After decades of living on the south side of Brooklyn, I finally made my way to Parkview Diner. I had always been a fan of diner food, depending on which diner, but after the demolition of my favorite one (El Greco) last year there was an empty spot in my heart that just hadn't been fulfilled .... UNTIL NOW!
To sum it up, the Parkview Diner is the best diner I had been to in a longgg time. I had been to a few since El Greco's departure from the scene, but none just lived up to my favorite. The Parkview looks like any other diner in New York. It was spacious and filled with the usual diner decor -- booths, lots of small tables, wooden chairs and a large brightly-lit Diner sign on the outside that you cannot miss. It was very clean inside, well-kept and there was seasonsonal window decorations/art for Autumn.
As expected, the menu was filled with a neverending list of items that you could easily mistaken for a novel. Omelettes, pancakes, misc. breakfast platters, salads, burgers, sandwiches, entrees (seafood, steaks, pastas, Italian specialties, etc) and, of course, desserts (cakes, pies, ice cream, pudding, milk shakes). The prices of the diner food was a bit steeper than I last remembered when I was at another diner, but unfortunately the times have changed.
If you're like us, then you will sit in your seat for minutes and not know what to choose off of a diner menu. Our heads spun for quite a while and we went back and forth on what we wanted to order. Luckily, we were able to eventually come to a decision on the following:
California Burger Deluxe (comes with cole slaw, pickle and fries)
Surprisingly an excellent burger! I was quite impressed at how well it was cooked to what I wanted. The burger had good flavoring, was juicy, thick and very filling! The fries were good too AND addictive.
Roast Beef Special (comes with cole slaw, pickle, choice of soup and a small salad)
The dish came with a few huge slices of roast beef. The roast beef definitely needed more seasoning as it was kind of bland. For the soup, my girlfriend ordered the New England Clam Chowder, which was pretty good. It had all the good flavors a New England Clam Chowder should have, plus plenty of potatoes and clams.
As mentioned, our meals also came with cole slaw and 2 pickles. Although we weren't sure if this was in-house made cole slaw, the cole slaw was nonetheless excellent. Also, we were served some really good warm bread as well.
Overall, we really liked Parkview Diner, mostly because of the surprisingly good diner food. We were greeted at the door by employees, which is always nice, but the service was just average throughout our meal. The waiters weren't bad in anyway, but we didn't have much interaction with them. The bottom line was that they did their jobs right. There is also a decent size parking lot outside for customers too. It's definitely comforting to know that there is some good diner food nearby whenever we're craving for a restaurant that serves just about anything! read more