You can usually say a lot about a place in the type of clientele it brings in, but in this case, the food fails to meet the same high standards that the US Marine corps hold themselves to.

I had the Chicken Cordon Bleu (which is a pass). It was burned at the bottom, I ordered a new one, and it was acceptable. If it wasn’t a Barber Foods Cordon Bleu, it sure had been beaten about with a Barber Foods Cordon Bleu stick. You know Barber Foods chicken – the ones you buy in freezer aisle at two for five dollars? I prefer their Chicken Kiev, but that wasn’t an option.

I had the combo platter; it was quite fried. Not that I wasn’t in the mood for it – the batter simply seemed to retain a lot of the oil for fried zucchini and mushrooms. And there were two kinds of mozzarella sticks brought out with the one sampler. I am always wary of restaurants that use two kinds of anything interchangeably, but I have to say that the mozzarella stick I had was the highlight of an otherwise lackluster meal.

Even though I asked twice, my waitress forgot the lemon for my water, but it was filled nearly my entire meal, and for that I will forgive her the citricly acidic indiscretion. To her credit, Noah’s ark docked outside the minute we placed our order, and she was in the weeds by the time our salads came out. She was quite efficient and attentive for the extreme change of pace.

Here’s where I fail as a reviewer for the CPP – I don’t live on base and compare meals with the ones served in mess halls. I compare this establishment with restaurants that have earned high ratings over years of customer service to a more discriminating public. Therefore, I’ll add a star and hook the owners and managers up with the benefit of the doubt. It’s like the American car industry; if the American public didn’t have access to Japanese cars (and the car industry, the resulting competition), Americans would still be happy with their huge, gas guzzling boats, hauling their overweight, lazy asses around . . .