Simeon's Family Restaurant
581 Grand Lake Road
Sydney, NS
Whenever I travelled up to visit my grandparents at their apartment in London, Ontario, they would treat me to a nice dinner out. Grandma would put on her short-sleeved polyester dress with the matching belt and her plastic white pearls and Grandpa would give himself a good shave and change his shirt. The three of us would go down into the underground parking lot and climb into their brown Chevette. Somehow, Grandpa drove us across the eight lanes of traffic in front of their apartment building to the restaurant at The K-Mart.
So how was our evening at Simeon's? It was delightful! Not only did we enjoy our meals, but we comfortably sat in the upper dining room for almost two hours, lingering over tea and dessert, and catching up on everyone's news. There were a few glitches in the service, but somehow that comes with the decor. Besides we could never complain - our waitress was the mother of the wife of one of the UAG member's sons and the young wife is pregnant with their first grandchild. Not only did we not complain, we tipped.
There was a large group of us, so we can show you quite a variety of dishes. Two members started their meals with salads, both of which got rave reviews.
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| Spinach Salad with Maple Dressing and Bacon |
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| Simeon's Salad with the House Creamy Dressing and Chicken and Ham |
Each of us enjoyed our main courses - there was a mix-up in the orders, so I can't show you the Hot Turkey Sandwich. But we all agreed that it would have been just as tasty as the Hot Hamburger Sandwich was.
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| Seafood Chowder with Home Baked Roll |
Yup, look at the size of 'er.
A full meal in a bowl!
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| Special: Turkey Pie for $9.95 |
Don't you just love it when the cranberry sauce comes in one of those little packets? I love the little packets. Breakfast out is always fun because there are so many little packets...jam, jelly, peanut butter...
The pie was delicious, not a hint of a vegetable, but lots of gravy and turkey in a crispy pie crust. And do you see that little mound of dressing? It's a very nice bread dressing. The fries were not the best that we've had, but they were crispy and tasty.
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| Hot Hamburger Sandwich |
Isn't this just perfect? I mean it's just like how you would make it at home if you had left-over hamburger and gravy.
I have to tell you that the peas and carrots were not bad at all; they could have been terrible, but they weren't.
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| Turkey Sandwich on Whole Wheat |
The person who ordered the Spinach Salad also ordered this sandwich. Keeping in mind that this was supposed to be a ham sandwich and they had to switch it to turkey because they had run out of ham, the sandwich turned out remarkably well...and it was very much appreciated. There could have been fries, but the offer was turned down.
We have learned that a person should always have a "Plan B" when choosing selections at Simeons.
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| Lasagna with Garlic Bread and Garden Salad |
This photo is a bit blurry because quite frankly, we were all starving and all the food, except for one dish, arrived at the same time. There simply wasn't time to take a second photo.
It was delicious - it looks delicious, doesn't it?
And look...more packets! In fact, there was a bowl on the table with packets of ketchup. Just wonderful.
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| Clubhouse Sandwich |
No need to tell you how good this was as you can see in the photo that this sandwich is everything that a good clubhouse should be. And the last bite had bacon in it, yup, that's the sign of a well-built clubhouse.
By the way, Simeon's coleslaw is excellent!
By the way, Simeon's coleslaw is excellent!
What is also very nice about a clubhouse is that it is easily split into two servings (one for lunch the next day) to save room for dessert.
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| Special: Salmon Steak Dinner for $13.95 |
When we arrived, the Specials listed on the chalk board at the door were the Turkey Pie and the Crispy Coated Haddock Dinner. Unfortunately, the haddock was gone by the time we ordered.
However, the person who ordered this dinner said it was wonderful.
The dinner does come with two scoops of mashed potatoes, but the member opted for only one.
And now before we discuss the desserts, our regular readers will want to know what the tea service was like. Unfortunately, Simeon's chooses to use the worst possible tea service, one that was popular very briefly when we were all wearing beads and long dresses and no bras.
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| The Dreaded Glass Tea Post with No Handles that Always Spills |
Now I have to tell you something funny. When I asked for a second cup of tea, the waitress came over with a glass pot of very hot water and she filled up my glass tea pot, covering my poor old original tea bag. I realize that it was most likely a two-cup tea bag, but my second cup of tea was pretty thin. I've never seen the like of it. I also have to add that whether it was the tea bag or the company or the calming effect of the pink walls, the tea wasn't terrible.
Even with such a large group of people, we only ordered two different desserts!
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| Coconut Cream Pie |
The most heavenly made-from-scratch coconut cream pie.
It was just a fabulous way to end the meal and certainly made up for any glitches along the way.
All of us who left the table after enjoying the pie had smiles of contentment.
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| Strawberry Shortcake |
We've had a brutal winter here in Cape Breton and there is no way on God's green earth that the strawberry shortcake would arrive with fresh strawberries.
But that was okay.
It was okay because the biscuit was fresh and the cream was cold.
And the tea was hot.
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| Packets of toothpicks |
There are no little mints with your bill at Simeon's, but you are offered toothpicks by an angel on the counter as you are paying your bill.
All in all, we had a lovely relaxing meal at Simeon's, a meal that was tasty and very well priced.
My grandparents would have enjoyed Simeon's; it's just their kind of restaurant.
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