Fenton's Creamery

Whether you've seen the references in Pixar's Up or are from the Bay Area, Fenton's is a well known institution for mammoth ice cream sundaes and for those with a large sweet tooth. The menu is filled with traditional American fare; burgers, fries, sandwiches and of course, two pages of desserts. We visited the Nut Tree location on our way to Lake Anza for a late lunch and sat on the patio with Shadow.

BroCo went with the sliders and curly fries ($9.95)

Sliders with Curly Fries

Chu-Toro ordered the Fenton's ruben with pastrami, saurkraut, red onion, melted swiss cheese on a toasted rye with chips ($11.95)

Fenton's Ruben

I went with the "famous" Fenton's crab melt with crab salad with melted Monterey cheese and avocado ($14.95) accompanied by onion rings ($2 more).

Fenton's crab melt

The food was your average diner food that came with low expectations and correlating results. My crab salad was a little runny and messy, nothing special and if I had to order again probably would have gotten a simple burger. The rings were better, engrossed by a heavy crunchy batter. The Ruben was soggy in the middle and broke after the first bite, leaving Chu-Toro to eat the rest with a fork. A uneventful sandwich with an abundant excess of thousand island dressing. BroCo's sliders were dry and curly fries undercooked, but it came with a tangy BBQ-ranch sauce that was good to dip with.

Onto the real course, ice cream! BroCo has an affinity with brownies, so he ordered the Saddleback brownie ($8.95).

Saddleback Brownie

Needless to say, it was pretty huge. We couldn't finish the sundae that was armed with two enormous scoops of vanilla covered by whipped cream, almonds, and a drizzle of hot fudge. This buried the two large brownies and pool of fudge underneath it. I would have hoped the brownie to be fresh, it was dry and hard but it sopped up the rapidly melting ice cream so worked out okay.

Chu-Toro ordered a petite ($3.50) scoop of toast almond ice cream. Petite isn't really an accurate term as it came in   normal sized sundae dish.

Petite toasted almond ice cream

This ice cream was smooth, rich and well made, creamy with bits of toasted almond throughout. A nice finish to an overall sub par meal.

I'd say most of the crowd had it right, they where there for the ice cream and maybe a side of fries as 60% of the guests were filling their faces with desserts only. Next time we'd do the same, leaving our entrées to another restaurant. 

Rating 5/10

August 14, 2010

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