Washington Square Diner, New York, N.Y.

Thursday evening I met up with Ian for dinner. He chose a neighborhood diner for our meal that he'd been wanting to try but hadn't yet sampled called the Washington Square Diner, located in the Washington Square area near New York University.

It's a basic, but pleasant diner. I couldn't quite determine the ethnicity of the place; the menu has a "Mediterranean Specialties" section, yet I didn't hear any Greek, French, or Italian being spoken; I did, however, hear the wait staff speaking New World Spanish.

Ian ordered a muenster cheese omelette with home fried potatoes and toast. He liked it, and the serving portions were ample.


I got the chicken pot pie. What a great choice I made! The pot pie came in a large au gratin dish with puff pastry covering and folded over the dish and baked to a flaky, golden brown. Inside the dish was a flavorful chicken sauce filled with lots of chicken meat, carrots, onion, peas, and potatoes. The whole dish was great, with a rich taste, and it was very, very filling! I almost gave up on it, thinking I might have to take some home, but I didn't want to waste a drop!


Now, diners are usually known for their pies, so I decided to order a piece of their banana cream pie for dessert, and Ian offered to share it. That was a mistake. This was just not their area of culinary expertise. There was a cream base topped by some brown banana slices and some crunchy sugar (did they top the pie with bananas and sugar and broil it? I don't know where the "crunch" came from), then a thick layer of commercial whipped cream topped that. If you go to the diner, skip the banana cream pie.



The nicest thing about our meal was the cost, with both of our entrees being under $10. And they say one can't eat in New York City on a budget.