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Ah, American cuisine. Gotta love it sometimes, even when it threatens to clog your arteries and send you keeling over into your full rack of ribs. Claim Jumper is a large chain restaurant, which doesn’t usually qualify for the old B&C treatment. I thought I’d take the time, however, to just say a few words about CJ, since it’s a bit of a special place.
And by special, I mean ridiculous. The facility is huge. The menu is huge. The portions are huge. The desserts are…you guessed it…huge. Claim Jumper really is a mockery of normal sized portions of food. It’s a guideline for overeating and a tribute to gluttony. Seriously, this place is almost too much.
Small order of Ribs, baked potato, and veggies from Claim Jumper
Somehow though, CJ manages to raise blood pressure and stretch seams with surprising grace. The place is decorated as an old west steakhouse; it’s not original but it’s well done. The menu is enormous but plentiful and certainly smile-inducing. And the portions, while unnecessarily large, are a good value if you take home half of it for lunch tomorrow or fast for the rest of the week.
The cooking area, fully exposed to the seating area, at Claim Jumper Fremont
Basically, it’s not really my style since the food is generally based on quantity and meat, but it’s surprisingly nice, they have a vegetarian section of the menu, and the food is pretty dang good. If you’re not into the steak and the ribs and the home-style cooking, I’d say gather your friends and theirs and stop by to share a colossal-sized dessert. The dessert counter–viewable upon arrival in the lobby–showcases only a few of their meal-sized treats including a variety of cheesecakes, the giant eclair, and the “Chocolate Motherload” 6-layer cake.
Motherload cake in the dessert counter
They also have 4 flavors of mud pie…mocha was absolutely delicious.
The "No, seriously, get your spoon away from my pie" Mud Pie at Claim Jumper Fremont.
