Cricket’s Kitchen Serves Inexpensive, Yet Unremarkable Dishes

We’ve driven by the little white house in Johnson many times, but we finally stopped a few Fridays ago to try Cricket’s Kitchen. The small parking lot was full when we walked into the house, which was split into two open dining rooms with the cash register in the middle and the kitchen in the back.

One diner found the Coca Cola memorabilia hung on the white walls enchanting. The plastic tablecloths bedecked with Christmas prints sure were different.

With sweet tea in hand, one female diner opted for the Veggie Plate ($4), which came with three vegetables, a roll and a small dinner salad. Her favorite was the fried zucchini, which had just the right amount of breading and wasn’t overly greasy. The green beans tasted like they were straight from a can. She said she had had better mashed potatoes.

Another diner raved about the mashed potatoes and gravy, which came with her Hot Roast ($6). They all agreed the dinner salad was “side” sized for sure since the shredded iceberg lettuce was packed carefully into a pudding-sized saucer.

A third diner tried the hamburger with fries ($4). The beef connoisseur gave the Angus a passing grade, although he said the patty was “slightly pink” for his taste. The fries were unremarkable, he said.

We wanted to try one of the daily dessert specials, but the waitress explained that by Friday, Cricket’s was usually out of dessert, so we left a little bit hungry.

What Cricket’s may lack in spice, it makes up for in character. Our waitress served up plenty of jokes to our table and to the other seemingly familiar diners around us. It’s a great place to get a hot plate of comfort food grandma might fix. We’d definitely go back and try breakfast, which is served from 6 to 11 a.m. and includes things like eggs, hash browns, biscuits and gravy for $4.50, omelets from $4 and pancakes from $3.