Palo Alto Creamery at Stanford Restaurant Review, Palo Alto

Palo Alto Creamery Fountain and Grill at Stanford has been serving up classic burger joint food since 1988 when Robert Fischer took over the business. They have 2 locations in Palo Alto, with the downtown location open since 1923 in previously known as the Peninsula Creamery. We visited the location in the Stanford shopping center. They specialize in classic American food including burgers and ice cream fare. They serve breakfast, salads, sandwiches, and dinner entrees after 4pm. They have a $195 burger with Dom Perignon to celebrate selling your company! Our last meal was an early 2011.

Decor, Vibe – Palo Alto Creamery has Classic American diner decor with a big dessert display case, the jukebox playing some old tunes, and long counter. Outdoor patio for al fresco dining. Lots of shoppers, college students, and families were dining.

Menu Pictures

Palo Alto Creamery has a classic diner menu with everything from burgers to sandwiches to meatloaf and other American staples. Dessert options are numerous, so keep some room open.

Full Palo Alto creamery menu and picture set

Picks:

Cheeseburger ($9.95) – with grilled onions, lettuce, pickles, tomatoes. 1/3 pound fresh natural certified Angus beef on a homemade bun. The Waiter did ask how we wanted it done, a major plus in our book. Medium rare had a slight pink center and was juicy. A decent burger, but not spectacular. Meat quality was fair with the ground-up meat being fairly loose and no Angus flavor detected. Cheese was pretty average. At least the side salad was fairly large and had some decent greens.

BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger ($10.75) – with BBQ sauce, bacon, grilled onions, lettuce, pickles, tomatoes. They did ask how we wanted it done. Not a big premium to the Cheeseburger’s price. A nice combination of stuff, but very messy. Their french fries are better than average, thick and full of potato flavor.

French dip ($9.25) was a reasonably sized roast beef sandwich with a slightly watery dipping sauce. Flavors were reasonable and the fries were good.

Root Beer Float ($5.25) – A huge wad of ice cream on the side of root beer. They do give you more root beer if you ask. Nice creamy Vanilla ice cream. On our last visit, they were far skimpier with the ice cream.

Apple pie ($4.25) was a huge tall slice of their legendary pie. It featured huge chunks of Apple and hit the spot. We have had this in the past and swear the quality has fallen slightly. They still sell a ton of these pies for Thanksgiving.

Real Cherry Coke

OK:
None

Pans:
None

Service was fast and they did check back to see if we needed stuff fairly often, although they wanted to clear our table a lot faster than we wanted. The server blurted out things so quickly was hard to understand him. Price are pretty standard for a diner of this sort. The burgers were solid. Places that can beat Palo Alto Creamery’s hamburger include Pearls, Custom Burger, Mos, or even Palo Alto’s The Counter.

Also at:
566 Emerson Street
Palo Alto, CA 94301
650-323-3131

$25 Dining Certificate for $5

Palo Alto Creamery Fountain And Grill Overall Rating: (Good 2)

Come Back?

Food Rating:	(Good)
Service Rating:	(Average)
Atmosphere Rating:	(Good)
Value Rating:	(Good)

Guide: 0 = poor, 1 = Below/Average, 2 = Good, 2.5 = Very Good, 3 = Excellent , 4 = Extraordinary

Alcohol:	Beer, Wine
Attire:	Casual
Hours:	Mon-Fri Noon-9pm, Sat 9am-Midnight, Sun 8am-10pm
Parking:	Lot
Reservations:	No
Prices:	$6.75 - $19.95