45812 Tue May 09 01:13:32 -0700 2006 15 1 San Francisco Bay Area 0 226960 Also good … - Strawberry shakes made with real strawberries - Wild salmon sandwich - Veggie burger - Breakfasts, especially the strawberry pancakes - Pies (mmm … lemon meringue) - Prices - well, everything. For $3.40 the fresh strawberry pancakes are a major deal. Add a cup of unlimited coffee and for under $5 (no tip, it is fast food), that is good eats. Two pancakes come with lightly sweetened fresh strawberries and lots of whipped cream. The strawberries and whipped cream don’t run out before the pancakes do. A few weeks ago, a fresh strawberry tart was the second thing I ever bought at Nations. The first was a burger … about fifteen years ago. There have been some changes since then and now I’m impressed. I tried most of the menu and my current opinion is that Nation’s is one of the best fast food restaurants in the Bay Area. I like it better than In-N-Out Burger. The Pinole Red Onion is the only competition with a larger selection. I haven’t tried as much on the Red Onion menu though. Nation’s started in El Cerrito in 1952 as a hot dog stand and now has 24 locations … and all within the geography of the SF board. Ok Nations! Headquarters is still in El Cerrito on San Pablo Avenue. Perhaps being a local company accounts for some of extra care that goes into the restaurants. The four Nation’s visited all had vases of fresh flowers on the tables which is a nice touch when stopping by for a hunk of pie ($1.90) and unlimited … and good … coffee ($1.15). McDonald’s with all its hype should serve coffee this good. Three dollars and a nickel hardly buys a piece of pie anywhere else … sometimes it only covers coffee. As the menu says, all burgers and sandwiches are 3/4 pound with fixings figured into the weight. The salmon is the most expensive sandwich at $4.85. A grilled cheese sandwich is a hefty hunk of eating for $2.70. The nice thing about Nations is that you can order things as healthy as you would like in any configuration you would like. Except for mayo, all the condiments are added personally. The grilled cheese (or ham & cheese) and the BLT are the only sandwiches that don’t come on a bun. There is a choice of white, wheat or sourdough bread for these sandwiches. The sourdough is a lot better than the white bread. Everything else is served on a lightly grilled white or whole wheat sesame bun. The hamburger comes on a white bun and all other sandwiches come on whole wheat as a default. Substitutions can be made. All sandwiches come with thick slices of tomato and white onion and an impressive piece of crispy fresh iceberg. No shredded lettuce here. On request the onions can be grilled (recommended). Razor-thin slices of pickle, sliced length-wise are available on request. . After a while I decided to start ordering the sandwiches with a ‘light’ spread of mayo. For my tastes, the standard sandwich has too much mayo. The sandwiches can be ordered with a lettuce wrap instead of a bun or as a diet plate with the meat and lettuce, tomato and onion on a plate. Diet jelly and syrup is available on request for breakfast. There is even a no sugar added apple pie … apples … that’s it … not weird artificial sweetener. Here are the sandwiches in the order of preference: - Chicken breast. Unlike McDonalds and the other fast food joints, this is a REAL chicken breast … just grilled chicken, no strange additives or mystery parts. It is a large chicken breast too. - Wild Salmon burger. So superior to the usual spongy ground-up patty. This has pieces of salmon formed into a patty. The patty is a little peppery. It is nice with BBQ sauce on it. - Harvester (veggie burger). This is almost like a nice meat loaf that has lots of filler. - Grilled cheese. I ordered he basic version on two large slices of sourdough bread. The bread is buttered and grilled. Slices of cheese are put on one slice until they melt. Remove from grill. Add mayo lettuce, onion and tomato. An excellent version of this would be cheese, grilled onions and tomato, hold the lettuce and mayo. - Hot dog – A Miller’s hot dog, split down the middle, grilled and placed on a grilled bun. Condiments added personally. Almost a perfect bun to dog ration, but the bun is just a bit larger than I would like. Don’t forget that tomatoes, grilled onions and pickle can be added on request. There’s a chili dog too. - Burger. It is ok and larger than most. My favorite configuration would be grilled onions, tomato, pickle, light mayo