Elder’s Family Restaurant Review in Quincy, IL

Elder’s Family Restaurant is a quaint old timey restaurant right across the street from Gem City Pizza.

We came in around 7:00 PM to a nicely sized dinner crowd.  There was still enough room to seat comfortably, but it had enough patrons to give it a nice ambiance.  The restaurant seemed oddly quiet for the number of diners, and America’s Got Talent, which played in the background, was the loudest thing in the restaurant..

The menu is short, to the point, and without frills, consisting of the usual items you would expect to find at a burger-and-fries type of place.  We were lured in for the fried chicken, which we had heard good things about, and I accompanied it with a side salad with ranch dressing and potato salad as my side.

Shortly after ordering, our salads came out and were joined by a very sad looking basket of plain sliced white and rye bread with crackers.  The salad was small, but the dressing was the real buttermilk stuff you can’t find the supermarkets so the size of the salad was overlooked.  The negligible nutritional benefits of the iceberg lettuce was offset by very thinly sliced carrots and what looked to be radicchio or red cabbage.

Through the quiet dining area we were able to hear the fryers in the kitchen, building anticipation for the meal.  The potato salad was very mayonnaisey and probably bought by the tub rather than made in house but tasted delicious.  My dinner partner had lattice fries with their meal and commented how wonderful they were.  The chicken meal contained one piece each of the leg, thigh, breast, and wing.  It was impossibly crispy, cooked properly, and moist.  It was want of some seasoning though, as it didn’t seem to have any at all.

The meal was very expected, and was let down by the bland chicken, but I still had a nice time.  It was a great value as well, with their Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday special price on chicken we paid just $7.00 a meal.

Elder's is a Quincy landmark and should definately be a stop for anyone wanting to experience the history of Quincy, Illinois.

Next up... dessert at TCBY.