Diner « Two Fat Bellies

Posts Tagged ‘Diner’

The Ridge Diner

Monday, April 19th, 2010 by virginia

Josh and I were in NJ running some errands and had lunch with Alice at The Ridge, a diner in, appropriately enough, Park Ridge. It’s fairly standard in terms of diner decor, understated and not kitschy, but I was pleasantly surprised by the extensive menu. There were tons of breakfast-type options, assorted sandwiches, and all different kinds of wraps, burgers, entrees, etc.

There were quite a few things that looked appealing to me but ultimately I settled on a grilled chicken panini with fresh mozzarella, roasted peppers, and pesto sauce. The panini was pressed to a nice crisp, though I wish the cheese had been a little bit more melty. Flavor-wise it was pretty good, especially with the fresh tasting pesto sauce slathered on the flatbread. I also opted for seasoned fries, which turned out to be curly fries – score! Who doesn’t love curly fries? They were freshly fried, nicely seasoned, and very yummy.

Grilled chicken panini with fresh mozzarella, roasted peppers, and pesto, plus awesome curly fries

Josh ordered the shrimp po’ boy, which was more like a shrimp cutlet sandwich. Instead of small, bite-sized pieces of fried shrimp, they used large, butterflied, breaded pieces of shrimp. It was served on a decent french roll with lettuce, tomato, and tartar sauce, and despite the unusual preparation, it was still a tasty sandwich. Josh opted for regular fries with his sandwich, which were sadly limp and disappointing. Curly is definitely the way to go!

Shrimp po' boy, sort of, with regular fries

Alice got a BLT on rye toast with avocado. It was a huge sandwich (she only ended up eating half) and the bacon was extra crispy, just as she asked for. The avocado, which she added on extra, was actually a clever touch. It added a nice creaminess to the sandwich and rendered mayo completely unnecessary. That’s something I’ll have to try the next time I get a BLT or a club sandwich, since I’m addicted to mayo. Avocado is a much more healthful choice.

BLT on rye toast with avocado

We also got a plate of onion rings, which were big slices of real onion that were lightly breaded. They were pretty crispy, just slightly greasy, and very tasty.

Crispy onion rings

As far as diners go, The Ridge would be a great one to have in the neighborhood. There are lots of options available, portions are large, and prices are pretty reasonable. Service was quick and attentive but they didn’t rush us at all. Too bad it’s a bit far from our hometown but I would definitely go back if I was in the area. There were still other things on the menu that I wanted to try!

The Ridge Diner
125 Kinderkamack Rd.
Park Ridge, NJ

Tags: Diner, Fries, NJ, Sandwiches
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4 West Diner

Friday, December 18th, 2009 by virginia

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The first time we tried to go to the 4 West Diner turned out to be a bust, as it wasn’t opening until the following week. Several months passed before we tried again, and I must say that I was pleasantly surprised by both the food and the décor of the diner.

It’s located in a space that use to house a Bennigans but they’ve totally re-done both the outside and inside. The outside is a gleaming silver highlighted with neon lights, which evokes memories of old time diners and has the benefits of attracting cars passing by on a busy section of Route 4 in Englewood. The inside, however, is nothing like what I expected. Instead of metallic tables and booths covered in brightly colored vinyl, the décor is understated with neutral brown/beige tones, and is actually quite pleasant. The space is deceptively large on the inside, and we were seated along the back wall so we had a nice view of the entire diner.

It was a chilly and rainy night when we went so both Josh and I decided to start with some bowls of soup. I opted for French onion, which is usually a hit or miss at diners. Some seem to dump soup straight from a can and top it with barely melted generic white cheese. Fortunately 4 West Diner took better care than that. The soup was served piping hot, had a nice rich onion-y flavor, and wasn’t too salty. I don’t think the cheese on top was quality gruyere but it was a generous sprinkling and pretty evenly melted.

