Metro Diner

Check out these swivel chairs at the bar! 

The Metro Diner in Brooklawn, New Jersey seems to exist at the crossroads of traditional (Italian) diner and modern Americana eatery. It looks like a fortress from the outside, with multiple parking lots and (faux) stone walls. It reminds me of mega-diner Ponzios in Cherry Hill. The place was all spruced up for the holidays with Christmas-y window art, garland, and a white Xmas tree in the foyer.

The attention to visual detail doesn't stop there. This place is what I could call a diner deluxe with (what I assume is) a type of closed circuit tv screen at each booth as well as several big screen televisions mounted on the walls. It is one of the few diners that look like they spent a lot of time thinking about the interior design of things and have kept things clean in the 3 years they've been open. AND, the entire place is a wifi hot spot! This being said...they seem to have one advert on their menu upside down...

They have giant menus with plenty of inserts. It looks like they've had a hard time editing their items. Part of it includes a couple pages of specials as well as a 'light' menu with items ranging from baked lamb to swordfish. Most specials seem to range around the $9.99 area.

First came the calamari that we ordered. It was battered in onion-ring batter, so it was thick and shell-like. The squid itself was chewy, but fresh tasking. The marinara that was provided was a little watery and lacked acidity to balance out the salted calamari.


I ordered the crab cake special that came with the freshest salad I've ever had at a diner. However, I should really start secret santa-ing these places with some salad spinners because people keep giving me drenched greens. Anyways, once I got past the water, the lettuce was crisp and the tomatoes were sweet, despite the fact that they're not in season anymore.


My entree itself was actually surprisingly good. They gave me more than two (!) and despite the fact that they were a little oily, they were pretty rich in flavor. The cakes seemed to be comprised of a decent ratio of filler:crab and the crab was combo of both jump lump and claw. I actually found a piece of shell in mine (always just my luck), but because I enjoyed my meal, I just let it go.

I went for the double potato sides because I love potatoes and excess. My mashed potatoes were delicious, creamy and steaming hot. My rosemary potatoes were the grossest rendition of (roasted?) potatoes I've ever had. Super duper oily, chewy, and cold- a disappointing and stark contrast to the rest of the food.

Overall a fun, but oily, meal with a higher than average flavors. Between the food and being diligent about refilling my water (and eventually giving us a carafe), I would definitely come back again and try something else.

With the super-diner vibe that Metro Diner was giving off, I was compelled to try something a little out of the ordinary. I don't usually have cheese steaks outside of Philly, but they had a Buffalo Chicken Cheese Steak and I was curious to see what this place could do. Reflecting back, I now realize how ridiculous the name "Buffalo Chicken Cheese Steak" actually is. There's no steak and none of the ingredients, besides the roll, are the same as what is on a regular cheese steak. Take a regular chicken cheese steak for example, that name is fine because if you were to substitute steak back in for the chicken you would be back at a regular cheese steak. However, if you put steak into a Buffalo Chicken Cheese Steak, you would end up with a buffalo steak sandwich. Buffalo Chicken Cheese Steaks should, from now on, be called Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches.

Now that I have that out of my system, the sandwich was tasty. The buffalo sauce was medium heat and I don't think it would be unbearable for any person. The blue cheese sauce that they put on the bread, not over the buffalo chicken, was not overpowering, which is always a fear when blue cheese is involved. I also applaud Metro Diner for providing me with a solid roll. A good roll prevents the sandwich from being a messy, fall-apart, greasy, heap of food and instead, keeps your hands clean and the filling between the bread. The Metro does need to fill the delicious roll, though. The picture shows the lack of filling in proportion to the amount of bread given. The fries (which cost extra!) where pretty delicious I must admit. They don't salt them for you, but they're cooked perfectly. I tried to bites of the coleslaw and was not impressed. It was more like more soup and less like slaw.

Christopher

Authors' note: This entry marks our first in our 'Silver Spoon' entries- the restaurants we visit and review that are notably higher scale than our usual diner go-tos. Who says that NJ doesn't have fine dining? Who says Philadelphia is a terrible food city? 

