Marlton Diner

Flashy

The Marlton Diner's reputation precedes it with its multiple accolades as "Best of [insert location]" by a few local papers, including the Courier Post. One gets the sense that it knows just how popular and appealing it is, despite not being around as long as its competitors in the area. But just like the popular kids of our pasts, I felt the attitude to be complacent, vaguely shallow, and with a skewed sense of what things actually cost. It gleans off of Route 70 (in Marlton) like a prized baby blue convertible. (Yes, I quoted Santa Baby, but yes, it was kind-of teal).

French Toast, Eggs Over Medium

Chris's parents took us out for Saturday breakfast and since they paid, you would think I could just focus on the experience and critique the quality of food, but I can't. While breakfast meals cost about the same as they do at any other diner, many items didn't come in the popular combos that they traditionally do, or at those combo prices. For example, I ordered their french toast which came out to a little under $6, but as you can see, there's only the (3) pieces of toast, with butter and individual packages of syrup. I ordered a side of two eggs over medium, which cost me almost an extra two bucks. It wasn't terrible, just clearly not a bargain, which is something I've come to expect (perhaps unfairely) from diners. Plan your meals carefully and they can cost the same as they do anywhere else, but double check your sides, especially your meat-based ones.


I will say that the french toast was delicious with the pefect ratio of toast to egg. I think that I would been happier if they had just upgraded me to a bottle of syrup on the table instead of packets tacked on the side, but since I like my toast more buttery than sweet anyways, I can't really say it hindered my enjoyment. As usual by over medium eggs were runny and boring. But maybe ordering eggs over medium is boring...

Exhibit A

I wanted to order their french toast and eggs special (with coffee and juice) and then order a side of sausage. The combo of just french toast and eggs was eight dollars, a side of sausage was four dollars. Four dollars for sausage links. Four dollars. Until this diner, the most expensive side of sausage I've seen was two dollars and fifty cents. I guess having a building painted like a '50s Chevy made the Marlton Diner feel entitled to overcharge it's customers. Now that I've gotten that off my chest I must admit that they seated us rather quickly for showing up on a busy Saturday morning, and our waitress was very patient with our slightly indecisive party. The atmosphere was pleasant enough with classic diner feel and booths packed with families and old timers, the Marlton Diner clearly has their own set of regulars.

French Toast with Four Dollar Sausage

With good company at the table our food seemed to come out fairly quickly. Three pieces of french toast bordered by four sausage links. I'm a butter and syrup man, so I slathered up the slices and went to work. Let me tell you, this french toast was good enough to stand up by itself and I would go back to the Marton Diner just to order a short stack. There were three things that made this french toast better than other diners. The first key for yumminess is thickness of the bread. Most diners advertise super think slices of Texas toast. Well, that means the egg won't be able to get to the middle of the bread (there's a surface area to volume ratio theory that is important for diffusion) and that means half of what your eating is a core of warm bread. Marlton used more than Wonder Bread, but they didn't over do it, which made their french toast one hundred percent french toast. The second high point of their french toast was the perfection of "toasting." The Marlton Diner made sure that the outside reached it's nice golden brown exterior without overcooking the middle of the french toast remained soft, moist and delicious. The third golden start I'm going to give them is for not skimping me on butter. The amount of butter they gave us looked like miniature fluffy clouds. As for the sausage (the four dollar sausage) it was mediocre. Nothing about it screamed "I'm better than Jimmy Dean!" which solidified my previous statement, I would come back to get just the short stack of french toast.

Additional notes:
Apparently the Marlton Diner doubles as a museum and contains an antique cash register and jukebox, but don't touch them. Also, they sell giant, soft chocolate-chip cookies, buy one. The place was family-friendly full of Halloween decorations with clean, dry booths. If you can get over the $4.00 a side thing, might be worth a trip.

All Sides are Four Dollars

Like Mean Girls, being popular comes with rules. No subsituting your potatoes for fruit cups (waitress denied Chris's mother), or sharing (unless you want to pay $2.00 a plate), and always, always wear pink on Fridays.