Pretty good french onion soup

Josh’s matzo ball soup, however, was pretty dismal. The chicken broth was greasy and lacked seasoning while the matzo ball had a really weird rubbery texture to it. Proper matzo balls should be light and fluffy so that they almost dissolve in your mouth, not dense lead-like balls of dough.

Bad matzo ball soup

For my entrée, I chose the chicken bello sandwich, which was served open faced on a square ciabatta roll. Each side of the roll had an enormous slab of chicken breast topped with a portobello mushroom and melted fresh mozzarella. Both sides were huge, and there was no way I could slap them together to make a normal sandwich. Instead, I could only finish one side, eating it with a knife and fork, and saved the other half for later. The chicken on the sandwich was cooked so that it was still nice and tender, and it worked well with the slightly chewy portobello and stringy mozzarella cheese. I just wished there was more balsamic dressing on the whole thing, or more seasoning, as it ended up being a bit bland. The huge sandwich came with a side of fries, which were standard but decent.

Chicken bello sandwich

Josh had the french dip sandwich, which was also served on ciabatta bread and had tender, thin slices of beef. It was real slices of steak, not like deli roast beef, which Josh liked, but he wished that they put some swiss cheese on the sandwich for extra flavor. The dipping sauce was pretty good, not too greasy or salty. The french dip sandwich came with french fries as well.

French dip sandwich

Overall we both thought the food at 4 West Diner was pretty decent and slightly more creative than standard diner food. Prices aren’t dirt cheap but they’re reasonable, and service was fast and efficient. I did like the more upscale atmosphere, though you lose some of the nostalgia factor of eating in a diner. The menu is very extensive so it’s a good place to go if you have a large group or picky eaters, as everyone will find something they like. It’s by no means a destination restaurant but if you’re hungry and happen to be passing by or in the neighborhood, it’s not a bad place to stop.

4 West Diner
412 South Van Brunt St.
Englewood, NJ

Tags: Diner, Englewood, Fries, NJ, Sandwiches
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Ruby’s Diner

Monday, November 23rd, 2009 by virginia

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The airport diner… we meet again. After the debacle last time at Garden State Diner, also at Newark Airport, I was a bit wary to try another but we were hungry and had time to kill before our flight to Raleigh. So Ruby’s Diner it was. Slightly smaller, a bit less kitschy. I don’t know if we got an abbreviated menu but there really weren’t all that many options for us to choose from. Maybe it was just the time that we were there but the menu only had a handful of breakfast items, which we were told they would be cutting off soon as they switched over to lunch, so we quickly placed our orders and hoped for the best.

Josh ordered a simple bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwich that was served on a long soft roll. Though the sandwich was slightly larger than the typical bacon/egg/cheese on a roll, it was pretty standard. The cheese wasn’t even melted on the sandwich. It did come with a side of home fries but when Josh asked if he could switch it to french fries, the waitress thought for a second and then gave a flat out “no.” I’ve never been to a diner where they wouldn’t swap home fries for french fries during breakfast, but given the location, I can’t say I was surprised. The home fries weren’t terrible but they were a bit mealy and underseasoned.

Standard bacon, egg, and cheese on a roll and home fries

I ended up getting two eggs with bacon, toast, and home fries. However, I didn’t get a choice of how I wanted my eggs cooked (they turned out to be scrambled) or what kind of toast I wanted (I prefer white; I got wheat). I don’t know if that was the diner policy or what but I found it kind of strange. At that point however, we didn’t have much time left before boarding so I didn’t bother asking to exchange my food. It’s just eggs and toast after all.

Bacon, home fries, scrambled eggs, whole wheat toast

Josh kept with the airport diner tradition and got a vanilla milkshake, which was fine. It wasn’t as good thick and frothy as the one from the Garden State Diner, but it’s pretty hard to mess up a milkshake.

Classic vanilla milkshake

What else can I say? Ruby’s Diner is at an airport, and that pretty much sums it up. It’s nice to have a place to sit down and get table service while you’re waiting for your flight, but it’s very overpriced and the food is just meh. Our waitress was also pretty surly and unhelpful, which only made the meal seem much worse. It looks like Ruby’s Diner is a chain restaurant though, and I can only hope the food/service is better at the other locations.

