This “Restaurant Review Travel Plaza Georgia Carnesville” is a review of the restaurant at the Carnesville Travel Plaza in Carnesville, GA, USA, based upon our own expectations of what a restaurant that caters to professional truck drivers of commercial motor vehicles should be like — as well as our own preferences in foodstuffs.
Restaurant Review Travel Plaza Georgia Carnesville
Date: 5/22/2010
Location: Carnesville Travel Plaza, Carnesville, GA, I-85, exit 160
Overall Facility: Restaurant Review Travel Plaza Georgia Carnesville
- This is a no-smoking facility.
- There is an area for diners just inside the restaurant (usually populated by professional truck drivers) and plenty of seating in the back past the buffet.
- A buffet is featured daily with meats, vegetables, soup and salad items.
- Diners may order from the menu.
On this particular evening, the restaurant featured a steak buffet.
There were also other meats available on the buffet.
Pros: Restaurant Review Travel Plaza Georgia Carnesville
- There was plenty of just about everything on the bars when we came through. Hot food items were being regularly restocked.
- There was a wide variety of entrees: steaks, chicken, and pulled BBQ pork.
- Among the other hot bar items were green beans, turnip greens, broccoli and cheese sauce, rice, mashed potatoes, stewed tomatoes, fried okra, whole kernel corn and carrots.
- There were two types of soup available: chicken noodle and vegetable beef.
- The salad bar has many of the usual items: iceberg lettuce, cherry tomatoes, cucumber slices, shredded cheddar cheese and diced hard boiled egg. There were also sweet pickles and onions, sliced red onions, pasta salad, potato salad, plenty of salad dressings, and a few toppings.
- There were several types of fruit on the salad bar, including canned peaches, canned pineapple and chunks of cantaloupe. Mike said the peaches were nice and firm.
- There were two types of pudding on the salad bar: chocolate and vanilla.
- There were slices of zucchini, squash and onion mixed in with the steak.
- Vicki enjoyed the taste of the ranch salad dressing (but noted how thin it was compared to the bottled ranch she normally eats).(*)
- Mike said that the cherry tomatoes were really good and looked especially fresh.
- Vicki liked the taste of her seasoned chicken quarter more than her steak.
- We were greeted by Margaret who took our drink order and served the rest of the time by Deborah. Our used dishes were whisked away pretty quickly.
- While we were gone to get our first plates full of food, someone brought rolls and whipped margarine to our table without us having to ask.
Cons: Restaurant Review Travel Plaza Georgia Carnesville
- The salad bar did not contain either cottage cheese or sunflower kernels.
- Being of a smaller body size, Vicki fetched a smaller piece of steak, which was a little more done than she would have liked.
- The green beans and the broccoli on the hot bar were overcooked.
- The mashed potatoes looked like they were a little beyond their prime.
- The cucumbers were cut too thinly in our opinion.
- Mike noted that the rice tasted flat and without seasoning.
- As what we think was a space saving option, the restaurant mixed raw broccoli and cauliflower in one crock on the salad bar. For folks like Vicki who like one but not the other, this required that the customer selectively remove the desired vegetable while leaving the other behind.
- Mike said the white gravy was thin. Vicki noted that the cheese sauce was a little thin.
- Mike said that the steak could have been better seasoned.
- Our table and the floor near our booth could have been cleaner.
Overall Grade
Overall grade for this restaurant at this facility on a scale of A+ to F- (with A+ being the best, F- being the worst): B-
Return from Restaurant Review Travel Plaza Georgia Carnesville – Travel Plaza at Carnesville, GA to our Truck Stop page or our Truck Drivers Money Saving Tips home page.
* Update: Vicki has learned that some commercially prepared Ranch salad dressings contain an ingredient that gives her a headache. After she learned this, she no longer eats any Ranch salad dressing unless she makes it herself.
