O'Charley's

Monroe, LA

This is one of those chains that I generally try to avoid, but my mom said they had some good salads.  I ordered the Southern Fried Chicken Salad that comes with honey mustard, and mom had the 1/2 Club with a side of Chicken Tortilla Soup.

I don't know if the picture shows how truly massive this salad was.  We were there a little after 2 pm, after the lunch rush, and I think someone in the kitchen decided to just dump all the salad leftovers into my bowl.  My salad was part Southern Fried Chicken, part Pecan Chicken Tender salad, and part California Chicken, and came with the latter's balsamic vinaigrette.  Don't get me wrong, it was pretty good!  Just not what I expected.  It had fried chicken tender pieces, romaine lettuce, cranberries, mandarin oranges, pecans, and bacon pieces.

My favorite part of places like this has to be the bread though!  I love those yeasty bread rolls.

The ambiance is fairly generic for these types of chain restaurants, but I did appreciate the mural on the back wall, depicting local history and schools.  (Bet you didn't know Delta Airlines started in Monroe!)

Overall, it was okay.  Like a said, it is a chain in the eastern US (except for the Northeast).  The salad was pretty good, but mom's soup was only okay.  The tea was slightly bitter too.  Say 3.5 stars.

Red Top Bar & Grill

Tallulah, LA

After a long day of genealogy, I stopped by with mom and her sister.  Unfortunately, I was so hungry that I forgot to take photos.  The Red Top has wood paneling, a bar, and a fireplace.  The floor is cement, and there are booths and tables.  There's old tools on the wall as decoration.  They use those little individual wine bottles if you order a glass.

I ordered the shrimp salad, grilled, with honey mustard.  They were 6 large shrimp on my salad, and I mean actual Louisiana large shrimp, not the ones you see in the super market that are bite size.  The lettuce was ice berg and romaine, and there were tons of tomato wedges on it.  They also brought me 4 of those little plastic tubs of salad dressing!

Mom had the cheeseburger.  She said it was okay, but the texture was too fine.  It tasted more like a pre-made patty, not a home-made patty.

My aunt had already eaten, so she had the fried asparagus, which turned out to have a dipping sauce of crawfish bisque.  She said the asparagus were lightly breaded, and crispy not soggy.  And really good!  I guess they must have been because she wouldn't share!  I've never had fried asparagus, but now I really want to try it!

Overall, not bad.  My salad was good, asparagus great, cheeseburger okay.  3.5 stars.

Rowdy's Family Restaurant

Vicksburg, MS

I went there with my mom in the middle of the week, during the lunch rush.  This is where my grandparents always ate when they were in Vicksburg.  And according to the menu, Rowdy's was voted Best in Vicksburg from 1996-2012.

This is a catfish joint, so, of course, we had the catfish.  You get two options though: regular or thin and crispy.  We both ordered thin and crispy, with fries, cole slaw, hush puppies, and cornbread.  And unsweet tea.

The catfish was excellent!  The fries were great too.  I didn't like the cole slaw as much - it was sweet and a little generic.  The hush puppies were good but not great - they were a bit dark on the outside like they were borderline burnt.  The tea was good too.  We were so full by the end that we couldn't eat the cornbread!

It was a little noisy inside, but it wasn't very crowded.  They have old newspapers on the walls, in frames, as decorations.  I mean, actual newspapers from the 1950s and such.  There are booths and tables, and both are wooden.  As a larger woman, I found the booth a bit tight.

Overall, the food was good, the service was good, atmosphere was a little noisy.  Great catfish!  Four stars.