Tom's Home Cookin'

When in the mood for some good old fashion comfort food Tom's Home Cookin' is the place to fill your tummy with traditional southern inspired food. When I say fill, I do mean you will walk out of there with your stomach stretching. This is not the place for a light lunch with a client. This is the place where you sit down like your back home on Thanksgiving and eat until you can't eat any more. Languishing in a happy food coma for the rest of the afternoon.

Once inside after waiting in line, which can be tough on a 15° day, you get your first glimpse of the food to be had laying in steam pans waiting to be spooned in to your styrofoam container. I know, its high class with the styrofoam containers and all but they're trying to keep it simple and get you through the line as fast as possible. It doesn't make me happy that a ton of these polystyrene containers are going through the door here and can't be recycled but apparently there are no easy solutions for them at this point.

Usually there are about 7 main entrees to choose from and all come with a choice of two sides and plain or jalepeno cornbread. They offer dessert too but getting through all your food will take all the stomach you have. Greeted by a jovial "Whata ya have?" you'll have your choices spooned up and in your hand in seconds. Coming in at just under $10 its the best dollar per pound meal in town.

Since you can get any combination of main and sides I will give you the skinny on some of the items below. The main choices are often the same daily with a few seasonal changes.

From the main selections:

The Fried Chicken is a good place to start since its so hard to find good fried chicken in Denver. Tom's does it right giving you a selection of two pieces deep fried in breaded golden deliciousness. The chicken is never dried out but can sometimes be a little crusty on the coating.

The BBQ Pork Spare Ribs are a short set of four ribs slow cooked and tender. They slide off the bone easy and are smothered in semi-sweet BBQ sauce but the upper part of the rib section was too chewey for me and I wish I had more of the rib meat.

The Fried Catfish is a good alternative to the usual items found around Denver. How can you go wrong deep frying anything? The catfish is usually good except for a couple of times when it dries out sitting in the steam pan for too long.

Now for the sides:

The Mash Potatos & Gravy seem like an obvious choice when you look for comfort food. The potatos are a good consistency, not too starchy and the brown gravy is a nice compliment to them reminding me of some good ol' truck stop diners in the midwest.

The Mac & Cheese is creamy pile of macaroni hitting the spot on a cold winter's day. Good and cheesy it will probably stop your heart in its tracks.

The Peach Cobbler is a nice treat for a side. You get a crunchy sweet crust with warm peaches underneath bathing in a thick syrup. A fine way to end your lunch.

The cornbread is all right and is often a littel too dry for me. It lacks some of the sweetness that most of us love in our cornbread. The jalepeno version gives it a little more taste but is still not the reason why you come here.

Tom's Home Cookin' serves up a heavy feast for lunch and you can satisfy your comfort food craving with plenty of choices no matter what you crave. if you like a sweet at the end of your meal skip the regular dessert and get the peach cobbler for one of the sides. There's is so much food on your plate it makes a nice dessert at the end and it will keep your stomach from exploding.

They're open for lunch only, so you best get there early if you want to make sure your favorite dish doesn't run out.