and skip the lettuce. OK, put it on the side as salad dressed with honey Dijon dressihg. One of the reasons I didn’t like the Nation’s burger the first time was that I suspected there was too much grease and it gave me heart burn. Turned out it wasn’t that at all. It was the thick fresh onion pieces. Grilled onion solved the problem. BLT – Large sandwich, good basic version, and is better on sourdough. After years of hobbs bacon on artisan bread, and organic tomatoes, it is hard to go back to the basics. The fries are thick cut and good. The chili fries come in a large Styrofoam carton topped with two large scoops of chili. Forty cents extra for cheese or peppers. If it is to your taste, I think grilled onions can put on anything except the pie. If ordering the chili separately, it comes in a 12 oz coffee cup with packets of saltines. It is a saucy chili with a fifty/fifty mix of beans and ground beef. It is a little salty, but for $1.80, it makes a filling lunch. Different Nations have different condiments on the counter. The University Avenue Nations in Berkeley has the most – mustard, catsup, BBQ sauce, Tabasco, honey Dijon dressing (very good), hot dog relish, chopped onions and chopped tomatoes. If the condiment isn’t on the counter, ask for it. Breakfast is inexpensive and basic. Flats of real eggs sit on the counter waiting to be scrambled or made into omelets. Instead of hash browns and toast, for no extra charge pancakes or French toast can be substituted. I enjoyed a ham and cheese omelet with two soft, eggy slices of French toast made with Texas toast. It had a nice note of cinnamon. The three-egg omelet was the thin type and I asked for free grilled onions and tomatoes to be added to the ham and cheese. A warning that while many Nation’s serve breakfast all day, a few don’t. The 24-hour Nations seem to always serve breakfast. Another difference in the various Nation’s is that some carry more variety of pies than others. Two sizes of slice are available – small – (1/6 pie) or regular (1/4 pie) Pies I liked in order of preference - Lemon meringue – Deeply lemony, tart and tangy with a light, frothy meringue that is nicely browned on top. - Fresh strawberry – As someone else said, the whole is better than the part. Huge strawberries piled on the tart shell with a not too sweet glop and marshmallow-y whipped cream on request. - Banana crème – generous pieces of banana in a banana pudding base and lots of whipped cream - Cream cheese – the type that is similar to those jello cheesecakes. Nice touch of lemon and especially good if it is fresh strawberry time and topped with strawberries. Graham cracker crust. - Custard - Eggy, basic and, no frills with a light dusting of cinnamon for visual appeal. I don’t like the crust with this pie. - Sweet potato tart – real sweet potato with little pieces of not totally pureed potato here and there. Sweet but not too sweet with just a suggestion of spice - Pumpkin – The sweet potato is just so much better. Ok, but not enough pumpkin flavor for me, the texture isn’t dense enough and a little sweet. - Sugar-free apple – tart apples and not bad. A little too much crust to filling but a nice enough if sugar is to be avoided. - Peaches and cream – a few canned peaches in a light peach colored whipped cream. Very little peach flavor … Blueberries and cream is coming soon. The strawberry sundae is a deal at $1.10. Twice the size of McDonalds, with better ice cream and tastier strawberries. A few nits. The cream for the coffee is of the liquid creamer type. One Nations let me have real milk on request, another didn’t. For $1.90 a bowl of fresh strawberries can be ordered. There are twelve of the huge strawberries used in the pies. While generous and healthy, these are the type of strawberries that need some sweetening. Also, for some odd reason when ordering a diet plate, they chop up the lettuce, tomato and pickle (I passed on the onion). I guess you can request for the veggies not to be chopped. Actually I should have ordered the grilled onions with the salmon patty. A nice feature is that since the diet place comes without the bun, they subtract the price of the bun. The restaurants all have the same set-up, a mix of orange booths and tables with chairs. Large sunny windows and the tables with fresh flowers make the restaurant a pleasant stop. Place the order at the counter and wait for your number to be called. Eat-in orders are on trays. There is a wait because everything is made to order. Phone orders