Harry's Restaurant

KATE DALY Jon Cohen, owner of Harry's restaurant in Westborough, serves up some home-style food. Westborough - Since moving to Westborough in 2006, I have found Harry's Restaurant on Route 9 to be a great spot for seafood and chowder. On a recent winter afternoon, I found out it is also the place to go for home-style comfort food.

Taking a break to organize my pre-holiday to-do list, I stopped at the restaurant for lunch, grabbed a small table and, within a minute, was greeted by a smiling waitress. The thing about Harry's is that even if the staff members don't know you personally, they treat you like family.

While waiting for my drink, I heard one customer talk to another about her family, several greetings between customers and staff , and plenty of generally good-humored bantering. One of the waitresses got to visit with her grandchildren at one of the booths when she wasn't running between kitchen and tables.

I started with a cup of corn chowder ($2.99) that was perfect. The sweet cream base was light, with plenty of corn and chunks of potato. The bacon crumbles added an extra flavor punch.

When my chicken pot pie ($8.99) arrived in short order, the large bowl was full of chunky chicken, potatoes, carrots and peas in a creamy, thick gravy. Topping this was a square of light, flaky crust nearly two inches thick. Even resting on the gravy, the buttery pastry stayed crisp.

The nice thing about comfort food is the satisfaction. When it's good, it is indeed comforting, filling and reminiscent of Mom's meals on a winter afternoon after playing in the snow all day. Shopping and errands may not be a snowball fight, but they can tire you out just as thoroughly. And Harry's fulfilled my desire for comfort food that day.

Of course, no good comfort-food meal is complete without dessert. Until this meal, Harry's had been a summertime fried seafood and ice cream sundae kind of place for me. Once more I stepped out of that misconception and went for my all-time favorite: pecan pie.

The pecan pie ($3.25) was only one of several types available. Once I heard the list, and made my choice, the waitress off ered options: warm, warm with whipped cream or warm with ice cream. I went with warm pie with whipped cream. It was an excellent choice. The crispy praline top was crunch and sweet, and the golden filling was sweet, but not too sweet. Topping a thick, almost cake-like crust, this was pie that would be hard to beat.

Harry's Restaurant, a Westborough tradition for decades, can be found at 149 Turnpike Road (Route 9 west), just west of the Lyman Street intersection. Breakfast is served all day and night. Harry's is open Monday through Thursday, 7 a.m. to 1 a.m.; Friday, until 2 a.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m. to 2 a.m.; and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 1 a.m.