656 S. US Highway 131I have been craving cheap, greasy breakfast food for quite a while. About a month ago, we got up on a Sunday morning to drive to St. Joseph County to check on my in-laws house while they’re away. I assumed we’d stop for breakfast along the way but J really wanted to try Latitude 42‘s new weekend breakfast menu so we did that before getting on the road.
It’s been over a month now and we haven’t made the trip south. Last weekend, we finally decided we should go check on the house again. J suggested just grabbing McDonalds after swimming lessons but I kind of cringed at that idea. She asked what I was thinking and I said I wanted to eat actual breakfast. She was hesitant because the kids can be awful cranky after swimming lessons but agreed.
We stopped in Three Rivers at Oasis Family Restaurant on the west side of town. The restaurant is on US-131 as it wraps around town near the Meijer. The restaurant looks like a typical breakfast joint and even looks like it may have been a Big Boy or similar restaurant in a past life…but Google Street View goes back to 2007 and it’s been Oasis since at least that time.
The restaurant was pretty full when we walked in just before 11:00 on a Saturday. There’s a small waiting area near the host stand that also serves as the cashier.
There are a couple of different seating areas. We were taken to a booth in the middle of the dining room near the kitchen. There are three rows of these booths that lead down two narrow walkways to more seating.
The back area of the dining room has several different sizes of tables. All of the tables are surrounded by high back wooden chairs with a floral pattern leather serving as decoration. The decor is very homey with muted tones on the walls and dark patterned tiles on the floor. The accent pieces are light colored natural wood grains on the chair rail and door frames. There was a faux fire place over near where we were sitting and TV’s scattered throughout the place which is fairly unusual for a family diner like this. The TV’s were all turned to the local Fox station which was showing educational programming at the time.
Oasis serves breakfast all day and they have a pretty diverse menu. There were several things both J and I were interested in even as the waitress made a last minute pitch of their weekend breakfast buffet. I got up to look and it was quite tempting. The buffet was three full buffet tables of breakfast meats, breads, and potatoes as well as a couple of lunch items. I was very tempted but with went an old standby instead.
My choice for breakfast was the Steak and Eggs. They have an option for an 8 oz Sirloin or a ribeye. I stuck with the sirloin and was very happy with the choice. The steak come out with a great salty, grilled crust but it was still pink and juicy in the middle. The waitress offered steak sauce but there was really no need. This piece of meat had that delicious salty crust you only seem to get at good diners.
I asked for the eggs over medium and that come out with a gooey, warm yolk. A little bit of salt and pepper made the eggs delicious. The hash browns had a great crispy crust but that was about it. Everything underneath was pretty raw. I like my hash brows crispy all the way through so these weren’t my favorite but they were the only downside of the meal.
J went super simple. She ordered a Belgian Waffle and a side of bacon. The waffle was super simple and came out with some piping hot maple syrup. She took the fruit off B’s pancake and put it on hers for a little extra.
B’s pancake was a Mickey Mouse pancake and it was huge. The mouse shaped pancake was more whipped cream than pancake and that made him very happy. Surprisingly, he ate almost all of it with a little help from his sister. We were worried about the kids being a handful at breakfast and both of them ate really well for once. It’s a relief when we pay for food and the kids actually eat it.
L always goes super simple at breakfast. She asked for white toast and a side of bacon. The toast came out already buttered but she asked for help to put a little more on. She doesn’t do jelly or jams so it was just another breakfast of simple white toast. She actually asked for a piece of my toast as well as eating some of her brother’s pancakes. Swimming lessons really made these kids hungry.
The bacon was exactly what both she and J like when it comes to bacon. Nice and crispy and no soft fat. J and L got six pieces of bacon between the two of them and none of it went to waste. I think B even managed to sneak a piece away from one of them.
Breakfast went really well for us. Everyone really enjoyed their meals and they all ate most of it. Our bill came out to just under $40 before tip which is paid at the cash register on the way out.
We have passed Oasis Family Restaurant many times and always just kind of wrote it off as another family restaurant. I was kind of shocked by how diverse their menu is. They just do simple breakfast food but they do simple breakfast food really well. This will be a future stop for us as we head to J’s parents house to hang out on the lake this summer.