Blackwater Junction - 5

Date: 6/12/10

Restaurant: Blackwater Junction
Address: 730 Main St.
City: Andover
Phone: 735-5099

Breakfast Hours: 5am - 3pm (not sure about breakfast all day) Closed Mon and Tue

Cash and checks only.


This place was the best yet. It is going to be really hard to find a place that can top it. It was so good that we were still talking about it when we went to sleep that night!

STANDARD - 2 eggs OE, potatoes, bacon, toast. You should have seen the size of this plate of food. It was no plate, it was a platter!

Eggs **** 


Potatoes *****
Kind: Homefries. Believe it or not folks, we gave these potatoes 5 STARS! They were cooked to perfection, with just enough crunch and the optional onions were cooked in with the potatoes, not just placed on top.


Toast ***
Kind: Wheat
Homemade? No.
Standard, store-bought bread, slightly over-toasted, but not bad. Plenty of butter and did it's job just fine under the eggs.


Bacon ****
When my platter first arrived at the table I was slightly concerned by the look of the bacon. It looked a bit overdone, crunchy and dry. I was pleasantly surprised when I took a bite and found it to be perfectly chewy, salty, flavorful and not greasy.
 


Muffin: No baked good of any kind.
 


SERVER RECOMMENDATION *****
We asked the server what her favorite breakfast was. She replied "Well, since my Dad owns the place I feel like I have to say everything is good, but really, EVERYTHING is good. The sausage gravy and biscuits are a big seller". Then the folks at the table next to us piped in saying how good they were, as was everything else. They couldn't seem to say enough about how good everything on the menu was and they were experts on the subject because they eat there a couple times a week!


SPECIAL: Lobster Benedict

MISCELLANEOUS
Coffee **** For diner coffee it was "Superior", which happens to also be the brand.

SERVICE *****
The service was awesome. Our server was the daughter and grand daughter of the two men cooking in the kitchen. She obviously loved the place and had a very comfortable, natural and friendly demeanor. She was attentive without being over-bearing, our coffee and water never became less than half full. She was definitely on top of things. We even chatted it up a little bit with her father, through the kitchen window, who was very nice.


DECOR **** The place had sort of a NH seacoast feel on the outside, with a sign for seafood and steaks and a stylized, greenhouse type entryway. The entryway and the rafters in the restaurant were lined with rustic bird, squirrel and bat houses available for purchase. With the assortment of birdhouses and antique kitchenware, it had a warm, comfortable, cozy, country-ish feel.


CLEANLINESS **** I was impressed with how organized and clean the prep counter was.


BATHROOMS ***+ Not much to say... small and relatively clean.


NOTES
This place rocked. Other than the toast, no need to improve anything. Not sure what the seafood connection is, but they've got it... lots of it, it seems, which seems a little strange for a place that isn't open for dinner.


SVEN'S TAKE
A week ago, I asked my daughter's then-boyfriend what his favorite breakfast place in New Hampshire was and without hesitation he said "Blackwater Junction in Andover." It was an endorsement that would have been hard to ignore under any circumstances, but since he asked my daughter to marry him last last night, we figured we had no choice but to heed the advice of my future son-in-law.

The Blackwater Junction is the gold standard. Everything was hot and so flavorful that I never even had time to pause between bites to reach over for the Tabasco sauce that is standard fare on every table. My coffee cup never got down to half-full before the waitress came by to top it off. I'm not sure how they could have done any better. I hate giving anyone 5 stars at this stage of the game, but there is no way these guys don't get it. Welcome to the family, Ricky.