Cuisine: Southern

Open: Wed. – Sun., serving breakfast, lunch and dinner

Price Range: $7:50 – $12.95

A weekday dinner at Richard’s Place is a working mother’s dream.

Its a homey atmosphere right in the center of the southeast Queens community.

I had dinner there with my family after a very busy day. As I sat waiting for our order I thought about this review and what the stand-out feature of the restuarant was, apart from the great food I keep hearing about. And then it hit me . . . .

Richard’s Place is "down home!"

There’s a sense of family in this restuarant. It’s like going home to mother’s kitchen. It’s that sense of familiarity and security you get when you visit home. All your favorites are being prepared and the aroma wafting throughout the house and you feel and hear the growl in your stomach because you know you’re in for a treat.

And what a treat it was! Dinner is served on 12-inch plates whose bottom you cannot see for all the contents.

Along with the entree, you get to choose four out of about eight side orders: macoroni and cheese, collard greens (cooked with smoked turkey), candied yams, mashed potato, braized cabbage, string beans, cole slaw and potato salad.

The entree is an extensive menu of beef, chicken, pork or fish cooked Southern style: smothered, blackened, barbequed, fried. The whiting I ordered was coated in cornmeal and fried to a golden brown and every forkfull was a delight.

I sampled my husband’s steak – something I don’t normally do – and it was a perfectly seasoned blackened ribeye steak grilled to absolute perfection that kept me going back for more despite my own full plate. The children’s barbequed chicken was a great mixture of golden-brown parts of breast, leg and thigh.

Richard Jones, a graduate of New York Institute of Technology’s Culinary Arts campus, and his wife, Rhonda, opened the restuarant six years ago and have turned it into a bustling business. He has appeared as a guest chef on many cable TV shows and "The Today Show" with Al Roker and he and his wife work as a team.

To top off the wonderful meal, there is a wide selection of delectable desserts ($3). Peach/apple cobbler, sweet potato cheese cake with (cheese filling mixed with potato and moouse), banana pudding and carrot cake just to list a few.

As if having a great meal isn’t enough, just imagine being given so much that you’re not able to eat it all, so you get to take it home "for tomorrow" – and for the whole family. And that, is the second great part of dining at Richard’s place – mom doesn’t have to cook next day, either.