The Village Place; Waterford, Michigan

The Village Place has a special place in my heart.  Not the Waterford location (Elizabeth Lake Rd & Cooley Lake Rd) per se, but the West Bloomfield store, for I had a job there as a dishwasher when I was only 15 years old.  Yes, I remember dish-dogging in a sweaty nasty back room and having a huuuuuuge crush on this super hot waitress (sorry honey) name Nicole (hey, I was only 15).  


Today, my friend and spiritual brother Cliff drove me to a doctors appointment and on the way home we stopped to eat at one of the two Waterford locations of The Village Place (aka. VP).  The second location is on Dixie Highway just south of Andersonville Road.  As this was to be my first meal in almost 36 hours I was really looking forward to it.


Now the VP has had the same look to it since the fifth day of Creation.  I truly believe that the owners hold to the belief that hiring an interior designer and having someone paint the walls is the same thing.  The location I was at even had a 1970's cigarette dispensing machine...like ya'...c'mon dude!  At least there was no cigarettes for sale, they simply use the old thing as some type of table for old dusty plants, and yes they where dusty.  And as we are on the subject, the cleanliness was not very impressive, inside or outside the lavatories.

Prior to discussing the food, I should be clear on one thing, VP is not in existence or known for their fine Chef Ramsey cuisine.  VP is a diner of "all-around" proportions serving a variety of foods; a sampler if you will.  That is what draws me.  Though there is a few dishes that I do love and I will mention those at the end, for those dishes are from the Waterford-Dixie Highway location.

For a meal Cliff ordered the Village Platter Salad.  This salad was quite large and began on a bed of iceberg lettuce.  Let me add this important fact, there was a lot of iceberg lettuce.  On top of the ruffage there was some shredded swiss cheese and then a scoop of chicken salad.  Actually Cliff had a choice of chicken salad, tuna or crab salad.  Along with salad there came a side of cottage cheese and a grilled pita bread.  For his choice of salad dressing Cliff chose a honey mustard.  I am a fan of honey mustard so I decided to taste it, and my friends I was so close to gagging it was V-I-L-E!  Cliff did not utilize the dressing but he did enjoy his salad.

As for myself I ordered The Village Place Special; a delicious order of three eggs (I got them poached) over wheat toast (or white, rye); with hash browns (or pancakes), turkey sausage patties (or pork sausage links or patties or bacon).  Overall quite tasty, but then this would be a hard one to mess up.


The service at the VP store was OK, the nice waiter argued with Cliff whether or not he was due his cottage cheese even going so far as to bring a menu up to the table to prove he was right (he was wrong, lol).  Other then that, the service was good.


The affordability of VP is about the same as any other restaurant of that caliber, meaning a store serving that same type of cuisine.  


As I said previously the cleanliness was bad as was the decor.


Now as for the Dixie Hwy location I highly recommend the Veal Parmesan Sandwich, the Crab Salad Sandwich and their Heart Healthy Frozen Yogurt.  For these items I would actually make a special trip.


Overall:


Service:                          **(2 1/2)               
Food:                              ***(3)
Affordability:                 ***(3)
Cleanliness:                     *(1)
Decor:                            *(1)


Overall:                          *(1 1/2)