My boyfriend and I have been excited to try Empire Diner, located on 22nd street and 10th ave. Empire Diner is featured in a few NYC movies and is a more well known and supposedly a more worthy diner among the NYC bunch.
We arrived and were told there would be a 15 minute wait (Saturday afternoon on a beautiful day). Much to our surprise, we were seated in 5 minutes. When we walked inside, I got the impression that this place was a bit of a Hole in the Wall. We were seated next to the bathroom. Woopty freaking doo.
We got the menus and it was different from the one online. Only slightly, but still, it is clear that they have changed management but have not updated their website. It is not like the typical diner where you open the menu and flip through the pages and review every type of sandwich, french fry, dip, and entree imaginable. The Empire Diner menu does not even open. It has two sides. One side has food. The other side has beers.
We dined with two others, both who ordered beers that the waiter informed us were not in stock. Beer menu fail. O and did I mention that we waited about ten minutes for the waiter to come over to even take this order?
I heard the burger was good, so I went for it. But I did not want all the red meat, so I went for the turkey burger (which was a mistake). The turkey burger came with lettuce and tomato. It was pretty good, but kind of boring. It needed something - either cheese, avocado, or even a little mustard, but I could not get my waiter's attention to get the damn mustard. And it came with these sort of chips but sort of fries thing. I would have preferred chips. Or fries. No chip fries. It was weird.
My boyfriend got the Chelsea Burger, which I did enjoy. The Chelsea burger had bacon, cheese and bbq sauce. YUM! It definitely had a better punch. What was weird though was that the menu did not describe what the Chelsea Burger, as if I was supposed to randomly guess that Chelsea = cheese, bacon, and bbq sauce.
Lesson learned - in a place that does not specialize in burgers, you need something more than the meat.
Our friends got salads, which looked lovely, but I did not try it. But we were at this restaurant for 90 minutes. Do not get me wrong - I like a nice Saturday afternoon meal, but this place should have had me in and out in about 50 minutes. And it is a hole in the wall on a beautiful day - I did not want to be inside that long (and sitting next to the DAMN bathroom!)
All in all, a disappointment.
Have a delicious day!
NYC Menu Girl
I stand by my claim that there are no good diners in NYC :) Should diners be required to have a certain number of items on the menu to qualify as a diner? Standards are different everywhere, obviously, but not every (as you appropriately call this 'diner') hole-in-the-wall place should be allowed to call themselves a diner!
ReplyDeleteHole-in-the-wall definitely does not equal diner. There are some awesome hole in the wall bars, pubs, restaurants, etc.
ReplyDeleteDiners, according to wikipedia (not a reputable source per se, but informational) says: Diners are characterized by a wide range of foods, mostly American, a casual atmosphere, a counter, and late operating hours.
When I think of a real diner, I think of a place that has a lot of options. Empire Diner looks like a diner, and has some diner type food, but is really lacking in selection.
Anyone out there have a diner they love? Please share!
Definitely agree!
ReplyDeletehttp://insignificantmoments.com/
Thanks for the comment Katie! And I am enjoying the movie quotes section of your website. Cool stuff!
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