Englewood Diner: Review

April 3, 2016 newjerseyisntboring

Thanks to Yelp, I kind of knew what I was getting into before visiting the Englewood Diner for the first time. To preface why I decided to go anyway; I was in downtown Englewood seeing a show at the Bergen PAC, and since I haven’t been to too many diners in Bergen County so far, I decided to go to the closest one to the theater. My goal is to visit EVERY New Jersey diner, so warned or not I knew I’d be visiting eventually.

Having said that…

We walked into the diner at 6pm, a common time to eat dinner, and the place was empty. Not really a good sign. As we sat down, I uploaded a picture to my Instagram of the diner, same one seen above, and got a huge reaction. Comments like “Noooo!!!! So many better spots in Englewood!!” and “DON’T DO IT” were immediately sent. Now I was nervous, because typically my personal feeling is to always try things for myself, but this was not looking good.

I opened the menu and found some curious things listed. Items like the “Englewood Diner Burger” which has no description as to what it was, a “Tropical Health Salad” which listed cottage cheese, jello AND sherbet as it’s ingredients, and my favorite…the “Funky Panini”, also no description listed. Why was it so funky? My curiosity did not lead me to it, so in the end I may never know.

I decided to order something I considered safe, which was a chicken in a pita platter, which I “deluxed” to include a soup and Greek salad. This cost me about $10, so the price point wasn’t terrible.

My soup choices were minimal, they did not have any of my typical favorite soups, so I got a French onion soup which was actually included. It was the WORST French onion soup I’ve ever had.

First of all, it was served luke warm. Second of all, there were soggy croutons instead of bread. Third, it was 90% soggy croutons with very little soup.

My meal was not terrible, but it was also not great. The Greek salad was bland, the pita was cold, and the fries which were the best part of the meal, were soggy from the Greek Salad dressing which was separated by the sandwich so I don’t even know how that happened.

I HATE bad mouthing a business, but this was hands down the worst diner experience I’ve had. I’ve reviewed over 100 diners and I’m always fair, but this was unacceptable. Someone needs to come in and help this diner out. I don’t want it to close, I support local family run businesses, but this one badly needs a makeover. Between the outdated decor and the food being awful, I can guarantee you won’t see my face there ever again.

Sigh. It’s heartbreaking.

Apologies to those to swear by this diner, but I am not one of you.