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Tag: eastern sierra

California Eating: Jack’s Restaurant and Bakery in Bishop

April 7, 2026 / / 0 Comments

Blah, just blah, very blah

Our very short trip to see the wildflowers in Death Valley had us in Bishop for breakfast a weekday morning in March. We stopped at Jack’s Restaurant because it was there, clearly visible from the road as we drove through the city. Alas, I think – I hope – there are better choices to be made.

Jack’s Restaurant is your typical coffeeshop/family restaurant. It has dinette seating and booths, and it’s decorated with huge taxidermy fish and other fishing gear. It did bring up the question of just how you preserve a fish. While it’s ran by Latinos, it features your typical all-American breakfast – or perhaps the cartoon version of one. It was affordable, but just not good.

I, as usual, ordered the French Toast ($9). It was made with white sliced bread and served with corn syrup. It was as average as it gets. It wasn’t bad, and the portion was filling, but it was what you’d expect a hurried mother to whip together in a few minutes.

I did also order a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice ($7), and while it really wasn’t large (more like 6 oz), at least it was fresh and quite good.

Mike had the Texas chili and cheddar omelet ($15), which was served with hash browns and your of toast & jelly, biscuit with gravy or muffin, he chose the latter. He was totally disappointed. The “chili” was anything but, it had no beans and no heat, it was just mildly spiced minced beef. Still, the beef did manage to block the natural flavor of the omelet, so the whole thing was just unpleasant.

The hash browns lacked seasoning, but were otherwise OK. The muffin, on the other hand, was a joke. It had the consistency and sweetness of a heavy cake, rather than of a muffin, and I very much suspect it was made with Jiffy mix – it brought me back to my college years when that’s all I could afford. I ate it for nostalgia’s sake, but everyone else passed on it.

My daughter had the pancakes ($7.25 for two). She said they tasted as if they were made from a dry mix. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were.

There are other breakfast places around, so I wouldn’t go back if we find ourselves in Bishop again. 

Jack's Restaurant and Bakery
437 N Main St
Bishop, CA
(760) 872-7971
M-Su 7 am - 2 pm

Erick Schat’s Bakkerÿ – Bishop – Review

August 11, 2011 / / 0 Comments

We chanced upon the Erick Schat’s Bakkerÿ after we missed the turn for our hotel in Bishop.  The building, full of knick knacks and coin-operated vibrating rides outside, intrigued us and we decided to check the bakery for breakfast the next day.  We got there around 7:30 AM and the place was already swinging, mostly with locals.  The large, but crowded, bakery offers a whole array of products: from breads, to pastries, to doughnuts, to beautifully decorated cookies to candies and even gelatto.  They have coffee drinks, sandwiches (for lunch), homemade jerky and a few tables.  In addition to their local business they also do mail order.  It’s a busy place.

We all got to chose a pastry for our breakfast.  I had a cream cheese croissant and while it wasn’t extraordinary, it was pretty good – better than the ones I get at Safeway, at least :-).  I thought Mika’s cinnamon roll was a bit dry, but it did taste like cinnamon.  Camila’s maple doughnut bar was extra-large but otherwise tasted just like your average doughnut.  Finally, Mike did enjoy his ham-egg-and-cheese croissant, the ingredients were good as was the croissant.  I had a very good mocha ($4) and the rest of them had milk.  In all, it was a good place to stop for a pastry but I wouldn’t get out of my way to come here.

On a different note, while the staff was very friendly and helpful, not all of them speak English well.  Our server couldn’t understand my husband’s request to warm up our pastries until I asked her to do so in Spanish.  Not a big deal, of course, but I thought I’d mention it.

Erick Schat’s Bakkerÿ
763 N. Main St.
Bishop, CA
(866) 323-5854
http://www.erickschatsbakery.com/

 

Marga’s Restaurant Reviews – Outside the Bay Area

Bar-B-Q Bills Restaurant – Bishop – Review

August 11, 2011 / / 0 Comments

We stopped in Bishop for the night during out trip from Las Vegas and Death Valley to Mono Lake and saw Bar-B-Q Bills when we drove into town.  We love BBQ so we decided to have dinner there.  We got there around 8:15 PM on a Sunday evening, and as they close at 8:30 PM we decided to get our meal to go (our hotel room had a small kitchen we could eat at).  There were still people in the restaurant and coming into the restaurant at this time, so I think we could have eaten there as well.  The restaurant itself is your run-of-the mill American restaurant. It looks more like a pizzeria than a restaurant and sports a poorly lit dining room, a counter where you order your meal and a small salad bar (almost depleted by closing time).

