Al's Grill

It's Tuesday again!  The first day of ISAT's for Jacob and regular school for Aden and Abby.  Jacob listened to his teachers and had a big healthy breakfast before school.  Then as he was walking out the door he turned to us and said, "Where are you going for breakfast?"  I really do wonder what he thinks about us blogging!

Today we decided to go to Al's Grill.  Al's is on Madison St. in Oak Park, just across the street from Oak Park Hospital.  Their slogan is "Where Food and Friends Become Family."  Not sure what they're striving for but I don't think we'll become family with their food (we've got enough to deal with in our own family).  From the outside, you can see the menu illuminated by florescent lights above the counter.  We assumed you order up at the counter and then sit down.  But when we walked in, the waiter seated us and handed us the menu.  We're not sure why the menu is also illuminated on the wall.

We had high hopes for the restaurant as it was very crowded, especially for a Tuesday.  Shortly after we sat down the waitress came over to offer us drinks.  She immediately came back with their version of coffee (definitely not Blue Max, The Depot, or Prairie Bread Kitchen).  We each ordered a full breakfast (not that we were told to eat properly for ISAT's but we both kept up with Jacob's breakfast mode).  Max had 2 eggs over easy, hashbrowns, turkey sausage, and toast.  Leslie had a spinach/cheese omelet, grits, and toast.  Everything came extremely fast.  The food was fine but not nearly as good as the other diners we have been to.  The turkey sausage was very good and so were the grits.  Everything else was just fine. The hash bowns weren't very crisp and the omelet had frozen spinach. We were really surprised at how crowded the restaurant was but the price and service were good so we think that helped.  It is also much better than hospital food so we're sure they get a lot of business that way.  We decided while we were eating that this is the perfect place to go if you want a quick breakfast but not McDonald's.

We're not sure we'll be back to this restaurant.  I guess if we are visiting the hospital it's a fine place to breakfast (it's only open for breakfast and lunch).  We would probably take the two extra block walk though and eat at the Original Pancake House a little further down Madison (one place we went to before the blog started that we will write about at some point!).