Carl’s Restaurant

Yesterday must have been the HOTTEST day of the year… so far. supposedly 93 degrees!
Decided to have Lunch at Carl’s…
Usually, I just order the Original Joe’s or The Big Cheese… decided on something different. Perused the Blue Plate specials on the White Board…
Pork Omelet (**** ½ $ 9.00 Regularly $ 9.25) (
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) Carl’s has gone back to HUGE portions! That’s good… for me!
You’re going to get some lots of chunks of Roast Pork stir-​fried with Tomatoes, Onions, Green Bell Peppers and Mushrooms wrapped by Eggs and covered with American Cheese. Chose Home Fries as the Side along with a three 5″ Pancakes.
Despite the flavorfulness of this entrée… the Omelet did have a problem… moisture. The Pork mixture and the Eggs were obviously prepared separately from one another and the Egg mixture was «wrapped» around the Meat concoction at the end. The way the Chefs prepared resulted in a lot of water from the heat of the Meat Concoction with no way to escape because of the Egg Wrap. Tasted very good… nevertheless…
Iced Tea (**** $ 1.95) Got a Pitcher… all to myself.
Every one of the waitresses I’ve known at Carl’s restaurant has Quit and moved… aside from one. There’s a whole new service staff that I’ll have to get used to…
Lots of customers today… Glad to see Carl’s is, again, doing well. Last year, after Carl’s raised prices by $ 0.50 on average… the number of customers dramatically decreased to the point one weekend last Summer about the same time I had Lunch today… there was only one other customer. I really thought that Carl’s was going under back then…

Food was ok but seriously lacking salt, and I am not one who uses a lot of salt. Service was slow at first but friendly, got better as the meal went on. Price was very reasonable especially when you see the portion sizes. We will come here again but its nothing to write home about.

Had to pick up a co-​worker here. While waiting for him to finish his breakfast, I had a glass of the fresh squeezed Orange Juice. Tasty, tasty stuff!
Pleasant service as well.
3 Stars for OJ and a smile…

Excellent service, great food, huge portions. Oh yeah, and the orange juice is yummy ;-)

She’s slipping folks. Waffles are not the old fashioned kind we love, rather a rubbery belgian thing, now closed on Tuesday… thjought that only Chinese Restaurants closed on Tuesday?

Simply the best corned-​beef hash on the planet! Far from the usual mish-​mash of potato cubes with a smattering of beef, this is flavorful, aromatic and down right delicious!
Add the excellent (but sometimes a bit too pulpy) fresh-​squeezed orange juice and you have a breakfast that can’t be beat!

Had lunch here today.
Blew right past it going south on Cherokee; it’s located a few 100 feet south of Hwy 99.
Just a couple of small signs — one on the roof and one on the street in front of the gate to the large parking lot in back w/​lots of cars and big rigs in it next to an nondescript building that «looks» like a dinner w/​the word «CARL’S» written on it, which is hard to see from the street. What they really need is a BIG sign on the roof that can be seen from the hwy but it doesn’t seem like they need (or, based on other reviews, want) to advertise to get more business.
Walked inside and it was filled w/​truckers and local shop/​warehouse workers. A good sign. Took a seat at the counter which was empty. Was greeted and got a menu right away. The menu is pretty typical for a breakfast/​lunch diner. Think Denny’s or Carrows in terms of selection but w/​better quality food. Ordered a cheeseburger (fries included) for $ 7.50 and iced tea for $ 1.95 (cheaper than soda). Under $ 10 — not bad.
Got the iced tea quickly but took awhile to get a glass of water because they ran out of glasses. Also took awhile to get my cheeseburger. Waited 20 mins and was getting worried about the time. Had an appointment to make 20 mins later and would never have gotten the food quickly, if I didn’t speak up. Apparently 25 orders were placed before mine and they pushed mine up so that I could make my appt. Nice.
The cheeseburger was GREAT!!! Traditional burger/​bun topped w/​cheese, lettuce, tomato & pickle w/​a «special» sauce. Very juicy and tasty. The fries weren’t as good (a little limp); I didn’t finish them. The iced tea was fine and refills were generously offered. Asked for and got an iced tea to go, as well.
Very attentive service despite being very busy but I think it helped being seated at the counter where all of the waitresses congregated.
If you’re in the area, it’s definitely a step above your typical fast food spot. You’ll see and meet a lot of locals and a good meal to boot.