Calorie Counting is No Way to Live

Hamilton Family Diner

What a weekend! Chi and I just finished our first ballroom competition of the season (with mixed results) so, naturally, we were hungry. Guess what happened next? Yup, Chi plugged diner into the TomTom and we were off to Trenton. This gem (giving my verdict up early) is located on Nottingham Way just off of exit 63 on 295. We rolled in at around eight thirty at night and I honestly was unsure if it was open. It was a Saturday, the lights didn't seem to bright, there weren't too many cars in the parking lot, and at first I couldn't see anyone inside. The door was unlocked and we were seated at a booth near the front door.

More Chicken Salad than Anticipated

We were exhausted and I was in the need for something home made, fast, and fulfilling. I bounced between entrees for a while, "should I get the fish and chips or the chicken cordon bleu?" Then I saw that double decker sandwiches came with fries, slaw, a pickle, soup, and dessert for six bucks. Sold. They had chicken salad and I was all in. The fries were fried nicely and had a crispy exterior, and after a long day I was happy to know they had just been taken out of the fryer. The sandwich definitely stole the show on my plate. Besides the obvious chicken salad the sandwich was also packed with thick bacon and fresh crispy lettuce and tomato. For the chicken, think of a double scoop sized portion, that's how stuffed the sandwich was. I opted for rye bread without asking what my options were, but I'm sure the diner has the standard white and wheat bread as well. I was mostly impressed with the price of my meal since the chicken salad itself, although delicious, was not the best I've tasted. While the chicken taste was there, the texture of the salad was very pasty, and I'm from the school of chunky chicken salad. Because of the pastiness, I couldn't help being suspicious of how much my chicken salad was actually chicken and not filler. I'll let you go and get back to me with your opinion.

Chocolate Ice Cream, We Think

As for dessert, the selection is nothing to brag about. Just a couple of weeks ago, Chi and I were at the Club Diner on the Black Horse Pike and we had pie included on our ticket price! Pie! This time, our options were pudding, jell-o, and ice cream. Wahh Wahh Wahhhh. I went with chocolate ice cream. It was weird, there was something off about it, like it was aged ice cream with possible freezer burn. I ate half of  mine, but if it wasn't for the long weekend I'm sure I would have only given it a taste.

Sleepy Sleepy Sleepy

I know we have been to a sleepy diner before (see our Red Oak Diner and Bakery post) but this one was truly sad. Considering the fact that it was prime-time dinner time on a Saturday night when we visited, there was no one there. For the duration of our 45-minute meal nobody came. Three employees occupied the forlorn (but clean) space, checking their phones, taking multiple smoke breaks and eating food they created for themselves. The one who waited on us was friendly enough, and was kind enough to brew us fresh coffee...but I assume only because there was none already made. I always worry about the financial stability of diners, and I would be more sympathetic to the Hamilton Family Diner if it wasn't for the fact that they looked as if they couldn't care less.

Cream of Broccoli

It's a shame because the quality of their food is actually better than average, despite their appearance. Both Chris and I opted for the soup option of our meals, and we both picked cream of broccoli which seemed like the healthy option. Turns out it was pretty tasty too! Temperature wise, it was kind of complacently warm, but it was truly creamy and hearty, like a chowder should be, with a healthy amount of broccoli bits.

Somewhere Beneath the Chips is Fish

I convinced Chris to let me have the fish and chips, and I'm really thankful he did. This was the flakiest, softest fried-fish I've ever tasted. It fell apart like tongue-burning butter, almost like a halibut would as opposed to the typical cod. I waited for a chance to ask someone about it, but our waitress made herself virtually unavailable until I lost interest. I hear that this is how the West Coast does fish and chips, but I need someone to confirm this. Delicious, hot, and with a good amount on the plate, I really couldn't ask for more. The tartar sauce was strange, almost as if it had been over-dressed with extra dill, perhaps a hint of mint, and ultimately distracting to the fish rather than enhancing.


Also, note that they have a very unoriginal and limited scope on the idea of 'sides'. I was asked what sides I wanted and before I could really reply, our waitress suggested that I just get double-fries. Yummy, but you know, not what I need with a meal that already, by default, consists of half a plate of them. I later found out through evesdropping that their sides for the night were broccoli, carrots, or mixed veggies. Um, yeah...not so much.

Additional notes:
I had half of my sandwich as leftover two days later, and it was still delicious. The exterior looks like a Christmas tree. Seriously.

Fa la la la la, la la la la

Stratford Diner

Finding ourselves with a free Saturday morning (less a product of our eased schedules and more of our internal clocks not letting us sleep in on the weekends), Chris and I decided to head to see if the Stratford Diner could settle our rumbling tummies. It’s located in Stratford on the White Horse Pike (Route 30).

