Hey Diner Nationals! We didn’t mean to be gone so long, but now with technical issues aside, we are back!
Yesterday after work, the mister accompanied me to the Odd Fellows Cemetery in the Jericho section of Deptford. We photographed and explored a few stones until we started losing light and realized it was dinner time!
We pointed the car towards home and Joe reminisced about what had changed in the area since he was in college. Then he remembered a diner he used to frequent, Seven Stars Diner. As luck would have it, we were rolling up near it so we pulled in the lot.
The parking lot was massive. What do I mean when I say massive? I mean that I have less trouble finding a parking spot at Walmart near Christmas. Holy crow. So this is a happening place. Got it.
We entered the restaurant and there was a lot of energy. People were moving everywhere. We were immediately greeted and seated in a booth. Our waitress, Brooke, came over and greeted us and took our drink order. I got an unsweetened iced tea and Joe ordered coffee. We perused the menu and made our choices.
I decided on the meatball sliders which came with marinara and mozzarella cheese, along with a side of French fries. The mister ordered a reuben melt with a side of fries. His meal came with a complimentary cup of soup, and decided to give the Tomato Pastina a try.
No sooner did we snap our menus close, Brooke was back with drinks to take our order. The iced tea was very strong and Joe’s coffee was as good as he remembered it. The order was placed and we looked around. Joe said the place appeared to have doubled in size. It had more of a restaurant feel to it. The wait staff was dressed in black with red ties. Very nice and clean look, but again, it lent itself to the restaurant feel.
First up: the Tomato Pastina soup. It was nice and thick, presumably from cooking all day and the pastina was melt in your mouth. Joe said it definitely tasted like Mom’s cooking. A warm and comforting homemade taste to it. He added a little black pepper and crumbled the crackers on time and devoured it in no time.
Our meals arrived. Joe was a little surprised to see his sandwich deconstructed. He joked, “I didn’t see that assembly was required on the menu”. But he put it all together to dig in. One side of the toast was overdone, but it didn’t impede the flavor of the sandwich unless he ate the edge of the toast. Overall, good sandwich. We were pleasantly surprised that the French fries were actually steak fries. You can never go wrong with steak fries and we weren’t disappointed.
The meatballs on the sliders were HUGE. It made it a little awkward to eat but you don’t order meatball anything and expect to not have a messy meal. They had really good flavor. The only thing that was disappointing was that there was hardly any sauce and the cheese wasn’t melted.
It didn’t take long to get full. The diner was still filling up. From the vantage point in our booth we could see that people were parking along the inside curb. Well, it WAS Friday night. Friends’ night out, date night, beginning of another weekend… Why wouldn’t a diner be crowded?
We approached the register and heard music coming from another hallway (I believe it was the bar area), almost like a club vibe. My limited view from the register told me that everyone on that side of the house was having a fantastic time, even the staff.
We paid for our meal and as I returned to the table to leave the tip, I saw that it was already bussed and reset. Wow. So I flagged down our waitress to tip her in hand and thanked her for a great time. She wished us safe travels as we headed home.
As we got back on the road, the mister was nostalgic of college and filled the ride home with stories of his memories.
It was a really great night. Brooke was absolutely fantastic. Check them out online at www.sevenstardiner.com!
Diner Nation 