Jack's Collegetown Grill

(Jack's Grill or Jack's Collegetown Grill, it's all the same)

Sam:

For our latest restaurant outing Tommy and I ventured into Collegetown to check out Jack's Grill. We'd passed it a few times while dining at other restaurants in the area but neither of us had ever eaten there (despite Tommy once promising we'd meet there for breakfast) so we were both pretty excited to try it.

As those familiar with Collegetown will know, parking can be a bit of a challenge. So much so that it has deterred us from eating there (or anywhere where we're forced to park on the street) in the past. So imagine our suprise as we get to the top of Williams Street and see a spot right there! Pretty exciting, no? Well wait, it gets better. The spot was at the end of the metered spots so we were able to pull right in AND we were awarded with the following:

It might be hard to tell from the photo but that meter has time on it! It seems that the restaurant gods were smiling upon us today. Getting out and peeking around to the other side revealed that we only had 3 minutes but still, I'm not overreacting. This is exactly as exciting as I'm making it seem.

Throwin' it over to Tom for the actual restaurant review!

Tom:

I am writing this portion abroad from Cape Cod!!!! When we went into Jack's we immediately started stressing about the seating situation. Tables were sparse, and while we could have easily ordered to go we were lookin' for a good sit (nothin' beats it). Luckily other patrons and the staff started noticing us, and tables were cleaned allowing us to sit down.

(Order up! My complaint was that the menu was too small and hard to read)

One orders from a counter in Jack's. Sam got a 1/2 lb burger, while I got a southwestern breakfast burrito with home fries, thus providing a look into the range of the restaurant. My burrito was pretty good, it was nice and hot and grilled or something. The eggs weren't of the highest quality, and I thought the home fries were a little bland and dry, but it was overall a very satisfying, quick cheap breakfast burrito. Sam seemed pretty satisfied with his burger, though he thought it was a bit big. The fries were pretty solid.

(My burger)

(T-burg's B-Burrito)

Overall, we both agreed that Jack's basically provided a good quick cheap option in Collegetown. It's largely just a counter and not a full restaurant with full service, but it provides a nice greasy niche that we don't really have in Ithaca. It has some diner fare, but it also has a surprising deep menu of different burgers, wings, and chicken sandwiches. They had some kind of stuffed hamburger that we were too intimidated to try, and "zombie hot" chicken wings, which we agreed was not that good of a name for hot wings.

Jack's was a nice little discovery and we're gonna give it one happy guy with his burger out of one happy guy with his burger.

(One happy guy with his burger)