With the Fiance's suggestion, we pulled into the Georgia Diner's lot in order to give them a tryout. A quick read of Yelp reviews of this place reveals some mixed reactions to the atmosphere, service, and foods that Georgia Diner offers; I will state that there are some overtly glorious reviews for Georgia Diner that I truly cannot fathom as corresponding to this location.
Despite being a prime dinner hour, the parking lot of Georgia Diner was nearly empty; in comparison, the "TGI Friday's" next door was PACKED! Seeing the sparse parking prompted my diner senses to tingle with a hefty WARNING, but I was overridden with a natural curiosity of experiencing a new place; I really should have listened to my diney sense!
Upon entering through the two sets of doors, we where immediately suspicious of the overtly decorated, dark and grungy feel of the place; the vibe was dismal and BLAH and probably wouldn't have been any better even if the small, sorry line of neon around the interior roof-line where actually lit. Further interior observations revealed ceiling tiles and airways in dire need of replacement and heavy cleaning; dirty floors; disgusting bathrooms; scattered unbussed tables filled with crusty dishes and silverware, dirty glasses, and used napkins; two tables of patrons with looks of despair. We where about to turn around and walk out when a waitress appeared out-of-nowhere and ushered us to a booth.
Being seated by said waitress, menus placed, drink orders taken and eventually brought to the table, the Fiance and I had plenty of time to read over the diner offerings and observe our surroundings.
As is the case with many a diner, the menu is a plethora of mixed cuisines; all day breakfast, lunch, diner; American, Greek, Italian for the most part. My Fiance, born and raised in Jersey, noticed a lax of a Chicken Parmesan choice and stated that, " this is 'The Diner Standard' of any diner she has even been to"; she was a bit put off with the omission to the menu as this would have been her choice of order. I, on-the-other-hand, wouldn't have noticed the omission being that I never had a good Chicken Parmesan from any diner.
A good fifteen minutes pass and one round of drinks emptied brought the return of our waitress for our food order. The Fiance decided on the "Chicken St. Marie" and I chose the "Beef Stroganoff over Pasta"; each choice offered from said in-house printed menu a soup or salad option with two side choices and a roll -- Fiance chose a house side salad with Italian dressing along with Rice and steamed vegetables accompaniment to her entree. I chose the Chicken Noodle soup and didn't get an offering of two sides to my entree as our waitress whipped away in a hurry (I later found out that the soup and pasta where my two sides to the Beef Stroganoff entree. That wasn't what the menu listed).
Glasses left empty and no silverware placed, our waitress returned with our Salad and Soup in very short order. Finally noticing a displacement of eating utensils, she lazily fetched some.
Glasses left empty for a third time, the Fiance started into her salad and I into my soup. The house side salad is mostly chopped Iceberg lettuce with a few tidbits of onion and tomatoes; it was a very small serving with the Fiance stating, "the onions tasted weird and the tomatoes where hard and tasteless cubes". My Chicken Noodle soup arrived in a pitifully small sized cup (three soup spoonfuls and it was gone) but tasted homemade and was rather good.
Another fifteen minutes or so pass and our Entrees arrive. Diner menu pictures (or any restaurant menu pictures) are rarely accurate to the table serving but Georgia Diner's has redefined the art of food picture forma slight! My Fiance's, "Chicken St. Marie" consists of a spindly one and a half butterflied chicken breast coated in a kind of Lowry's Seasoned salt with a few small almost burnt slices of lemon on top; this is accompanied with a small portion of stale and flavorless white rice and three pieces of small, sorry looking steamed vegetables -- one multicolored tiny, tiny piece of broccoli; one small yellowed cauliflower floret; one slice of carrot --; all this for the price of $15.00!
My "Beef Stroganoff over Pasta" is a soupy and tasteless mess! It was a very watered down cheap cream of mushroom soup base with a splattering of cheap canned soup sized small beef cubes and some cheap small sliced black colored mushrooms mixed in and ladled over a small bed of extremely overcooked, tasteless, and mushy fettuccine noodles; absolutely deplorable presentation and disgusting creation for the price of $13.00! Our blase' waitress finally filled our drinks mid diner presentation.
There was no offer for deserts, coffee, or drinks to go. No administration of quality checks from waitress or cashier. Totaled to $34.00 sans tip. Paid, left, and will not return. read more