Still solid.

Brooklawn Diner
Brooklawn, NJ
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Meal: Dinner / 8pm / Weekday
Price: $24 for 2 (Excludes Tip)
Originally Reviewed: March 2008

We reviewed this diner back in 2008 and noted a lot of the construction happenings. Fast forward more than a year and everything looks really nice. They’ve added a new side dining area with plenty of natural light (ala a sunroom), fixed their crumbling steps, and even erected a new, bolder sign. We generally liked their food back then.. so has anything changed?

If you’re going to Brooklawn Diner, it means you’re passing up Gateway, Ponzio’s, Weber’s, and a bunch of fast food places all within a mile or two from the Brooklawn Circle. With traffic it’s still a little tricky to get through the circle sometimes, but they do have an enviable location and they’re usually very busy.

Glancing at the menu, we were pleased to see that the Diner offered both soup and salad with most meals, which is an important litmus test when we consider value. We also really liked the salad bar in the past, although it was closed by the time we arrived (circa 1am). Like we do pretty much everywhere, we started with mozzarella sticks. Unfortunately, they were middle of the road frozen-to-fried sticks with a passable marina sauce. Our waitress was pretty chipper, though, which kept us in a good mood.

For our entrees, we both decided to get the southwestern chicken wraps. They included cheese-smothered chicken, peppers, and onions with a side of fries and cole slaw. At around $8 a pop you got a decent-sized wrap (rolled in thin paper), that was a little on the greasy side but very good. The french fries were damn good and very similar to what you’d get at McDonald’s, which is either a very good compliment or a deal-breaker, depending on your opinion of McDonald’s fries. Heh. The cole slaw was good, but not outstanding.

From our past review, we noted that they had decent dinner, salads, and for the most part the service makes it comfortable. We thought the booth sizes were a little tight for two on each side, and that hasn’t changed. The weekend mornings are crazy, though, so don’t expect a whole lot of room for your party. Generally speaking, I prefer dinner here than breakfasts. The prices aren’t the cheapest you’ll see, but they’re in line with the rest of the competition in the area.

I still like Gateway Diner a smidge more than Brooklawn, but give Brooklawn props for being open 24 hours, generally having more seating capacity than Gateway, and arguably in a more accessible spot for meeting people. The renovations look great, the diner does appear to take pride in the food they serve, and from our experiences everyone has been quite friendly.

Pros:

- Salad Bar
- Pleasant Service
- Good portion sizes

Guru’s 2008 Score: 3.75 Chews
Guru’s 2009 Score: 3.95 Chews

Subjective rating: Very good.

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