Legacy Diner

The Legacy Diner rests on the White Horse Pike in Audubon, NJ. The building looks relatively modern for a diner, and from the outside everything looked like it would be neat and tidy. Eating here was a coin flip between the Legacy and Oaklyn diner, so hopefully we'll check out the latter very soon.

The inside of the building was warm and clean and it got my hopes up for a warm, comforting meal. After we were apathetically seated by the hostess, we were waited on by another woman who seemed to be in a hurry. Chi and I both felt rushed when we were asked "what will you have this morning?" less than a minute after we had picked up the menus. Granted, I'm sure there are locals that don't need the menu, but I'm here to be thorough. We told her we needed another few minutes two more times after the first time, and she finally gave us some peace and quiet to decide on our breakfasts.

Legacy Sampler

To be dramatic, my breakfast was tumultuous. I didn't suffer any injury or anything like that, but I was confused about what had just happened when I picked up the check. The eggs were very in between over medium and over easy. I ordered over medium and the whites came out to perfection; however, the yolks were extraordinarily runny and hardly warm. Despite the cool eggs, they tasted very fresh and had great flavor, so I don't want to complain too much there. The bacon was cheap and lean. I think I speak for a lot of people when I say a high fat content in bacon comes with the territory of being high quality. The lack of fat on the bacon left them a little bland difficult to cook. Impressively, though, they rendered what fat was there into chewy deliciousness that countered the crispy strips quite well. I chalk the bacon up as a success. The real let down of the breakfast was the sausage. The Legacy is an establishment that favors the fat links, and I've had some pretty good fat links. They Legacy's links were mushy, oily, had a thin casing, they were bland, and they were boring. I hate to be so harsh, but I struggled to eat them. The gold medal winner on my plate was the pancakes. I saved them for last and my first bite was full of bliss. They were both salty and sweet. They were light yet doughy, and they were cooked to a perfect golden, brown color. Some of the best pancakes I've ever eaten. If you go, get the pancakes.

----

Readers of Two Spoons will know that I tend to be very skeptical of diners that have epic names that imply some sort of superiority. Obviously, diners can’t be named “The Mediocre Diner” or “The 32^nd best Diner in this County”. Sometimes, I feel as if they lose sight of what they were in their prime. Most diners are family opened/operated, but as reins are passed through generations, does the passion get diluted?

Le Bakery

For starters, the Legacy Diner is a little difficult to get to. It’s easily findable on Google Maps or a GPS, but once you get there parking is a little bit difficult (and dangerous) as the diner pours directly into/from the White Horse Pike. I imagine that this is good for business with the White Horse Pike being the important thoroughfare that it is, and I feel that the fast and furious customer is what the staff at the Legacy Diner have come to expect. The crew was decidedly angsty as we weren’t greeted immediately or enthusiastically when we entered and the lady who seated us just dropped our menus at the table instead of handing us our menus after we sat. The busser was still cleaning when we were seated, and the 6 dollar tip from the table before us still lay glaringly awkward back at us.

It seems to be a new diner, clean with modern appliances and a more open-dining feel.  Upon looking at their website, I’ve discovered that they’ve been open for a little over 20 years- which in my eyes, for a NJ Diner, is pretty young. (Side Note: They do seem to have a nice, functioning, and well-maintained website!) The bakery was small, but well stocked with the typical oversized pastries, cookies, and Sesame-themed cupcakes- a phenomenon that I still don’t understand. There were even long-stemmed chocolate-covered strawberries offered.

Mediterranean Omelette

Our waitress was rush-y, and I ended up settling the Mediterranean Omelette- just adventurous enough to see if I could taste the “fresh ingredients” that they so proudly tote. Immediately, I could taste that there was too much olive presence, which I feared, but didn’t realize to what extent it would be actualized. The amount of olives was generous, but it was more the overwhelming smell/flavor of olive that transferred through the whole omelette that took away from the experience of the spinach, tomato and onions that were actually well-cooked and did, in fact, taste fresh.  The home fries that came with it were well-cooked (with lots of butter?) but poorly seasoned with large chunks of burnt potato. When will diners realize that there is a standard of quality that should be expected with a potato, even if it’s just thrown on the grill and served as a side-dish? Overall, I would say that the best part of the meal was that it came out fast and hot-which I suppose means that their impression of ‘get them in, get them out’ stays intact. Also, it was relatively cheap.

What is the legacy of the Legacy Diner with this type of business model? Or, did we just catch them on an off day?