Since Cafe 49 opened several months ago just acrossed the street from my office in Lake Wylie, I have become a regular. The food is almost always excellent and today was no exception. If you are looking a family restaurant with a home-cooking type theme - I would highly recommend it.

I ordered a grilled pork chop and had 3 vegetables - okra and tomatoes, green beans, and fried okra with sweet tea. The pork chop was extra tender and juicy and was grilled to perfection. All of the vegetables were great today. The fried okra almost always comes out hot and crispy. The green beans are some of the best I have ever had at a restaurant and the okra and tomatoes were bursting with flavor. The sweet tea is some of the best around as well.

In the short time they have been open, I have probably eaten there 20-25 times. I usually go for lunch as it is so close to the office, but have also been to breakfast and dinner as well.

The wait staff is always friendly and doesn’t seem to have turned over very much since their initial crew which gives is a consistent “hometown” kind of feel. You will most likely be reading many review on Cafe 49, as you can see that I go there a lot.

Sonny’s Dutch Mill opened a few months back in the new Lowe’s Grocery Store Plaza in Tega Cay, at the corner of Gold Hill Road and Highway 160. Since they opened, I have become a regular in a sense. I go there about once every two to three weeks.

The last time I went was on Saturday. My sister was in town along with her three children and we took both our families there. Everyone loved the restaurant choice - especially the kids who loved the music on the radio.

The original Sonny’s Dutch Mill opened in Rock Hill more than 50 years ago. The new Sonny’s serves the same classic menu of classic “all-the-way” hot dogs and hamburgers that are done right. Unlike many of the places that call themselve hamburger joints, Sonny’s does not frown or look puzzled when you ask for chilli and slaw on your burger or dog. They know that this is the way they were meant to be eaten!

Sonny’s also has a host of other items on their menu from chicken sandwiches to BLT’s, although I have never tried them. For me, it is hard to resist the 2 hot dog plate with fries. Oh yes, don’t forget the fresh cut french fries - they are great. Just in case you prefer the krinkle cut, they are available too.

As you may have guessed based on the rest of the menu, they are very kid friendly. I would also recommend the fresh made milk shakes - they are excellent.

Overall , the service is good, although a couple of times that I have been it took longer than I felt it should have to get my food or to pay. The staff is always very friendly.

As far as price, it is not as cheap as it was 50 years ago, but is priced appropriately for the market. I think a 2 hot dog plate with fries is around $6.25 (don’t quote me on that) and a big hamburger with fries is about the same. It isn’t as cheap as some places but it is much higher quality than most places. I have been to a lot more expensive places and gotten much less and worse food - for instance, a $9 hot dog at a place in Southpark that didn’t stay open very long.

If you are in the Fort Mill/Tega Cay/Lake Wylie area and need a quick bite - Sonny’s Dutch Mill is an excellent option.

I visited the new Lake Wylie Junction Grill & Pub on Tuesday, April 8, 2008 with my family. This was our first visit to the restaurant since it reopened under its new name/ownership. The restaurant is located at the former location of The Grid Iron (13105 S. Tryon Street in the Steele Creek area) which operated at that location for several years.

We had been wanting to try the restaurant since it opened several weeks back, but had not had the opportunity. We choose to go on Tuesday because they had a 35 cent wing special and I was once again in the mood for wings (I get in that mood a lot.)

Inside, the Junction looked pretty much the same as The Grid Iron did - although I did not go into the bar area, so that may have been different. It offers a bit of upscale ambiance but still maintains the feel of a nice sports bar. They have a number of televisions throughout and a wall in the main dining area that is all televisions. The Grid Iron had these televisions too, but for whatever reason never seemed to become known as THE place to go watch the game. I think the seating and sound arrangement makes it difficult for a group to go watch a game and enjoy it together. Then again, that may not be what they are shooting for - which brings up the question as to why all the TV’s in the first place.

Anyway, back to the food. The Junction is another one of these restaurants that breads their chicken wings. Most restaurants do not do this. I feel it takes a lot away from the wing and lowers the overall quality of the food. Their normal process is to fry the wings, bread them, and then fry them again. Upon my request, they were able to make the wings “naked” which is the customary way to get wings without the breading when restaurants insist on making them this way. I ordered 10 hot wings and 5 wings with barbeque sauce. Much to my delight the wings that came out were very large. If you are a wing conisseur, you know that the size can vary greatly from restaurant to restaruant. The hot sauce was hardly hot at all. In fact, I am surprised that anyone would consider it hot - or even mild for that matter. I almost seems to cool my mouth off instead of heat it up. Perhaps it was a bad batch or something, I guess I will see next time. The barbeque sauce was good.

My wife ordered the Homestyle Chicken & Dumplings. It was odd because the menu stated that they were Southern Style, but when the dish came out - it was orangish in color. I have been eating chicken & dumplings my whole life and have had them at dozens of restaurants and I have never seen them this color. They contained a good bit of vegetables - which wasn’t a plus for my wife who was looking for traditional southern style chicken & dumplings. This was more of a chicken soup or stew. Overall, she felt the taste to be acceptable - just not what one would expect upon ordering Chicken & Dumplings.

The service was about average for this type of restaurant. The waiter had just started there and was average. There were not any major issues like an inability to get refills in a timely manner or messed up orders. He bought the bill promptly and everything went smoothly.

As far as prices go, many of the dishes were average priced for this type of restuarant. Sandwiches were between $6 to $8 with fries. Most of the main courses were between $13 and $15. The chicken & dumplings seems a bit overpriced at $12.95, but I guess this should have been the first clue that they were not traditional.

I will definately go back to Lake Wylie Junction in the future. I have heard a lot of good things about other items on the menu and would like to try more of the entrees. Feel free to leave me comments with your experiences at Lake Wylie Junction. I look forward to hearing them.

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