The Diner

nmarge

Food OK shame about the service 7th March 2009

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Went to the Diner for Saturday breakfast. Food was pretty good, but the service let the place down - t-bag still in the cup; no free coffee re-fills despite advertising; one of our kids wanted a sausage sanwich so I ordered a side of toast and a side of sausage, but was told I couldn't do that???? Fairly expensive for waht you get too - £32 for family of 4 - wouldn't have speant much more at a top place like Roast in Borough Market.

CristinaA

Good ol' American grub 29th October 2008

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Classic American grub, in a classic American setting with a typical New York diner menu including all day breakfasts, Mexican dishes, American 'blue plates' and bottomless coffee. Although I wouldn't say it truley represents New york diners, it comes close and you're bound to have a good time.

foodbymark

Authentic American in East 13th September 2008

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Similar in decor to the Soho location, the Shoreditch Diner is a popular place for relatively cheap, authentic and sometimes fast American food. They have crammed in as many red leather 2 and 4 seater booths so tight you're almost rubbing knees with the person sitting opposite you. It's a tight squeeze in those 4 person booths as well. But it does have the feel of an authentic American diner without too tacky.

They serve a lot here, and the menu is comprehensive. Breakfast til 4pm, burgers, burritos, salads etc. This is not haute cuisine. What you are really here for is a juicy and greasy burger in a basket. No less than 12 varieties including two vegetarian all served in the oval basket. The fries are also good here and a burger cannot go without onion rings. All the portions are generous.

Amongst my favourites here are the milkshakes which you can a shot of alcohol to make it a "hard" shake. Baileys, chocolate and hazelnut is perfect, as is chocolate and banana with a shot of baileys. You can also choose to add peanut butter or nutella (or both should you wish!).

All in all, the diner is a lively place with honest American diner food. It's fun and although service here has never been the fastest in my experience, it is certainly one of the best places to eat in the area if you are not looking to ruin your wallet.

gregwo

Great American Diner 3rd September 2008

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As an American in London, I've seen many bad imitations of American style restaurants and diners, and while The Diner in Shoreditch isn't necessarily a spot on American diner, it does capture something of the essence that is perfect for the Shoreditch crowd. The staff a extremely friendly, laid back and helpful and the food is very good. The atmposphere is about as laid back as you get in Shoreditch, though it can get a tad pretentious at times.

The milkshakes and burgers are great and it's a great place to go for a fun meal before a night out in Shoreditch. It's reasonably priced for the area and the decor is just right-- a hint at the 50s diner style without trying to recreate it in a tacky way.

chrisp

Authentically enjoyable 12th August 2008

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I'm sure there are many people who will disagree with me, but I've never considered a good burger to a particularly difficult thing to get right. As long as the lettuce isn't brown and the bread isn't stale, I'm generally happy with anything from a Burger King whopper to a hand-chopped ostrich fillet steak burger, as by the time you've smothered the thing in ketchup and pickles the quality of the actual meat isn't crucial. Which is often just as well. It therefore follows from this shaky proposition that I've had at least a decent, if not excellent, burger and chips in many an otherwise crappy pub or kebab shop up and down the country, and it is always my first choice on any menu when my faith in the standard of the other dishes is less than great. An omelette is another good "safe" bet - at the very least you'd hope they'd use fresh eggs.

But while the vast majority of chain pubs and kebab shops can make me a burger I would happily eat, it's only at the other end of the scale where I start having problems. The only times I've ever had a disappointing burger is when I've been paying through the nose for ludicrous "luxury" versions that do nothing more than waste premium ingredients and give you heartburn. The Boxwood Café's veal and foie gras burger costs a whacking £25 and is so stuffed with wobbly pink liver it's like eating a fist-sized lump of butter in between two slices of toasted bread. It's telling that when Heston Blumenthal attempted The Perfect Burger as part of his In Search Of Perfection series, the end product looked suspiciously like, well, a normal minced-meat beef burger. You can't fix something that wasn't really broken to begin with, at least not without spending weeks on end micro-measuring the width of your tomato slices or aligning your meat fibres with ley lines.

So given the ability of nearly anywhere to make a decent burger, it's probably no surprise that The Diner, in Shoreditch, being a trendily authentic recreation of a Golden-Era American diner, served me a very decent burger indeed. Golden brown toasted bread buns, crispy lettuce, a generous slice of sweet pickle, a coating of lovely bubbly melted cheese (Monterey Jack, ubiquitous in 'authentic' US diners) and of course a perfectly good slab of juicy minced beef. I liked the home made guacamole (nice and garlicky), the range of condiments on each table, and I also liked the way the burger was served open and you slapped the two halves together yourself before chowing it down - very satisfying. They also scored extra points for the skinny fries, which were as tasty as they were numerous.

The Diner is serving food which is honest and straightforward, not too expensive and brought to you with the standard excellent London service. It's nothing to get ecstatic about, but then again there's literally nothing not to like either. On the one hand, it's yet another place to get a decent burger for a reasonable amount of money. On the other hand, what's wrong with that?

DavidMuir

Just like NY 28th January 2008

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Most American Diners in London are an extremely poor replica of the real thing.

Essentially, the mistake comes from thinking that the authenticity comes from buying 50's furniture.

Instead, a great American diner has:

1) Great, brisk service

2) Comfort food by the plate load

3) Cheeseburgers where the grease runs down your chin

This diner has all three, and a great ecletic crowd.

An absolute diamond.