Junction of Hwys 20 & 136
Dyersville, IA 52040
(563) 875-7055
800-598-9466
http://www.countryjunctionrestaurant.com/
This whole Iowa visit was partially inspired by
this thread on Chasing the Pork Tenderloin. First time out in Iowa, I randomly picked a restaurant and was fed Sysco-ish processed pork patty fried in old grease, served on stale brick bun, drowned down by Mountain Dew; second time out, after requesting from the locals, I got:
Country Junction has effectively shut down the rest of this town's restaurants. The building itself was assembled from a coupla grain silos, windmills and a buncha farming memorabilia (Dyersville is the die cast toy/farm toy capital of USA). The pork tenderloin is hand pounded, battered and fried. Flesh was moist and porky but otherwise flavorless tho the batter is slightly spiced (all i tasted was black pepper). I opted out against (Heinz) mustard tho the concensus from patron observation is to decorate the sandwich with the yellow goop. Grilled onions + mayo were my condiments of choice. Coupling the sandwich was the extremly greasy, satisfying, onion + cheese hash browns as rec'd by the jovial waitress: "you don't want the fries, they're frozen in a package":
Lunch ended with a slice of cherry pie (why cherry? i don't know; perhaps the - again, rec'd - banana cream would've been a better choice):
with sugary, flaky, fluffy, crust matched with way too much ice cream:
All in all, this meal put an end to my quick quest for pork tenderlion sandwiches. This is supposedly the "best" sandwich in town. Considering I can smell pigs all the from Dyersville to Dubuque, I figure the local folks know what they're talking about. Perhaps if they marinaded the pork tenderloin? heck perhaps if Maxwell Street Polish marinaded their pork chop? Someday...