Right in the center of Mansfield, there was a new breakfast spot that seemed like it would never open. Every week, we’d look for signs of activity. The additions of “coming soon” signs, furniture, a phone number all helped to light up Kelli’s eyes. On several occasions before the opening, Kelli even called the phone number to see if there were any status updates. Kelli was getting fairly antsy and was hoping that Aunt Aleda’s would be the breakfast spot that would end our search. When it finally opened, we decided to go immediately. The food was underwhelming to say the least and the service was dreadful. Of course, this was the very first weekend the diner was open and we figured that we just needed to give it a few weeks to work out the kinks. Well, last weekend, we decided to give it another shot.
I ordered the veggie omelet, homefries, and toast. Well, originally, I wanted to order the breakfast pizza. It was basically scrambled eggs and cheese on a pizza crust. However, the waitress said to me “have you ever had it before? I wouldn’t recommend it as the crust is just really hard.” I’m not sure if I’ve ever been discouraged from ordering something on a menu without asking for an opinion. It’s interesting because she’s obviously had several complaints about the item. If so, why is it still on the menu? It’s not like the menu is all that big. It’s basically just eggs, omelets, french toast, and pancakes. As you can see, the omelet isn’t going to be featured on any magazine covers. It was rough looking. It was rough tasting as well. The omelet was basically an overcooked, crumbly mess with less than a tablespoon of cheese. It was bad and I couldn’t finish it, which is quite rare. While the omelet was overcooked, the homefries were undercooked. Biting into a chewy potato is not my favorite thing in the world. The sweet potato chunks were good, but the red bliss potatoes were awful. I tried to help the situation by drowning the potatoes in Frank’s Red Hot, but that didn’t help at all. Worst of all may have been the toast. Biting into the toast reminded me of the various wood chippers that have been in use in our neighborhood as of late. I didn’t even have to say anything. Just the crunch of me biting into my toast made Kelli laugh. Seriously, how can you make toast inedible? Oh, and one of the slices of toast was from the butt end of the loaf. You’ve got to be kidding me.
Kelli ordered the vanilla french toast with bacon. The bread of the french toast had a weird consistency and really didn’t have much flavor. The syrup had basically no sweetness whatsoever. Adding to the lack of flavor parade was the bacon. All in all, a flavorless breakfast that isn’t really worth describing.
This visit was really disheartening. After we were seated, we waited a good while to get coffee and iced tea. It took absolutely forever for the food to come out. The owner meandered around the diner and chatted up various tables. He told the table behind us, “God willing, we’ll be open next year.” Maybe if he spent more time monitoring the kitchen and less time wandering, he’d have a shot a being open for a long time. Sample the food that’s coming out of the kitchen. If the potatoes aren’t cooked properly, you’d know it. This was a problem that we had on our first visit and a problem that has been noted by other diners when they’ve mentioned their trips to Aunt Aleda’s. If an omelet was cooked as pictured above, you wouldn’t let it be served. I just don’t get it. If you care about your diner, make sure the food is good. Aunt Aleda’s has a great location, but that’s all it has going for it. We tried the bakery a few weeks back and that wasn’t much better. Everything looked great, but it just tasted like everything was baked without sugar. It’s just frustrating because we had such high hopes for this place and gave it an honest second chance. However, we left vowing not to come back. So far, this was the worst diner experience we’ve had during our adventure. I really hope that Aunt Aleda’s can turn things around, but it would probably take a visit from Gordon Ramsay or for the owner to actually pay attention to what is coming out of his kitchen. If he’s happy with the food he is currently serving, then we couldn’t ever recommend this place.
