Life Of Jason

This is going to the be the first in a series of reviews of local restaurants and local shows.  (If you’re with a Branson show and would like to volunteer to be the first victim…er…show reviewed please e-mail me.)  Restaurants are going to be rated on a five kid scale.  (Since we have five kids, I figured that would be a better fit for this site than a “5 star” rating.)  The high mark for a restaurant would be for me to consider it as good as DiGiancinto’s which is the pinnacle of dining perfection in Springfield.

So today my beautiful fiancee and I had the chance to dine at the San Francisco Oven, 1845 East Sunshine in Springfield.  (That’s just to the east of the Glenstone/Sunshine intersection.)

Atmosphere:  It feels like a weird hybrid of a fast food joint and a sit-down restaurant.  You come in and order your food and pay at the counter like a fast food place but then you take a booth or table and the food is brought to you.  The place is decorated with old style pictures of the bay area and in enhances the “San Francisco” atmosphere they desire to create.  It’s not groundbreaking by any means but it’s nice and makes you feel comfortable.  They were playing Christian pop music while we were there which I thought was a clever business move playing it on Sunday afternoon after church.  Cater to the crowd you have at the time.

Food: Turkey chili and the Penne Sorento with Chicken.   The chili was fantastic.  It had a bold flavor yet it wasn’t too hot for the average person.  (I lived in New Mexico for a while so I’ve discovered spicy food to me is way too spicy for the average Springfieldian.)  The turkey is ground up to a fine texture and it’s thick like a chili should be thick.  I don’t normally use oyster crackers when eating chili but they fit well in this mixture.  The Penne Sorrento with Chicken was also fantastic.  It’s a penne pasta with three different kinds of peppers, chicken and broccoli in an olive oil mixture.  The chicken is seasoned so that it has a little bit of a festive bite and it blends well with the pepper and broccoli mixture.  For dessert, a canolli…and while it was good with the chocolate chips throughout instead of just on the ends like most places…it didn’t measure up to DiGiancinto’s so it cost San Fran Oven a few points. :)  It was still pretty good, though.

Price:  For me, Amy and Julie it was around $25.  We did get a lot of food for the money but I was thankful that my mom & dad had blessed us with a few gift certificates to try to the place.  If I had to pay full price, I wouldn’t have had the chili and likely would have skipped dessert as well to make it a little more affordable.  Still the price for the value is pretty good.

Warning:  There’s a lot of peanut based items on their menu.  If you have a child with a severe peanut allergy (like we do) you would do well to probably go elsewhere.  Amy wanted to get the Sweet and Sour Chicken but couldn’t because she was afraid the wok used would have come in contact with peanuts and had Julie had even one piece of that we’d be on the way to urgent care.

Overall:  We’re likely to eat there again.  Everyone enjoyed their meal and everyone almost cleaned their plate.  (Julie left a little of her cheese pizza on the plate.)  I would give the San Francisco Oven 4 kids out of 5.