Maritsa's

Maritsa's? What's a Maritsa's?

Apparently it's a not-quite-together diner with a heart of gold. You want to like Maritsa's, and if you're a citizen of Maple Shade, NJ perhaps you need to love Maritsa's.

Home Fries done the Right Way!

The uniform here unofficially (or officially) is a Phillies Jersey; waitresses pick their favorite player and channel them by briskly taking and delivering orders fast and furiously. It's charming, even as the restaurant is in the middle of expansion. It doesn't quite look like a restaurant as there is mismatched flooring and furniture. I'm not sure they really know what they want it to look like once it's all done and paid for.

Veggie Omelette

Perhaps that it's just time for Chris and I to try break up our diner outings with some silver spoon entries and I'm just getting sick of veggie omelettes. But quite seriously, I hated this one. Have you ever experienced the phenomenon that is disgusting, not-cut-up kind of muddy mushrooms? Muddy mushrooms (you heard it here first!) and this time, muddy button mushrooms. The worst. The veggies in this thing were huge- so huge that it was a chore to eat. It tasted fine (besides the mushrooms) but the labor of chewing through it was ridiculous and caused me to not finish it. I only ate half. However, I will say that Chris and I were finally introduced to the idea of putting onions and peppers and gooey American cheese onto your home fries.

It was delicious. And, I don't even like American cheese.

For Chi and I the service was a little shaky, but it could be explained through misunderstandings instead of negligence or apathy. My biggest problem with the meal was the amount of time it took my family (that's right, we were accompanied by my parents for the first time) to be waited on. We were seated almost immediately (which is pretty good for a Sunday morning), but we were seated with an extra chair at the table. Our waitress then waited for around ten minutes for our "guest" to arrive. Eventually we called her over and she apologized profusely, explained herself, and ended up a bit embarrassed, which was never our intention.

Two Egg Breakfast with Sausage

My food was perfectly ordinary. Let me explain; there was nothing about my meal that was wrong, however, there was nothing that stood out or went beyond expectation. My mug was consistently topped off with piping hot java, my eggs were as medium as medium can be, the four sausage links we juicy, my toast was liberally buttered, and my home fries (probably the best part) were right in between sliced and shredded and cooked to crispy deliciousness. The super star of every meal on the table rested on my fathers plate. As Chi mentioned above, we were in the presence of home fries that were filled with onion and green peppers and topped with gooey American cheese. The ole' man let us each have a bite and to say the least, we were impressed. The onions and peppers created a natural, fresh sweetness while the cheese on top balanced out the vegetable with its saltiness. It also helps that the potatoes stayed crispy with the extra moisture.

Additional notes: There's no big sign-on-a-post out front, so you're going to have to keep your eyes open for the front of their building along East Main street in Maple Shade.