Blue Ribbon Grill - great lunch spot if you can find it!

Just so you don't think I'm a total food snob and only review restaurants with at least two $$'s next to their name, I'm reviewing my visit to Blue Ribbon Grill in Tucker. My friend and I from work headed up there. Well, we didn't really set out to go to Blue Ribbon Grill. We meant to go to Mezza, a Middle Eastern restaurant on LaVista. However, I turned too early and we didn't go by Mezza. We had to improvise. Andy suggested that we hit Blue Ribbon Grill and I'm a gamer, so we went in. The decor is a little, um, rustic. Let's not kid ourselves - the place could use a good cleaning and/or a makeover. But don't let that hold you back, the food is worth a little grime.

We started with fried green beans. I don't know what it is about me, but I love fried vegetables and not just fried potatoes. Fried asparagus, fried pickles (is that a vegetable?), fried zucchini, etc. If it can be found in a salad and you can fry it, I'll order it. The fried green beans were very good. The beans were still crisp and despite the breading I was able to pretend that I was eating healthy.

I ordered one of the blue plate specials. Initially I was a little nervous because the menu referred to them as "small plates" and I was very hungry. But, let me promise you, these are only "small plates" if you are Paul Bunyan. For a normal eater they are plenty large. I got the black bean pizza. It was a mexican type pizza on this fried pizza dough. Unbelievably good. In fact, just remembering this pizza over the weekend gave me a craving for a mexican pizza (and not the kind from Taco Bell) that I could not fight off. I learned, though, that not many places do the mexican pizza very well (yes, I'm talking to you Pizza K). But I'm off track again...

Andy ordered the meatloaf blue plate special which came with mashed potatoes. The meatloaf was as big as his head! Enormous portions! Andy, who can usually eat his weight in food and not gain an ounce (why am I friends with him again???) gave up and couldn't eat it all. I got a bite of the meatloaf and it was very, very good.

So, next time I make the wrong turn on the way to lunch you'll find me at the Blue Ribbon Grill.