I bought a paper and sat down as I listened to other patrons chat lively about some cat with two faces that was in the Courier Post (a local Cherry Hill-based publication). Our warm waitress soon greeted us and our dining experience begun!

"Two Eggs" Special

As far as straightforward breakfast experiences go, I think this was pretty much a standard to which others could be judged. I remember thinking, like Goldilocks, this coffee is not too hot, and it’s not too cold! Besides being just a smidge pricey compared to other Philadelphia suburb diners (except for maybe Ponzios), their options were pretty standard. I opted to go big or go home, ordering their “Two Eggs” special: 2 eggs (over medium), toast, hash browns (well-done) and then a short stack of their advertised pumpkin hotcakes. Tis the season, you know. My eggs weren’t done enough, which is a common problem. I suppose each cook in the back must have some personal perception of when an egg is truly at its different stages…I want to take a survey with pictures, a la “Classify these eggs! Easy, Medium, or Hard?”

Pumpkin Hot Cakes

My pieces of toast were well buttered and not too toasted, as I find can be a problem when you request wheat. My hash browns were decent, but not quite texturally satisfying or buttery enough to write home about. And lastly, I tackled my pumpkin hotcakes. I’m not a fan of pancakes, but I am of pumpkin, so I went into it really wanting some pumpkin flavor to shine through. It didn’t strike me as especially flavorful, until I tried Chris’s regular buttermilk pancakes for comparison. I definitely preferred mine, even if it didn’t initially strike me as tasty.

While I could say I had a good meal, I can’t quite say it was particularly memorable or enjoyable. Just that it was very satisfactory, and that I would go back. Perhaps my meal was dampened by a family sitting directly behind me that were awing and ga-ga goo-goo-ing over a baby boy dressed in all Phillies gear and being bounced around to various waitresses, including ours.

"Hungry Man" Special

Chi's meal might have been satisfactory, but mine was just below satisfactory. The real highlight of the experience (for me) was our waitress who (yes, she did get distracted by a baby) took the initiative to save me a couple of bucks. I went with my standard as well (it was the morning) and ordered two eggs over medium, home fries (no with onion, green pepper, and American cheese), and sausage. Go big or go home was apparently the mantra of the morning so I ordered a short stack of hot cakes as well. What can I say? I was craving them. What I didn't notice was that there was a "Hungry Man" breakfast entree, which was everything I ordered, plus coffee, and sans coffee. She walked back to the table after recalling the menu and let me know of the price difference. I took her suggestion and she ended up keeping two dollars in my pocket.

Buttermilk Hot Cakes

Let me start with the hot cakes. Unfortunately these three (beautiful) hot cakes were a bit on the overcooked, chewy side. They ended up being too dense with no fluffiness to support them. Needless to say they were a letdown and after taking a bite of Chi's pumpkin hot cakes I realized how much better hers were. In comparison, mine were bland. My eggs seemed to come out a little more well done than Chi's even though I also ordered mine medium. The second letdown of the meal was my sausages and bacon. It's hard to really describe the taste of the sausage, sausage-y I suppose, but it had a sour background that was just out of place. I ended up only taking one bite of the second link and decided I couldn't finish. The bacon definitely tasted better but it was in between being crispy and chewy and ended up with a hard rubber texture. The home fries were good, but like stated above, there seemed to be a textural issue. They came out extra crispy in some places making them a little hard to eat. However, I still recommend throwing the onion, pepper, and cheese into your home fries from now on.

Interior

Someone remind us to come back here sooner rather than later, otherwise it may call into that awkward, likeable but not desirable realm of restaurants a.k.a. the friend-zone of diners.

In other news, GO PHILLIES!

Club Diner

Front door of Club Diner

Post ballroom practice munchies call for wholesome food less than five minutes away. In the only state you can do this in, Chi and I typed "diner" into the GPS and sure enough there were seven diners within a three mile range. We picked the closest one, Club Diner, located on the Black Horse Pike in Bellmawr, NJ. We were coming down West Browning Avenue, about to make a left onto Route168, and we asked at the same time, "where is this place?" We were answered quickly when, around the corner of an art store, Club Diner's red, glowing, neon lights suddenly appeared.

