Burs Restaurant

Where: 6151 Steilacoom Blvd. SW, Lakewood, 253.588.4844

Hours: 5 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday- Saturday, 6 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday. Lounge is open till 1 a.m. Sunday-Thursday, Friday and Saturday till 2 a.m.

Cuisine: Mainstream Midwest Aunt Mae classic American diner fare like pot roast dinner, prime rib, grilled Rueben sandwich, hamburger, Cobb salad, Monte Cristo and country biscuits and gravy. 

Scene: Ultra casual. Families and couples in the diner out front; blue-collar workers getting off shift belly up to the bar; your grandparents eating old favorites and sipping curiously strong well drinks in the lounge.

Drinkies: Full bar, the usual non-alcoholic beverages, big milkshakes.

Prices: $5.19-$13.59

ANNOUNCER: For well over 30 years, Burs Restaurant has been a Lakewood landmark serving up classic American diner food. The lounge and bar were not part of the original building. True story. Locals swear by their favorites - the corned beef hash special, turkey supreme sandwich, Bloody Mary, Sunday fried chicken. One thing those regulars enjoy is consistency - it's safe to say you will never walk into Burs and see the front counter replaced with a sushi bar. The Mayberry diner vibe has lasted through the years partly due to Blue Plate-style dinner specials, staff that remember your name, reasonable prices and bottomless cups of coffee for less than a dollar. That hometown feel will get you whether you drop in for breakfast, lunch or dinner. There's even an all-you-can-eat brunch buffet on the weekends.

JASON: Every time I come here I expect to hear "Grandpa" by The Judds playing in the background. People joke that Burs is an old person hangout. So yeah, the bar crowd may be older, but I think that just makes their jokes a little more brash and their tongues a little looser. They'll refer to you as "young buck" and "little darlin'." Interesting happy hour? You bet. The menu dives straight into hearty fare, skipping appetizers, so we went with the crab Louie salad and a cup of clam chowder for a light start to dinner. They make 1000 Island dressing in-house so we had to try it - nice and pickle-y, just the right amount of tang for me. Jake liked the herbed ranch, also made in-house, and used it for dipping forkfuls of crisp iceberg lettuce, tomato and hard-boiled egg slices. I personally used my ramekin of dressing as a drowning pool for cheddar cheese and pieces of lump crab meat. And a little lettuce.

JAKE: Yes, and you used the subtly sweet white-flour dinner roll as a chaser. I particularly liked the pickled beets on the salad. You don't really see that anymore. The creamy clam chowder wasn't anything monumental, but it had a good balance of clam to potato and onion.

JASON: And now ladies and gentlemen, we have come to the entrée portion of this award show. Oh wait, there's no show, I'm just excited that I got to order veal Parmesan. Fat spaghetti noodles swimming in chunky marinara with ground beef and herbs made an excellent bed for the veal. I am aware the veal was probably previously frozen and I just don't care.  It was tender and tasted good and the pasta was perfectly al dente. Fantastic garlic bread (top half of what looked like a hoagie roll) had crisp edges from the flattop grill and just the right amount of brushed-on garlic butter. I'm saying heck yeah to dining Blue Plate-style.

JAKE: You spun your swivel chair in glee when our food arrived, very adult behavior for the lounge. Speaking of the lounge, I'm loving that it has its own inconspicuous entrance. Jason, I'm glad you didn't call the marinara meat sauce a Bolognese, that's not really what Burs is about. It's not fancy, there's no Turkish coffee service or crostini sampler. It's just good workin'-man food. And I find I like that now and again. My turkey supreme sandwich came highly recommended and lived up to boasts of its goodness. Grilled sourdough bread held warm deli-style sliced turkey with crisp bacon strips, awesome avocado and sweet red tomato under slightly melted Swiss cheese. It deserves to be called supreme and was accompanied by a big spoonful of sweet mustard-based potato salad. 

JASON: Some desserts are homemade and some are brought in on a truck from a big supplier, but when you get a forkful in your mouth you'll quit caring. Cream pie had different colored layers of chocolate under a cloud of sweet whipped cream. The consistency reminds me of thick, rich pudding and the black crumble cookie crust was not brick hard or too thick and tasted excellent. Overall, this is mainstream Midwest Aunt Mae cuisine at its finest. I wanted to say something snarky about, well, anything, but I liked the eats.

JAKE: I'm with you. For all my love of gourmet dishes with obscure ingredients that have my heart and waistline in mind, it sure is good to eat some simple cooking at times. Makes me feel unhurried and a little easier about things - I guess you could call diner food my Linus blanket.