Ruby’s Diner (multiple locations)
At Newark Airport
Newark, NJ

Tags: Airport, Diner, NJ
Posted in Restaurants, Travel | 1 Comment »

Louie’s Charcoal Pit

Sunday, August 23rd, 2009 by virginia

Our Singaporean friend Francois wanted to go shopping at the Woodbury Common outlets so we first headed off to NJ to borrow a car from Josh’s parents. We had enough time to grab a quick breakfast with Josh’s mom and ended up at Louie’s Charcoal Pit, of course.

I had my usual breakfast order of two eggs over easy with bacon, french fries, and toast. The eggs were perfectly runny and the bacon was nicely crispy. We always make sure to ask for our bacon well done so it’s never soggy or greasy. The fries were freshly fried and golden brown.

Two eggs over easy, bacon, french fries, and toast

Josh had bacon and egg on a roll, and contented himself with stealing some of my fries.

Fried egg sandwich with bacon

Josh’s mom had a bagel and lox platter, which comes with smoked salmon, lettuce, tomato, and onion. Though the bagel and cream cheese are nothing special (for truly great bagels, just head up the block to Three Star Bagels), they give you a huge portion of lox that is really delicious. The lox is a slightly thicker cut and not too oily. You can really pile it onto your bagel and it makes a filling and satisfying breakfast.

Bagel and lox platter

Louie’s is still and probably always will be my favorite diner. It’s just so familiar and comforting. It’s the kind of place where people greet you by name when you walk in, and the waiters know what your usual order is. The food comes quickly but you never feel rushed; we can sit for hours just chatting and they’ll always keep coming by to refill our coffee cups. I can guarantee that we’ll be back here, and often.

Louie’s Charcoal Pit
510 Cedar Lane
Teaneck, NJ

Tags: Diner, NJ, Sandwiches, Smoked Salmon
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Tick Tock Diner

Sunday, July 19th, 2009 by virginia

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We had a few errands to run so we headed to NJ to do some shopping at Willowbrook mall. We stopped for lunch along the way and ended up at the Tick Tock Diner in Clifton. This place was on an episode of “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives”, though I don’t really remember that particular segment, as I only paid attention to when he visited White Manna in Hackensack, one of my favorite hamburger joints. Guy Fieri kind of annoys me so I only watch him when I hear about a place that interests me. They must be fans at the Tick Tock, as they have a huge autographed poster of him in the restaurant.

Autographed poster of Guy Fieri

The first thing that I saw when I opened the vast menu was disco fries, which I love so we ordered some for us to share. Disco fries are basically French fries with cheese and gravy. They listed American cheese on the menu though, which I find gross. We substituted swiss instead without any issues. Unfortunately, when the plate arrived, it was piled high with steak fries but very little cheese and gravy. Only the middle top pieces of fries were covered, leaving the fries on the outside and bottom hanging out to dry. The gravy was pretty tasty though, not too watery or greasy; I just wish there was more of it. We ended up eating only the cheesy fries and left the dry ones on the plate.

Disco fries with swiss cheese and gravy

I had a hard time choosing what I wanted for lunch, as many of the options sounded pretty good. I ended up choosing the “My Big Fat Greek Burger”, which is described as a lamb burger with feta tzatziki, eggplant medallion, and lettuce, served with seasoned fries. When it came, it didn’t look like how I pictured it would. The lamb patty was quite thin, there was only a small shmear of the tzatziki on the bun, the eggplant medallion a sad thin strip, and the lettuce was a few pieces of limp iceberg. Usually lamb burgers are fat and juicy, but this version just looked a bit sad.

