The holiday season is already over. Can you believe that? Can you believe we just blew through Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the New Year in one big massive blur? The insanity is over just as quickly as it began, and now everyone is back into the rhythm of life...right? Hopefully each of you had a great holiday season. I know I did.
There's always that weird in-between time, though. That odd 5 day period between Christmas and New Years that seems to just be there for no good reason. It simply exists, and that's about it. Rarely does anyone do anything during this nearly week-long stretch of days, and I'm no exception. It's just something I use as an excuse to be lazy and waste time between opening presents and watching the ball drop. Thankfully during this time, I got a call from an old friend who had just recently moved to Pikeville due to a new employment opportunity. He invited me over to check out his new apartment, catch lunch with another mutual friend of ours, and just hang out and catch up. Dude time, if you will. Sounds splendid. So, I hopped into my car and made the trek to Pikeville.
Once I arrived and did the status quo tour of his new place, our other friend arrived as well, and offered to drive us all to lunch. Where exactly, I wasn't sure. I just know it was well past lunch time, I'd skipped breakfast, and we were all hungry enough to harvest roadkill if necessary. So, we all piled into his car, and we headed back out onto 23 toward the direction I'd just came. He said we were going to a local favorite, so of course my eyes lit up.
A few minutes later, we arrived at our destination. We were on top of a hill, behind some trees. There was no way to see this place from the main road, or any other road. Talk about mystique. I've done this enough though, to know that the farther out of the way, the better the food. I was excited.
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| "X" marks the spot. |
My company and I entered the restaurant, and were immediately told by a waitress to go ahead and have a seat. It wasn't all that busy, I think there were 3 other tables of people enjoying themselves, so we had our pick of where we wished to sit.
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| Just a quick look. |
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| A closer look. I've always liked the use of lattice, whether indoors or out. |
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| A different angle. |
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| Big, awesome, cozy corner tables! |
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| We chose the middle. It just seemed to call out to us. |
We sat down, and a nice lady immediately came over to give us some menus, and to take our drink orders. I always feel a bit of anxiety when I come to a place I've never been. I never know what to order because most of the time it all sounds amazing.
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| The cure for anxiety. |
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| "A good meal at the top of the hill". Brilliant! |
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| Welp never mind, my anxiety is back. |
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| Look at those prices! Not bad at all! |
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| There's no way I'm going to be able to pick something from this menu. It's just not going to happen. |
If it wasn't already obvious, I'm going to be in for something good. This is an old school family style diner with home cooking, burgers, various sandwiches, and all kinds of amazing sounding stuff. How do you narrow something like this down?? You don't. You just read over everything, over and over again, and eventually point to something, praying that you made the right choice. That was certainly my method this time around. Actually that's my method most of the time, but whatever.
Our orders were taken, and that gave us time to chat a little and get caught up. That's always a good thing. Being at such a hectic stage of our lives and just simply now being older, we have a lot more to talk about these days. It was nice. After about 15 minutes, our food made its way to our table.
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| And oh my dear lord. |
After my eyes finally adjusted and my brain finally comprehended what was going on, I just kind of smiled. This was the special of the day. Noodles with roast beef and gravy, with homestyle mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, and a side of cornbread. And no I couldn't fit it all into one shot.
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| Ahh, here we go. Steamy, cheesy goodness. |
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| Sweet crumbly, buttery cornbread....how I love you. |
I wasted no time. I dug in, and let me tell you, I savored every moment. This was a top notch meal. Very hearty and filling. The noodles were al dente, the mashed potatoes were from scratch with just the right amount of brown gravy, and the roast beef....wow. Fresh from the oven, nice and seasoned, moist and flavorful. Very good texture as well. Very savory.
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| Try to find the right words. You wont. You CAN'T. |
We all three gleefully ate until we couldn't. What they had looked amazing as well, one being chicken and rice with salad and soup beans, and the other being country fried steak with white gravy and a baked potato and fried cinnamon apples. Home cooked has now taken on a whole new meaning, even in the eyes of three country boys.
Dessert seemed laughably out of the question, but the more we each thought about it, the more tempting it became. You know how that goes. While I didn't think I could handle it, another thought he could, so he ordered up a piece of hot fudge cake.
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| Booyah. |
Of course I took a bite. A big bite. It was good. Nothing life changing, but still held its own. Hot fudge cake seems to be one of those things that is always pretty standard almost anywhere you go. Run of the mill, but good.
Time for the nitty gritty!
Food Quality:
As I stated before, this place is a very down to Earth family diner. The food is made to order with a wide variety and daily specials. I almost went for what they call "The Coal Miner's Breakfast", but passed at the last moment in lieu of the special. While the breakfast sounded great, I didn't regret my decision for a single moment. My food was fresh, hot, and plenty of it. The mashed potatoes were homemade with the right amount of brown gravy, and the mac and cheese was firm and flavorful with nice thick cheese. The roast beef and noodles were amazing. The noodles were cooked al dente, and the roast beef itself was thick and savory with great texture. There was also a lot of it, so you didn't run out with a half plate full of noodles still remaining. I only had a bite of my friend's hot fudge cake, but it was really good. Not great, but definitely worth ordering if I go back. It was cakey and fudgey, and that's about all you can hope for with hot fudge cake.
Overall food quality score: 4/5
Ambiance:
The restaurant isn't very big, but it's nice and open with plenty of room between tables and booths. There was classic music from the 60s playing over the stereo, which added a lot to the experience. The temperature was on point. The lighting was very nice as well. They still had their Christmas decorations up, which I got a kick out of. Considering how fast it all seemed to fly by this year, it was great to get to feel a little more holiday spirit before the year ended. There were also a couple of nice landscape paintings donning the walls, The 'old school family diner' feel is something that you can't just pull out of thin air. It just simply has to be there. It has to be authentic, and this place does it very well.
Overall ambiance score: 3.5/5
Cleanliness:
I'll be upfront with this. This place does allow smoking. It really doesn't bother me and I don't pay it much attention regardless of where I am. I know some do have opinions about it, so I just wanted to go ahead and throw that factoid in there. It does have that musty/smokey smell to it. Again, it doesn't bother me at all, but for various reasons, it did need to be addressed. It's also an older building, so it has that classic/vintage look to it. "Old" in no way equals "dirty", and that's a mistake a lot of reviews seem to make. As far as I could tell, The Windmill Restaurant was clean, the tables were all wiped down, the chairs were in good shape, the floors were clean and free from stains. I didn't have a chance to visit the restrooms, so I can't comment on those. Overall, I had no issue.
Overall cleanliness score: 3.5/5
Service:
Our waitress was very nice and attentive. There was a couple of times she forgot what we needed and came back to ask. That's common and it happens to the best of us. She also seemed a tad nervous, so I'm not sure if she had just stared, or if she was just filling in for someone. Either was possible. Nevertheless, she was very nice and attentive. We were well taken care of, and I feel she did a good job.
Overall service score: 3.5/5
My experience at the Windmill Family Restaurant was very good, all in all. Mom n' pop places are always a treat, and this place was a local and mom n' pop as it honestly gets. It was unapologetically genuine and thoroughly 'Eastern Kentucky', and by golly, that's all I wanted. Good food, good service, good friends, good conversation, and just a chance to get out of the house for a little while. I couldn't have asked for more. Happy new year, and thanks for reading!
Oh by the way, we went to Bob Amos Park afterward. I'd never been, and I can now say it's well worth the extra few minutes to get there. Check out that view!
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