mmm-yoso!!!, a food blog, tries to entertain and sometimes amuse you with almost daily posts centered about food. Kirk and Ed(from Yuma) are not blogging today; it's Cathy writing this post.
You've probably seen signage while driving along the freeway or along side streets. Perhaps you've been curious. Here's a post giving you reason to stop.
Farmer Boys first opened in 1981 in Perris, California. Founded by the five Havadjias brothers, the idea of 'Farm to Table' wasn't spoken of as part of the dining experience, yet that's been the business philosophy of this small (79 store) Southern California, Central California and Nevada restaurant chain of both company owned and franchised locations. Yes, it's a chain, but with locations primarily California, it fits into my 'new year resolution' of patronizing locally.
There are two locations in San Diego County, both in Escondido. The 'newer' location, pictured above, is near a Home Depot and in the same parking lot as the Escondido Vallarta Market location.
You walk up, order and pay and your food is brought to the table. 
The decor is country and home-like, as is your freshly prepared meal. 
The restaurant serves breakfast all day, and my go to item is the 'Daybreak Sandwich' ($4.19 or $4.99 with meat). Pictured above, the Daybreak with a sausage patty (other options are bacon or ham). It's on a potato bun and made with two eggs and a slice of American cheese. Good any time of the day. I really like the sausage served here; it's not greasy and has just the right amount of spices.
The hearty pastrami sandwich ($6.99) is served on a toasted garlic ciabatta roll with mustard and pickles. The oven roasted, smoky pastrami is of excellent quality.
That's a 7 piece side of 'Colossal onion rings' ($4.19) [a four piece side order is $3.49 if you want to avoid temptation and/or can't do math]. Not only are those rings colossal in size, but also in flavor...the fresh hand battered rings are usually ordered with any meal here. The fry is perfect and never greasy. There are also zucchini and harvest fries available as sides; both are also excellent, fresh and never frozen.
The menu has had a 'Natural' (hormone free, antibiotic free, fresh never frozen) burger ($6.29) on the menu for quite a long time. It's 1/3 lb, served on the potato bun (all other burgers are served on sesame seeded buns) with American cheese, onion, pickle and 1000 island dressing. Juicy and flavorful (and *much* better than the Carls Jr 'Natural'), this is my burger of choice here, even though the 'Bacon Boy' and 'Farmers Burger' are a bit heavier and larger in size, the Natural Burger has the flavor I enjoy.
The Mister and I came here on a Friday and ordered the 4 piece hand battered fish dinner ($9.99) to share. Hand battered, wild caught, pollock filets (each filet was quite large; the above photo shows two pieces; one is butterflied so it would cook evenly. The photo above it has all four filets as it was originally served.) served with Harvest Fries, two onion rings,the garlic ciabatta bread, toasted...and
your choice of soup or salad. The soups are made fresh daily. The choices are almost always clam chowder or cream of broccoli. Both are excellent.
The menu has enough choices to satisfy almost any craving or dietary restriction. The shakes are made with real ice cream, need I say more?
Farmer Boys 1333 East Valley Parkway Escondido 92027 (760)739-0770 Mon-Sat 6-midnight, Sun 7-midnight Website
The bf has been craving pastrami lately and we stopped by Milton's in Del Mar. I could not believe they charged $18 (I believe) for a stuffed pastrami sandwich. So the one you got here looks like a very fair deal. I haven't had home made cream of broccoli soup in ages. Maybe this place will be nice to drop by when it rains this weekend.
Posted by: Faye | Thursday, 26 February 2015 at 04:45 PM
Miltons charges crazy prices, Faye, but the food is good. Farmer Boys doesn't put the pastrami on rye bread, but we've never asked for the sandwich that way; it's good the way it is. I think you'd like anything ordered here. {There are so many taco shops listing 'pastrami' on their signage just North of us (we were stuck in traffic and took side roads in City of Commerce last year; saw at least ten) that I plan to do a post (and comparison tastings) later this year; we do like good pastrami}.
Posted by: Cathy | Friday, 27 February 2015 at 11:40 AM
Pastrami is always a good choice!
Posted by: caninecologne | Friday, 27 February 2015 at 01:09 PM
Everything here is a good choice, cc. It's a nicer fast food place. We also like the Escondido Vallarta location a bit better, so our 'excuse' to drive North is justified.
Posted by: Cathy | Saturday, 28 February 2015 at 05:31 AM
This place is still around? I enjoyed the fried zucchini when it first opened in Tustin around 2005 I'm not even sure if it is still around.
Posted by: nhbilly | Saturday, 28 February 2015 at 10:57 PM
It is still around, Bill. The two San diego county locations are both steadily busy. Now I'm wanting the zucchini...
Posted by: Cathy | Sunday, 01 March 2015 at 03:24 AM