Chicken Escarole Soup

Before the meal we were handed a giant basket of bread that appeared to have sourdough and a sourdough-pumpernickel swirl bread. I loved the sourdough-pumpernickel myself and Club Diner does a very nice job of combining the two bold flavors. And surprise, surprise! home made, super dense, sweet banana bread was hiding at the bottom of the basket, delicious.  Also, as an appetizer I ordered the chicken escarole soup. This salty and savory soup was a great way to start the meal. It had nice big chicken meatballs full of flavor and texture as well as diced pieces of white meat.

Wanting to try something new, I originally thought I would order a roast beef sandwich to see how it compared to the roast beef deli meet sold at Wegmans, but then I saw ravioli and meatballs and my stomach ended up deciding for me. Evidently I didn't know that cheese ravioli and meatballs is weird, but everyone (my girlfriend and parents) informed me that it's strange (I mean come on, Chef Boyardee has meet ravioli with meatballs in a can, but Boyardee isn't an expert on Italian cuisine, so that's that). Regardless of how different this plate selection was (by the way, you have an option between meatballs and Italian sausage. I think I made the right choice) it had some high points even though the plating was strange. 

Ravioli and Meatballs

You know how sometimes a dish can get boring as you keep eating it because it's a lot of the same thing? Well, the Ricotta cheese filling was very creamy and even nearing the end of the plate the dish never became repetitive. The pasta sauce was unique. I can't quite place my finger on whether it's homemade or just altered sauce from a can, but it had a nice sweetness and thick, not chunky, consistency. The meatballs were sadly the low point of the meal (maybe I'll do Italian sausage if I ever try it again). My best guess is that it was an all beef meatball (onions and other spices in the blend) that was moist like a meatball should be, but it was soft and mushy and had a downright strange texture to it (they should set their beef grinder to the same setting as their chicken grinder).

Blueberry Pie with Whipped Cream

Dessert came with the meal (awesome) and after our waitress (who was wonderful) listed off all the different pies they had, I decided on blueberry almost immediately. She asked if I wanted whipped cream on mine. I said yes. The pie wasn't exactly what I expected. The crust had a similar taste to a palmier and it was thin, soft, and almost had a slight chewiness. At first it was off putting but I grew to like it as I kept eating. The blueberry filling was kind of crazy. The whole reason I ordered blueberry pie was because I wanted some tartness to go along with the sweetness. This thing was all sweet, like blue sugar. I understand how people could really love this pie, but if you have a fruit that can have different flavor levels, then the pie should reflect that.

Outside

Inside

If there are different types of diners I think it would be reasonable to say that at least aesthetically, there are two kinds: the dreary, bordering on dirty diner, and the (kind of) trashy, flashy kind of diner. I think Club Diner wants to be the second kind (see pictures) with its red neon cutting through the black of the night and its digital jumbo-tron flashing advertisements and specials.


Given this, I was amused by the simplicity of the inside and the simplicity of the man sitting next to us who was talking about “a machine that puts bubbles into drinks”. Well sir, do you mean…a soda machine?

As I eavesdropped, I surveyed the menu that I thought to be rather dinner-heavy, including a whole page full of $9.99 specials. I settled on the fried flounder after much hesitation about having fish again at a diner so soon after the Silver Coin debacle. But I decided to take a chance, especially since the Club Diner’s $9.99 special comes with:

1 entrée

1 soup du jour or 1 salad

2 vegetable sides (they also had rice pilaf as an option)

1 dessert (they have a bakery on site)

I was charmed by this deal, especially since it cost me $11.00 earlier in the day for a grilled cheese sandwich and some chips in Philadelphia. I opted for the salad (because the veggie soup option was split pea) and soon enough presented to me was The Wettest Salad Ever. It was not soggy at all, nor were the greens especially juicy. It was physically wet. It’s like they washed the iceberg and cherry tomatoes proceed to throw it on my plate without so much as waiting for it to drip excess water away or heaven-forbid put it through a colander or salad spinner.  I was literary eating water, and not in the way that lettuce is water anyways. However, having been the one to find the hidden pieces of banana bread in our (extensive) bread basket (with whipped butter) I was quickly appeased.

