Lunch pal Roger and I grabbed a table in the "Good Old Days" section of the crowded, cavernous dining room at the Granite Rock Grill. It's one of those homespun places with a classic diner feel to it – but on a bigger scale – where the servers know the regulars by their first names and where breakfast is available all day. Heck, lunch is available all day, too.

The grill is tricked out in a theme that conjures images of the Old West ("Wow, is that a real wagon wheel?") and the Gold Rush ("I've never seen anything like that wall mural").

"When you walk in and look around," Roger observed, "you know you're going to be well-fed for a reasonable price." His words were prophetic.

We cruised the lengthy menu – bacon and eggs, "flap jacks" and waffles, Benedicts and scrambles, cold and hot sandwiches (including a dozen burgers), salads, soups and chili, and a long list of side dishes including grits ($2.59) and sausage gravy ($1.99).

Many of the dishes are named after people we'll never meet, but presumably are locally known for their cooking skills (John's B-Grill, Lisa's Bar-B-Que Beef, Mattie's Napoli). Entree prices range from $4 to $13. It was a Friday, so the daily specials featured clam chowder, and fried shrimp and fish.

We were tempted to take up the offer to "ask your server for an Etch-a-Sketch for fun at your table." Also, after sampling from the jar of luscious red raspberry jam (a canned product, put in Kerr jars to look homemade), we considered buying one ($7.99, with the jar).

All this aside, we really were there for the homemade onion rings (ORs) and the chicken-fried steak, which is pan-fried, not deep-fried.

Those dishes aren't easy to come by. The venerable Golden Tee, which served two generations of Sacramentans and closed a few years ago, had great ORs. Most restaurants serve frozen, pre-battered ORs bought from purveyors; most of those are made from wimpy rings of onion, while some are even manufactured from minced onion shaped into rings. Also, most versions of chicken-fried steak – CFS, a staple in Texas – are cooked in a deep fryer.

I phoned Rich Gardner, who has co-owned the Granite Rock Grill for five years with his wife, Kay (they had the popular Gold Miner Cafe in Folsom for 10 years).

So, Rich, what about those ORs?

"I learned how to make them this way 25 years ago," he said. "I cut a big onion in half, soak it in ice water, peel off the membrane, cut it into rings, dip them in panko and deep-fry 'em in vegetable oil."

As for the CFS, Gardner said, "I cook it here like I cook it at home – pan-fried. We get the (tenderized) meat from Del Monte, pound it out and form it, but we don't bread it until we get an order. That takes a little longer, but it's better for you."

Back to the table: Roger and I ordered a heap of food, all of it hearty and good – a huge gravy-covered CFS with eggs; those gigantic, excellent ORs with ranch dressing on the side; homemade biscuits and sausage gravy (Roger: "The best I've run into in a long time"); cold chicken salad made crunchy with walnuts and improved with shakes of salt and pepper; and a thick slice of outstanding meatloaf topped with red onion, lettuce, tomato and mayo and served on a house-baked bun, along with one of the better potato salads we've encountered. The glass that held the iced tea was more of a trough.

More from Gardner: "We make just about everything from scratch – buns, cinnamon rolls, chili, gravy. We even grate the cheese ourselves. I'm old school. I do everything the old-fashioned way."

Let's hear it for real cooking.

Call The Bee's Allen Pierleoni, (916) 321-1128.