Pok-A-Dot

Crazy looking place on the outside. Nothing to be a afraid of on the inside. Pretty old and worn inside — like most of the patrons I met — but food was fast and cheap and predictable. Glad I stopped. Not many places like this left in the world.

My dad is a disabled wheelchair bound veteran. We called ahead to see if the were wheelchair accessible. It is … But only if the people sitting by the door care to get up and move their chairs.
They said they were famous for their roast beef so I said, «sign me up» I got that and a side of fries and gravy. The fries were light crisp and the gravy tasty. The beef was passable but didn’t have a whole lot of flavor. Middling at best. My daughter ordered a hot dog and wouldn’t eat it because it tasted funny.
Now, I love dives. Little hole in the wall places with great food … So I’m not putting on airs when I say this … THE PLACE IS A DUMP !!!
I LITERALLY had a pile of dirt under my chair. The sign said they’d been open for 62 years… Couldn’t someone have found a mop in that time. It was scurvy (see pics). The grill looked like one you would find in a state park on the fifth of July … Covered in old grease that no one even thought about.
And it’s CASH ONLY, SO BE PREPARED. I won’t be going back.

The roast beef sandwich was nothing thrilling if anything the omlettes and onion rings looked good.

Love this place. Always go at least a couple times when we visit my husband’s home town.
I love to sit at the counter. The ladies who work there are incredible. Making everything from eggs Benedict to a fried bologna sandwich all while greeting customers and throwing out a wisecrack here or there.
My favs are beef on weck, white hots and egg and pepper sandwiches. So so good and a true great greasy spoon experience!

This is the last of a dying breed… a dive that serves quick good food for a good price. You will have to fight the regulars to get a seat, but once you do, order a milkshake and a beef on weck, get some gravy for the fries and enjoy. Go, this is a part of Americana that is disappearing.

Fast paced diner where fast cooking & fast table turn over is their only priority. Our server was annoyed that I asked for a menu, rolled her eyes & pointed to a chalk board menu behind the counter. The food was poor quality with the exception of the beef on weck. My sons cheeseburger was small, thin & «cold raw» in the middle. My coffee smelled & tasted burned. All food was served on small flimsy paper plates. When we left we were forced to walk through a cloud of cigarette smoking employees in the parking lot; one of which was screaming vulgarities into her cell phone.

It’s a greasy spoon diner that epitomizes the local flavor of Batavia. A favorite of author John Gardner (Grendel), this place has a lot of history and nostalgia in Batavia. Great beef on weck, gravy fries and milkshakes. Anyone who is willing to take a shot when passing through should. You either love it or you hate but you’ll surely never forget it. Also mentioned in the award winning book The Sunlight Dialogues by John Gardner.

Second time coming here. Ordered the Beef on wreck … The meat was so tough and chewy. I’ve had gum less chewier. Absolutely one of the worst restaurants I’ve been to in my 2 months living in Batavia. It’s amazing this dirty greasy scoop is still open and actually busy. My taste buds must not be working?

The dumpiest, diviest, awesomest diner ever.
Yes, as one reviewer noted, the beef on wick roll was missing the traditional chunks of kosher salt but still, I could not bring myself to deduct a star. The beef was razor thin, piled high, quite fresh and the horseradish nostril-​singeing.
As we ate, the off duty waitress told a story about a customer who was banned by his wife because he had a crush on her and an octogenarian in a Korean War baseball cap stared at my wife like he’d just seen a ghost.
Fellow reviewer Will D is quite correct, if you hate this place you hate America.

If you think this is the best beef on weck in WNY, you’ve clearly never left Batavia.
This is the epitome of blue-​collar greasy spoon. You even leave smelling like grease and onions. In fact this place is so bare bones and dare I say dirty and old with a small menu that it really more resembles a food cart that stays put. Here’s the thing about greasy spoon eateries, they’re only nostalgic if the food is good. If the food sucks, then what’s the point in eating there?!
I ordered a beef on weck and fries with gravy. The fries were crinkle cut, fried to a light golden, and covered in very tasty beef gravy. They were the hit of the order. The beef on weck was really, well… Awful. The roll was covered in caraway seeds but had no salt on it. Odd, I don’t think that’s a traditional kimmelweck… I like that they grilled the bun. Can’t go wrong with extra grease can ya’? The beef was ridiculously tough and dry and basically choked me with every bite I took. I was so over it, I ended up taking the majority of the beef out of the roll and dipped what was left of my sammy in the leftover gravy from my fries to cut the dryness.
My mom had a cheeseburger that was just a thin pre-​made patty. She said it was nothing special and that she prefers the McDonald’s McDouble. Yikes.
I’m super disappointed in the food reviews since everyone rated this place so highly. Maybe my expectations were too high. Maybe I’ve had several MUCH better beef on wecks over the years that this joint just couldn’t measure up. Either way, now that I’ve been here to scope it out, I would never come back. Dunzo!

If you have anything bad to say about places like this you hate America.
‘Beef on weck’ (or wick) is an upstate NY (Central and Western NY) tradition and this place has one of the best, besides being cash only and the same as its been for fifty years, and awesome.

The BEST beef on weck and peppers and eggs in Western NY!

Delicious hot dogs and friendly service. We ordered our Zweigle white hots cooked well done, and they were cooked perfectly to order. It’s nice to have a place that grills them well, and Pok-​A-​Dot is the best kind of small diner — one that does only a few things, but it does them very well. You can’t go wrong here.

O.K. it’s a tight fit if you are pregnant and have to pee, but if you peed before you came in then order anything off the menu and know that you are supporting one of the very last true blue, greasy spoon, diners in WNY. They were on that corner as far back as I can remember and I’m currently 55. Grease is the new Tofu, in fact I can only eat Tofu if has been soaked in Italian Sausage grease with peppers and onions, or Everclear.

Made famous — to some — by Batavia native John Gardner’s reference to it in _​The Sunlight Dialogs_​, where he misspells it (I believe) the Polka-​Dot. It is what it is, and has been — tiny, greasy, a counter and some tables, and a bathroom I had a hard time squeezing into when pregnant, inching behind the grill to get there. Sure, I’ll go back. And, seriously, *cash only*. That almost bit my friend and me hard, as we scrambled for a the very few bucks necessary.