Marilyn's 60's Diner — Local services in Kou-Kamma Local Municipality

I've never had such an awful experience. Worst food I've ever ordered.

We was a family of 5 and all of us had some complaints about our meals.

Meal 1: (Honey Basket Wings. With Ice tea. ) Firstly the Wings never even came in any basket. Second, the wings that came looked boiled and fried within seconds in some glaze. My mother is very particular about chicken so she sent it back to be fried alittle more. When she tasted it her face spoke a thousand words. I decided to taste it myself to see if maybe she was over reacting, and man that was horrible. It has a very strong "Microwave taste" and it was sour. Where on earth have you ever eaten sour honey. The BOS ice tea is not a favourite, much prefer Lipton but this is a preference.

Meal 2: ("Kids meal" Bacon macaroni and cheese, with kids chocolate milkshake.) Look, kids aren't really fussy and could actually eat anything and be happy. But seems even this was disliked by my little minion. Apparently she didn't like it. That all I know, I never tasted it myself.

Meal 3 and 4: (Pulled Pork burger) Well one person enjoyed it and the other person said his was cold in the middle, which tells me it was microwaved also. Apparently it still tasted nice but had a microwave taste. Really disappointing for a burger that costs R150 each.

Meal 5:( Lastly, my Southern Fried Chicken Burger, with pistachio milkshake) It was meh, at best. Over seasoned and in my opinion it has too much going on. The Bacon was just fat with a pinch of meat😂 like where the rest at? Anyway other than that it was okay. The pistachio milkshake is laughable. At R70 I honestly felt robbed. It was white, which I never knew pistachios are white and it had absolutely no pistachio taste. It tasted like vanilla but with something else which I don't know. It never tasted bad just not like what I ordered.

The atmosphere is okay, they don't play any music like how'd I imagine the olden diners with a jukebox. Maybe they'll read this review and start doing it. The building looks authentic and the mini Showroom with different memorabilia, with bikes and a car is honestly the only "cool" or "Pleasurable" thing about this place. R780 for a R250 experience. I don't want you to risk being unhappy like me, so either order something fried, come to take pictures of the showroom with is opened to anyone whether you a customer or not, else just don't come at all.

I recommend going to the farmstall up the road instead.

Edit: As per the owners reply, seems like He/She doesn't know there own restaurant, if you see the picture of the menu that "The Owner" posted it shows the prices I said was correct. Also shows no professionalism for such a bad experience was taken to heart. Glad I'll...

I usually don't rate two stars, so will explain.

First, I will mention the positives: this place has a great collection of antique and vintage motorcycles, cars, and other 1950/60's memorabilia. The design is spot on for an American diner. Although I did not order one, from the photos I can tell the shakes must be good.

Another positive is that the ownership clearly cares about its customers. Within a few hours of posting this rating the owner asked for further details. Many restaurants would just ignore critical feedback, but not Marilyn's.

Second, I will describe the issues that resulted in a two star rating. Both are what I would consider major flaws in the burgers, which are not acceptable for a place where burgers are the feature menu item. I also have to admit that my burger standards may be unfairly high. I grew up in the USA eating great burgers of many styles for much of my life, I have worked as a cook at a bar/restaurant that featured burgers, and I can make killer burgers.

Two big issues with the burgers...

BBQ sauce is drizzled on the plate and the the burger is placed directly on top of the sauce resulting in sticky sauce covering the outside of the bottom bun. Burger are meant to be eaten with your hands, so this completely ruins the experience. It also tells me that whoever cooks these does not truly love or understand burgers because anyone that does would not force guests to make a choice between eating a burger with a fork and knife (burger sacrilege) or ending up with hands covered in BBQ sauce (yes, a good burger can be a bit messy, but not because the sauce was placed on the outside of the bun).

The meat was over seasoned and mixed with a number of ingredients, resulting in a rubbery texture. A good burger should be made with fresh, fatty beef, with only a touch of salt and pepper, and minimal manipulation of the ground beef (other than to form the patty). Mixing ground meats develops longer protein chains and results in a bouncy texture, which is ok for meatballs, fish balls, and hotdogs, but is not desirable in a hamburger. Over mixing burger meat is a common pitfall that many people do not know about, but if you don't believe me, google it and read up on burger tips on sites like Serious Eats...

Saw pictures of the place on google and had to try it. Such a cool aesthetic isn't often seen in general, nevermind a little town like this. The look of the place, the museum, and menu design were all really cool.

But unfortunately for us, the good experience stopped there. Cappuccino tasted burnt, it was really bitter. Didn't finish it. Chocochino was so full of chocolate mix or sugar that there was a sediment at the bottom and far too sweet to drink more than 1/3 of it.

Fish burger had way too much Mayo and fell apart. All American burger was fine but didn't have too much flavour, although I did ask for no bacon. Chips were hot but slightly undercooked. I didn't even finish my girlfriends chips even though I wasn't full, which says something.

Service was good at first, but then fell apart towards the end.

The milkshake we got was really good though. One extra star just for that. Wouldve loved to come back a second time to try the desserts and beer selection, but at this point I'm not a fan. Which is such a shame as the place has so much potential, and we were so excited for lunch the whole day, only to be left disappointed by the below...