are accepted and they do a lot of business with call-in orders. Don’t get me wrong. It is still fast food, but it is the best of its class. With Nations, there is evidence of the original ingredients … a little piece of unmashed sweet potato, pieces of strawberry in the shake, identifiable salmon, eggs in shell on the counter and an actual chicken breast. The reason it is called Nation’s is that the founders thought it was the best burger in the nation. In the category of fast food, that could very well be true. Link: http://www.nationsrestaurants.com/index.html Tue May 09 01:13:32 -0700 2006 0 rworange 1 226970 BTW, for comparison sake, the Nations chicken sandwich has just that a real chicken breast. Here's what Mcdonalds chicken is made of: Grilled Chicken Breast Filet: Boneless, skinless chicken breast filets with rib meat, colored with paprika and caramel color added. Contains: Up to 20% of a solution of water, seasoning [salt, sugar, modified corn starch, maltodextrin, spices, dextrose, autolyzed yeast, hydrolyzed (corn gluten, soy, wheat gluten) proteins, garlic powder, paprika, chicken fat, chicken broth, natural flavors (animal and vegetable source), caramel color, polysorbate 80, xanthan gum, onion powder, extractives of paprika], modified food starch, sodium phosphates. Grilled with liquid margarine. Contains wheat and soybean ingredients. The Mcdonald's chicken sandwich is about 1/3 the size of the Nation's chicken sandwich ... and McDonalds doesn't offer grilled onions. Link: http://www.mcdonalds.com/app_controller.nutrition.categories.ingredients.index.html Tue May 09 02:05:13 -0700 2006 226960 0 rworange 2 226988 At least McDonald's puts its nutritional information on its Web site. I had to phone Nation's to confirm that they use hydrogenated fat in their pie crust. Tue May 09 10:43:50 -0700 2006 226970 0 Robert Lauriston 3 227011 Yeah, I had to call to confirm there was only chicken breast in that chicken breast. This really IS a small operation for a chain. It was a little amusing speaking to the ONE person who knew this info. He is mailing me the rest of the nutritional info. I'm more after the calorie counts though. This really is a better option for me than other fast food when nothing else is around, so I'd like to keep track of calories. Like that open 24 hours at some places. I'll bet that being local and small they buy locally too. The thing is, they seem to do a lot of the right things without the loud self-congratulations and slick marketing that the other fast food places do. Instead of the marketing, they keep the prices low. They are good about packaging. Sandwiches are wrapped in paper, not styrofoam. Condiments dont come in little packets, you have to go to the condiment counter. Even the piece of pie to go is on a paper plate with just a piece of paper on the top. I've really come to admire the way this place is run in my visits over the past few weeks. Within their business model they seem to do the right thing because it is the right thing. How's that for a concept? Forget about hype and marketing, put the money in the food. Give people value for their money and a nice place to eat it. They don't need to put flowers on the table. They didn't need to use wild salmon for that salmon burger. Tue May 09 13:18:41 -0700 2006 226988 0 rworange 4 227015 Nation's isn't really fast food. It's more like a diner minus table service. Tue May 09 13:28:05 -0700 2006 227011 0 Robert Lauriston 4 227016 "Sandwiches are wrapped in paper, not styrofoam." As opposed to McDonald's, where the chicken sandwich seems to be MADE of styrofoam. Yikes. That list of ingredients was...interesting, to say the least. The only Nation's cost-cutting measure I take issue with is packing to-go pie slices with just a paper plate and bag. That's not a lot of protection from smushage. Other than that, I can definitely respect a lot of the practices mentioned in rworange's post. Very refreshing. Tue May 09 13:31:44 -0700 2006 227011 0 Agent 510 1 227013 Good to know I haven't been mistaken in my inability to order any pie but the lemon meringue. The strawberry pancakes sounds yummy, though. Tue May 09 13:23:00 -0700 2006 226960 0 Ruth Lafler 1 227032 I had the chicken breast sandwich on my first visit a week or so ago, but didn't mention it because it was neither particularly good, nor particularly bad. It was a real breast and large enough to make the sandwich difficult to eat, which could be a good thing. It was like something one might whip up at