Broccoli and Potatoes

Fried Flounder

My fish was surprisingly well-thought out. It was fried, but not so much that it lost the fish’s natural tenderness. The filet was a good size and the fish itself was fresh tasting and flaky. My sides of baked potato and broccoli were almost on par with the fish. My baked potato would have delicious if there was some fluffing of the actual starch to make it easier to eat, particularly since it came out sans toppings and still in its foil casing. My broccoli was the biggest disappointment of the night, as it came out in HUGE stalks and was chewy. But I should point that this probably stemmed from the fact that broccoli is the veggie I eat the most and the fact that my dinner knife was incredibly dull and could barely saw through it.

I chose pumpkin pie as my desert since I make it point to go out of my way to eat pumpkin in the fall. I am OBSESSED with pumpkin spiced lattes and pumpkin muffins, by the way. The waitress had said it was her favorite, and I can see why. The pie was sweet, but still flavorful with notes of different spices. The actual filling was not too dense or goopy as pumpkin pie can start to separate after a while. With the whipped cream on top it was the perfect not-too-unhealthy finish. Overall it was a good meal at a very good $9.99.

Pumpkin Pie with Chris in the Background

Caffe Aldo Lamberti

This is our second Silver Spoon restaurant to be featured and I've driven by it almost every day since May of this year. Caffe Aldo Lamberti is in Cherry Hill, NJ and sits on the corner of Rt. 70 and Grove St.

Let me preface this by saying that this restaurant from the outside looks so modern and (literally) shiny that I first mistook it years ago for a car dealership. In fact, because there is such an odd abundance of car dealerships in Cherry Hill, NJ, for a while afterwards out of the corner of my eye, I still thought that it could possibly be one. It’s located on a major highway that leads straight to Philadelphia, in a kind of hard-to-access area unless you’ve tried to get into its lot a few times.

This place has these two marquees that change weekly, sometimes daily, and always expressing some new item they’ve just received in the formula of adjective + fish + event = a reason to come try their food. For example, “Sweet Chilean Sea Bass freshly flown in, just in time for Prom”! Well, they probably didn’t market themselves quite that way for the prom crowd, but regardless, you get my drift.

I decided on a whim the Friday of my first week of work to celebrate and go. We had made a promise that we couldn’t review anymore diners until we reviewed a silver spoon, so this was perfect. We were somewhat out of place (not just because I had incorrectly told Chris that nice shorts were probably OK) but because we were younger than the average person in there by about 10-15 years- at least! It should be noted that we dined at 6:00 PM and almost everybody was at the bar that is outside, but features one side that is covered by the ceiling for those wanting to talk to their dates with less whooshing from cars flying down Route 70. I feel like our waiters noticed too, but among the three (3!) people that serviced us for those couple of hours we were definitely well taken care of- even if each side perceived the other to be…awkward.

For my main course I ordered off their Seasonal Menu (this was only after I turned down some of their specials which included a butterfish). I went with the Pan Seared Cape May Sea Scallops. It seemed more environmentally friendly to go with a more local selection than to eat a fish that was flown in from the Southeast Pacific (probably fresher, too). Our waiter complemented me on my selection and went to place our order. Chi and I then sat and waited for a while nibbling on the two types of bread that was brought to our table. The bread was served with home made (or at least home bottled) extra virgin olive oil. The olive oil certainly was different than anything I've ever bought from Wegmans. It had a fresh, cool quality to it, and for me, it set the tone for what the rest of the meal would be like; Caffe Aldo Lamberti tries to take the standard to the next level. The other bread that was at our table had a tomato sauce on it, which essentially made it a bunch of pizza-sticks (not to detract from the complexity of the sauce). They were tangy and warm, and like the olive oil, fresh. It was the first time I have been served complementary bread before a meal that was more than bread.

Our (non-pizza) bread was pretty average, but I agree that our olive oil (or, “oo” as I’ll refer to it) was not. This was the first time I was ever given the whole bottle. It had high notes of what I can only imagine (in my limited oo palate) was citrus. It also came with a small dish of big green olives and made me wonder: Do real Italians eat their bread this way? Was this an attempt to be authentic, or was it truly so?

Did you know that good oo should be marketed like good wine? For example, on the bottle, it shouldn’t just say “Product of Italy” (because it you read more closely there’s a good chance that it was still bottled in the US), but it should clearly state from what olive farm/plantation in whatever city it came from.

Chris and I decided to be adventurous and essentially upgrade our usual order of calamari to their grilled octopus. We were taken back by how it was presented.

