Bonanza
It’s been at least twenty years, if not a great deal more, since we’ve seen a Bonanza Restaurant. Remember that chain, all the rage way back when? You’d pair a steak (typically, since they were known as Bonanza Steakhouses) or some other entree, with an all you could eat salad bar. We thought they went belly up a long time ago, so imagine our surprise when we find one in business in Moose Jaw Saskatchewan.
Thinking back, the Bonanza of old I knew as a child, and the same could be said of their sister chain Ponderosa which were simply clones of each other, the food was…well…plain and simple awful. It fit the times though I guess. Regulars to the place knew that you’d have to bulk up on the salad bar – with your choice of 70s staples, Kraft brand French, Italian or Thousand Island dressing (tough choice) – as entree portions were often small. The steaks, I recall were so terribly thin that they almost looked like a slice of baloney and if held to the light, were practically see through.
Ahhhh, memories of crappy restaurants from my childhood.
Perhaps the chain has improved today and this could explain why they are still in business (at least in Saskatchewan) and maybe just maybe, we’ll drop by on our next visit. Or maybe not.
A brief visit to a very interesting building in Moose Jaw…
Moose Jaw then and now – CPR train station.
Short Subjects: reports that for any number of reasons are brief in nature. They might be updates to older articles, previews of posts planned or not yet published, brief snippets of things that don’t fit in anywhere else or subjects that are so obscure that information on them can’t be found.
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Date of adventure: May, 2014.
Location: Moose Jaw, SK.
All the places seen in this report are publicly accessible.
In 1977 ’78 I think it was a different building I liked it but maybe it was just the company I had as a 19-year-old
No doubt it’s houses countless businesses over the years.
I used to love Bonanza. No idea why cause the good sucked
I liked Mr Mikes, a similar style of restaurant back in the old days, a bit more.
I remember going to the Bonanza in Saskatoon in 2008, and the one in Moose Jaw in 2002. It’s funny that they’re still popular in Saskatchewan, because they sure didn’t last very long in BC.
Saskatchewan must have different tastes! They were last seen in Alberta, as far as I know, back in the 90s.