City Diner

Reviews 6

H

H AD

On my recent visit to the City Diner, I was massivly disappointed. Although the menu seems to have been revamped to have more of "home" cooked restaurant feel than a diner feel. I was overall disappointed. I ordered the steamed mussels for a shared appetizer. The wine sauce was heavily watered down with zero flavor and was more or less pointless to dip the crustini in it. To me is seemed like water with tossed tomatoes as an after thought. There was a distinct salty and "old" fishy taste to the mussels which was displeasing.Ive had Steamed mussels in several different places and I these were by far the worst ones. I also ordered the Blue Cheese Wedge. Also highly disappointed. The salad looked like it was cut sometime earlier that morning so it had brown edges which made it mostly bitter. The blue cheese toss on was haphazardly and it was off flavor. The dressing wasnt even a blue cheese more like a oil and vinegar which was a horrible choice. Or maybe it was supposed to be a clear blue cheese dressing not sure. Use bacon bits as opposed to bacon strips that were tossed on top. Myself I ordered the "Put the Lights Out and Cry" live and onions. And as the name says I wanted to put the lights out and cry in disappointment. The liver tasted ok, slightly overcooked and it was evident from the burnt grill edges. The onions were semi-raw which is ok to me, but another 5 minutes of sautee wouldnt have hurt either. The sauteed/steamed kale was flavorless and the carots were way overcooked. Thumbs up on the mash potatoes that was the only thing on my plate worth eating. The wife had the sheppards pie, which was off tasting and the mash potatoes were flavorless. The meat had an off taste, not what you expect from a "sheppards" pie. For me it was 3 strikes against the cook. The ambiance is nice, what youd expect a diner to look like. But the food wasnt something you would get from something like "Johnny Rockets" or "Andys" burgers. When I hear dinner, I think American sloppy, greasy, juicy burgers, chilly cheese fries, onion rings, Omletes, french toast....anything like that. But thats semantics, I can appreciate a twist to a dinner as long as their food backs up their point; which this place failed to meet.

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G.

G.C Mone

Just visited for third and last time, and taking away 2 stars. Food was mediocre and small portions. The place is very clean, I was impressed with the cleanliness in and out. The chef personally visits you and is a classy touch. However I felt rushed. Hours used to be 6am-11pm. Those are Diner hours, so you could eat breakfast before work and eat a relaxing full course meal whenever you get there for a late dinner. I never heard of a Diner that was open for only 8 hrs..7am-3pm...who is supposed to eat there? Retired and Business lunch crowd? Cmon America... A Diner does not close at 3pm. I was interrupted by waitress to pay up so she could do her paperwork and they started closing blinds and putting up seats as a hint as we were eating. This started right after we received our meals. We should have been advised of closing prior to being seated and ordering, so we could make a decision whether or not to stay. They seemed more concerned about getting home than our satisfaction. We hadnt eaten lunch and planned on getting full meal with dessert and enjoying conversation. We left underappreciated and bill was put on table halfway through our meal, never refilled coffee, no straw for my drink, no question about dessert. Just cant seem to find a good time here. Cant seem to find a working class Diner feel in Anchorage where waitresses pull a double. Lacks personality of a Diner experience. Feels more like Johnny Rockets.

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JO

Jonny Walker

I have been going to City Diner on and off for sometime, before they changed their brown gravy we were regulars and since then its been really hit or miss. Tonight was a miss. After not coming in for awhile the wife and I had read a review that this was the spot for the best french dip sandwich, thinking they had turned it around we ventured back. Upon arriving we were greeted with brown butcher paper for a table cloth (actually, kinda cool idea for keeping the kids busy or just drawing on it yourself) a cloth napkin and a very nice looking menu. kind of a confusing mix, I missed the laminated diner menus. anyways we ordered a couple classics from the old menu and something new. After about 15-20 minutes of coloring the food came out and we dug in. The fare they carried over from the old menu was decent, but what struck me was the new rib hash looked promising but was sadly drenched in brown gravy and the hash that wasnt, was just plain bland. sorry guys but if your going to be a diner, be a diner dont try to mix it up with fancy napkins and food network style presentations. Just serve good consistent food.

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A

A Private User

The food was good the place was cute... but! We stopped in for lunch and had a small wait, which was fine its sort of typical of most places here. It was after we were seated that something curious happened. Most places such as diners and cafes typically make great efforts in turning tables as quickly as possible, more tables, more customers, bigger profits. However, this is not the case with this place or at least not that day. It took at least five minutes to get a menu, another 10 before our waiter came back to take our drink/food order. I was still pretty much OK up until they never came back refill our drinks. Once we were done we then sat for a lengthy 26 minutes trying to get our waiter to bring us the receipt so we could leave. I did everything aside from standing up on the table with a fog horn, flares, a few dozen sparklers and a giant flag waiving behind me. Eventually I had to get up and go ask him for it. It was a very annoying service.

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RI

Richard Willkomm

We have been going here off and on for some time, and I could never say enough good things about. We loved that it felt like a diner straight out of the 50s without being some cheesy throwback theme. However we came in the other night, they had butcher paper on the on the table, which to me felt kind of tacky, but I get the concept. Then we were handed the menus, the Alaskan diner style menu was gone and replaced with something you could find at any bistro, my wifes favorite the French dip was essentially gone. It still kind of existed but only during lunch time till it was gone. And then the last straw, my daughter ordered the chocolate chip pancakes only to be told breakfast is only served in the morning. Im sorry but I thought the whole point of a diner was what you want when you want it. I was happy to see that Garen still is serving there, he is probably one of our favorite servers around town.

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RA

Ray hopper

So far its OK me and my fiance came and shes ordered a Reuben and I ordered biscuits and gravy I hopefully its better than what we ordered from Leroy and its coming out great her room and came out better than what it did at LeRoys my biscuits and gravy came out a little small but looks really good so were going to try and finish our review so to finish my review we ordered a banana split and it was amazing the only thing that was missing was the chopped nuts it was a big order just missing the nuts enough for two people to eat and actually be full from it but once again it was missing the chopped walnuts so anybody planning on going out with their spouses are so sweet heart I urge you to go to City Diner and enjoy a really good memory thank you for listening this is Ray and Lenora

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