Like my opinion matters... Lon's Cookin' Shack- Spanish Fork (restaurant review)

Probably a lot of you have been to Lon's in Provo.. and now there is a Lon's in Spanish Fork-- on the south side of town by the fairgrounds.  We went there yesterday for the Grand Opening and it was crazy- busy but we got a table right before the rush.  Things were a little chaotic with  all the people, mostly (maybe all) new workers, a dutch oven dessert special that was difficult to cook outside because of the rain, and just the everything- settling-in-stuff that comes with opening a new restaurant.  Like Lon says.. "you can only train so much and then you just need to jump in".  Lon is great-- very personable, and interacts a lot with his customers.  I've seen him do that at the Provo store as well so it wasn't special treatment because I told him that I blog about restaurants-- and he wouldn't have any idea whether I have five readers or five hundred anyway!  It probably is more like five...  Although maybe not because I put a counter on the blog and got over 35 hits yesterday-- and not ALL of them were from me checking the counter. 

One major difference between Spanish Fork and Provo, is that SF is a sit-down restaurant with an expanded menu and slightly higher prices, at least for the newer items.  All the old favorites seem to be there, with the addition of hamburgers and some other sandwiches.  I ordered Lon's version of a Philly Cheese Steak made with beef brisket, peppers, cheese, and a white sauce.

I looked around at the food served to the tables around us, and while it all looked good.. I think I made the best choice.  This sandwich was good.  Rebel thought it looked good as well and plans on coming back just to get this sandwich.  And it was big!  I got to bring 1/2 of it home to enjoy later tonight or tomorrow. Loved the hush-puppies too--quite often they are overdone at other places but these were cooked just right!  The mac and cheese served at other tables also looked really yummy.

Saw a doctor on Thursday and talked briefly about losing weight although that wasn't the main purpose of the visit.  Her suggestion was "chew all you want, but swallow half of what you normally would.."  She didn't expand on what to do with the other half.  I'm thinking this advice wouldn't make me the hit of any dinner parties or restaurant excursions and might cut down on social invitations, so I modified the suggestion to just cut things in 1/2 and automatically save 1/2 for later.  We'll see how that works.  An obvious suggestion might be to not eat out in restaurants so much... Point taken, but that's kind of what single people do. 

Because it was the Grand Opening, Lon's was serving a free dutch oven dessert-- apple crisp.  Initially, we were told we might have to get a rain check because the rain outside was making it difficult to cook.  A rain check actually caused by rain...There was one cooker going and they brought it in at the perfect time for us to get a taste. The crispy topping on the apples was awesome.  Kim gave the apple crisp a 5-star rating and said that she would probably dream about it-- which turned out to be true because she mentioned wanting more during the play intermission later that night.  I didn't notice dessert listings on the menu but our waitress said that they planned to do more dutch oven cooking at the restaurant.  Bet they are glad for their new location because there shouldn't be all the issues with smoking meats like they had in Provo.  Just don't understand why the Provo neighbors, a Tailor for example, had issues with the smoking meat.  I would think their patrons would LOVE getting their clothes back smelling like a barbeque!

It will be nice having a barbeque restaurant in Spanish Fork again.  I've missed that since the Smokehouse closed.  And now for a rating on my own personal rating scale..

 

Once everything settles down, employees are fully trained, and things become routine and settled down then this will be a great restaurant to return to.  I will definitely recommend it to my friends and give it a rating of:

4 Stars (****)