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Food: my wife got a chicken fried steak I got the chuckwagon sirloin. We split each item to taste the other. The chicken fried steak is something we consistently order at diners/brunch places and this is the best of the 5 places we’ve been to so far. The breading was great, and I’d say they get an edge on the gravy compared to others too. “This is the first gravy of the places we’ve been that actually adds good flavor and isn’t just there” is what my wife said. I wouldn’t go that far as to say the gravy at other places adds nothing, but imo it was noticeably superior. I also got a side of the Fall menu pumpkin pancakes and it was amazing; I’ll have to try their regular pancakes in the future for a fair comparison to other locations, but they were good. I suspect they were Golden pancake/waffle batter (or at least used some golden ingredients), and that’s a good thing since pancakes derived from that brand are the best pancakes/waffles in my experience. The hashbrowns were the best we have had at the 5 places we’ve visited; whoever they had cooking today knew how to actually brown them and make them crispy. The churros were good. Not the best I’ve had, but they were definitely made fresh which I appreciated, so I’d give them a 4/5 on that (but everything else was honestly a 5). They were just slightly overdone in my amateur estimation.
Food, visit 2: tried the lunch menu the next day because we enjoyed breakfast so much. The philly cheesesteak was solid. I lived in Philly for 3 years so I can’t give it a perfect score, but I’d say it was pretty close—much closer than I’d expect a diner to get. Fries were solid. My wife got the Rueben. We split both sandwiches so we both got to try both. The Rueben was very good imho. We also got an Oreo shake which was better than at the other diner’s we’ve patronized recently. Overall, the lunch visit was 5 for food, so whether lunch or brunch you’ll be happy.
Service: 100% 5 stars. Our server, Jeremiah, is amazing and I hope they treat him well. He was super knowledgeable about the menu and helped guide us through things I’m definitely going to try in the future. He also helped us look through the lunch menu because we loved this place so much I want to try a lunch item tomorrow. He gave us good insights as well—what’s made exclusively in house, what’s original, what contains pre-made ingredients and is less of a specialty, etc. Loved that. He guided us well, and I hope he stays so he can guide us in the future! I feel like this is a place where if you become a regular you’d get treated well.
Service, visit 2: We had Jeremiah again and he was excellent. He brought me a pitcher of Diet Coke because of how much of that I drink. 5/5. Absolutely legend.
Atmosphere: it’s a 1957 diner on the register of historic places, even if you had a bad experience otherwise, atmosphere is gonna be a 5/5. Sure, it’s old. Rickety. It looks well worn. But that’s the charm. Competing diners try to imitate the 50s aesthetic, but this *is* the 50s aesthetic. It’s actually from that time. And that’s why you want to come here: you drive by and see this grimy, classic nostalgic 1950s diner, and it’s exactly that. So I’d give this a 5/5 atmosphere.
Looking forward to coming here tomorrow and in the future. I’ll try to remember to update my review as I try new items so I can tell people what’s good to get. I forgot to take photos of our entrees this morning but attached is a photo of the churros; I’ll try to add more as we return.
Edit: for future visits to keep this simple I’ll just add a green mark for items we enjoyed a lot, blue for good but not great, yellow for “okay,” and red for didn’t enjoy. The service and atmosphere remain a 5 until I edit them otherwise. Photos of food will be attached if I remember to take them.
Chicken Fried Steak: 🟩
Hashbrowns: 🟩
Steak/Eggs: 🟩
Pancakes: 🟩
Ruben/Rueben: 🟩
Philly Cheesesteak: 🟩
Fries: 🟩
Churros: 🟦
Oreo Shake: 🟩