We all ordered the ribs, so that’s pretty much all I can talk about food-wise.   The girls had the “Little Wrangler Rib Dinner” ($4.75) consisting of 2 spare ribs, baked bans or French fries, garlic bread and a soft drink.  Mike and I had the rib dinner ($15), which was basically the same except for more ribs (I’d say about 6).  It also included a bowl for the salad bar.  In addition we got the onion rings ($2.60) and a side order of mashed potatoes (~$2.50), as Mika has been in a mashed potato kick.

The ribs themselves were OK. They were very tender, but too dry for our taste.  The BBQ sauce they came with was too vinegary for my taste, and I thought the ribs were better without it (even though they definitely needed the moisture).  The onion rings were quite good, it was a nice size portion for the price.  The french fries were your standard battered type, tasted OK if you like that kind of French fries.  The garlic bread, on the other hand, was pretty inedible. It was very soft (microwaved?) and tasted nothing of garlic.  Nobody touched it.  The mashed potatoes were also just OK.

The salad bar, even though depleted, was OK for our purpose. Mike got some potato salad (don’t know if it was any good), and I stocked up on hard boiled egg bits, chick peas and mini corn for Mika. She was happy.

I have to say that while the kids portions were fine, Mike and I should have shared a meal rather than have each of us get our own.  As it was we only ate one portion of ribs, couldn’t finish the onion rings and left one portion of French fries untouched.  We had the ribs the next day for a mid-day snack, but the other food was wasted.  So if you go, order less food than you think you’ll want.

I don’t know if we’ll find ourselves in Bishop again, but if we do I’ll probably skip Bar-B-Q Bills.  Those ribs were just too dry.

Bar-B-Q Bills
187 S Main St
Bishop, CA
(760) 872-5535

Marga’s Restaurant Reviews – Outside the Bay Area

Nicely’s Restaurant – Lee Vining – Review

August 11, 2011 / / 0 Comments

We just came back from a short “vacation” to Las Vegas.  We made our way back to the Bay Area through Death Valley and the eastern sierra.  Yesterday, after a visit to Bodie, we had a late lunch at Nicely’s in Lee Vining.  Nicely’s is your typical coffee shop sort of restaurant, serving all-American coffee shop food at reasonable but standard prices.  What we had was fine, not great, but then again, we didn’t expect it to be so.

The restaurant itself looks like your all-American coffee shop: tables, booths, outdated decor, the sort of thing you’d have encountered 50 years ago and can still encounter at countless little towns in this country.  They serve breakfast, lunch and dinner, and they have both a dining room inside and outside seating under umbrellas. Even after 2 PM it was quite crowded.  Service by our veteran waitress was efficient, though not terribly friendly.

Both kids had the Kraft mac & cheese kid meal ($4, including french fries, 2 oreo cookies and a small drink).  They were quite happy because they love Kraft mac & cheese. Mika substituted her french fries with mashed potatoes ($1 extra), but she didn’t like them very much. She was unhappy about the pool of melted “butter” on top of the potatoes.  Mike and I shared a NY steak sandwich (~$10) and onion rings ($1 extra as a substitute for fries).  The steak was on the thin side, but tasted good enough.  The onion rings were also quite good.  I ordered a slice of bread pudding ($4), but I was less happy with that. The pudding was pretty dry and tasted overwhelmingly of cinnamon. I wouldn’t order it again.  Mike and Mika shared a slice of banana cream pie, which was pretty good. It came directly out of the fridge so it was a bit cool. Our sodas tasted fine, the glasses were refilled appropriately. The kids ordered lemonade and it tasted home made with real lemons. Mika liked it, Camila did not (she prefers the fake kind).

In all, it was a very typical coffees shop meal experience, nothing to write home about (unless you are a foreign tourist and want to experience the “real thing”).

Nicely’s Restaurant
Highway 395 at Fourth Street
Lee Vining, CA
(760) 647-6477

Marga’s Restaurant Reviews – Outside the Bay Area

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