City Diner — Restaurant in New York

2.5 stars for the food, but 3 stars overall because the service was good. Servers were nice and fast.

We tried the Chicken Omelette, Steak and Eggs, Pancakes with chocolate chips, and Waffle with strawberries. The Chicken Omelette was really bland. The home fries that came with them were completely unseasoned. The only flavor came from the chicken chunks in the omlette. The omelette itself tasted oddly watery, maybe from the larger tomato chunks in it. Really not worth ~$19. I remember getting the same thing from Manhattan Diner, their sister restaurant, and liking it there, so I wanted to try it in this location, but it was so unappetizing. Just thinking about it makes me lose my appetite. The Steak and Eggs were really bland too, but the steak was cooked perfectly to medium rare. The pancakes weren't bad, but I thought the price for $3.95 per topping was a bit steep. Pancakes were soft and fluffy -- a bit undercooked though if I had to nit pick. The chocolate chips were embedded into the pancakes and gave a nice crispy to some of the edges of the pancakes. I think this was the only thing that tasted good. The waffle was okay. It wasn't crispy at all and was a little undercooked as well. It smelled sweeter than it tasted.

Overall, really didn't enjoy my dining experience here. The lighting was really dim, and the whole place smelled like I was in an airplane. One cashier/host kept coughing into his hands and walking around and touching everything, which made me lose my appetite even more. For the price, the food really wasn't good. I had a better experience at Manhattan Diner, which has the exact same menu.

Update: Everything I've gotten here I've been disappointed with. I tried the Avocado Toast, and I didn't find it worth the price. The toast was stale and not toasted. Service is great though. Wait staff are efficient and amiable. I just think their food is overpriced for the quality and how...

Not a fan of this place. The food was mediocre. You can get that quality of food anywhere. The atmosphere sucked. Way too crowded between the size of the restaurant and the staff. I had to squeeze into occupied booths to let the servers past. It only had two single use bathrooms (one mens and one womens). I had to wait ten minutes to go. The worst part of the experience was paying. We had a group of six (only the body language of two of us suggested that they'd be on a single check). They refused to split our check, and then claimed that it was my party's fault for not declaring we'd be separate (even though the server never inquired about how we'd be paying). I'd understand if our order was in their system; however, our "check" was literally what the server had written down on a piece of paper. The cashier simply had to check us out individually, but refused because it was our fault and "too much work". Don't go here. You'll find another diner with better food and service in...

The owner or manager came up to my wife, her friend and their kids right after I'd just left the table and abruptly said "we need this table". My wife responded politely (she's used to dealing with jerks), "we will as soon as we have the check". They had been waiting for the check as our server was obviously overwhelmed.

When they described the Saturday afternoon manager/owner (bald, older guy) it was the same guy who I walked by while he was arguing with two elderly ladies who said he'd told them to sit anywhere, which he denied by yelling at them "I didn't say anything to you.", then later said, "I told you to wait your turn".

It's a busy diner on a Saturday afternoon, so we empathize with the poor servers who I'm sure have to deal with this guy as well. We live half a block away but we won't be back. Plenty of good food in the neighborhood and it's just not worth supporting...