Grilled Octopus

We soon discovered that it was partially pre-disassembled for ease of consumption, which was good since it was very…fleshy. I had never tasted octopus that tasted so much like meat before. It was delicious but slightly off-putting since I don’t eat meat. It was tender, with no taste of grimy ocean, or any of the general things that can turn people off. Well, that is unless you consider the fact that the suction cups on its legs still worked. (Chris tested them). Our only critique was that we wished it was crispier at the ends. Funny enough, this was the second time we had had grilled octopus within a week. The first was at Sapori, a delicious and rustic Italian restaurant in Collingswood where I had my “yay, I’m employed”-celebration dinner. I preferred Sapori’s, but I suspect Chris enjoyed this version more.

Pan Seared Sea Scallops

When the food came to the table I was still hungry and thank goodness thing since my plate consisted of five large scallops sitting on a dense bed of squid ink linguine with oil, garlic, and zesty red and yellow tomatoes. The scallops were the slightest bit chewy even though they remained very tender. Their buttery flavor was easily the highlight of the meal. Unfortunately the searing on the scallops was not uniform on every scallop. The ones that were more seared seemed to be tenderer almost as though the less seared scallops were cooked longer at a lower temperature. I can comfortably give the scallops a very good rating, but certainly not great. This was my first time having squid ink linguine and I wasn't lying when I said it was dense. It started to fill me up right away which was a shame since the meal was going in a wonderful direction. The squid ink gave the pasta an earthy, rich flavor (I'm sure the oil contributed to that as well), but kept its raw pasta flavor while enhancing the depth of the meal. With all the sweet, wholesome notes on the plate, the garlic and tomatoes gave the dish the zip it needed. The tomatoes were bright and summery and the garlic was not cooked to sweetness and left very pure.

Sweet Potato Gnocchi

I ordered the sweet potato gnocchi after much debate over what entre to choose. I had originally wanted the catch-of-the-day risotto, but upon hearing that it was a Dover sole, and not wanting to purchase something without a price, I picked the gnocchi. I love the stuff and almost always gravitate towards it when eating Italian. (Side note: for great, fresh, hand-made gnocchi in the area, head to Spasso’s in Old City, Philadelphia). It sounded like a genius and whimsical take on a normal gnocchi, and I looked forward to the contrast between a likely truffle/garlic sauce and the sweetness. While there was a contrast, and the sauce and mushrooms ended up being delicious as expected, the gnocchi itself was disappointing…but the kind of disappointing that just creeps up on you. My first bite was fine, although I immediately noticed there was a slick, oily coating that seemed to not release the potato inside. A further bite confirmed my suspicion that this gnocchi wasn’t going to be satisfyingly smushable in my mouth and was (somehow) neither fluffy nor dense. It occurred to me that for it being what it was, that it wasn’t especially sweet-potato-y.

Tiramisu

The dessert continued the theme of the restaurant. We opted for the tiramisu. We were surprised when the dish came out. The best way to describe it is an espresso soaked (soaked!) lady finger, surrounded in a mascarpone-whipped cream, dusted with espresso powder, topped with a halved strawberry, and finished off with a lady finger sticking out askew of it all. Oh, it also came in a squat martini/dessert glass, a whimsical approach on an Italian classic. The cream was the first aspect of the dessert we encountered. It was incredibly light, but at the same time it was runny (though I have a theory of why that might be). The show stopper of the dessert was what the cream was surrounding. The soaked ladyfinger in the middle was gushing with flavor. It was sweet and rich and light all at the same time. I believe the total liquid content of the dessert accounted for a runny whipped cream. The actual burst of flavor and liquid that came from the center of the tiramisu not only made the dessert delicious but also fun to eat. The ladyfinger pointing out the top was fun for dipping but in comparison to the rest, it might have well been only garnishing.

Additional notes: Don't be in a rush. There will be a wait between the courses but just enjoy the atmosphere while you watch the forty-somethings get drunk off Shiraz and Pinot Grigio during their happy hour. I took home my dish hoping that my general craving for heavy, starchy foods would leave me reheating it and giving it another chance the next day but when Chris’s mother was cleaning out the fridge a week later, I made no attempt to save it. Also, their wineries looked impressive (boasting 800 wines!!) and so I'll definitely have to come back if to do nothing else but take a tour of their selection.

