West Side Diner

2:00 am visit to this diner was OK. Not busy when we arrived, but soon thereafter the bar crowd arrived. Wait staff was friendly and very tolerant of our antics. Service was good and food arrived promptly. I ordered breakfast which was OK. Pancakes were tasteless, eggs and bacon were fine. OK for a late night visit but I probably won’t return during regular hours.

Don’t leave the kid in charge! He (I’m guessing the son of the owner) just stared at football on TV all night, ignoring the fact that the place was generally dirty, the salad bar was in dire need of restocking, our waitress was giving us substandard service, etc. The place was almost empty, yet she was somewhere, somehow too busy to offer drink refills, etc. When you run a restaurant, you have to pay attention to the restaurant, to its staff, and to your diners. One more experience like that, and they will be saying goodbye to four semi-​regular customers. Still, the food was above average diner food, except for the salad bar.

If you’re like me, you’ve passed by this diner many times thinking «there’s only 4 parking spaces out front and RARELY do I see a car there — how can they still be in business.» Turns out this place is busy! There’s a parking lot behind the diner and it’s usually filled.
My party of 3 got there at 8:00 after the dinner rush and it was surprisingly quiet. Service was prompt and the food came out at a decent pace, and everything was very fresh. The salad bar was already done but the house salads we got were great because it was actually a spring mix instead of just iceberg. The Italian Wedding soup was delicious, much better than Chris’ Family Restaurant, with more meat and less salty, tasted more homemade than canned like from Chris’, IMHO.
My black diamond steak came out perfect, just as I ordered, medium rare. Very well seasoned which is a surprise for me, but the seasoning didn’t overwhelm the natural flavor of the steak. My brother got the broiled seafood combo and it was HUGE. There were 3 giant shrimp, lots of scallops, tilapia, a huge mound of crab cake, and another huge mound of some type of fish wrapped around what seemed like a smaller crab cake mound. I was envying his choice even as I was chowing down on my steak. My sister got the stuffed chicken. It’s a large chicken breast stuffed with crabmeat — it was very good. The only downside was that she had the same dish a year/​two ago and said she got two of them, only a fraction smaller than the one she got now. But that is the way of the world.
Waiter was attentive, prices are lower than Chris’ and I definitely will be back.

REALLY great diner! The food is fresh and they make absolutely everything there themselves. I was actually really impressed by that. The soups are always great. Went with my parents and my mother ordered the Croquettes, I would usually not order anything like that, but it actually looked very appetizing and their presentation is almost gourmet! Every time I go there, I know I’m going to get good food and great service. They come over and check on you often enough, but not so often, you get uncomfortable or feel rushed out. All the servers are great and the manager is always around and checking on things, which shows that they have want to ensure good quality and good service. The salad bar could be more expansive but it’s all fresh and they make really tasty middle-​eastern salads. I get the feeling salad bar isn’t the number one thing their usual customers go there for so that’s probably why it isn’t bigger.