Apple Annie's — Restaurant in Tulare

LONG overnight, round-trip between Stockton and Woodland Hills to help girlfriend move furniture. EXHAUSTED. Hurting. Mentally drained. Hungry!

Lucky me! Serendipitously, I stumbled me and the U-Haul beast into Annie's parking lot on my return trip. Cute name, I thought -- someone ought to use that name for a restaurant...

Fuzzy eyesight came back into focus. It IS a restaurant! I hustled into breakfast heaven.

For the first time in a very long time I ordered pork chops with my over easy eggs and hash browns. What a GREAT and tasty breakfast!

The service was fast and friendly, and my coffee cup was never more than half empty. A great staff, a clean and welcoming restaurant.

It's true, I'm writing this review 6 years after my yummy breakfast. It's taken me that long to locate this delicious, close-to-the-off-ramp, restaurant through my map history in order to submit this long overdue, loving, review.

Someday I may have to haul more furniture -- maybe I'll check with my other friends to see if I can volunteer. I really don't like moving furniture, and I don't really like driving U-Hauls, but any excuse to get back to Annie's would be just fine with me...

By the way, to further illustrate my great good fortune on that trip back north -- a frightening number of girl scouts were set up nearby with their annual cookie sale. Look at me! Happy as a clam with another batch of Thin...

Not the best experience for us. We weren't greeted by anyone and waited a few minutes before a lady came to seat us. She didn't seem like she wanted to help us. Same with our waitress. The only person that was happy with a smile was the nice gentleman who brought us our drinks. Our waitress did not greet us or introduce herself. She just asked for our order. It wasn't busy at the time we went. I only counted 4 tables, five including ours. However, we stayed because there were good reviews. Bad call... Our table ordered the Chicken Fried Steak with eggs over easy and a side of hashbrowns, Dive Bomber with a side salad and the Annie Burger with fries. The Chicken fried steaks breading was burned (black around the sides), the steak was dry, eggs came out medium and the side of hash browns were overcooked. The Dive Bombers lean steak was over cooked and very chewy. The side salad was what appeared to be old iceberg lettuce, diced up and just thrown in the plate. That is not a salad. A salad usually has onion, tomatoes, cucumber slices or carrots and maybe croutons. Very disappointed. The Apple Pie a la mode was underwhelming. I honestly believe it was frozen and they heat it up in the microwave. It did not come out as a slice of pie. It was sloppily deflated crumbles covering the flat service of the round dessert plate with vanilla ice-cream...

UPDATE: Went to Apple Annie's for the second time. Their breakfasts are off the hook, but this second visit wasn't as good. On my second visit, I ordered the double cheeseburger and french fries. The burger patties are in house and hand formed, so the meat flavor was very good. Simple seasoning, nothing fancy, which is how I like my burgers to be. It came with lettuce, tomato, thousand island and mayonnaise. However, the fries need resuscitation. They were warm at best, when they came to my table and they were rubbery, which tells me that they were dropped in before the oil had a chance to get hot. You would think that is common knowledge in the food industry. Always wait for your oil to come up to temperature. The service, once again, was subpar, not to mention that napkins and silverware are upon request? Yes, we had to ask for silverware and napkins, after our food was brought up the table, AND even after our server came to our table maybe twice. Observation is dedication people. Our bill came out to almost $40, for average food and service. Overall, Apple Annie's is average at best, going only twice however, I would like to give it another shot but I'm still debating that. Maybe third time's a...