Watson Drug and Soda Fountain

The Details:

116 East Chapman Avenue
Orange, CA 92866
Phone: (714) 532-6315
Mon-Sat 6:30am-9pm
Sunday 8am-6pm

The Los Angeles Foodie Rating:

The Summary:

Watson’s is a great example of an inexpensive neighborhood diner. The building is truly a Southern California landmark, and the food is good enough to go back for at least the chocolate milkshakes.

The Place:

Readers of this blog are familiar with the term “time machine” as a descriptor of restaurants that look like they have been plucked directly from an earlier decade, or in Watson’s case an earlier century. Yep, Watson’s has been slinging malts and burgers for more than a century. This nostalgia factory has been standing in quaint downtown Orange since 1899. Some people will probably recognize Orange as the shooting location for the bench on which Forrest Gump recounted his story to passers-by. Kudos to the location scout because Orange could easily be mistaken for any small town in America. And this is the main reason to visit Watson’s Drug Store and Soda Fountain. Sure, the food is OK, but the place itself is the real attraction. The pharmacy is fully functional, but the restaurant has threatened to take over the whole place. Therefore you probably aren’t going to get your weekly shopping out of the way unless your shopping list is monopolized by old fashioned candy, something that Watson’s has in abundance. There is plenty of seating at the long counter, the indoor checkerboard-covered tables, or outside on the patio. Hopefully you love 50s-era tchotchkes because they are pretty much everywhere.

The Food:

The food is OK but not great. Between the beef melt and the turkey melt, choose the turkey. It was moist, rich and tasty. The seasoned curly fries were mediocre (I’m being nice). The real star of the meal was the chocolate shake which was up there with some of the better shakes I’ve ever had. I probably should have know considering that this place was just a soda fountain in its infancy. Next time I visit, I’ll definitely have to try more of the fountain offerings.

The Service:

The fact that I really can’t remember a thing about my waitress is a good testament to the level of service I received. I do remember that we got our food quickly, and we weren’t missing anything. But we didn’t see our server more that the three times requisite to take the order, deliver the food, and then give us our tab. Of course, the flip side is that nobody was bothering me and my party the whole time I was eating, and that’s a nice change of pace from some spots.