Lucille's American Cafe

10/31/24 update: I like everything about the place. I like sitting outside with the lake in the background. I went to 5 stars. 05/11/2023 update: went back and had a good meal. Im going up one star.The service is extremely good. The wait staff know and explain the menu in detail. They use a device that sends the orders to the kitchen and can also take credit cards which make their process efficient. Besides the server asking if you are enjoying the meal a manager stops by and is genuinely concerned about the diners experience. The indoor choice has interesting murals of famous structures such as bridges and photos of famous people from the 50s to 70s. The outside area overlooks a beautiful lake. There is a machine that sells food to feed the turtles. The menu has a lot of comfort food such as macaroni and cheese. I like their choice of salads. My favorite item is the turkey dinner. I run a meetup bicycle group and the riders enjoy the restaurant very much. With all of the positive information you may be wondering why I only gave it 3 of 5 stars. Yesterday I went with my mother and had the $6 Monday special hamburger. It requires purchasing any beverage that is prices at an average price. For $9.00 it could be a good deal on its own. Its not enough food so we added sweet potato fries. One bowl and one cup of soup. The fries and soup tasted great. I wasn't paying attention to prices and the check went from $9 to double. Well we ordered more product so it makes sense but it felt like in total it is no longer a good value. It was now just an average meal price. The burgers always look attractive. They have a charcoal taste and are cooked accurately to the requested wellness. This time the burgers looked and smelled fantastic but as soon as I took a bite I recognized that the delicious taste was included but it was covered by a strong taste that reminds me of a cleaning chemical. Perhaps amonia? We had a friendly discussion with the manager and server about it. They explained that the food source and everything was exactly the same as in the past. They said that we are the first people to mention it. I know the place well and know they are honest about it. I am a QA software tester and have had cases where a users software was documented to work incorrectly when thousands or millions of people never encounter the defect. It is because they ran into a specific set of conditions. It seems like the same situation. Maybe we used a different brand of toothpaste or ate some food earlier in the day that reacts with the burger's flavor. I was paying the check on the portable machine. I saw the accurate bill total and felt that the side items boosted the price so much. I kept drinking iced tea to get rid of the lingering taste. Then I got annoyed at programming on the machine that gave tip recommendations starting at 20% and went higher. I tipped at 20% but felt the suggestions should start at 15%. It had a choice to enter a custom tip and it would require extra steps. My bicycle group will want to go there so I will have a different meal and I'll change the rating to five stars.