Friday 24 January 2014

Diner Daze {Review of Misty's Diner, Reservoir}

I love American Diners. What can I say? I'm a sucker for novelty food/atmosphere/artery-clogging  nosh. So when a friend wanted to try the new(ish) Misty's Diner in Reservoir I was up for it.

The Reservoir diner is the second one for Misty (yep, she's a real person) and she certainly did her research; the night I went, a Tuesday night, the place was packed. It has taken Reservoir by storm.
Previously a Red Rooster, a lot of time and energy has gone into transforming the store even down (up) to the ceiling tiles. Waitresses in super-cute 50s style uniforms and a soundtrack of jukebox favourites complete the picture.


After perusing the ENORMOUS menu we placed our order at the counter. This is where everything went a bit wonky. It was a busy night with a big table celebrating a birthday, so the line-up was long and it took over 15 minutes of standing in line to get to the front of the queue. The wait is compounded by people being indecisive and needing to ask questions about the menu. I really hope there is a way that management can work on stream-lining this (open a second register, have the floor staff a little more open to answering questions or maybe offer table-service for the big birthday table) because queuing for ages to order isn't really conducive to a relaxing dinner. Once it was my turn to order the staff member was delightful; very friendly and helpful despite the unexpected busy night.

I had to get a Reece's Pieces shake. It was a $9 shake but man it was worth it! Thick and rich and peanut-buttery and chocolatey with crunchy bits and chocolate chips that get sucked up through the extra thick straw- I was in heaven!
The food did not take too long to arrive given the enormous birthday celebration that ordered ahead of us. Because I had the thickshake coming I decided to go with a (slightly) less heart-stopping classic- Grilled Pastrami on Rye- served with sauerkraut, swiss cheese, mustard, pickles, dipping sauce and curly fries ($19.90).
Sadly it was only OK. The sauerkraut was not a particularly nice example of its species and despite the bread having attractive grill-marks the fillings were cold, the cheese unmelted and the pastrami overtly processed. I found myself longing for New York delis. I should have got one of the burgers which looked huge and oozing or one of the heavily stuffed and colourful hotdogs. The curly fries were great though.

My friend is vegetarian and a bit fussy so she just got some fat fries which were nicely seasoned with vegetarian gravy on the side ($10.90).

Misty's Diner has exceptional novelty value. The prices are a little high but if  the overall experience was good it wouldn't matter. Unfortunately this time left me a little cold- like my sandwich. I may have to drop in again for a thickshake though.

Misty's Diner on Urbanspoon

1 comment:

  1. UNMELTED CHEESE?! What a crime! And a total shame, because everything else about this place looks superb!

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