And so it continues ... a brand new set of tastes for 2017 ...
here's the SEVENTH of FIFTY tastes of FLORIDA
(coming to you on sequential Thursdays. All. Year. Long.)!
Establishment: The Diner
Location: Boynton Beach
Meal: Breakfast
Drink: Hot Chocolate
Appetizer: n/a
Main: The Lumberjack
3 eggs (I asked for scrambled), 3 slices bacon, 2 sausage links, home fries and your choice of 2 pancakes or 1 slice of French toast or 1/2 an order of biscuits and gravy (I chose French toast)
Side(s): n/a
Dessert: n/a
Server: in an unfortunate trend for this year, her name wasn't recorded
Website: http://www.dinerongateway.com/index.php
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Diner/553195471392059
This is the third diner already this year (which puts us on pace to beat last year's record of visiting six of them as a part of this series) -- but there's something extra special about this one because it has the confidence to be THE diner ... not A diner ... but THE diner [as if it were THE one and only diner in the world]. It's a bit farther out of the way from home base, but family was visiting and we were taking a little road trip so we ended up here. With just a few tweaks, it could be one of the higher ranked diners on the list ... but to see where they need to improve, check out the Troy-score below:
AMBIANCE: 7/10 (it's a great big room, with an open kitchen off to the side, and it has the hustle and bustle of a place everyone wants to be ... although with the practice of pushing tables for two around to accommodate groups, I was frustrated that they handled our group of five by throwing a chair on the side of two tables instead of giving us the comfort of a six top [so a point lost] ... and there was an odd almost militaristic procedure where the cooks would yell that the order was up and the server had to yell back "heard!" which was a definite mood interrupter [so a second point lost] ... and I just can't forgive being sat at a table that hasn't been cleaned of its stickiness [which accounts for the third point lost])
FOOD: 8/10 (they were two relatively small "infractions" [each worth a half a point deduction] -- butter that wasn't thawed when served and home fries that were giant potato pieces so much so that they lost all the good flavoring because the middles were just all potato [see photo] ... and one big "infraction" [so a full point deduction] in that my hot chocolate apparently wasn't refillable ... but let me tell you that every other part of the lumberjack breakfast was delicious -- especially the bacon [see category below])
SERVICE: 7/10 (lookit -- a host or hostess needs to understand that it is his or her job to smile ... and this was the second week in a row where the employee in that role didn't do that one bit -- and that's worth a double point deduction [host/hostesses at future establishments: consider yourself on notice] ... as for our regular server, things went efficiently but it took her until the end of the meal to loosen up and appear personable -- likely because she was busy with the rush at the onset or maybe because she was scared she might miss yelling "heard!" back to the kitchen -- so that's the other point deduction)
BACON: 10/10 (the menu count returns 19 hits for bacon so you know it's a pretty safe bet that this diner won't disappoint -- especially when the bacon they serve is of the thick cut variety ... breakfast, lunch, dinner or on the kiddie menu -- there's plenty of opportunity to "bacon up" at this place ... plus see the first bonus comment below)
BONUS: 10/10 (+3 for giving a breakfast option that serves sausage AND bacon instead of sausage OR bacon, +3 for an amazing burger [not pictured] that my nephew ordered that immediately made me rethink what I chose for breakfast, +3 for those all natural jelly choices from Smucker's and +1 for being a place to which we will most definitely return the next time we're in the area -- 'cause that burger is calling out my name!)
TroyScore: 42 out of 50 -- aka 84, a B
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