?> {"id":1952,"date":"2009-12-18T18:15:48","date_gmt":"2009-12-18T23:15:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.twofatbellies.com\/?p=1952"},"modified":"2009-12-18T18:15:48","modified_gmt":"2009-12-18T23:15:48","slug":"4-west-diner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.twofatbellies.com\/2009\/12\/4-west-diner\/","title":{"rendered":"4 West Diner"},"content":{"rendered":"
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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\u2019t 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 d\u00e9cor of the diner.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s located in a space that use to house a Bennigans but they\u2019ve 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 d\u00e9cor 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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019t too salty. I don\u2019t think the cheese on top was quality gruyere but it was a generous sprinkling and pretty evenly melted.<\/p>\n