Kings Dominion Food in Doswell, VA

On my way home from a road trip up and down the east coast, I stopped and did a theme park day at Kings Dominion in Doswell, VA. It was a fun day with lots and lots of mediocre roller coasters and a few that I really enjoyed. Kings Dominion definitely wasn't up to Florida theme park standards, but it was still a good day. While there, I did sample some of Kings Dominion's theme park food...

Kings Dominion mostly had fast food chains for their dining offerings. I chose not to visit any of the chains and ate at a restaurant called Border Cafe.

This Mexican themed restaurant worked by everyone filling out papers with what they wanted by checking off boxes. I ordered a burrito with chicken, black beans, spicy cheddar, spicy corn salsa, lettuce, onions, jalapenos, black olives, and sour cream.

The burrito was served with a side of tortilla chips.

I can't say this was very good theme park food. I guess I'm spoiled by the food in the Orlando parks, but this was pretty bad. The tortilla wrapping up the burrito was very stale tasting. Not only that, it was dry and crunchy as opposed to the moist and soft that it should have been. The rice also had a similar problem, being crunchy as opposed to moist. As for the items that I checked off when ordering, salsa was completely missing from the burrito. For the cheese, the burrito was filled with cheese sauce, although I cheddar sauce wasn't checked.

Perhaps I would have been better off going to one of the chains in King's Dominion after my burrito at Border Cafe. Later in the day, it was time for a snack so I got dessert from another one of the park's non-chain restaurants called Jukebox Diner.

This place was themed like a 50's diner and served mostly burgers. I ordered a strawberry milkshake here. I was actually a bit impressed with the milkshakes here. A milkshake like this outside of a lower end theme park wouldn't be that impressive, but I was surprised given the location. They actually made these to order as opposed to using the somewhat pre-made milkshakes that I've seen elsewhere. The shake was filled with lots and lots of strawberries and was topped with a mountain of whipped cream.

Kings Dominion had some good roller coasters and I don't think anyone's going to that park for their food. It's definitely not Epcot...

La Madeleine Country French Cafe in Alexandria, VA

As per a DC resident's suggestion, I found myself across the Potomac River in Alexandria, VA. This city had a neighborhood known as Old Town which reminded me a bit of St. George Street in St. Augustine. It was somewhat historic and had all sorts of shops and restaurants on a 16 block stretch from the Metro station down to the river. Fake trolleys drove up and down the streets. Ghost tours were offered. All that typical tourist stuff that old cities like this have. While in Alexandria, I had dinner at a restaurant called La Madeleine Country French Cafe. This restaurant turned out to be a chain, set up very similar to a Panera. I wasn't a fan.

I ordered the sandwich/soup combination that the restaurant offered. For my soup, I had the cream of potato, topped with cheese and bacon. The soup was alright for what it was, but very typical of a creamy soup like this.

For my sandwich, I had the Croque Monsieur. This was basically a ham and cheese sandwich with a garlic cream sauce. If the ham and cheese had all been inside of the bread, I don't think I would have had issues here. Unfortunately, La Madeleine melted an excess of swiss cheese on top of the sandwich. This ended up being cheese overkill, with the abundance of goopy cheese taking precedence over all other flavors in the sandwich. It was too much, and I ended up leaving about half of my half sandwich. If there was less cheese inside of the sandwich, the cheese on top wouldn't have been too bad, but the combination of inside and outside cheese was the turning point for me. Pasta salad was served on the side, which I also didn't care for. It had a very strong tomato taste which I wasn't liking.

I don't think I'd return to a La Madeleine location again...

Starbucks in Ashland, VA

On a long drive home from New York, my fellow travelers decided that they needed to stop at a Starbucks to refuel on caffeine. I instead opted to get actual food and tried their Spinach and Feta breakfast wrap. It consisted of egg whites, spinach, feta, and some sort of tomato based sauce. It was better than I was expecting, but I really would prefer if they used whole eggs rather than just the whites. Egg whites may be healthier, but without the yolks they are tasteless with a consistency that I really don't like. Otherwise it was a good wrap from a coffee chain that isn't known for their food.