This is a great «seat yourself» breakfast kind of joint. There is a diner counter and lots of booths. The greasy spoon décor is punched up with pictures of old movie stars and some quasi art nouveau pieces. It’s surprisingly cute inside, considering how underwhelming it appears from the street. The old tile floors, formica counters, and booths are in remarkably good shape for their age.
The service is pretty efficient and, at times, abrupt. Our waitress literally dropped things on our table and spoke as she was walking away. I didn’t get the impression that she cared much whether or not we were happy with our food or her service, yet she did a good job meeting our needs with refills, etc. The equivalent is a good doctor with a bad bedside manner. I guess it’s better than a nice but incompetent doctor, and so, over all, the service was acceptable.
The food was considerably less greasy than I expected. I orderd the combo scramble, which had three kinds of meat, mushrooms, bell pepper, (held the onions), and cheese, all served over top of hashbrowns. I ate maybe a third of it before my gut begged me to stopped. If I lived in Stockton, I would have taken a box to-​go, and I was sad to see the rest go to waste.
My fiancé had the country eggs benedict, and the hollandaise sauce was pretty good. The gigantic sausage patty was overwhelming, even for my fiancé, who is a pretty «good eater,» to put it in toddler terms. In general, the portions were sharable, though I’m not sure this is the kind of joint where you could ask to split something. Worth a try, I guess.
I wish this place was closer to home. I would definitely come back if we were in the area with a hankering for a big, filling, stick-​to-​your-​ribs kind of breakfast.

Great breakfast spot — WAY better than anything else in Stockton, and I have tried many. Lots of vegetarian options. Very friendly staff. Huge lot to park your tractor-​trailer or 4X4, as many do.

This place is the perfect place for typical American breakfast, brunch, lunch. You want pancakes, toast, omelets, burgers, scrambled eggs, hash browns, bacon, sausages, and that sweet fresh squeezed orange juice, come here. Just don’t go there everyday though, you WILL get fat because the food isn’t the healthiest and the portions are very big and for a very good price too.
The first time I went to Carl’s I ordered the chicken fried steak because the waitress recommended it saying many of the customers order it and love it. I also looked up Unilocal and it seemed to be suggested a lot too. I didn’t really love it however because it was a huge chunk of fried meat and I had no idea if I was eating steak or chicken? So confused? And the meat wasn’t juicy or had much flavor in my opinion. My friend ordered the omelet and it was delicious compared to my order because there were so many ingredients in it with so much flavor in your mouth. So I learned then to order omelets at Carls.
I usually order the Denver omelets and it comes with hashbrowns and toast or pancakes. The omelets are big sized and good, except for one time when I went to Carl’s and the restaurant was literally full of people. That day the omelet was slightly burnt and brown… still edible enough for me I guess, and I was hungry.
My most recent visit to Carls, my friend suggested the mushroom burger, and I LOVE mushrooms so I ordered it. I was slightly irritated (do I have the right to be? Not sure) when the burger came out and the amount of mushrooms in the burger didn’t satisfy my concept of a mushroom burger. I was expecting a burger with mushrooms spilling out on the sides. I asked for more mushroom and the waitress brought a small plate with lots of mushroom; I don’t believe I was charged for them, I would’ve thrown a fit haha. But yes, I would also suggest the huge sized mushroom burger, the way they seasoned the mushrooms, YUM. Unfortunately for my friend, he specifically asked for no cheese on his omelet because he doesn’t like the taste of cheese (I know right! WHO CAN NOT LIKE CHEESE??), but his order came out with extra cheese. Hungry boy was super frustrated and had to wait again for his omelet to come out. I’d be pretty pissed off too.
I usually get water but sometimes I order the freshly squeezed orange juice. There is of course pulp in the juice but seriously, the juice is so refreshing and delicious. Try it, it won’t disappoint!
Service isn’t too bad although the waitresses don’t really smile. The wait can be a little on the longer side but it’s a hole in the wall kind of place so I think you should expect that, but a decent amount of time for you to talk to your friends about the night before. The restaurant is huge and quite clean; I don’t get the vibe of Omggg my stomach is totally going to hurt after I eat this.
I think the food is better than chain restaurants like IHOP and Denny’s and for a cheaper price I believe too. Too bad it doesn’t open late night however.

