Troy’s Family Restaurant

**** Sadly Troy's has closed

I have a special place in my heart for those pseudo-diners I grew up eating in….places like Like Like Drive In…you know, no pretense, good unhealthy grub. A couple of months ago I was lamenting the lack of diners that served that type of grub in our area……sorry folks, Denny's, IHOP don't count and I tried Country Waffles a couple of times when we first moved to the area and had some terrible meals. When Troy's Family Restaurant came up in the conversation…..yikes, I'd totally forgotten about the place. I'm not sure why, perhaps it's the location in Clairemont Square next to the Von's we never shop at…..

So I headed over for lunch one day.

The place looked very old-school, in fact all the customers were at least a decade older than I was….the Servers seemed to know them all.

The style of service is also a blast form the past…..they ask if you want coffee the minute you sit down, you pay at the register, the waitresses….yes, here I'll call them waitresses call you "sweetie", "hon", and other terms of endearment. They move with little wasted motion….you'll get an old school handwritten paper check placed on your table when you're nearly done with your meal…you pay at the register. No muss, no fuss…..

Every once in a while I really like a Club Sandwich….or as my "local" friends back home call it….Da Clubhouse ($7.95).

Processed turkey, American cheese, perfect bacon……and I really liked it. This did take me back to "small kid time". Good amount of mayo, dinner fries, bottle of ketchup, bread (white of course) toasted adequately. There are no airs in this shop and the food shows that as well.

A couple of weeks later I returned. One of my guilty pleasures is a nice open faced turkey sandwich.

On the good side, the turkey wasn't that processed stuff they put in their sandwiches, on the bad side…it was dry as the Grand Erg Oriental, that would be the Sahara. That chicken gravy was bland and gluey, tasting just the way you'd think based on the photo. There's a reason this is just $6.45.

So here we were, two down, should I go for three? I asked for a recommendation and was given the Souvlaki ($7.45).

Man, this just didn't hit the spot. The pork was really tough and dry, the "garlic bread" dry and crumbly. The seasoning was really subpar.

I do get why people come here; service is relatively friendly, all my food came out quickly, the prices are very reasonable, the portions hearty. The term, "you get what you pay for" is very true here. I'm thinking breakfast here might be pretty good. Still, rather than feeling satisfied and nostalgic about the dishes, I felt the whole thing was dated. There is something to say about having "your" neighborhood place, where they know what you want, where you like to sit, how you take your coffee, that's great. This ain't "that place" for me.

Troy’s Family Restaurant & Coffee Shop
4827 Clairemont Dr
San Diego, CA 92117