Valley Inn Bar & Grill
 Doylestown, Ohio      Date of Visit: 06/15/13      http://valleyinn33.wix.com/valley-inn#

The Donald seems to have become a sort of advance team for our little project. Like the big TV food shows, long before the guy on camera actually gets there a team finds out what’s good or what’s horrible depending on the type of show its meant to be so all the magic can be done in the time allotted for taping. He has been finding all sorts of places for us to try out. And he can find one anywhere. Today we are only writing up a single restaurant but in the past two days we have been to C.J. Dannemiller concession supplies for trail mix and dried fruit, The Marshalville Packing Co. for old world butcher options from full tenderloins to chicken feet and pig snouts,...
 

Today's Ambitious Special
 

....Rittman Orchards and Farm Market to pick fresh strawberries and buy some tasty cookies and pies, Welches Dairy for yogurt and ice cream, and finally, The Valley Inn Bar and Grill in Doylestown for dinner. 

I’ve lived within a few miles of these places for years and had heard of none of them.  It was sort of like a foodie tour of unknown local spots, I’m starting to think he’ll be talking through the mike at the front of a big tour bus before long, giving fun facts about local purveyors to 50 hungry chowhounds at a time.
The front of the Inn was less than inviting, rows of bricks broken up only by two glass block windows and the server sitting on the curb catching a butt. The parking lot was seriously deserted but we were there at less than peak hours. Inside the place is well worn but pretty clean. We have been watching numerous episodes of Bar Rescue and let’s just say sanitation looms large in the mind. The server was pretty cordial and functional throughout our stay, she was certainly better than I would have expected, as was the food.
 

We ordered a Valley Burger (the house special), a buffalo chicken sandwich (mild), a country fried chicken dinner and the Corona battered cod special. The two dinners came with salads and bread. The bread was fine, it was cut from a super soft loaf but someone needs to sharpen their knives or at least use one. The bread was so beat up I could hear my first cycle chef instructor loudly accusing students of slicing with a hammer. The salad was mostly sad; rings of onion, pale tomatoes and lettuce, ehhhh. Other patrons started arriving shortly after we sat, giving us a taste of local flavor and letting us know other people were willing to take the risk and may have even survived previous visits always a good sign.

The burger looked good and by report actually was. The fries appeared fresh cut, seasoned and pretty well fried, not a bad way to go over all. If I had ordered the Buffalo Sammy I would probably have gone hot but the mild sauce made up for the lack of 8-methyl-N-vanillyl-6-nonenamide - aka. capsaicin (can you tell I’ve been teaching nursing classes) with a nice pungent bite of vinegar that added enough flavor to fight through the crusty loaf and chicken tenders. There are many better but it would be wrong to overly fault this version.
 

Passable Chicken With Unfortunate Mash
 

The chicken looked alright and it wasn’t bad. Steph mentioned it reminded her of a long gone pizza joint in Wadsworth with notes of salt and pepper in the crust. I could detect both but realistically there wasn’t enough of anything to make it interesting to me. The cod special was sooooooo much better than the mushy horror we recently tried at Larry’s Main Entrance but it still wouldn’t rate identification as a Friday fish place or maybe even many return trips. The menu says the mash is freshly made, I think it’s a lie, same for the gravy. If it’s not, they are working hard to make both taste like a box/can combo. The baker was huge and still a little wet inside but wasn’t bad. All in all The Valley Inn was better than I could have expected pulling into the lot. It’s not a hidden gem by any means but we know for a fact you could do way, way, worse.