FOOD REVIEW: The Diner (Adams Morgan, D.C.)

chicken salad (cheddar) melt with fries, $5.99

2453 18th Street, Adams Morgan

Yelp.com is just kicking butt! It led me to The Diner (2453 18th St NW, Washington, DC 20009; 202- 232-8800) last night for dinner. The Diner is apparently a Washington, D.C. institution: a 24-hour restaurant with excellent food. Shocker. Every city should have one. Sadly, in Los Angeles we are stuck with The Pantry. (Shudder.)

Anyway, Sunday at 11pm MadProfessah finally got around to eating dinner and was pleased to find The Diner was again a mere 10 minute walk from his hotel and about 1 minute away from Cashion's Eat Place where I ate brunch (see my review.)

The menu is pretty larger and fellow Yelpers had said that everything on the menu was good so I tried the chicken salad cheddar melt (on English muffins) with fries and the waitress suggested the lemonade. I also had a chocolate with peppermint creamcheese frosting cupcake (to go).

The chicken salad was a bit salty but it's actually a really good idea to do a melt on an English muffin and the cheese was deliciously melted. The fries were good, not great (i.e. not to the level of In-N-Out Burger) and the lemonade was very concentrated. The cupcake ended up sounding better than it actually tasted.

What stood out at The Diner was the service. Immediately upon walking in I was taken to a table of my choice, and my waitress was asking me for a beverage selection within 60 seconds of me taking my seat. She also came back twice to take my order because I took several minutes to make a selection. The food came out promptly. At one point I dropped my fork on the ground and within 5 seconds someone was at my elbow with a new fork. The ambiance is a bit loud but it is a very comfortable setting

I do think the food is not the main reason to eat at The Diner; that reason is the food is cheap, reasonably good and available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I will try to eat here another time before I leave D.C. to maybe select a burger or something more substantial from the menu to see if they actually can produce outstanding (instead of merely very good) food.

OVERALL GRADE: A.

FOOD: A-.
SERVICE: A+.
VALUE: A.
AMBIANCE: A-.