The Golden Egg — Restaurant in Ypsilanti Charter Township

Diner-style restaurants aren't where one goes for refined presentation, and the Golden Egg is no exception. My onion rings are served without glamour on a mildly interesting plate (with a variety of colored rings emblazoned on the surface), in a fairly standard heap. They appear to be thin cut, while remaining hand battered, and are a bit on the darker side of golden brown.

Hidden beneath the mound are two cracked rings, and one can detect a handful of cracks in the batter sprinkled throughout. Beyond these minor issues, however, the appearance of these onion rings have no glaring flaws.

Onion ring deception is typically one of my greatest foes, comparable to state-funded business subsidies and my latent fear of dying of an infected wound in a post-collapse society, but in this case, the deception works to these onion rings' advantage. While fairly unassuming and thin in appearance, they deliver a wallop of flavor in both onion and batter.

The sole flaw in flavor comes from the slight char on some bits of batter. Beyond that, the batter is seasoned congruently with the flavor of the onion. While most of what I get is salt, the ever eternal friend to onion and batter alike, it provides a reasonable and seasonable bite.

Surprisingly for the small size of the onion rings, the onion flavor shines through like the sun, peeking through an oddly colored brown cloud. Cooked to deliver a maximum of flavor, another rare feat, given the thin cut, the juices intermingle freely with the salty batter, without delivering an excess of juice or grease.

For all the strengths in flavor, the textural mishaps of these onion rings are numerous. The root of the problem, in another bizarre twist from the norm, is that the core of the onion and the batter are too adhesive towards each other. It's almost as if all the juices which provided terrific flavor act as a sealant between the onion and the batter as well.

This has the unintended consequence of slippage, as the stickiness requires a more forceful bite, prompting a more destructive decay of the onion interior, spiraling out of control. Beyond the issue of sheer inseparability, the batter actually has a unique texture, probably imbued with a dose of cornmeal or some other thickening agent. The onion, too, is cooked well enough to be slick but not mushy.

The problem is that the components don't swirl together into a cohesive whole, but rather wail against each other in a dissonant and confusing mess.

Typically, smaller, thinly cut onion rings come at a lighter price point. Thus, the price of $3.29 initially gave me pause. However, given the well above average taste, decent quantity, and hand-battered nature of the rings, I think they deliver a solid value for the price. I would have liked just a few more to put it over the...

I will not go to this place ever again.. I ordered pancakes with strawberries and hashbrowns on the side.. But they had an option on the menu that the pancakes come with meat.. I asked her if I can replace the meat with the hashbrowns since they was cheaper she said no because there's a price difference.. Usually I'll have to pay for the up charge but I guess since the hashbrowns was cheaper I couldn't but okay moving on.. Okay first thing first this is not the first time I have ordered pancakes in my life.. I don't use regular syrup on my pancakes I use the strawberry toppings that I usually order with them and when I say that these pancakes was sooo dry that the strawberry topping couldn't save them.. Plus the strawberries was warm.. Ewww. So I didn't eat anything but a couple spoons of the hashbrowns.. I told the waitress to bring the bill and if she could take the pancakes and strawberries off.. She basically said no then asked me what was wrong with it. (Pancakes dry and strawberries warm) Her response was we don't warm up our strawberries 🙄🙄 (thinking to myself I didn't ask if y'all did lol) So however these are warm.. Her next response we cooked to order and she didn't want to take the items off our bill and then walked away.. (I WOULD HOPE EVERYTHING IS COOKED TO ORDER) shouldn't have nothing to do with taking a item off that I didn't eat.... And another waitress offered to check us out and I told her no not until these items are removed from my bill.. IM NOT PAYING FOR SOMETHING I DIDNT EAT!! so she grabbed the bill out my boyfriend hand with an attitude and gave him another bill.. We finally paid and then left.. NO I WILL NOT RETURN TO THIS...

While the food is priced well it shows the quality is no where near what it used to be. While I understand that things are a bit rough at the moment it really is disappointing that my last 3 orders have had atleast one item that has been either discounted or sold out but remains on the menu. The quality of the food that they do have and quantity is less also, but the most disappointing part is they use the pandemic as an excuse other restaurants are not doing this and have taken items no available off the menu. It is also. Disappointing that while the staff wear masks in the main dining area when they are in the back near your food they do not that is the place that they are needed most also the cooks were not wearing anything on of the staff members said well we are not in public so it does not mater, what do you care anyway, I wear a mask at my work am not working with food or the public directly also wear them in public at all times. On my last visit the staff was very rude about the fact that they were out of some items did not offer a replacement nor a discount for the missing items, staff expected a full tip and got upset when they only got a 10% tip and made a rude comment "Its not my fault we can't serve you what we don't have" In the last year they have gone from 5 stars to 0 in my opinion. If the staff is not happy with what they get they should work elsewhere there are people that would...