Oh Zell, yeah!
With restaurants in Lincoln City and Otis, Zellers has your taste buds covered
By Daniel Gainer
For the TODAY
Walking up the sidewalk to the door of Zellers restaurant in Lincoln City, we were greeted with the neon promise of Seafood, Steaks and Pasta. My dinner companion, my 10-year-old grandson who is also named Daniel and is sometimes known as D2, looked at me with a big smile. He had already decided on pasta for dinner.
Going in the front door and to the right we entered a light-colored open dining area. Daniel loved the country- and cowboy boot-themed decorations and I was drawn to the relaxed atmosphere. I instantly thought this is a great place to take a family or groups. We were excited to look at the menu to see what treats awaited us.
The menu was full of choices for the entire family. Zellers has two locations, the second in Otis, and both offer breakfast, lunch and dinner and the selections and variety are well thought out, with enough options to satisfy nearly all diners. Some of the items that stood out to me were the big seafood platter, rib eye and sirloin steaks, BBQ ribs, multiple pasta options and burgers. Zellers also offers a variety of sandwiches and wraps as well as salads, appetizers and homemade chowder.
We ordered some onion rings as an appetizer and Daniel settled on the mac and cheese topped with bacon. I chose the mushroom Swiss bacon burger with tots. On a side note, I would put tots in my top five ways to eat a potato. And yes, I am an adult.
While our dinner was being made, we looked at the drink options that we will for sure be coming back to enjoy. They offered homemade milkshakes for kids and kids at heart and the adult-style milkshakes for those 21 and older. With a full bar on the other side of the restaurant there are many drink choices for all diners.
Our fantastic and super-friendly waitress served us our dinner with a smile and let us know it is all fresh and house-made. Daniel was wide eyed and happy with his mac and cheese with a scratch-made cheese sauce with cavatappi noodles. He did not waste any time and dove into his dinner. In between bites and wanting him to actually take a couple breaths I asked his opinion and he let me know “It looked so good and the bacon was crispy. The noodle choice was fun.” He then asked me “Did you see the cheese pull on the first bite? It was so satisfying.”
My burger was just as big, juicy and full as in the photos I had seen online. The ingredients were fresh and not sitting around warm to be slapped onto the burger later. The meat was hand-formed and flavorful. My waitress set the burger down with a nice stack of napkins and suggested I might need them. She was not mistaken. It was a juicy, slightly messy burger — but one that did not fall apart. We were very full and satisfied with our dinner.
Daniel finished off with a rocky road waffle bowl for dessert and I took a minute to walk around. The other side of the building housed a good-sized bar with multiple pool tables, a DJ booth and a dance floor with promise of weekend DJ and live bands. Keeping with the country theme, they also offer Wednesday night line dancing. Right outside of the bar they had some really cool old pictures of the Oceanlake area including this very building that housed Ripley’s Red and White Grocery, built in 1925 or 1926.
With satisfied bellies and a need to walk a bit, I asked Daniel how he would rate his dinner. He looked at me, looked to the sky reminiscing on epic cheese pulls and waffle bowls filled with ice cream and decided “on a scale of one to five strawberries, I give it 10 pickles.”
I guess I looked at him trying to deduce the rating and he got that 10-year-old smirk on his face and said “Don’t worry Grandpa, I’m just being dilly…”
Zellers Bar and Grill locations are at 1643 NW Hwy. 101 in Lincoln City and at 6576 Salmon River Hwy. in Otis. For more information, go to zellersbarandgrill.com.