Review: Danville’s Golden Skillet

Danville’s Golden Skillet has one of the best chicken breast fillet sandwiches in the region. They’ve been in business for well over 20 years in the same location on Piney Forest Road, so let’s stop by for a SouthsideCentral review.

It’s around 4PM when my dining companion and I get to the restaurant. The parking lot has space for about 20 cars and I’ve never seen anywhere close to that many cars in the lot. The building is showing its age since it’s never been freshened up. It stands out because of the solarium extension that comes out as far as it can to the road.

We go inside and we’re the only customers there. Two employees are working the counter and two are back in the kitchen. The only part of the kitchen that’s visible is the window where orders are put in and food comes out. From the limited view that I can see, the kitchen looks relatively clean. The five panels of menu boards are up on the wall behind the counter and they’re not easy to read because of disjointed lettering. It’s much easier to look at the printed menu sitting on the counter. OUCH! The prices are extremely high.

The young girls behind the counter are rather indifferent to us and offer very little assistance. I choose the Big Skillet combo. That’s the fried chicken breast fillet with fries and drink. After tax, that rings up at over $8. Ugh. My companion goes for the six-piece chicken tender combo (fries, slaw, roll and drink). Holy crap, that’s $11! At these prices, the food had better be extraordinary.

We take our seat out in the solarium. The dining area is clean but it looks so 1980’s like the rest of the building. Both of our orders are cooked after we place them, and I’ve found that to be the case on the other times that I’ve eaten here.  Even though that means a much longer wait, that’s a good trade-off for freshness. Time passes as we look around. I’m surprised that the solarium has held together this long without repairs, but it’s the best seats in the house because you get a good view on Piney Forest Rd. More time passes. Even more time passes. Our orders are finally ready and I go to the counter to pick them up. Both workers behind the counter have their back to me. Hmph. I take the tray back to our table and immediately notice that there’s no sauce for the chicken tenders and no utensils. Sigh. Back to the counter I go. I go ahead and get a drink refill. The last time I ate at Golden Skillet, they had a sign charging $0.25 for soft drink refills. That sign is gone and refills are now free (as they should be).

Let’s take a look at what we’ve got.

Here’s my Big Skillet Combo.

And here’s the six nine chicken tenders meal.

I noticed that the 9-piece chicken tender meal was only $1.50 more than the 6-piece, so I paid the difference and added three more tenders. That took the total price for a 9-piece chicken tenders meal to $12.50. Yuck.

Both of the meal were served hot and were extremely delicious. The chicken fillet sandwich is truly one of the best ones in the region, if not the best overall. The chicken tenders were smaller than expected but still very testy. But these meals aren’t worth $8 & $12.50 respectively. Not even close to that.

Let’s go to the ratings…

Service: No greeting and no assistance from the counter staff. No sauce or utensils on the tray when served to us. All of the help looked to be less than 21 years old so I have no idea if anyone was in charge of the place when we were there. It just wasn’t a good experience when it comes to service. Score: 63 (D)

Food:  This is where Golden Skillet shines. Both of us cleaned our plates easily and the food was served hot and crispy. Score: 95 (A)

Atmosphere: The restaurant hasn’t changed not been freshened up since it was built. It’s the Golden Skillet that time has forgot. The solarium seating area is nice, but it’s outweighed by the drabness of the rest of the restaurant. The restaurant is clean, but it’s not sparkly clean and vibrant. Score: 70 (C-)

Intangibles: Simply put, it’s too damned expensive for what you get. The Big Skillet sandwich isn’t a $5 sandwich by itself and the combo is no added value. There’s no way in hell that their 6-piece chicken tender meal is worth $11.00, nor their 9-piece meal worth $12.50. We didn’t feel very welcomed in the place after dropping over $20 for two fast-food meals. Score: 45 (F)

Overall: I will go back to Danville’s Golden Skillet because the food quality is high. I’m not going back there often because the prices are extremely high for what you get. The lack of friendly customer service doesn’t help encourage me to eat there often. There’s serious room for improvements on everything except the food.

Overall Grade:  68 (D)