Park Wayne Diner — Restaurant in Wayne

I am visiting my sis in Northern NJ and we drove by this shining (as in shiny like an Airstream) example of the diners I remember from my youth. We stopped in for dinner as we determined it was too hot to cook.

From the moment we walked in, we felt at home. Seated immediately in an expansive booth, we perused the ginormous menu; the number of choices was overwhelming. Add the specials and my head started reeling. I chose an appetizer: Calamari in General Cho's sauce. My sis got Buffalo Calamari and a Veggie Panini. In the meantime we were served a green bean salad in a light vinaigrette and a variety of warm bread, served with slightly warmed butter.

The bean salad was fresh and yummy, not drowned in the vinaigrette. The bread...ah, the bread was incredibly moist and very difficult to resist. Let's just say, I fell off the low-carb wagon, seduced by the aromas and flavors of the selection.

When I was served my Calamari appetizer (the server was kind, patient with our questions/requests and efficient) I was grateful that was all I ordered. The large plate was nearly overflowing with fresh calamari, glistening with the dark, sweet and spicy sauce. My sister's experience was similar. When she received her panini, we were both excited to see how stuffed it was with eggplant, peppers and mozzarella. Needless to say, we took 3 containers of food home for the next day.

The prices were reasonable for the fresh food and excellent service....

What a horrible place. From the outside looks great. Inside is old and dated. A lot of help with basically no personality. Our waitress was very nice and attentive. The older man who seated us has no personality. Very unprofessional diner. We ordered cheesesteak dumplings. They don’t carry them anymore. So we had Southwest egg rolls. Looked good. Ice cold in the middle and the chicken was almost frozen. Seafood gumbo soup-to me was like canned tomato rice soup and they added green peppers and some kinda seafood and I think it had some pasta AND it wasn’t hot. Lobster tacos. Hmmm. Today I reheated the lobster tacos. I have come to the conclusion that they are using crawfish not lobster because of the color and consistent size of each piece. The “fries” that came with the tacos I don’t believe were potato fries. They looked great but were triangular and did not taste like fries. Beef gyro and onion rings were great as well as the inside of the rolls they put on the table. Highly disappointed. I heard they have new owners. This was the first and last time we will go there. For 42.00 I believe everything just about came frozen or canned with the exception of...

It looked like a decent place to have dinner here. But what I experienced told me do not come back here again. I ordered chicken Milano which is 17.95. When it came I saw a plate full of gravy sauce and a whole piece of oily bell pepper on it. I lost my appetite at the second I saw it. I told my server that’s not what I expected you can take it back and I would just pay for that . She told me that I could have something else instead. I felt they really cared about their customers which made me back to the good experience track. So I ordered steak instead. My server told me okay and did not say anything else.

Then I went to the register to pay my bill. The bill showed me a number of 27.75 and the item was filet mignon which was 10 bucks more than what I ordered. I did not get any information about that from my server!

What if you have 18 bucks budget for your dinner and the server put 28 bucks on your bill without getting you informed?

I normally go to restaurant and tip my server over 30% because I did serving job too a few years ago. But this time I tipped her nothing which let me feel bad too. It’s really a...