Bakersfield.com: Kern County news, events, classifieds, shopping, & search

Dining out: Logan's potatoes and veggies are real winners

BY PETE TITTL, Californian staff writer
ptittl@bakersfield.com | Monday, Jan 12 2009 05:58 PM

Last Updated Friday, Mar 27 2009 01:41 PM

At this time of year everyone wants to eat healthy. A seafood that I’ve enjoyed in the past is tilapia, a thin, light-tasting whitefish that, I assumed, was better for you than, say, red meat.

Then I heard a radio report discussing the differences between Omega-3 oils found in salmon (good!) and Omega-6 oils (found in red meat … and tilapia!). The radio report suggested cutting back on your tilapia consumption and substituting salmon! Great, just when Logan’s Roadhouse adds a particularly scrumptious version to its new menu.

The restaurant, located at the intersection of Highway 99 and California Avenue, has other things worth recommending on its new menu, but that one’s going to have to go on the splurge list after that health report, which made it sound about as dangerous as mercury-laden tuna. Logan’s kitchen grills the thin fish filets, tops them with a perfect black bean salsa and tortilla strips and a cilantro-chipotle sauce that is light but rich tasting, all for $16.99 with two sides. Below it on the menu is the much healthier mesquite-grilled salmon with garlic-dill butter. We’ll try that next time.

What most customers may really appreciate in these tough times are the 10 meals for $12.99 or less, including pork chops, country-fried steak, and a great grilled meatloaf made with both beef and pork and topped with “brewski onions” (Amber Bock beer-braised onions). Another special on Mondays through Wednesdays is dinner for two for $19.99. If you have even less cash, the sandwiches and hamburgers made from ground sirloin are all under $10, and served with home-made potato chips. Another new item is the Coastal Carolina shrimp ($15.99), made from jumbo shrimp fried in a salt-pepper breading. (General manager Chris Wilson said what’s new is that these shrimp and the catfish filets are now freshly breaded in the kitchen, not frozen prebreaded.)

I wanted to try some of the grilled meat choices by ordering a combo or steak and barbecue ribs ($22.99). The 6-ounce sirloin had that tingly taste outside that comes from a combination of tenderizer and/or MSG. (Wilson said no MSG is used in the kitchen.) OK at this price, but I think I could’ve got a better cut from Outback. The ribs were decent: tender but not tasteless like so many of the pre-boiled ribs are.

One feature I like about Logan’s Roadhouse is the side items. You can order two with a meal or entrée, and beside the potato chips I mentioned, the grilled vegetable skewer is an amazing creation: mushrooms, bell peppers, cherry tomatoes and purple onions, all smoky and fresh. I could barely keep my companion’s fork away. She did enjoy her baked sweet potato, rich with butter. Other good side items are the rockin’ onion petals and the mashed potatoes.

We did not have room for the new dessert, a mini-peanut bucket strawberry cheesecake ($2.99) that gives you a souvenir metal peanut bucket to take home and advertise the restaurant to friends and acquaintances.

Service was polite, efficient, though not particularly personal and gregarious. The waiter did seem very knowledgeable about the menu.

Logan’s is a corporate offshoot of the Roadhouse Grill restaurant on Rosedale Highway (long story) and is located in what was originally an On the Border chain restaurant. It still has the same casual bar vibe that the original occupant had, with the addition of the endless peanuts in the shell available at all points in the meal. I would not have thought of it as a value dining house, but it’s new menu caused me to look at it differently.