Fresh Frog: a Food Review

From Einstein’s Bagels to Standee’s Restaurant, the building across from The Better Cheddar has been many restaurants over the past few years. Now, The Chocolate Frog hopes to stand out in that same space. From the outside it seems exciting, but walking inside, The Chocolate Frog comes up short.

At first glance, I noticed the name is an allusion to Harry Potter and my heart immediately jumped with childish joy. The outside was vibrant with murals all along the walls: the modern paintings feature bright red squares filled with welcoming words and depictions of hamburgers. Yet walking inside, the brown and green color scheme bored me, along with a bland menu complete with standard dishes like a pancake breakfast or a chicken salad sandwich. I was sad to see the Harry Potter reference was not carried through the design of the restaurant.

Their all-day breakfast seemed to dominate the items, taking up one whole side of the menu. The other side combined their lunch, dinner and side choices. Their “Dinner Favorites” section seemed exciting at first, but they turned out to be plain options that can be found on any other dinner menu in the area.

After being seated right away, I realized I was the only one in the restaurant. It was around dinner time, so I was surprised when there were no families seated around me or any couples sitting at the bar. I began to question the meal I was in for.

The waitress came over to take my order of water to drink and told me some of her favorite dishes, like their chicken and waffle platter. She focused mostly on their signature condiment: Frog Sauce, a mixture including mayonnaise and cajun seasoning.Scanning the menu, I decided on the Classic Burger with a side of fries and a milkshake.

Despite the menu being incredibly bland, the one thing that set it apart from being mediocre was their milkshake menu. The highlight of my visit was picking from the abundant variety of shakes. The endless options on the menu are sure to please everyone’s taste buds. The most interesting had Fruity Pebbles in it and another made with Twinkies. Torn between the KittyKat (complete with Kit-Kats and marshmallow creme) and the Almond Joy milkshakes, I stuck with my favorite candy and ordered the Almond Joy Shake.

My milkshake was a combination of vanilla and chocolate ice cream, coconut shavings and thinly sliced almonds. The only flaw with my otherwise delicious shake, was that the coconut shavings all fell to the bottom and kept getting stuck in my straw.

I received my burger in an unhurried time considering there was almost no one else eating there. I was disappointed to see that they had left off the so-called “famous” Frog Sauce, and asked for a side of it instead.

Dripping with Heinz ketchup and overflowing with lettuce, The Classic Burger was just that: classic. The meat was cooked medium well, just the way I like it, and the bun was warm and soft. The fries were thin and well-seasoned with a crunch on the outside but soft on the inside.

The check came to a total of around $14 for my meal, and I was perfectly happy with tipping the waitress with well-deserved money for being so accommodating.

Overall, the atmosphere of The Chocolate Frog was underwhelming, and the food was only slightly better. I left only enjoying the interesting milkshake menu and the Harry Potter reference in the name.