Mrs. Rowe's Serves Up Not-so-spectacular Southern Cuisine

The DCSOB road trip began as all other DCSOB-team road trips begin, with RJ3 berating AMG for being late and delaying their departure. The ostensible reason for an 8 a.m. departure from D.C. was to reach a roadfood.com recommended restaurant in Staunton, VA in time for lunch. And even though the team departed closer to 9:30 a.m. and got stuck in the inevitable I-66 accident traffic, we arrived in Staunton about 12:45 in plenty enough time to catch lunch at Mrs. Rowe’s Restaurant, a southern-style establishment wedged on a service road next to a Texaco and a store selling real Virginia handicrafts.

Our planned stop was the result of a stunning review on Roadfood.com that began:

“Mrs. Rowe’s maintains uncompromised culinary standards The menu advises that ‘the waitress will cheerfully accept the return of any food or beverage that is not perfect as to quality, neatness, temperature, seasoning, etc.’” In nearly two decades of visits to this humble dinner house in Staunton, we have yet to consider sending anything back.”

The review was written by Michael Stern in August of 2002. From what we could tell, Mrs. Rowe passed away in 2003, and things must have gone downhill since her departure. Gone from the menu was the edict that all food must be perfect. Gone, too, were the culinary standards that it once stood for.

While, as he frequently reminds readers, rj3 is from the great metropolis of New York City, I grew up in Florida and am accustomed to quality southern cuisine. Mrs. Rowe’s, while clearly southern, was of just average quality.

RJ3 ordered the quarter fried chicken, which he designed as good but not stunning. For sides, he had mashed potatoes, buttery and rather good, and the one stellar dish, a well-seasoned and not-over-mayonnaised cole slaw. I had fried catfish, a rather small piece of battered fish that was rather mediocre. And the side of green beans was overcooked. And as RJ3 commented later, “they were stingy with just about everything except the butter.”

The general consensus was that given the choice between Mrs. Rowe’s and Cracker Barrel, the Barrel would win any day.

And it did -- we ate there for dinner at a Cracker Barrel somewhere in Kentucky.

Mrs. Rowe’s Restaurant | Exit 222, I-81 | Staunton, VA | www.mrsrowes.com