Thursday, May 07, 2009
Country Kitchen is a pleasure
TOM ANGLEBERGER Special to The Roanoke Times
Country Kitchen in Christiansburg offers Southern hospitality with its Southern dishes.
Tom Angleberger knows what he likes. So we've asked him to eat at NRV restaurants and write about them. If you have a restaurant to recommend,
e-mail him. Tom Angleberger
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Country Kitchen is of the old school.
The waitress brought small glasses of water to our table when we sat down. That's a bit of hospitality that many restaurants seem to have dropped a long time ago.
She also called me "darlin.' "
When the Southern hospitality is that good, there's a likelihood that the Southern food will be, too.
It's better than good, actually. Especially, the macaroni and cheese, a dish that this restaurant has perfected in all its gooey orange glory.
You could never be satisfied with a little dollop of this divine creation on your plate. But that's OK, because you can have all you want at County Kitchen's buffet, which is not only delicious, but also a bargain.
The restaurant has also perfected the green beans. It's almost impossible to walk up to that buffet and not come away with some of each of these wonderful side dishes on your plate.
Which can make it difficult to find room for the other things you'll need: fried chicken, catfish, cole slaw, baked apples and hush puppies.
There's also a salad bar, which I'm sorry to say, I underused. And I didn't even sample the soup. The call of the mac and cheese was too strong.
There is a menu at Country Kitchen. You can order a T-bone or oysters or veal if you want. Personally, I would find it awful hard to pass up that buffet.
The atmosphere is just right. The walls are adorned with finished, shellacked jigsaw puzzles. There's a fireplace and an ox yoke, but the owners haven't overdone it like those restaurants that try to fake a country flavor.
There were a few little glitches. For instance, my wife found a strip of paper in her spaghetti. A little odd, but not enough for me to take the "plus" off the A-plus I'm giving this restaurant.
Bottom line: Country Kitchen is a bona fide Southern treasure.
