Kelsey & Kim

My father grew up in Atlantic City and we often came down to visit at least once a year. I always enjoyed walking on the boardwalk and my father likes going to the casinos. Since we come down often enough we do have a few regular spots that we like to go eat. One that place that we go to at least once when we are down there is a restaurant called Kelsey & Kim.

Kelsey & Kim is a barbecue restaurant in Pleasantville, New Jersey, about 10 miles outside of Atlantic City. It is a small storefront takeout place with only 4 tables for eating inside. It is a mom & pop operation with pop being Kelsey Jackson and mom being his wife Kim. The restaurant is located in a run down section of town but the food was always good. Not great barbecue but certainly very good. After eating the good stuff in the deep south, one can only settle for very good in the northeast.

Kelsey used to cook in the Trump Marina Hotel Casino. He opened the restaurant in Pleasantville 16 years ago. Over the years they have tried to expand with Kelsey usually running the main store in Pleasantville and his wife running the other store in Galloway, the next town over.

Well to our surprise they closed the store in Galloway and opened up a sit-down restaurant in Atlantic City. The restaurant is a lot more upscale and is located in the Inlet section of town and right near the hotel we usually stay at. The building used to be a Chinese take-out restaurant and the owner would often try and give me lessons on speaking Chinese but they have closed after a few years and the building was empty for some time.

This version of Kelsey & Kim's is not like the one in Pleasantville. The decor inside is quite nice and has a more upscale feel to it. And instead of just selling barbecue the menu has been expanded to include many southern dishes and breakfast.

This time we stopped by for breakfast as I was in the mood for some fried chicken and waffles. My father ordered the special which included 2 huge pancakes, 2 eggs, 2 strips of bacon, 2 sausage links, and a side of hash browns. You could get grits instead of hash browns but we are not that southern.

The service was very warm and friendly. Because they cook the food to order I kind of knew that my dish was going to take some time due to the fried chicken. There was a couple that came in a bit after us and ordered some eggs and toast and were served their food before us. We were getting hungry but I figured that they were still working on my dish. I guess the waiter saw that they were served before us an came over to apologize. He said that the fried chicken takes a bit to cook and then gave us 2 glasses of orange juice on the house. A small gesture but a very nice touch.

When the food came out a few minutes later, the plates were huge. My father's pancakes were about 8 inches wide and the plate was overflowing with the sausage and eggs and bacon. The hash browns were served on a separate plate. As for my dish, I got a nice sized waffle with 2 pieces of fried chicken on it, a thigh and a leg. I could have gotten wings or white meat but I prefer the dark meat.

The waffle was light and very crispy and you could tell the fried chicken was fresh. It was burning hot and I had to wait a minute before I could take a bite. But when I did take a bite it was great. The fried chicken had a thin coating on it that was still quite crunchy and the meat was tender and moist. I was forced to help my father eat his dish but we still left about 1/2 a pancake and some hash browns on the table.

Overall it was a very nice meal and very friendly service. And the price wasn't that bad, the total bill came to $16 including tax. I don't think I would give it 3 stars outright but maybe a very high 2 stars.