Claim Jumper Holiday Dinner

Friday night we had a holiday dinner over at Claim Jumper in Monrovia. I hadn’t been there in a couple of years and Nicole had never visited. It was almost exactly what I expected.

I was looking forward to rustic American Christmas decorations, like maybe a Santa cap on the mounted Moose head. It didn’t get that crazy with the decorations, but it was imitation rustic cheerful.

Like almost everything on the menu, the nachos were large size. I ate leftover nachos for my hearty breakfast this morning. Nicole took home half of her chicken and ate it for lunch today. My coffee mug was strangely normal-sized, but it was regularly refilled with adequate speed. As is often the case with salmon, mine looked deceptively normal-sized, yet I had to cram it in to finish all of it.

"Cram it in" is sort of the theme of Claim Jumper, though. One doesn’t really savor Claim Jumper cuisine, you just gobble it. There is a place for occasional unexamined gobbling in my world.

I could have done without the cloying sweet sauce slathered over the top of my fish. I like salmon unslathered. It wasn’t bad, it just suffered from lack of subtlety. But if I ever go to Claim Jumper expecting subtlety you can mount my head between the Moose and the Buffalo.

I didn’t get to spend time warming myself by the Christmas garland hearth and we didn’t get to sit near Nicole’s "that’s a mess of antlers" chandelier, but I was not disappointed with my Fake American Big Christmas Dinner. Skipped dessert. How come a whole pie costs $50?