t a specialty here. Once we return and try some of the regular items we can give the Village Inn a fair grade, but we will grade the buffet only, for now.

Ratings:


Service/Atmosphere: The buffet didn’t require much service, but we were never asked if we wanted drink refills and it took a while for our bill to come. It was kind of a confusing situations for both sides, though, as all customers sat in common areas, while not everyone had the buffet. For a regular meal, it appeared quite prompt and friendly, however.

Food: The barbecue buffet was very generic, but it seems like a highly regarded restaurant for more typical menu offerings.

Value: You really can’t complain about a buffet; you can get as much food as you want. I wasn’t exactly expecting Memphis or Kansas City-quality barbecue anyway.

Overall: It wasn’t bad, and gains points for novelty. I would be intrigued to return and try some of the more well-known meals.

Grade: C(for the buffet only)

Note: The restaurant’s website lists its price range as $8.95-$23.95 and is open every day from 11:30 a.m.-9:30 p.m., for lunch and dinner.

Sullivan’s Charbroil

4712 West Ridge Road, Spencerport
Written by Tyler

Visited March 6, 2010

Even though Sullivan’s isn’t too far away from us, we haven’t been more than a few times in our lives. It’s generally regarded as a small, somewhat rundown, but respectable burger shack.
After dining there for the first time in more than five years, I can say that is just about spot on.
It’s located on Ridge Road, right near the three-town border of Parma, Ogden and Greece. It’s actually in Parma, but has a Spencerport zip code.

Once you get to this part of Ridge Road, you’re away from most of the traffic and the heavy concentration of highly developed land that is Greece. In this section of Route 104, just west of the newly renamed Doug Miller Sports Dome, there are several specialty stores (carpets, awards, auto parts, to name a few), some small car dealerships, some vacant motels, and Sullivan’s.

From the outside, the building looks pretty rundown. There is a decent amount of outdoor seating, with several picnic tables sitting on a covered porch just outside the entrance.
The inside was surprisingly nice and clean, with an abundance of ‘50s memorabilia and four or five TVs adorning the finished, wooden walls.

There was plenty of seating – all booths – though none of which seated more than four people.
One of the strangest features was the location of the bathrooms, which you literally pass through the kitchen on your way to. It got the job done, though; at least they didn’t look at me like I had three heads when I journeyed back there.

As for the food, the menu was basically everything you would expect from a run-of-the-mill, small burger place like this; burgers, hots, fries, chicken and all the typical fryer items.
Once we placed our order at the counter and sat down (at two different booths because there were five of us), we were served fairly quickly; about the average time you would expect it would take.

Also as you would expect at a burger joint, our group enjoyed the burgers. Three group members ordered basic ground rounds, all topped differently. They said they enjoyed the taste of the burgers, which were very wide, not terribly thick, but not too thin either, between a pretty standard hard roll.

As per usual, I order a grilled chicken sandwich, topped with lettuce. The sandwich got the job done, but it wasn’t one of the best I’ve had. It was lightly marinated, so it didn’t have as much flavor as I would have preferred. I doused it with a little too much Red Hot, which gave it a little kick, but still not quite enough to compensate for the slightly sweet flavor I had hoped the marinade would have given it.

We had heard Sullivan’s had pretty good curly fries, so my brother gave them a shot. It was a heaping portion, but didn’t quite meet expectations, at least for us. They were relatively thin and greasy, and didn’t taste much different than the typical French fry. We would have liked a little more seasoning and thickness.

The regular French fries were alright. Nothing spectacular, just the basic crinkle-cut fries.
Deciding to make things interesting, Drew tried the sweet and sour chicken tenders. Tenders are always good, and sweet and sour sauce makes just about anything taste good. This isn’t something you see at every restaurant, so it was good to see something different. The tenders were basically what you would expect, everyday chicken tenders soaked in Boss Sauce, but that’s not a bad taste to have, even if you know what to expect.

For drinks, they have Pepsi products in a small refrigerator, plus fountain drinks with free refills.
One of the more interesting drinks they offer is Aunt Rosie’s Loganberry. Native to the Buffalo area, the multi-berry-flavored drink isn’t too prevalent in the Rochester area, but we wish it was.

“It was a good drink … like a Shirley Temple,” my brother said. “It would be my first choice before any pop.”

Sullivan’s is also said to have good milkshakes, so that may warrant a return visit.
Also, there is a driving range directly behind the restaurant, along with a miniature golf course, according to the sign. There is nothing like a burger and a bucket of balls from time to time, according to Drew.
In all, Sullivan’s isn’t bad, but has nothing overwhelmingly great about it either. It was the average, everyday burger joint, in our opinion.

But we have heard good things about certain items (burgers, curly fries, milkshakes), so give it a shot. Maybe your tastes are different from ours.

Ratings:
Service/Atmosphere- Not much of a wait, able to see TVs, not very crowded, pretty standard service. Booths were all the same capacity, but otherwise a very comfortable burger-joint setting.
Food- Not bad, not great, but very average. Standard burger-joint menu. A few different items here and there, but nothing that really makes it stand out.
Value- Also pretty standard.
Overall- A little atmosphere to it, and definitely proves not to judge a book by its cover, but otherwise very average. If we’re looking for something quick and consistent, and we’re in this specific part of town, we would probably stop here.
Grade: C