If she was driving in the pouring rain for 20 hours straight, with no food or water, and her car broke down on a completely deserted highway from which the only sign of life as far as the eyes could see was Angie’ Family Restaurant, Alex might decide to walk to the next nearest place. Angie’s is located in an older shopping strip, next to a nail place that’s next to an auto repair shop and behind the BP gas station. Sounds pretty glamorous, doesn’t it? It’s just not Alex’s style. Having lived in Chesapeake now for over 4 years now, I have driven past Angie’s a minimum of 1500 times with the same sort of mindset. It struck me as passé, outdated… kind of “icky”. My husband mentioned earlier in the day that it might be interesting to try Angie’s out. He reminded me that our neighbors go there and in fact, Mr. V* raves about the steak dinner. I’m pretty sure I gave him some vague answer about trying it sometime, and quickly changed the subject. It is amazing how a week of rain, a day of errands, a hungry husband and starving 5 year old can change your frame of reference. Suddenly, early this Saturday evening to be precise, I found myself firmly planted in the mother-hood and Angie’s appeared to be an oasis in the storm.
We arrived early and were promptly greeted, seated, given menus and drinks. The service is friendly and brisk. The down home atmosphere doesn’t mean this is the kind of place where the server sits down at the table with you (that drives me crazy!) These ladies are busy, so they keep it courteous and move on. The menu offerings are as expected of a place labeling itself as a family restaurant: steak, chops, fried seafood, broiled seafood, spaghetti, etc. My daughter loves the classic popcorn shrimp, while my husband and I opted for Delmonico steaks, medium rare. Entrées are accompanied by salad/vegetable/potato. Bread is also brought to the table, along with a pitcher of water for us H20 lovers. While we waited for our food to arrive, the restaurant quickly started to fill up. The demographic was grandparents and older couples, the typical 5:30pm diner. There was a cute group of high school teens decked out in formal wear that came in too. Ours must have been one of the first orders in because the meals came out in about 10 minutes flat with all the condiments you could possibly want.
You know what? It was good. Seriously! You knew I was going to say that, didn’t you?! The steak was really good and I didn’t need to use my stimulus check, which apparently has been lost in the mail anyway, and half my paycheck to buy it. I didn’t even smother it with any of the assorted steak sauces provided. The baked potato was really baked too, not microwaved. My baby doll devoured her shrimp, a testimonial of goodness from a girl who can take anywhere from 15 minutes to 5 hours to eat a meal. I nibbled a few and tested out the fries too. Not too shabby. Don’t get me wrong, these are not 16/20 count, peeled, lightly battered and fried. They are definitely pre frozen, but they are tasty and you can see that there is a real shrimp in there, not some miniscule, weird krab / seafood conglomeration.
I would definitely go back to Angie’s again, and it would not have to be at the end of an exhausting, rainy day. My Philly friend Brianna* told me that she goes there after church on Sunday’s for breakfast and says it is great. Let me clarify that Angie’s has not jumped to the top of my ‘favorites’, nor would it be an acceptable dinner “date” destination. It is definitely a place I would have to be in the mood for. Further, if I had gone to a prom, and the date had started by taking me to Angie’s, it would have been a rather short evening out for us. Sometimes a girl just wants to be wined and dined. When she’s in formal wear, that should be a given. Ah, youth!
_Laine
Angie’s Family Restaurant
335 Centerville Tpke S
Chesapeake, VA 23322
(757) 482-9614
…of course they don’t have a website…
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