Located in a quiet strip mall on Kressen Road in Chris's hometown of Cherry Hill, is the appropriately named Christopher restaurant. With the spotlight on their famous crab cakes, the restaurant focuses on three areas- seafood, steak (angus, certified) and pasta. The menu is no frou-frou with those as the only options. The decor, at least on the side where Chris and I were seated was also succinct as we pull up and see (or not see) that all of the curtains were let down and we could not even hope to glimpse inside. Intimidated, we walk in and are eventually greeted by a nice man who would end up being our host, our waiter, and then the floor busser.

I ordered their 'famous' crab cakes. All I can say is that I'm not sure why they're famous, because they weren't delicious and after two weeks I can barely remember any good quality about them. The crab pieces themselves were not large, and there wasn't a good crisp on the crusts. It was very soft, and eventually mushy and boring. My potato on the side frankly was more exciting- but then again what's not to love about twice-baked potato? It's difficult for me to find a vegetarian version of anything multiply-baked and I enjoyed the option. The portion was small, but not unexpectedly so.

Our busy waiter rushed over to our table after giving us a few minutes to look over the menu and we ordered our starter: fried calamari (this seems to be our bread and butter for appetizers, besides the complementary bread and butter). I need to begin with a compliment for our starter. It might have been the best cooked calamari I've been served. The outside of the rings were feather light, not very greasy, and even the rings on the bottom were crispy all the way around. The inside was, figuratively, like butter, and almost as rich. The one problem with the dish, however, was the seasoning. It was predominately salt. Actually, salt was the only thing I really tasted. Then again, that's the only downside the dish had. The marinara sauce that it came with was fresh and cut the saltiness back. When thinking about the plate as a whole instead of nit-picking, it was delightful.

For my main dish I had the "Filet Mignon With Fresh Grilled Shrimp" for $28.95. I need to lay down that the best steak that I get on a semi-regular basis is the beef from a restaurant called Famer Brown's in Waterloo, NE. I judge most of my steak off of beef from Nebraska, simply because that's what I grew up with and I honestly believe it's the best. That being said, the steak at Christopher was good. It was tender all the way through, lightly seasoned, and the chef did a knockout job of letting the quality and natural flavor of the steak speak for itself. It was a refreshing piece of meat that was well rested and retained its juices nicely. I asked for it to be cooked medium-rare and it came out more on the medium side, but I'll count that as a minor oversight since I really don't think it affected the overall tenderness of the filet. Now, the real star of the show was the shrimp. These three little guys were...perfect. If nothing else, they were the best cooked and juiciest shrimp I have ever had. They made the super market shrimp cocktail rings taste like pink rubber bands. I'm looking forward to getting more shrimp the next time I visit. The meal also came with a double baked potato. This potato had a shadow cast over it in comparison with the rest of my entreé. The only thing I really liked about it was the sour cream note really came through and added some needed zest to the rest of the plate. God, that was some good shrimp.

Riding the high of Chris's meal, we decided to order dessert. I decided that we shouldn't penalize the whole experience just because I didn't particularly enjoy my crab cakes. To be fair, I consider myself a relatively picky eater when it comes to crab just because I've been blessed to live (and eat) in the Chesapeake area of Maryland and then the Jersey Shore where blue crabs abound. Anyways, our waiter brought us out our dessert options via representations-on-a-tray instead of a menu, which I've seen at some upscale restaurants. However, instead of the deserts being perfect plastic versions of themselves or freshly cut slices, these pieces had seemed to be sitting there all day. The fluffiness of the cakes were gone; their icing starting to lose their brightness and melting off the edges. However, the power of our waiters descriptive words broke through the somewhat unapetizing desert mirage and we decided to order the red-velvet cake - an all-time favorite of mine. Like the rest of meal, there were distinct ups and downs.

The frosting? Delicious. Truly a thoughtful blend of a tangy cheese and sugary goodness. There wasn't too much that overtook the cake, and it left me wishing I could run back to the kitchen and lick some off the KitchenAid mixer. As far as the cake, I feel as if Christopher was trying to pull the wool over my eyes. I have a pretty firm understanding about how a red velvet is constructed traditionally, and the chemical reactions involved with cocoa ultimately give the desert its deep rich red color. This cake was a bright pink at most, and tasted like a pound (albeit moist) cake that had food coloring.

Overall, what a strange place with many ups and downs. Having read many mixed reviews on it, I wished we were able to, in the end, make up our minds about it. It's not as bad as some haters make it out to be - no, we didn't see any rats, and the service was good- but nothing about it changed my life. Except for that shrimp. Since Christopher, no shrimp has compared.