Review: Big Sioux Cafe, Grand Forks

[Sal Atticum]

Another restaurant review from Dale, a local blogger at http://gcdining.blogspot.com.

Big Sioux Cafe: Grand Forks

Thursday, 5 April, 2007

As one will see in the course of this blog, I eat out a lot. There are a number of reasons for that, but one of which is that I get a lot of work done at lunch. During the course of the day, I spend most of my time working independently, lunch time is where I can sit with others and sort out issues, bounce ideas, and talk about the most recent episode of Lost.

A problem with eating out a lot is that you can quickly fall into a rut. We get around that by having lists of places that are acceptable once a week, once a month, once every few months, and less frequent. Then there are those that are decreed "off limits," though by others, not me. I even like Ponderosa once in a while.

On the less frequent spinner is The Big Sioux Cafe, at the same named truck stop west of the interstate on 32nd Avenue. Justin likes it because of the Thursday/Friday beef stew special, I'm not a fan because it's always too crowded, service can be spotty and the prices are a little on the excessive side.

However, in the ongoing quest to earn enough points to merit a Ponderosa visit one of these days, I agreed (actually, I think I even offered it up,) to go out to the Big Sioux on Thursday. Patti picked us up at work and we were over there by about 11:15, where, as per usual, it was packed, and we had to take a booth in the back, by the smoking section.

The more politically correct may want to give this place a miss for two reasons -- one, the aforementioned smoking section, and two, a wooden indian on display that is offensive enough on the visual scale, never mind any political statement. I'm not sure how they managed to have a smoking section (maybe they have Jim Beam shooters on a table or something to make it a bar,) but it stays pretty full, and it's reasonably well sealed off from the rest of the joint, though if you sit back by the door, you're going to get the occasional whiff of smoke, so no whining if you're back there voluntarily.

At any rate, seated in the semi-comfortable booth, we were attended to by a server pretty quickly. I've been eating here since they opened the joint, and they seem to have about zero turn over, so either the employees are well treated or they're just content to stick around. Either way, it makes for a better eating experience when it's not a neophyte trying to remember to ask you how you want your eggs cooked and throwing soup on you.

The menu is not much different than you'd expect from a truck stop, although there are a few oddities in there. Like the chef's salad, which is served in a "Jethro Bodine" sized bowl -- good luck finishing that thing. Beyond a few of those items, though, staples like eggs, burgers and sandwiches, steaks and dinners dominate the offerings.

Along with the fairly pedestrian fare, the Big Sioux earns some nods for having daily specials, like Justin's beef stew. Most of the time, I'll order off of that menu, as there's usually a sandwich kind of thing, some mundane platter like swedish meatballs or swiss steak, and similar offerings. If you're into eggs and bacon for dinner, rest assured that you can order breakfast at any time. For quite a while, my frugality (cheapness, others might say,) had me ordering two pancakes for $4.00, with tip, every time we ate there. Which were great, because, if you ask, they have actual butter that you can put on the cakes. You have to ask, though, or you're stuck with that oleo "tastes just like butter" nonsense which is on the table along with an assortment of jelly.

Back on track, I ordered the "mushroom steak" sandwich special, which is really just a hamburger with mushroom gravy open faced on toast. It comes with soup or salad, though the salad is limited to the cucumber salad that's pretty nasty, so I went for vegetable beef soup. You also get a free soda. Patti ordered a grilled chicken sandwich with mayo, lettuce and tomato.

It took a while for the food to come, and they didn't bring the soup out first, which was a little annoying. The cook had neglected to put the lettuce and tomato on Patti's chicken, though the server rectified that pretty quickly. She had also brought me tomato-macaroni soup instead of what I'd ordered, but, in my cluelessness, I didn't notice until I'd put away a good bit of it, so I just soldiered on.

Somewhat gratifyingly, the check arrived fairly quickly, though that's usually a sign that they want someone else in your booth, and the crowds reinforced that notion. Ours came to about $18.00 with tip, Justin's beef stew special probably had him in at about eight bucks.

Verdict: A satisfying meal that produced no surprises or significant disappointments.

Big Sioux Cafe
4401 32nd Ave S
Grand Forks, ND 58201
(701) 738-0440
Hours: Open 24 hours