Gotham City Diner — Restaurant in Fair Lawn

I took my son out for dinner to one of our favorite places that we shared while he was growing up. After pulling into the parking lot, seriously my first reaction was "oh shoot, are they closed?" I know it was a Thursday night however I had never seen so much available parking. I had been going to Gotham City for years which is a testament in of itself to the quality of food and the service received, it has been a few months since I now live a few towns over. Upon ordering my standard go to, Turkey Platter, I learned that they no longer offered both soup and salad. It is now soup or salad. hmm, ok. The waitress said, "sorry, there is a new menu, it just came out a few weeks ago." I asked for some bread, which used to be complimentary. No longer, it is now a "side order". Hmmmm... ok. How about the pickles and cole slaw that they used to provide? Nope...."If you would like that we could give you a side of pickles and cole slaw, that is $8". Hmmm, ok, never mind. So you see where things are going here. The little extras, that made this place a bit more special are gone or at a charge now. So what was a positive customer experience has now actually turned negative. I get that the prices of everything has gone up and that businesses need to be competitive to survive. Maybe some people will pay for this and then maybe others won't as indicated by the rather empty parking lot. People don't like to be nickeled and dimed. Upon paying my check at the front, I was prepared because one thing that Gotham City always did and still does to this day. (glad to see that this continues and they don't charge for this one). They always ask, "how was everything?". I decided to do them a favor and report back to them what they surely already knew, "You guys are really cutting things back". "What do you mean?" he asked. "No bread"... "We haven't offered bread in a long time". Well maybe I hadn't noticed that one but when you add in all the other things that were taken away and eroded over time well now it is in fact noticeable. "You used to offer both soup and salad". Yep he really didn't have a response on that one. I reflected on what the waitress reported to me, "It is part of our NEW menu", like that is some sort of improvement. Then I let him know that a few pickles and coleslaw that was complimentary is now an $8 side order, which is ridiculous. To that, the manager saw that my son had a sandwich and determined that he should have been given a pickle and coleslaw. They did run and get us a pickle and a little small side that you would normally put ketchup in of coleslaw. The Manager proudly reported, "If you ever come back for a sandwich you should always demand to have a pickle and coleslaw". To that I thought about "demanding" all the other small things that added to this place that made it more unique and special than other places but I decided against it and instead exited the front door not thinking about futures visits but of leaving behind the memories of the way...

I was interested in the broiled scallops, I had asked the waitress on the size of the scallops as there is two kinds of scallops sea and bay scallops in which their sizes are very different bay scallops being small and sea scallops being large my waitress went in the back and asked the chef which ones they use in the broiled scallops entree the chef had shown her the large scallops and had clarified that they were in fact the large sea scallops. Well upon the arrival of my entree to the table I was in shock when I saw that I had in front of me a small pile of the small bay scallops the waitress without me saying a peep had apologized on her behalf stating that she had clarified which scallops I was getting and said they must have shrunk which we all know scallops do not shrink! She knew I was very dissatisfied asked if I would like anything else I had told her it’s a shame that we just went over the differences in scallops to verify that before I pay $24.00 on scallops that I get the scallops that’s worth paying that much money for! And I had advised her that I feel the manager should better clarify not only on the menu but with his team on the type of scallops that are beings served in the broiled scallops entree and I was highly appreciated when I saw her go out of her way to notify the manager of my concern! Well to my surprise upon paying when I was asked how everything was I expressed my concern the lady at the cashier said she was unsure of which scallops they have and asked how you know the difference which I had then explained to her the difference and to her side was in fact the manager who was listening and had butted in and said well that’s the scallops we serve so I said so you find it ok to advertise and tell customers that they are getting a different scallop then they hope for and ask for and then tried to put it on the waitress like it was her fault which in fact it was not her fault it was the chefs fault and the managers fault for not rectifying the issue and I was no gunna write this negative review but because of the such uncaring attitude from the lady at the cashier and the manager himself even after stating that I’m gunna complain about this issue via review I was simply just told in a snotty way go ahead ! So with that i will never be returning to this diner it’s the worst diner experience I’ve ever encountered and oh not to mentions there is a million fruit flies all over your food which has been an issue for months which has not yet been resolved but I will never have to worry about that ever again and I suggest others to seek other...

Visiting family up here and I wanted to celebrate my birthday at Gotham because I read they had carrot cake. Where I currently live we don’t have diners so that’s what I wanted.

My food was okay but the service had us feel like we were being “tolerated” rather than welcomed. I watched (maybe the manager or supervisor) with ponytail go by to visit every other table to see if they are okay. She never came to ours.

The food was inconsistent for everyone else but my pancakes, eggs and turkey bacon was fine. I’m sad, my family felt the same way when they visited before and vowed to not go back due to service/treatment.

We went around 7:00pm so maybe they wanted to close early but then as i said earlier, manager continuously made rounds to everyone to make sure they were good and happy. I am visiting from out of town and didn’t know the family experienced this same treatment before until we left. I wish I would have known this from the beginning so I could have chose another diner so everyone could feel comfortable. However they kept it to themselves to make me happy and maybe have a difference experience.

The rating for this place are decent so maybe the the dayside crew is friendly and welcoming, vs night. Again other tables didn’t get the treatment we did so I can no longer give excuses.

We were pleasant so why the...