Cross Bay Diner — Restaurant in New York

Diners are a dying breed. Been coming here for over a decade when it went from a nice, friendly, busy greasy spoon to the mediocre place it is today. If you never been to a classic NY Diner before, skip this one because it no longer fills the bill. Yes, there is a dearth of places to frequent in Howard Beach. And yes, the food is palatable and yes there is parking--all things that you pay for with this place and why they earned 2 stars. Basically, I enjoy going to eat, and I don't like writing bad reviews. However, this business has undergone changes over the years where they stopped 24 hour service, and then did an unnecessary remodel (usually the sign they are going to jack up the prices). They changed the menu (much less selection than before). Last but not least, there is the fact other people have cited about dual pricing (cash/credit) on the menu which is atrocious. For this review, I visited there recently ordered simple lunch with a friend, we ordered modest dishes and the bill came out to an outrageous $50 before the tip! Yes, these businesses hide behind all manner of excuses as to why they increase prices (that is a rant all of its own) so I could let the money thing go, but what burned me up was the urgent rush we endured to "close out the check" (we weren't even there an hour and I was still working on my meal). Our server was rather contrite about this explaining he had to leave and it would affect his pay (clearly a management policy); so I let that go too not blaming the server. However after I did interrupt my meal to pay and finish we were harassed two more times by other staff as though we were squatters taking up space. If we were there for a whole 90 minutes (we weren't) it was a lot of time and a grace we shouldn't have had to explain for in exchange for a $50 lunch and the whole torch and pitchfork treatment absolutely uncalled for! This was well before dinner rush starts and there were plenty of empty tables--something that NEVER used to happen in the old Crossbay Diner except maybe in the middle of the night. In honesty, this place deserves more than a few bad reviews, it should be shut down for the good of the community. Yes, they have lost my business and that's fine since I come from one zip code over and have to travel for a decent diner anyway. But trust me, dozens of people I know in Howard Beach have told me they will not give this place their business anymore and I think that speaks volumes above and beyond anything I've said in...

The manager is super rude in this location. I'm not sure if hes the owner or who, but he says he has a key to the door where the handicap people will walk in. I came through the back entrance because my mother is handicapped. And someone opened the door for me. When I rang the bell period we had a nice dinner and then when we were ready to leave, we walked out towards where we came from the back door and I said bye to THE waiter and he knows that I'm going to leave through that door but he never said not to go through there period Keep in mind, I've been here about a dozen times or more and use the same entrance in and out period so we walked out. The alarm goes off, but that's happened before. And no one said that's a problem period anyway. While we're walking towards the car going down the ramp.., This owner /manager comes out And in a very aggressive ,insultive and rough manner Proceeds to tell me to never go out this way. And not use this door period so then I said that I do normally use the store and she's handicap so he said you have to ring the bell. I said I did ring the bell. That's how I got it period so, Dan. NY says well you can't get out this way. So I then hes changes his story and says well. Tell someone first so he can open it. I didn't get his name, but he said he has the phone But this is really not the point. The way he spoke to the customer. And my mom, who's an elderly person in her eighties . And whenever I told him what we normally do, he said. I'm being combative which I absolutely was not being. I'm not a combative person at all period so basically he was just really p* off and did not want to hear anything. I had to say to defend myself of why I went through the back door which I've done dozens of times. I would not recommend going here. They don't know how to treat people. And their food is pretty on the expensive side for just basic diner food. Before I even got into this With this rude person, I felt the food quality had really gone down hill. In actuality I haven't been here for a couple of months. But my mom, she likes their soup. And I decided to take her because on Monday. They have her favorite one. But who knew this man would put a damper on my day. Terrible customer service. I'm never going back here and I don't even think he cares if I do or not because he doesn't really care about giving good...

We stopped here on our way out of NY to have breakfast with my cousins on a Sunday morning. Firstly, I'm just gonna point out the parking situation. They do have a small off-street parking lot, but it's very small and packed in. I was able to (luckily) get my Silverado into a spot, but it took some maneuvering. My cousins both had to find street parking, but it wasn't too bad. This is understandable for Brooklyn. It worked out ok, though, because, to my second point, there was a bit of a wait. I'd say about a half hour. Granted, this place was packed to the gills for Sunday brunch. We were able to be seated (4 of us) and the server met us at the table. We ordered coffee, but they wouldn't leave the pot for me 🥲. The server was ok. He was fairly attentive, and I'll give some grace for the fact that they were so busy. He took our orders and menus when we were ready. They have a good menu selection, and I got huevos rancheros. While we waited for our food, we all ended up finishing our coffees, and it was a while before we got someone to come refill. The place was PACKED, but it wasn't so loud that you had to scream to converse, which was ok. Our food came after about 20 minutes or so. This is where they really shine. It's really good and mostly worth the time and effort it took to get it. We ate and chatted, and ran put of coffee again. It was difficult to gem someone's attention for refills, so we didn't stress it. When we were done, though, our server noticed us pretty quickly lol. He filled us one more time and brought the check. Not too bad for 4 people, but not gonna be your cheapest option either. We left shortly after. All in all, I like this place a lot and will be frequenting here whenever I'm back in town, though I'll have to see if there are better times to come where it's not as packed. Parking and capacity are my only 2 real hesitations.

Tl;dr Check this place out! The food is good and not too pricey. If/when you do, just plan for parking and give yourself some lead time as the wait and capacity can be a significant...