Another diner only about 20 minutes from me is the Diamond Diner (Hainesport). Located in Hainesport, NJ, you can’t miss the giant diamond on top. It’s not located off the highway, and you have to take a famous NJ left hand turn to get there. Pan Handle turns aren’t my reasoning for not want to go back though.
Diamond Diner Atmosphere: B
The outside of the Diamond Diner is that of a regular NJ diner. It’s big, shiny, and metallic with a giant Diamond on top. It was more or less a typical diner you would expect.
It had a few various rooms and was pretty crowded. There is a full-length bar, as well as plenty of booths and tables at the Diamond Diner. When somewhere is crowded, it must be good, right?
Diamond Diner Coffee: B
The coffee at the Diamond Diner was good. I needed a few refills which were refilled to me. The coffee wasn’t especially good or bad. It was average, and I could probably brew some as well.
Diamond Diner Food: B
One thing I do like about this diner is they have an all you can eat salad bar with soup. This sounds great on paper, unfortunately even though we went during peak time (isn’t 6-7 peak dinner time?) it wasn’t very well taken care of. I couldn’t find a lot of lettuce or vegetables. The other container of the salad bar filled over half was the olives. I am giving the benefit of the doubt that we just came on a bad day for the salad bar.
I had flounder and vegetables. The flounder was topped with butter, and there were plenty of vegetables. Butter makes everything better, so I wouldn’t say it was a bad meal. It was the greasy spoon type of diner you hear about. The meal portions were also huge.
Diamond Diner Price: $$
For the amount of food, we had (theoretically unlimited salad and soup) for $15.
Diamond Diner (Hainesport) Overall rating: C
Overall Thoughts/Summary of the Diamond Diner (Hainesport):
I might go back at another time, but honestly, there are better diners close to me so I probably won’t unless someone wants to go there. For me to have had a better experience, I would have wanted a stocked salad bar and trying a different meal. The price was good for the amount of food.
Questions for you:
Do you usually order soup or salad?
What time do you eat dinner?
I thought 5:30-7:30, but apparently, some people eat dinner at 8 or 9. I guess I’m old. I usually eat dinner between 5:30-6:30.
I love salad bars! They are my favorites! But not a huge fan of soup it seems to be either hit or miss, I prefer to make my soup at home. I think peak dinner hours are between 5:30-6:30 lol that is when I usually eat dinner!
Salad all the way. And also, we both ate dinner growing up at 5:30 or 6, but now that I coach until 7, we don’t end up eating until like 7:30.
Girl, these diner posts are making me hungry! And if I don’t get another chance, good luck tomorrow (not that you need it)!
Well, it’s slim pickings for vegans over here, so I guess I’d have to go for a soup/salad to have any chance of getting something to eat!
I tend to eat dinner either at 8:00 if I don’t have a late gym class, or 9:00 if there are more classes I’m doing…it’s supposed to be much better for digestion to eat earlier though! I’d throw up in the classes if I ate beforehand…especially Body Attack. I tried that once and never, ever again.
xxx
I tend to stay away from diners except for breakfast foods, generally. So I don’t know about timing – but definitely agree that you have to watch the time for salad bars (and buffets in general). My older son and I went out for dinner last night to TGIFridays, got there 6PM no wait, left just after 7 and there was a mob waiting. So I guess peak there is around 7PM 🙂
When I saw the town name it was immediately familiar, so I had to look it up – my brother lives in Princeton and my wife’s sister used to live in Sewell and teach in Clayton (now live in TX) so when we went between we’d have passed right by there. 🙂
Anytime after 5:30 p.m. is dinnertime for me. Since I go to bed early, I eat dinner early. That makes sense, right? Most folks here eat later–like after 7:30 p.m. That’s *so* late!
Butter DOES make everything taste better- although to be honest, I’ve never had it simply on fish- I usually use a spice rub or marinade. My typical dinner time is 7.30…pretty late considering I get up at 6 on weekdays but I think my body is trained to be hungry then. Weird!
I order salad often at restaurants. In fact, I’d say 8 times out of 10, I order a salad or if the meal comes with a side, I get the salad. I really like restaurant salads… I make my own salads of course but nothing is as good as one at a restaurant to me, provided they get the ratio of greens to toppings right. Most of the ones here do, fortunately.
I usually eat dinner around 6-6:30ish unless I run in the evening, then it is obviously later. And you know I love diner food…
I do order soup and salad out on occasion.
I eat dinner around 7 because I get off at 5pm and work out after work. I don’t prefer to eat that late, but I am so not a morning person and can’t work out before work!
Fantastic!
I’ll flip-flop on the salad or soup; I guess it depends on what the soup offered is,and what my main dish is. If it’s particularly heavy, I’ll get the salad.
Shoot, I’d go at 5:30-7:30pm, too! And I am old. *le sigh*
We usually eat around 7:30, but mainly because of my job. I prefer 6ish!
I’m enjoying the diner reviews, even though the chances are extremely small that I would ever visit any of the ones you’re talking about! I always thought diners just served burgers, fries etc – I’m surprised by the variations in NJ!
Dining out here is very different to dining out in the states, I think meals tend to come with lots more veggies here. It’s also confusing because our courses are entree, main, dessert – rather than starter, entree, dessert! I order soup if it was the most appetizing starter/entree, and I would always choose steamed veggies instead of a salad as a side dish.
I think peak times for eating out is 7pm here. We would usually eat earlier than that ourselves though.
I love salad bars but usually I find they aren’t well managed which is annoying. As someone who worked in restaurants for 10 years… peak dinner times vary. During the week it’s usually a little earlier (5:30-7) but on weekends peak time is actually closer to 7-8 and there were nights we would still get crowds for dinner after 9 pm.
I work until 6:30/7 most days unfortunately and then usually do a second workout at night (usually split my run and lifting between 2 workouts) so dinner isn’t until 8-9 usually. And I like to go to bed 10ish so I am usually going to bed right after. I would prefer earlier but just the way it works out. I feel like that is pretty typical for here in the city.
I love salad so I will always want one, soup not as much.