"My Big Fat Greek Burger" with lamb and feta tzatziki

Nevertheless, it smelled pretty good so I carefully assembled everything together to make sure that I would get a bite of everything at once. The lamb patty itself was very flavorful, though people who don’t like gamey lamb should beware as it was super gamey. Unfortunately, it was also extremely dry. The thinness of the patty did nothing to help that, and it was completely cooked through (I wasn’t given an option of how I wanted it cook, not that it would have mattered since the patty was so thin). The eggplant was pretty much nonexistent in flavor, and the lettuce did absolutely nothing so I ended up pulling it out. The feta tzatziki was nicely salty and had good flavor but there wasn’t enough of it, which was too bad because it would have helped with the dryness factor.

Autopsy shot

While the lamb itself tasted good to me (I love gamey lamb), the dry texture was really off-putting. The patty was way too small for the bun, and the bread to filling ratio was pretty poor. The burger did come with seasoned waffle fries, my favorite, but these were a bit cold and soggy. It was not a well put together plate overall.

Josh ordered his diner standard, a triple decker turkey club. While the turkey wasn’t incredibly dry, it was really cold for some reason, like it had just been pulled straight from the refrigerator. It was colder than the lettuce and tomato on the sandwich, which I found kind of weird. The bacon was nice and crispy though, and there was a lot of it. The sandwich came with potato salad, which was pretty good and not overly drenched in mayo, but Josh doesn’t eat potato salad so he left it alone; I stole a few bites.

Turkey club with potato salad

Josh’s mom also had a hard time deciding what she wanted to eat so she ended up with eggs benedict. The eggs were a bit overdone but not completely hard boiled (they were, shall we say, medium rare?). The Canadian bacon was thickly sliced, which I liked, but the English muffin wasn’t toasted enough. The hollandaise was perfectly made, not too eggy or buttery, so overall the dish tasted pretty good.

Eggs benedict

To me, there’s nothing so special about the Tick Tock. It’s a diner, and it’s pretty much just like any other diner I’ve been to. The food is decent overall, but there are hits and misses as well. I wouldn’t order the lamb burger again but I’d try some of their other offerings. You pretty much can’t go wrong when you order standard diner food, and the food is pretty reasonably priced. It’s not a diner destination that you should go out of your way for, but if you happen to be hungry and driving along Route 3, it’s not a bad place to stop.

Tick Tock Diner
281 Alwood Rd.
Clifton, NJ

Tags: Burgers, Diner, Eggs Benedict, NJ
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Garden State Diner

Friday, June 12th, 2009 by virginia

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Unfortunately for Josh, his Vegas business trip was scheduled after we had already booked our flights to Chicago. Rather than trying to change his flights to go directly from Vegas and having to deal with the red tape and all the rebooking fees, he opted to take a redeye into Newark from Vegas and meet me at the airport for our flight out to Chicago. Because his flight arrived at 5:30 am, and our flight out was at 10:15 am, it didn’t make sense for him to try and get home in between. I had him call me as soon as he landed and I headed to the airport immediately in an effort to cut down on the time he would have to wait by himself. We obviously had a lot of time until our flight so after we checked in and deposited our bag, we headed off to the Garden State Diner for a super early breakfast.

I’ve already waxed nostalgic about my love for Jersey diners, and the one in the airport was obviously a kitschy version – stainless steel chairs, red vinyl booths, neon lights, the whole bit. Still, it was more comfortable sitting in a booth than on those hard chairs by the gate, plus there was food involved.

Kitschy diner decor

We took our time deciding, and finally settled on Jersey eggs benedict for me (with Taylor ham instead of Canadian bacon), a bacon/egg/cheese sandwich for Josh, and a side order of fries to share. I asked the waitress if I could have the hollandaise on the side, and she seemed really confused, like she didn’t know eggs benedict comes with hollandaise. Regardless, my order showed up with the sauce on the side as requested but unfortunately, the eggs were way overcooked. One still had a tiny bit of runny yolk, while the other was almost completely hard-boiled. I generally hate sending things back, but a hard-boiled poached egg for eggs benedict is inexcusable.

