Restaurant: Jackson’s
Location: 11927 Democracy Drive. Reston, VA 20191. (703) 437-0800
Date: November 26, 2011 & 2017 — yes same day, 6 years apart
Cuisine: American
Rating: Solid mid-sized chain offering
Back “home” in DC we wanted a quick and easy meal and so headed out to Reston to this reliable place. I reviewed Coastal Flats last year, another member of the same small chain.
This is one of those well done (but not earth-shattering) mall places. It seems that good malls these days aren’t going with the giant chains or with one-off restaurants. they must feel the need for a little more stability in their business relationships.
This vast interior all decked out for the holidays.
The menu.
They have these donut-like rolls which are pretty delicious.
This was billed as an “perfect margarita” and actually, it was pretty good. Not quite as good as my own, but not bad at all.
A mojito.
“Lobster and ham mac and cheese.” Pretty good too. The ham made it.
A special salad. Fried oysters, blue-cheese, salad.
A simple green salad.
Salad with grilled salmon. Didn’t skimp on the salmon.
Lobster Club salad. Not bad at all.
Grilled cheese for my son.
Simple pasta for my son 6 years later.
Fried grouper, fries, and cole slaw. This was a tasty fried fish, nice and crispy. This chain has an unusual but very good slaw, chopped, with a bit of peppery bite.
Crab cake roll with a side of butternut squash.
And the platter version, two crab cakes with fries and slaw. The cakes a pretty good, with big lumps of crab. It does have a little breading (obviously).
Sautéed spinach.
Lobster roll with corn on the cob. No shortage of lobster here! They claim it’s all the meat from a 1.5 pounder. Looks like it.
Same lobster roll, 6 years later.
This isn’t really chef driven cuisine. It’s basically comfort food. But it is well done.