Metro Diner
 

We went to Metro Diner last night for the friends & family night. The food was free then you donate to the charity. Tonight the charity was Helping Hands. I had the meatloaf & hubby had the special, Cajun Chicken Pasta. Everything was yummy.
We had dinner & drinks. It's the only Metro Diner with a bar. Nice menu, good prices & large portions!! It's a great place.
Happy Hour is 2-5. House wine $4.49, happy hour $2.99. Well drinks $3.49, happy hour, $2.49.
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Looking forward to eating there soon. Thanks Bonny.

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Went to Metro Diner last week, in Sarasota. Villagers are in for a treat. Good portions, great service and a very nice menu. Told the manager that we were very pleased with everything and he gave us a five dollar discount card for our next visit.

Bonny, you're the Restaurant Maven in my book. I like reading your reviews.

Looking forward to trying it.

We will give Metro a try in a couple of weeks. Thanks for the report.

Whats the big deal about another corporate restaurant, been to one been to all.

:icon_wink: Kind of like writing a negative post .... read one - read them all!:ohdear:

I like chains better than mom and pops in many cases.

There is often a lot of money behind the research into their menu items and the consistent way they are prepared. There is often a lot of money behind how they train their servers and money behind the décor. ( It is often quite pleasant) There is money protecting you from accidental allergy events. (Misplaced shellfish and nuts can do many of us in) I love, LOVE, Carrabas, Bob Evans, TooJays, Ruth Cris, PF Changs, and several others, and I am looking forward to this restaurant.

I say this because I am a decent cook and I have dined in some excellent and expensive restaurants in my lifetime just like most of us have.

I like this reasoning.

Oh Winthorp meet you at The Metro At Noon. Do bring the Grey Poupon!

I agree with Gracie. I like the chains, except for the time I went to a Waffle House and they were out of waffles. I have heard Metro is very good. Looking forward to trying it.

I like chains. They have a corporation to answer to so I find food & service more consistent. Also you know what to expect when you order food.

Amen to that Gracie girl

I am not a big partaker of liquor/happy hours, but I hypothesize the the main problem with "big corporation" restaurants is their bars don't have a "top shelf."

Good, bad, or otherwise, they are not all the same.

We went to Metro Diner for lunch today. It was crowded with a 20 minute wait at 2:00. I had the Pot Roast and my wife had a salad with chicken. Both were large portions and very good. Our service was very good. Their was a large staff present along with a lot of trainers and management. They all seemed somewhat harried with a lot of running around in between stopping to talk with each other. The bar was full with diners (I didn't see anyone drinking). For me, the diner atmosphere didn't feel like the place I would want to be sipping cocktails.

Metro Diner made its first foray into Atlanta last year. They pulled the plug and closed after only 7 months. Corporate said they picked the "wrong location" .. It was in the northern suburbs in an area with a lot of competition. They were very busy weekends, but not during the week. I tried twice on weekends, more than half hour wait .. Waiting for diner food is not in my DNA.

Again people in big cities normally give chain restaurants the old heave-ho, they want the dining experience to be unique with a special flair-- Guy Fieri's in NYC has gotten lousy reviews-the only people who frequent it are the out of town tourists

We have all had good and bad experiences with national chains.
My experience(s) usually conclude the results are a function of the local management. Many chain locations are like non corporate locations.
The location pays their dues and that is the extent of it.

Then there are the chains who treat every location as if it were a specific corporation location, with very high standards, frequent inspections and on going training.

For example one that comes to mind to cite an example....J. Alexanders....upscale dining. One of our favorites to seek out when and where available. Always impeccable and with no compromises.
We have yet to find one that was out of step with our expectations and experiences.....for over 20 years.....the local management, staff and food are always 100% consistently good.

See the following link and listen to the video called "we are unchained". Makes the case in a 4 minute presentation;

| J. Alexander's Holdings

(not promoting J. Alexanders....just offering what I feel is a good example.....one of many)

Restaurant choices are our own. We either like or dislike a place. There are times when a nice, unhurried, gourmet dinner is enjoyed. There are also times when diner dining is fun and extremely enjoyable. Your experiences may vary, but we either like or don’t like various food establishments. Always fun going out to dine with our son, the chef. Some places are sophisticated, with gourmet food and royal treatment. Other places I wondered about...and found some of the chain restaurants he chose, really served amazing food. Never judge.