Oh, they’re closed? =)

Ahhh this restaurant brings back a lot of memories, I’ve been eating breakfast at Carl’s ever since I was a fetus. My dad would bring me here before a long hard day of work at the shop and we’d eat a big breakfast and be so full that we could work all day without ever having to stop to eat again. Some of the waitresses have been there since I’ve been a kid too like our friend Darlene, she’s very sweet and great at what she does. I usually go for a linguica or country patty breakfast with eggs, hash browns and biscuits and gravy. My dad will get his breakfast with pancakes so we could always have the best of both worlds. I can never recall a time that I didn’t enjoy eating at Carl’s. Now here’s my beef and my reason for not giving five stars.
Carl’s Restaurant used to be «Carl’s Truckstop.» I remember coming in here and the giant parking lot would be full of trucks and the restaurant packed with truckers on their way having breakfast or drinking a coffee and sharing their tales of the road with other fellow truckers. Then one day the owner decided that they would no longer let those truckers park in their lot and now there the place sits almost empty and barren. I’m not going to sit here and say he had no reason to do it but to me it doesn’t make sense, they literally DROVE away most of their business! I miss those days of seeing Carl’s parking lot looking like it was the place to be. It’s definitely missing those old road souls… it’s just not the same.

I used to eat here. They were very generous with the grease. The waitress had a champagne pink bee-​hive hair-​do for real in the 90’s. This was the only place open near Stockton Speedway 99, after the races Saturday nights.
I usually got their eggs because they could be toweled off to eliminate a few pounds of the grease. I had asked for dry toast, but the cook took offense I guess. There was so much butter they could make a pound cake. I asked the waitress for a re-​do. Luckily, she remembered I had asked for dry. She trotted off, so I went to look for a rest room. As I rounded the corner, the waitress was there with the toast up to her face. She said, «I’m just sucking the butter out, no need to waste it.» She had sucked a hole in the middle of the toast, and was looking at me thru it! To date this had been the second most funny/​strange thing to happen in a restaurant.

I’ve been a patron of Carl’s since I was a child and it was a full blown truck stop with phones to make collect calls at the table, and homoerotic messages scrawled on the bathroom stalls…“Mom, why is there a hole cut in the wall with ‘See Big Steve at 6AM for a good time’?
But I digress… Carl’s is easily one of the best places to have breakfast on the east side of town.
The place has done a 180 since those days, but the food still remains solid. I myself am a huge fan of their breakfasts, with the Chicken Fried Steak being my personal comfort food favorite. The omelette’s, tri-​tip sandwiches, and daily specials are always worth a try as well.
The prices are reasonable, the portions large, and the people that work there are friendly and will address you on a first name basis once you’re a regular.

This place is Awesome! We eat there at least two times a week for either breakfast, lunch and or dinner! It is a wonderful «family» restaurant and you become one of the family! The food is great! Never had a bad meal yet! The prices are great and the amount of food is unbelievable! The food taste’s like your grandmother made it ! Favorite meal hands down is the pot roast over buttered noodles with a home made roll!!! The staff is fantastic and always friendly. This place is a must try! We bring all our out of town friends/​family and they always ask to come back.
And don’t forget about those awsome pies! They are truly homemade you won’t get these any where else in stockton!

Had a late breakfast here today with a buddy.
Ordered the three egg omelet with ground beef, mushrooms and
avocado. Came with a biscuit and gravy and your choice of
hash browns or home style potatoes. I opted for the home style
potatoes which were slices of potatoes deep fried. Nothing exciting
there. Needed some spices or seasoning or? The biscuit and
gravy were awesome. Maybe next time I will just order that.
The omelet was just ok. The eggs, as mentioned in
another review, were overcooked to the point of being almost dry.
My lunch buddy had the Joe’s Special omelet. Comes with ground
beef, mushrooms, onions and spinach. He enjoyed his omelet.
He really liked the biscuits and gravy… so much so that he had a
second helping!
The portions here are huge, prices reasonable, employees ‘over the
top’ friendly!
I will be back!

Alrtight! So here’s the deal… If I see 4 ½ stars I’m thinking I cannot go wrong with this place. Food for thought… read the full reviews!
I walked in ready to dig into a well rounded dinner. Apparently this is one of those times I should have opted to do breakfast for dinner. EVERYBODY in the place was eating breakfast for dinner. But me… no no! I chose chicken fried steak w/​mashed potatoes and greenbeans which was recommended by my busy little server. Mind you, I don’t do chicken fried steak very often but hey! If it’s recommended I better give it a go, right???
The steak was cooked well… really well and the breaded portion was decent, how can you go wrong there right?! The mashed potatoes were ok, not quite the home made taste I was looking for coming from a diner, and for the green beans… Apparently my tastebuds hone in on sodium, not quite what I was looking for.
The service was pretty damn good for only having one person on the floor. I give my server props being that she had a nice little rush of people come in and handled it with ease and all parties seemed to be content with the time services were rendered.
The dinner food however was sub-​par. In the event I am passing through Carls again someday. I will have to give the place another shot at breakfast being that I’m a pretty fair judge, after all breakfast is my favorite meal of the day.

It took a LONG TIME for the three of us to receive our orders, even though everyone else in the restaurant was already eating. And 20 minutes in, an old guy came in and was brought food within 2 minutes.
A regular, I suppose.
I was only mildly annoyed since I was at a casual breakfast meeting on my company’s time.
Superb, salty (in a good way) Corned Beef and Hash, crispy on the outside, tender on the inside. Big portions of hash browns, eggs and three (!) pancakes on the side. All for under $ 9. Can’t beat that…

Ok so when I was pregnant with my daughter (she is 2 now) we would go every saturday and sometimes sunday’s for breakfast after she was born we don’t make it «out» so much (she is not a very going out kinda person) but anyway as I came today our waitress was so happy to see us she remembered us and the «baby» it was great!
Ok so now on to the food my scrambled egg’s were a little over cooked but i had so much hash brown’s and bacon it did not bother me to much also had biscuit’s and gravy (8.95) my nephew had a denver omelet which was so big it hardly fit on the plate my neice had strawberry waffles they looked awesome my daughter had the sponge bob (1 egg, 2 sausages, hasbrowns) 5.95 was a little pricey for that I thought. Loved the coffee.
Had about 4 pages for breakfast… A little more than I remember for the price but you get such a big portion its worth it!
Loved the down home feel of it all, its hard to get that at most places.

After snooping around Wigwam looking for Maaco, my husband and I were hungry. I suggested Carl’s and to my surprise, my dear husband, resident of Stockton, Someplace Special, of thirty something years, has never been to Carl’s.
My response was: ‘get the fuck out of here you lying sack of shit!’.
Yes folks, I speak like that to even my sweet husband.
The menu at Carl’s isn’t as lengthy as I remember from years ago. The breakfast selection was kind of lacking. We ordered a mushroom burger, and a philly steak sandwich. Everything was cooked perfectly and the service was extremely attentive. The dessert choices were nothing to get excited about.
If you ever on 99, approaching Cherokee Road… stop at Carl’s. It’s worth a visit.