home in a pinch. I have an errand to run nearby today and plan to go back there for another strawberry tart. Maybe I'll have the pancakes for lunch, but frankly I was thinking about lunching elsewhere. You're right, the breakfast menu looked good, but already had bacon and eggs this morning. Tue May 09 15:26:17 -0700 2006 226960 0 chocolatetartguy 2 227054 I do want to stress that nothing here isn't anything you could make at home better. Is it any ulitmate dining experience. However, given that, I would like to eat healthier when I go for fast food, getting the chicken breast instead of the burger. However, I just can't stand any of the fast food chicken sandwiches. They have this weird vegetal taste or some sort of off flavor or painted on grill marks. They are just ugly. That's why I posted about what McDonalds does to its chicken. I was shocked the first time I read that. It did explain the taste. So, yep, Nations is just a plain old chicken breast, some crispy iceberg, supermarket tomatoes, and mayo (ok onions, but not into them). But it is fresh and real and not enhanced. So don't look expect much for the breakfast or you'll be disappointed. Just some eggs, American cheese, ham, etc. The pancakes you could do better at home. There's nothing that elevates these. They are pancakes. That's it. You can get them gussied up with the strawberries and whipped cream. People wax nostaglic about 50's diner food. Yet a lot of it was like this. It was not Mels or Johnny Rockets. Nations started in the 50's and really stuck to the way it did things in the beginning. Robert is almost right about it being a diner without table service. It doesn't have a large enough menu to qualify as a diner. They started as a hot dog stand, added burgers, then pies, a few other sandwiches and breakfast. This is a working class joint. If customers are wearing anything with a label, it's likely to be from the Jaquelyn Smith collection. It has respect for its customers in that it gives them fresh food at a good price. It doesn't pander and try to fit in. I hate those "Mickey D's" commercials that try to talk the lingo of some of its client base. It is like Robin Williams doing rap in "RV". I guess it is kind of sad comment on fast food that what makes this place special is that it will just give you a chicken sandwich with out pumping it full of additives and insulting your intelligence. Tue May 09 16:44:49 -0700 2006 227032 0 rworange 3 227057 I think what makes Nation's better than most fast food is that it's not really fast food. The service and layout are the same, but most of the food's cooked to order from normal ingredients. Much like In-N-Out, but better food. Tue May 09 17:07:15 -0700 2006 227054 0 Robert Lauriston 3 227070 Too late! I just got back from having the strawberry pancakes which were pretty good, but not good enough to go out of my way for. I also had a chocolate shake that was too thick to drink through a straw. It was kind of overwhipped, like the cream on the pancakes. I'm probably not the one to judge Nation's since for me strawberries rank with baseball: behind boysenberries, basketball, wild blackberries, football. Tue May 09 18:12:18 -0700 2006 227054 0 chocolatetartguy 1 227056 I didn't know their strawberry shake is made from real straberries. This I must try! Tue May 09 17:05:03 -0700 2006 226960 0 theSauce 1 227075 I can't believe in this finely detailed post that you missed the best part! The El Cerrito branch is open 24 hours a day! Hands down the best 3:30am cheeseburger on this side of the bay. Tue May 09 18:41:02 -0700 2006 226960 0 Jef 2 227097 At last. Someone who understands. Tue May 09 20:34:46 -0700 2006 227075 0 rworange 2 227115 Skip the cheese, have the 2 strips of bacon on that burger! Also, skip the Kraft Miracle Whip they use and ask for the Best Food Mayo (sorry, in packets). And since there seems to be a McD comparison, skip the big breakfast at McD's and have the same (in name only, certainly not in actuality) eggs, bacon &/or sausage, toast & hashbrowns (or pancakes or French Toast) for the same amount of money; but cooked to order with fresh/real ingredients. Wed May 10 00:03:34 -0700 2006 227075 0 banana2ndgen 2 227122 I think the best part really is the fact is that that branch is open 24 hrs. Not only is the burger delicious at 3:30am, I'd also say the same for the chili cheese fries and a slice of the banana creme pie when they still have it in stock by that time... Wed May 10 00:39:45 -0700 2006 227075 0 Mike Lee