Oakland Diner — Restaurant in Oakland

We came in on a Wednesday at 1ish and it seemed pretty packed at that time. The lot was almost full, but the restaurant was probably only at half. To me, a great diner has to have pretty good food (not expecting any 5-star cuisine), has plenty of options (think of whatever 'American' food you're craving, and they should have it), and most importantly, has reasonable prices.

They have pretty good food. They've got the plenty of options down. But they lost us on the reasonable prices. Prices are equivalent to actual restaurant prices, so maybe like a 25% markup than typical diner prices (i.e. the average price of a 'specialty burger' is $15, omelettes are around $10). Here is everything we ordered:

French Onion Soup - oh my god. Eating this makes me think I haven't had enough French onion soup in my life. It's so cheesy and jam packed with flavor. I tried making it at home myself once and compared to this, mine was just absolute sewage water. This would be something good to share because it's definitely a lot for one person, just because of how salty it is

Chipotle Avocado Burger (9 oz. burger topped with arugula, fried tomatoes, Monterrey Jack cheese, avocado, and chipotle sauce - served with French fries) - we ordered this rare, thinking it would come out more medium rare (since burgers tend to come out more medium when we order it medium rare), but they actually cooked it to rare, which I appreciated. It ended up being a bit to rare for us but that's on us. I respect their burger-cooking skill level.

BLT - we ordered this because we wanted to get another sandwich but didn't want the fries that typically come with the sandwich, so we settled on this. It was a pretty standard BLT. We ended up sharing the burger, half the fries, and half the BLT, and were stuffed - so we had some leftovers to take home.

For drinks, we ordered an egg cream. I've only had it one other time elsewhere and I like it, so I don't have much to compare it to - but I liked the one here as well.

Seeing as this is a diner and there are diners everywhere you turn in NJ, coupled with the fact that we don't live nearby, I probably wouldn't visit again. But overall, not a bad NJ...

I went to the Oakland dinner for the first time today. Me and my party of 8 went today for a late breakfast. When we got our menus and drinks, we had to call the waiter back over to order because she was standing talking to her coworker not taking our order. Once we ordered half the food she asked us if it was one bill or each individual. When i asked for individual she then asked me if it was my first time there and she would have to ask if that’s allowed. Instead of making it hard for her we said ok fine one bill even though it was harder on us. Once our food came out, we were missing a few items. Two sides of bacon, a side of toast, and two sausages. When we asked for the food she brought out the head chef to check our plates and kept questioning us making it seem like we got the food and lied. After bringing out the head chef we finally got our sides of bacon. When we realized the sausage and bread was missing and asked for those sides, she questioned us again. She then had her friend co worker and head chef again come walk over and stare and whisper about us. Every employee in the room kept staring at us while whispering and it felt like we were being watched and talked about while trying to enjoy our breakfast. Our waitress gave us attitude every time we needed something and made this experience unenjoyable. Before going, I heard really good things about the place and their food. We had no complaints about the food, it was amazing. The only issue we had is the service. I was hoping for a better experience but that definitely put a taint on my opinion. After spending $300 you would think the experience...

Well I must say the service here has definitely declined over the past few years. As far as food goes, its just another "ham and egger", really nothing special. If you don't go early, parking is horrendous. What really hit a nerve, are the outrageous prices. First we have the credit card service charge, because this establishment doesnt want to pay tax. Hey who does? Skirting the law is tacky in my opinion and illegal. Passing off the cost of "doing business" is even worst. It's not always "Service with a smile." Some servers are downright rude. I get it , the service industry is hard, but baby, leave that attitude at home. Now we get to the latest nonsence. We were charged money for toast $1.00, a dollop of ranch dressing was .50, $2.50 for maple syrup the size of less than a dixie cup. Here's the kicker, $5.00 for a glass of cranberry juice, and an additional $1.50 per egg per customer on top of their already high prices. Your breakfast shouldn't cost more than your dinner! If your margins are that slim that you need to charge these extra fees, lets face it , you are NOT a sucessful business! These prices will be deducted from their servers, even though you may think it won't happen, it very well is happening. You're hurting your already underpaid CASH workers on tips. While yes it's true, we can choose to stay home or go elsewhere. We don't have to be subjected to these prices. Our group has decided to go to other diners where the owners value their frequent customers and...