Gus' Red Hots — Restaurant in Town of Plattsburgh

We stopped on way back from Plattsburgh to Vermont. The menu looked great. There were so many choices all 4 of us found something we wanted for take out. That’s the most positive thing I can say. We ended up pretty disappointed. 1. Very slow! Despite very few other patrons. There was one table of 2 finishing their meals. A couple take out orders were picked up. We sat there for 50 minutes and watched the chef make 1 thing at a time. 2. The cook did not make the food according to the menu and forgot one item completely. We ordered 2 Italian paninis. One with mayo instead of oil and vinegar. That one did not get mayo. Before the other Italian panini was ordered, we watched the cook make “the holiday” panini. It looked like the cook squirted regular mayo so I asked the waitress to make sure it was cranberry mayo since the person who ordered chose that sandwich because of the cranberry mayo. Well the waitress never checked so I opened the box and showed her it did not look like cranberry mayo. She then asked the cook and he said oh we don’t have any. If I hadn’t checked our order, the person receiving it would have been fuming! The person then said they didn’t want that, so they made the other Italian panini. The waitress said she was sorry she didn’t know they were out but if I hadn’t checked that box it would have been ruined for the new mom who is exhausted and wanted her meal exactly correct. I also noticed they gave us 3 michigans when we ordered 2 and the fries for one sandwich were missing completely. 3. The food was not even close to delicious. The macaroni beef soup was probably the worst I’ve ever tasted. It tasted like soup was running low so they dumped water in it. It was thin and had no taste at all. My taco salad was equally disappointing. The fried shell bowl looked good at first but tasted stale. I asked the waitress if it would be spicy and she said no, it was just taco seasoning in the beef. She also said she would put the salsa on the side, which she did, but the cook also put it right on top of all the lettuce. The beef and salsa were both too spicy for me. Also, I never tasted any cheese or vegetables other than lettuce. The black olive slivers I didn’t notice on the menu description and it looked like they didn’t have any other vegetables and very little lettuce to make this salad so it was a huge disappointment. I threw it away after 2 bites.

Now this was a Sunday and the Sunday before Labor Day, so that may be why they were so off their game. I don’t go often enough to know, but I hope for their sake it was just a bad holiday weekend mess up. I hope the owner will see this and retrain both the waitstaff and cooks to make the great menu match the food produced. I doubt it’s difficult to make cranberry mayo but this cook wasn’t gonna go out of his way to make the food as it was described on the menu. He also did not know how to make Michigan’s and paninis at the same time. Another cook made the taco salad. 4. The cook did not use traditional cooking methods. The slow guy made the bacon first for the holiday panini. He took precooked bacon, put it in the fry basket and dropped it down into the hot bubbly oil. the already greasy food and made it greasier! Not cool. Then he made the holiday sub changed it to regular mayo without saying a word Then he made the sweet potato fries. Then he made the Italian paninis. Then he made the Michigan’s. Very very inefficient way to do the cooking. Not high quality and/or very tasty. I have never seen a panini made with this lain white bread. Should’ve been called a grilled cheese. I am thankful I opened all the knotted bags of food to see if order was correct and complete. It was not. We then spent another 10 minutes waiting for corrections. Good thing we weren’t in a hurry. You can do better...

If you like the standard greasy diner style food, then you'll probably like what is served. Not saying that in a bad way, because I personally like that kind of food, but this is not the place to go for an upscale dining experience.

I grew up in the area in the '60s and '70s, so I might be a bit biased when I say I love the atmosphere of this place. It has a homey feel.

Service is usually just fine, but occasionally when busy it can be slow.

The food is fairly standard diner fair. I think the prices are a little high, but I'll make allowances due to the crazy circumstances in the last year and the expense involved reopening this place.

It seems the new menu has been trimmed down a little, but still maintains all the old favorites. Overall the place looks and runs just like it did before it closed, which is nice. Cosmetically, very little has changed inside. However, the new owners have added a nice outdoor seating area as well as freshly paved the parking lot and spruced it up and I think it looks nicer than it ever has from the road.

As for the michigans (red hots), it really depends on what type of michigan you like. If you like the standard michigan which is served at places like Clare & Carl's, Michigan's Plus, McSweeney's or Nitzi's then you'll like these michigans because in my opinion they all taste about the same. These michigans are much more chili powder based and have a mushier consistency. I personally prefer a sweeter, meatier style of sauce such as the type served at Ronnie's. But to each their own.

The poutine was not half bad and was more authentic than you'll find at most places as it used real cheese curds. However, it really should have more gravy and the gravy itself needs a heartier flavor.

I'm hoping this year they continue the tradition with their perch dinner, because it was absolutely the best in the area.

So overall when I'm in the mood for a hometown atmosphere and greasy diner food, or it's 5:00 p.m. and I feel like eating breakfast, this is where I usually go and I'm rarely disappointed. It's so nice to have this place reopened and...

MOLDED CAKES I gave Gus’ a chance 5 different times. The 1st 3 times we went for breakfast. I ordered the eggs Benedict with a side of hash. The breakfast also came with home fries. The hash was just about cremated on one side and not even heated on the other. The eggs were hard boiled basically. The potatoes were also black on one side. It was us and one other couple. So it’s not like he was being rushed. The second time, I ordered egg toast and side of hash. The hash was again like charcoal and the egg cold. 3rd this I ordered the same and to my surprise the hash was burned black again. 4th time we tried the perch dinner. Never have I ever had perch that was deep brown. The perch was highly over seasoned with Cajun seasoning and salty couldn’t even taste the fish. Which was probably a good thing. The fish seemed like it was fried as some point and refried again for my dinner. The 5th time 7/20 my family and I gave it a 5th and final chance. Ordered Michigans, hot dog and a Ruaben sandwich. The sandwich had a funny taste that the buns for the Michigans were hard and stale. My boyfriend asked for a piece of cake. When the cake arrived, you could tell that the outside was a different color than the inside. It just looked old, but my boyfriend ate it anyway. When we went up to the register to pay, I looked at all the cakes that were behind the case and the cakes were dated 7/14 & 7/15. There was a piece of coconut cream cake on the top shelf that had about a dime size piece of mold right in the middle. I have never felt so disgusted in my entire life that I gave it that many chances, and obviously nothing changed the bread always taste old. You can tell the cake sitting in there are older than they should be sitting there. I was just trying to give a small business My money but will never happen again. It’s absolutely disgusting. I’m disgusted that my baby ate that. I will say in contrast the weight staff was very pleasant. However, you know what goes on there and you can change that and you do not so you’re part of...