Tip Top Restaurant
 Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio        Date of Visit  03/06/14         http://www.tiptopstow.com/

Our Thursday lunch breaks around the Falls area led us to a little gem that has been serving the area since the late 20’s. It has been through a few names and a remodel or two in the past 80 years but it’s back to the original name and now has places to sit and eat, so we did. It’s a nice mix of old school and modern diner inside. There is a picture window that has what is probably the best view you’re going to get on Darrow Road.
 

Plain Jane  Applesauce
 

We were definitely there just after the push for lunch and although we were greeted by a friendly manager/owner? and attended to by a nice and efficient server, the entire staff did suffer a little from the “we survived another rush” letdown. It certainly wasn’t the complete disengagement we had experienced in other places. Our server added some nice little touches but everyone was distracted to some degree, by side work or just catching up after lunch.

We ordered a cup of chili (they had four homemade soups for the day), pot roast and the all you can eat fried chicken special. Steph’s chicken came with a non-descript applesauce, which disappeared nonetheless. The chili was much more exciting than the ground apple. Layer on layer of flavor started with a sweetness which was taken over by fresh aromatic veggies, then beef and beans mixed with tomato and finally a sharp and bright heat that lingered but not so much it would cover the sweetness starting the next spoonful. Certainly, an above average cup.
 

Steph’s “all you can eat” fried chicken started with the four pieces of a half bird. She managed to eat two of them so the regular portion ended up being more than you can eat, other patrons seemed to be taking the special as more of a challenge. The chicken itself was well-fried, tender and juicy with a crunchy and salty exterior. The leg and thigh were perfect but the breast was just as juicy. It won’t challenge Delilah’s or Michel Richard’s but after so many sorry attempts, here and there, it’s always nice to find above average close by.

The pot roast was relaxing in a hot bath of jus and was strewn with roasted mirepoix. Fall apart tender, full of beefy goodness, diner in a little dish. We both ordered mashed potatoes for the starch and were delivered a healthy scoop of real mash which would have been much better had it been warm throughout. Bummer. The gravy was also gloppy and had a much less fresh flavor than the mash and the roast. I can hope it was made from thickening some of the jus the beef arrived in but, after much fresh happiness, that one remained a mystery. I also had broccoli, which was simply not good. Either in storing or holding, something had gotten metalicky and was essentially a throwaway.
 

We got a couple of slices from the rotating pie case to go. The coconut cream was pretty good even though it was covered with coconut. Go figure. But the custard had a nice texture and was just sweet enough. The blueberry filling wasn’t bad at all and the crusts of both were on the higher end of average but not any higher than that.

A couple things were a far cry from Tip-Top during our outing but the good stuff was good enough that I left with a much more positive impression than I had writing about it. Not sure why that happens, but I do know I left looking forward to going back. Breakfast and more traditional lunch and diner dinner stuff awaits. The good stuff was enough to set aside things like the broccoli, but I will certainly be ordering a different side.