Nobody goes to Jim’s expecting haute cuisine, so it was interesting to be invited to a test meal with nine other “regulars.” (I qualify by virtue of wolfing down pancakes most Sunday mornings with 15 to 20 other long-distance runners.)
Jim’s 16 local restaurants are distributed all over town, and most do a land-office business, filling that niche just above Denny’s and IHOP for a convenient place to eat, schmooze, or do business at almost any hour. For the taste test, we were served four entrées: two versions of chicken pot pie, a lemon fish, and steak fingers. Since the last is already on the menu, I guess the question was whether to keep it. The chicken pot pies were TV-dinner bland inside, heavy on the corn, potatos, and lima beans. One featured a biscuit topping, the other a pie crust, both a bit undercooked.
The heavily breaded steak fingers would horrify a cardiologist, but the lemon fish tasted like a winner. Two ample fillets, lightly breaded, with a lemon-peppery crust were accompanied by pilaf rice and cole slaw. All Jim’s portions are generous, and the seniors who eat there frequently are likely to cart home half their meals. No doggy bags, but we got gift cards for our labors.
