Jefferson Diner

Reviews 3

PA

Panco Deema

Additional Comment For Markoni : In fact we are a food critics. We were hired by an indpendent company to do a honest review of the place. There is going to be an italian restraunt opening up in earlly 2012 on the north side of Rt 15 which is going to give people larger portions 30% cheaper than what this diner has and not "nickle and dime" people for to go bags. All the inforomaton we had stated were actual events. So to answer your question Markoni, no we dont work for the Jefferson Diner and no we dont own the competition. We were paid by the owners of the new place thats opening to give a straight forward review of the local competition. Case in point you gave them 3/5 starts which is nothing great my friend. Being one of the top food critics in New Jersey I cannot say much for this place. The food had absolutely no taste to it. The menu was overpriced and the seating was very tight. The establishment has nothing but high school children in it ordering mostly pizza fries and water. There must of been a smoking requirement to be employed there because we found numerous employees going outside and smoking 50% of the time instead of doing their job. It took near 25 minutes for someone to finaly realize we were seated. The food once again had no taste, luckily there was a Pathmark across the ways so we can get something to eat afterwards. The menu is extremely overpriced. For example, what they call a Chicken Italiano was $10.99, $7.99 for a 6" pizza, and $2.99 for a watered down soda. A simple hamberger was $6.99 with nothing. They surcharged you an additional $3.00 for a piece of lettuce, 1 ring of onion, and a tomato, bringing the total for a hamberger, fries and a soda, to nearly $16 not including tip. We saw two individuals walking around and chatting up with some of the people who were dinning there. We assume they were the owners. They seemed more interested in watching baseball and doing nothing on a Friday night as the entire staff was working. The distrubing fact we had found is some time ago in 2010, the township had a water problem and the area had to have their water services turned off. Mysteroiusly this place was still open and serving food and drink. I have to ask how could a restraunt stay open when its a Board of Health violation that a food establishment must have running water in their public restrooms for their customers to wash their hands. Furthermore, in order to steralize plates, folks, knives, etc, it is required that this place have a some sort of running Eco Lab System. Our question is how could this place be still open without any running water and a fully funcitonal Eco Lab Washing system. Some of the reviews below state patrons have gotten sick. All in all our rating for this place is poor. There are many places localy where you can enjoy a great meal at a reasonable price. Rumors have it, a new restraunt is opening very close to this place, we hope it will show some promise in serving the area some great tasting food, because God knows the area needs it. Robert Sietsema and myself look forwards to it.

A

A Private User

I will try to make this a helpful review, as opposed to the guy who claims he is "one of the top food critics in New Jersey" (see Oct 15, 2011 review) and couldnt find one good thing to say. Sounds like he works for or owns a competing diner, or perhaps is a disgruntled ex-employee. Anyway, on to the review. I have been to the Jefferson diner about 10-15 times in the past 3-4 years as I live nearby, so I think I can give a balanced review as opposed to someone who went there once and had a bad experience. The Jefferson Diner tends to be hit or miss, sometimes the food and service are great, and other times mediocre or even poor. I most recently went there only two days before writing this review, an experience which compelled me to write it. This last visit was one of the "poor" experiences. I ordered a "Patty Melt", which as anyone who regularly eats at any New Jersey diner knows, is a staple menu item. Every diner in New Jersey has this item on the menu, and the good diners all do it quite well. Its typically a hamburger patty with grilled/caramelized onions and Swiss cheese on rye bread, cooked kind of like a grilled cheese sandwich. The one I ordered is advertised on the menu as "1/2 lb ground beef" with fries. Usually the patty is made into somewhat of an oval shape to fit the bread. But not this time. I received a definitely frozen, round patty just like you buy at the supermarket, grilled up and put on the rye bread, but with onions that were not fully cooked, in fact still quite raw. And theres no way this was a 1/2 pound patty (yes, I know they shrink somewhat during cooking); Im pretty sure it was the standard 1/3 pound patty. At $10.95, it should definitely have been a full half pound. Also, my soda certainly seemed "watered down" as another reviewer had commented. Almost no fizz at all. Normally I would have mentioned something to the server, but I was hungry and didnt have much time, so I just ate and left. I think its also worth mentioning that the gentleman at the table next to me ordered some kind of fried chicken platter, but had to send the chicken back because it was still partially uncooked inside. My other experiences have been much better. My last breakfast combo there was delicious, well-presented, and a good deal for the money. Ive never had a bad breakfast there, the problems seem to arise with the lunch and dinner items.They may be trying to do too many things and cant do them all well (there are about 200 items on the menu total). And I do think the TV experience may have gone to their heads a bit. They need to focus on getting their food cooked right, all the time, and put less emphasis on reminding guests how many times they have been on TV (its on their menu, on the walls, next to their sign outside--you cant escape the constant reminder of, "look at us, were on TV!").

LA

Lauren Abbamont

If this place put as much effort into the quality of their food as they do into making sure people know food network was there...maybe Guy Fieri wouldnt look like an idiot for recommending this place. its hilarious, because its the only thing the Jefferson diner is holding onto at this point. because lets be honest, the food is mediocre at best. i mean, this place has a life sized model of Guy Fieris diners drive ins and dives car out front. LAMMMEEE!!! its over guys, let it be. we get it. its hilarious to me though. anyway, on with my experiences- I went here about 3 years ago and decided to try the lobster bisque (recommended on their episode of diners drive ins and dives). the seafood used in it was not fresh. to me, and everyone i went with... it tasted like a creamed gelatinous hot rancid fish pudding. cute right? yea that got thrown out less than 5 mins after being served. fast forward to august 2013, we went here for my mothers birthday. as soon as you walk in you get symbolically punched in the face by a huge banner that shows them on the TLC network or something. which was annoying. if your food is good, let it stand on its own. the menu is massive, unorganized and a third of the space that could be used for menu items were, again, filled with obnoxious pictures of the owners with people from various TV shows and news stations. whatever, so the food gets there, its OKAY. the tuna was bland, the boiled egg was overcooked to the point with the green rim around the yolk and the coleslaw was bland and watery. burger overcooked and bland, stale bun.. oh and my mother (who ordered the burger) got food poisoning. and when we asked for a dessert menu, we were told that they dont have one and to get up, walk to the front of the diner and look at the dessert case in front -__- maybe if you removed the idiotic pictures of yourself from your menus, you would have room for a dessert section. I will never go here again. and i will tell everyone i know how terrible, obnoxious and dangerous this place is. so, thank you. Jefferson diner! for failing yet again. hopefully the next food network star who features your establishment is Gordan Ramsey, that would be much more fitting fitting to your standards and quality.