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.

Silver Coin Diner

The decision to stop in the Silver Coin Diner seemed to be a no-brainer. Its big, gaudy sign and excess chrome shone out like the bat-signal after a particularly rural stretch of the White Horse Pike. This was the first "silver" diner that we visited and I think that raised our expectations. The fact that it's located halfway between Philadelphia and Atlantic City on a main Jersey Shore road certainly can't hurt them either. By just going off location and external looks is enough to bring anyone into their restaurant on a hungry one hour drive. I put my foot on the break and made a right hand turn into their parking lot on that blistering summer day unaware of what would come next.

Eggs Benedict

Oh, the Hollandaise! So much Hollandaise Sauce, everywhere. But, let me focus on (as stuff Chef Spike would say) the "good stuff," first. My Eggs Benedict was (after some wiki research) pretty standard. Two English muffin halves topped with ham, poached eggs, and, yes, Hollandaise Sauce. I made this decision after about three minutes of reviewing their menu. I was curious, I was bold, and unfortunately I think I made a mistake. First of all the Hallandaise was rich; super rich, like a "suped-up" melted hard-boiled egg yolk. So, at least it had flavor, but that also means the entire plate, sans the potato, was that same yolk flavor (also the same yolk yellow). I was, however, impressed by the ham portion. Their ham slabs were cut thick, and now as I'm thinking about it, maybe their Eggs Benedict theory is to go big or go home. The poached eggs topping the ham where cooked as well as any other poached egg I've had, but the yolk inside added to the super yolkiness of everything else. I knew I was in over my head at that point. Finally we get to the sad English muffins on the very bottom. They kept soaking up my sauce throughout the meal and remained soggy and chewy at the same time. I'm glad I tried it, but I'm sure there are better versions elsewhere. My potatoes were undercooked. Sigh.

It really is a shame that my experience at what appears to be a landmark diner was disappointing. I'll go back at least once more with the hope that what I was served was the exception. Maybe a classic sandwich will redeem them, but it could prove that all the chrome in the world can't cover up their mediocre food.

Fried Eggplant

As for my part, I suppose I should preface it by saying it's not like you readers would ever go and order Mahi Mahi from a diner, but then again...in act of desperation like myself, you may have a lapse of judgement. My reasoning was that I wanted something that would 'fill me up not fill me out' because Chris and I were on our way to a Salsa event. I figured that the Mahi Mahi - a steaky fish - would probably be cooked thoroughly and that even if it was mediocre, there would be a side of delicious mango salsa and fresh veggies to go with me. The amount of veggies if you measured it would have been about half a cup and the mango tasted nothing like mango which leads me to the somewhat related question: Do they even make canned mango?! It came with a side of fried eggplant which I think I took one bite of and left it alone. All batter; no substance. If Chris's potatoes were underdone, then the clearly tried to compensate with my side.

Mahi Mahi with Mango Salsa

The fish was incredibly, incredibly overcooked to the point that the ends of the cut had kind of created that hard seal that wouldn't let the rest of the meat and what little juice was in there come out when I pressed down with my fork and knife. Parts of it were fine, and other parts just seemed like a waste of using an imported (and generally un-eco-friendly) fish. But I will say that it never tasted muddy or smelled 'fishy' and it was only about 10 dollars. Overall, not a terrible choice for the dinner diner that wants something on the healthier side. I think ordering it with light-to-no mango sauce (generic, kind of sweet, kind of sour) and trying to customize how long you'd like it to cook would improve the dish. But then, of course, you run the risk of these instructions not being executed well since it's not a normal seafood restaurant.

If there was ever a peanut gallery at a diner that we've experienced so far, it was at this place. The waitresses here, while good at providing solid customer service to their tables, were so clique and chatty the moment they got away that at first it was endearing, but quickly turned annoying. One of them suddenly burst out into a cheer (from the waist up) that she used to do as a cheerleader in high school to amuse one the children that were running around.

Silver Coin Diner's interior

Considering that (a) the air conditioning was broken for the front half of the house where we sat, (b) we were kind of in a rush and (c) our terrible mis-adventures in food selection, maybe it was just circumstances that made us not enjoy this diner. (No, it's not you; it's me!) But, with about five more diners on this road and the bright and shiny Galloway diner just a few minutes away, I see no reason to come back.