This is so true. I had never gone to Beef O'Brady's before because I thought it was heavy on the fried foods and calories. But it was close to a club meeting we were going to with friends, so I suggested we eat there first. I had a very nice blackened fish salad.

Never judge is right!

We went to Metro Diner this morning. It was very nice. The food was good, the restaurant was clean, and the staff was friendly and very well trained.

Ate there , food was good, service was good, place was clean. Menu looked like a nice selection. Drinks were keeped full. Price was reasonable.
I will go there again.
Don’t care if it is a chain or a mom and pop place.
But I do care about the food and how clean a place is.

Many of us grew up with local 50’s type diners. For sure a diner in NYC is going to be different than one in Springfield, IL with (pictures of Elvis and Marilyn, etc. on the wall). Frankly, a diner with a bar just doesn’t fit into my concept of a 50’s diner. However, must give Metro Diner a try. The cooks and servers are more important anyway.

Went to Metro yesterday around 2PM. Waited about 10 minutes for table. I had the French dip which was delicious. Spouse had scrambled eggs, home fries, biscuit and sausage patties. Eggs were way overcooked, biscuit was hard and burned, sausage was like a frisbee (way overcooked). The diner was so cold that the food was cold within a few minutes. Yes, we alerted management and received an apology for egg meal, but were offered no solution to the problem. Maybe just a bad day; we will try one more time.

Are people in big cities more aware, more sophisticated, have better taste, have greater insight than those who live in less populated areas?

Or just more.........umm.......more.....uh.......

It very much matters where you came from as to what you like and how much you are willing to pay for it. I came from New England and turn my nose up at clam strips. Up there you eat the whole clam and it is fresh and delicious. I also think biscuits and gravy is disgusting but was not brought up with it. I do not think other people who feel differently about this are any less sophisticated than I am, it is simply what I am used to. I also think a 15.00 meal is a bargain.

In love with themselves?

I was at Metro Diner yesterday. I ordered the breaded tenderloin. It was huge! Could only tackle have of it in one setting. It was good, but not the best ever. I would order again if I had someone to share with. My wife had the all-American burger. Again, good but not as good as Square One. The service was good and quick. We will likely be back. Would like to try breakfast next time.

No there’s just more to choose from. Try Chicago for instance we can dine in 30 plus restaurants not one is a chain. New York is even more. Cleveland has lots of different foods.
Try Louisville Ky, you will find mom and pops in every neighborhood, you just walk out your front door down the block. There restaurants are scattered in residential areas. I guess we are just spoiled as too the multiple eateries we have available to those who frequent cities.

In a word...YES.

I was there two weeks ago at around 5pm; the wait was about 20 minutes. Our party of four ordered fish, a sandwich, pasta dish, and a salad. The portions are large. Since the place was packed, the service was somewhat rushed and the noise level interfered with our ability to talk to each other. The decor is bright and cheerful but not an ambience that is conducive to relaxed dining. The menu choices are what you'd expect from any popular diner.

The four of us agreed we wouldn't be adding it to our rotating list of restaurants, at least unless the crowds thinned out. The food was tasty enough but not worth waiting 20 minutes for.

20 minutes for your food is a wait? They do have to cook it.

That is so obviously funny. ☺

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Is that a trick question?

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I took that to mean halibut waited 20 minutes for a table.

Since the answer, in general, is so obvious...I interpreted it as a rhetorical question.

All you need to do is read what was written and you would have to agree that's exactly what it said. How anyone could interpret that to mean 20 minutes to cook the food would be mind boggling anywhere but in TV.

The post said, The food was tasty enough but not worth waiting 20 minutes for. I took it to mean it took 20 minutes to get the food.
Either way, personally, 20 minutes to me isn't that long. Maybe too long for some.

I'm sorry. The first paragraph said he arrived at 5 pm and the wait was 20 minutes. Then he went on to say what they ordered. I assumed he meant the wait for the table was 20 minutes, and at the end of it all (next paragraph) the food wasn't worth the wait for the table.

I could be wrong, but I was kind of taking it in chronological order as he related it.:wave: