Wilda's Grill — Restaurant in Redding

I have been there three times now, and I really enjoyed the experience, especially because I had jury duty, and it compensated for the boredom.

The food: I had some-kind-of hot twice, and their buddah bowl. I was surprised by my portion, and the hot dogs were a little hard to manage. The buddah bowl was a combination of things you would not think would go together--beans, cabbage, jalapenos, cilantro, rice, chicken, and some kind of Asian. It was surprisingly good.

Price to food quality ration: Great!

The service: Nothing to complain about. They were nice.

The atmosphere: It's pretty ridiculous. Why would you even want a seat there? You're crammed in this little area where the line needs to twist like a snail so you can order your food, and if you're sitting, people are knocking into you. But, it's a tiny inconvenience for the great food in Redding. But...there's definitely room for improvement.

Conclusion: It's great, a bit...

The woman at the counter was inviting and communicative. She was always buzzing around doing something when she wasn't helping customers. She is with her weight in gold.

We ordered the Wilda and House dogs with a side of onion rings. The Wilda was good, but the House was better. The sauerkraut maybe didn't go well with the dog, while the simplicity of the House dog just sang with the Wilda's Mustard. We did sub out chopped onions in favor of grilled onions on the house dog. The onion rings were terrific with the crunch of the batter and the light flavor that highlighted the onion. The garlic aoli was good, if a little underwhelming on flavor and tasted like plain mayo.

The atmosphere was ok, but we weren't big on the artwork. The music selection was good, but a little on the noisy side. The place was clean in large just to the buzzing woman at...

I ate here with a friend at lunchtime during the week in July. We weren't the only ones there....the line stretched out the door. It's a small place, but still an obvious Redding favorite. Service was efficient and relatively fast considering the size of the crowd. There's not much space inside, but there is covered seating outside, so that's where we hung out.

We both ate the budda bowl lunch. It was a taste treat. I liked the layered beans, rice, meat and fine-cut lettuce all topped with an interesting sauce I'm sure I can't spell correctly.

And the sweet potato fries were outstanding. I have had these fries elsewhere. They are always good, but they were extra good. Some other friends stopped by to chat.....and they didn't hesitate when I offered some of my fries. Good choice.

I'll be back....probably more...