Overcooked eggs on my Jersey eggs benedict

I flagged the waitress down, apologized first, and asked if I could new eggs since mine were overcooked. Again, she seemed really confused. I was trying to explain to her that the poached eggs should be runny, and she asked if I wanted them done “medium.” I don’t even know what that means! I’ve never been asked how I wanted my eggs done to a temperature, just whether I wanted them scrambled, or over easy, etc. So now I was also confused, because if I wanted runny eggs, do I order them rare? I didn’t want the whites to be runny though, because that’s not right either. So after some confused looks back and forth, I just restated that I would like the yolks to be still runny, not hard-boiled, handed my plate back, and hoped for the best. She returned with eggs that were better, but not perfect. I think the temperature of the water they were poaching the eggs in was too high because the yolk still had a layer of hard-boiling on the outside, but it was much runnier on the inside. The cheese on Josh’s sandwich was quickly congealing so I just sucked it up and went with it.

Better eggs, but not great

I’ve never really had Taylor ham before, even though it’s a NJ staple, but it tasted ok, kind of like a mix between mild bologna and mild salami, if that makes sense. Josh’s sandwich was fine and exactly what he expected it to be.

Bacon, egg, and cheese on a roll

The fries were standard as well.

The usual

To kill some more time, Josh ordered a vanilla milkshake, which was served in a classic tall glass with whipped cream and a cherry on top. This was the best thing we had – creamy, sweet, and just the right consistency.

Classic vanilla milkshake

To be fair, I wasn’t expecting much from this breakfast. We’re at an airport, after all. And just to warn you, Josh got a cup of coffee and said yes when asked if he wanted a refill. She took the mug away, filled it up, and brought back the same mug. In the end, we were charged for both coffees. I guess we should never assume that coffee refills are free, but usually at a diner they are. Our mistake. But the whole egg situation really threw me for a loop. Am I just crazy? Has anyone else been asked if they wanted their eggs cooked “medium” before?

Garden State Diner
At Newark Airport
Newark, NJ

Tags: Airport, Diner, Eggs Benedict, Newark, NJ
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Louie’s Charcoal Pit

Monday, May 25th, 2009 by virginia

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Growing up in NJ meant that we spent many nights during high school or breaks from college at a diner, eating fries, drinking coffee and talking late into the night. Our favorite was always Louie’s Charcoal Pit in Teaneck, NJ, (which I guess technically is a coffee shop, but has all the great appeal of a diner) as it was just a quick walk up the block after we had spent hours drinking at Geronimo’s Hot Spot (now closed, sadly, after several violent fights and a few stabbing incidents…). Louie’s is also the place where Josh’s family gets together often, either for Friday night dinners or Sunday morning breakfasts. The menu is broad, offering breakfast staples, sandwiches, traditional Greek dishes, Italian food and other assorted roasts and dinner food. We popped in for a quick lunch as we had some errands to run and we can always count on the service here to be super fast.

I had tuna salad on a toasted bagel, which is always overflowing with tuna. The sandwich is so big that I can’t fit it into my mouth; I have to split it open and eat each quarter of the bagel separately. Usually I can only get through half, and save the rest for later.

Tuna salad on a toasted bagel

Josh had a triple decker turkey club, which is piled high with roasted turkey. Unfortunately it’s always a bit dry. A shmear of mayo would fix that, except Josh refuses to eat mayo, or anything that contains mayo (i.e. tuna/chicken/egg salad).

Towering high triple decker turkey club

All of the sandwiches come with pickles and cole slaw, which they are definitely not stingy with!

Creamy cole slaw and crunchy sour pickles

We shared a plate of fries, of course, which are standard but satisfying.

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Portions here are huge, and the food is consistently good. It’s obviously not fancy gourmet cuisine – it’s a diner after all – but the wait staff is friendly and the food is comforting. It’s nice to have a place that you can always count on.

Louie’s Charcoal Pit
510 Cedar Lane
Teaneck, NJ

Tags: Diner, NJ, Teaneck
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Posts Tagged ‘Diner’

The Ridge Diner

4 West Diner

Ruby’s Diner

Louie’s Charcoal Pit

Tick Tock Diner

Garden State Diner

Louie’s Charcoal Pit

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