Dixie Bones BBQ in Woodbridge, VA

Midway through another day of driving on I-95 with far too much traffic, it was time for lunch. Dixie Bones Barbecue is located in Woodbridge, VA about a mile or so off of I-95. I ate here once several years ago and decided to give them another try. While walking into the restaurant, truckloads of ribs were being packed for the huge catering business that it looks like Dixie Bones does. Once seated, I looked over the menu and choose a pulled pork sandwich. While waiting for the food, I observed the antiques and paper mache animals all over the restaurant.

Soon enough, my sandwich was served. It came with coleslaw, and was really tasty. The pork was a little dry, but that was solved by sampling the various sauces on the table. I liked the vinegar based sauce the best, but this was also the first time I tried the white Alabama style barbecue sauce! It tasted a lot like ranch dressing and didn't seem to go with meat, but I guess some people like it.

Pulled Pork From Skyland Resort

I ate lunch at the Skyland Resort Restaurant in Shenandoah National Park along Skyline Drive in Virginia. I ordered a pulled pork sandwich, served with cole slaw and French fries. The sandwich was good, and the restaurant had a wonderful view. The only thing that wasn't good was the flies that kept on buzzing all over the restaurant...

McDonald's & Maurice's

While traveling south to Florida, a stop was made in Franklin, VA. The hotel didn't serve any sort of icky continental breakfast or anything, so the breakfast choice was narrowed down to the McDonalds across the street.

I ordered a egg and cheese biscuit combo, so it came with orange juice and hash browns. The whole experience in the fast food restaurant took about fifteen minutes, and probably would have taken longer if the manager didn't come in and all of the employees suddenly started scrambling to make the food faster. Once the food was ready, I took it and ate in the car.


I can't remember the last time that I ate in a standard McDonalds, but I was reminded why I don't eat the food off of the normal McDonalds menu. As I was eating the breakfast it tasted fine. For hours afterwards though, something in the food irritated the back of my throat. Drinking lots of water didn't really help, and it wasn't until a sneeze where a bit of mucus came up that the sore throat went away. This happens to me with breakfast from Burger King as well. Yummy...


On to better food, later in the day I ate at Maurice's Barbecue in Santee, South Carolina. Right off of I-95, this little fast food barbecue restaurant has some good food. You are greeted by this giant pork sandwich in the sky...




I ate a Jr. Pig Dinner, which consisted of pulled pork in a mustard barbecue sauce, fries, a roll, cole-slaw, hush puppies, and something called Carolina hash which was served over rice. The pork was very tasty, and I made my own pulled pork sandwich with the meat and the roll. I'm not exactly sure what was in the Carolina hash, but that was also very tasty. It was a whole lot to eat too.

And here is a portrait of Maurice hanging up in the restaurant. You know you are in the south when a restaurant owner is pictured in front of a Confederate flag...



With all of the meat and fried food that I ate today, I'm really in the mood to go eat vegan food again...

Crab Cakes on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel

I ate a crab cake sandwich from the Sea Gull Pier Restaurant on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel in Virginia. The last time that I traveled over the bridge and ate at this restaurant I had breakfast. The time before that, I also ate a crab cake sandwich. My problem then was that the crab cake had bits of crushed crab shell in the cake and made it a pain to eat. This time, the crab cake on the sandwich seemed ultra processed. As if it was a frozen pre-made crab cake. Someone else at the table ordered another crab cake sandwich, and it looked exactly the same, where crab cakes that are freshly made by hand don't have that much uniformity. It was what I would imagine a krabby patty would be like, if it wasn't a fictional cartoon food. The waitress said they made the crab cakes fresh at the restaurant, but I don't believe it. Maybe they came fresh out of the freezer.

It did taste okay, but it wasn't exactly what I would consider a good crab cake...