Knott Necessarily Like Cordelia Used to Make
Diversify. That’s what most financial advisers say to their clients, even if the client happens to be in the family amusement business. When the company is an industry giant like Disney, diversification means a subsidiary like Touchstone Pictures and edgy comedies like “What About Bob?” When it’s a more modest operation, like Knott’s Berry Farm, it means opening another chicken restaurant.
Mrs. Cordelia Knott served her first chicken dinner back in 1934, a farmhouse affair that included three pieces of golden fried chicken, her famous cherry rhubarb compote, a fresh green salad, homemade mashed potatoes with country-style gravy and plenty of her famous biscuits, puffed up with baking powder and ready to be smeared with those famous boysenberry preserves.
I dare say this has been the most venerable dinner in all of Orange County, and no one will argue that it has been the most often served. But more to the point: Until recently the only place to eat it was right outside Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park, in a quaint little restaurant with lines of people invariably snaking out the door.
Back in March, though, the Knott’s people opened a full service restaurant in Irvine, offering breakfasts, lunches and dinners, and it won’t remind you of the original Knott’s one bit. First off, they’ve made it big enough to keep most of the lines inside the door. It’s an enormous barn-like structure with huge wooden beams holding up the ceiling. Second, the menu has been . . . well, diversified.
There’s no shortage of quaintness, of course. The tables and chairs are made from solid wood; frilly white curtains frame the windows. On a side wall is a Diego Rivera-inspired mural of the berry farm itself, a complete country scene with rustic buildings and happy families enjoying themselves in the park. Over a cozy fireplace in the rear of the dining room, a portrait of Mrs. Knott herself beams silent approval.
Breakfast seems to be especially crowded here, though I’m not sure why. There is an all-you-can-eat breakfast bar loaded with cereal, fruit, yogurt, muffins and other goodies. I’d call that a reasonable choice, but if you’re going for cooked items, exercise caution. I was not impressed.
I couldn’t resist ordering chicken and eggs, two pieces of fried chicken served with eggs any style and those famous biscuits. Until a really good soul food restaurant opens here in Orange County, this is your only legitimate chance to eat fried chicken for breakfast. Unfortunately, the chicken doesn’t live up to the dinner-time standard. It comes from the kitchen lukewarm and greasy, as if the oil in which it is fried has not had a chance to reach the proper frying temperature. This is not, as you can well imagine, the way to start your day.
The other breakfast items get an equally lukewarm recommendation. “On the Light Side” is a bowl of gluey oatmeal served with Eggbeaters, a cholesterol-free egg substitute that makes me think longevity might be overrated. The serviceable bran muffin, the cakey blueberry muffin and some starchy apple crepes topped with boysenberry preserves are without redeeming importance.
The best idea simply may be to order a basket of those good biscuits, load them up with butter and preserves, and then wash it all down with the restaurant’s fresh coffee. That’s the easiest and most economical course, and it makes for one of the best breakfasts in Irvine.
Dinner is much more solid here and in fact--forgive me, Knott’s traditionalists--probably better than you can get in Buena Park. Good appetizers are one reason. Mozzarella cheese fingers are for the really hungry, served with a spicy tomato sauce that sort of grows on you. There are four huge fingers probably two inches in diameter apiece, breaded with a thick, tasty cornmeal batter. The cheese oozes out when you bite in. Mushroom caps “Neptune”--five big caps stuffed with crab, shrimp and sea bass in a garlic and bread crumb suspension--are another surprise. The dish is seasoned perfectly, and it easily can fill you up before the soup arrives.
Three homemade soups are ladled up nightly. You can have them all if you opt for the salad bar, at a nominal extra charge (for the salad, you’ll get a plate cold enough to give you a second-degree burn). The best soup is the chicken noodle, a hearty recipe with thick chunks of meat and thicker noodles. Lentil and split pea are good, too.
There are 10 entrees, most of which have a familiar ring. There’s the famous chicken dinner, with the same trimmings served in Buena Park, a good bargain at $9.45. The chicken doesn’t taste like grandma’s, but with its crisp, golden skin and relative absence of grease, it’s a cut above that offered by fast-food operations.
Other standbys include chicken and dumplings, mounds of chicken meat and oodles of creamy chicken gravy in a casserole dish with two fluffy flour-based dumplings. The Yankee pot roast: three slightly tough, reasonably tasty slabs of meat topped with an unctuous brown gravy. For Irvine’s sake, the menu adds some good, most un-berry-farm-like selections. Garlic herb shrimp. Poached salmon. Pasta. Is nothing sacred?
Well, dessert is, at least. Mrs. Knott’s homemade pies taste just as always, especially when heated up and eaten with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. The best is boysenberry, natch, in an excellent short crust, followed by a tart, tasty apple and, by a long stretch, a disappointing, gloppy peach.
If you’re not a Knott’s traditionalist, you can always choose from the on-site bakery’s many alternatives. A good chocolate layer cake and creamy boysenberry cheesecake do not let you down. If you’re planning to ride the Boomerang after dessert, the park is about 30 minutes up the freeway.
Mrs Knott’s is moderately priced. Breakfasts are $1.95 to $7.95. Lunches are $4.65 to $9.45. Dinners are $7.25 to $14.85.
* MRS. KNOTT’S RESTAURANT AND BAKERY
* 5465 Alton Parkway, Irvine.
* (714) 559- 8633.
* Open every day. Breakfast is served from 7 to 11 a.m., lunch from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., dinner from 4 to 9 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays, till 10 Friday and Saturdays.
* American Express, MasterCard and Visa accepted.
