Before we get into this review, I have a little PSA to share with you all:
Every diner this man touches turns to crap. Seriously. After dining at several diners reviewed on "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives" on the Food Network, we have identified the "Guy Fieri Effect". It causes two things to happen to a diner:
1. Quality of food goes down
2. Prices go up
This was observed at the Tick-Tock, a legendary diner in eastern New Jersey. Built in 1948, it has served legions of bored youth coming home to Jersey after a night in NYC. After having observed the Fieri Effect at the Jefferson Diner (which will come in a later review), we decided to test our theory at the Tick-Tock.
The Tick-Tock is a medium sized-diner, built in the Art Deco style. Like most Jersey diners, it features a section with booths and a bar area for single folks. The official street address is Allwood Road in Clifton, but you can also access it from Route 3 on the westbound side.
We came in and were seated within 15 seconds. Our booth was coincidentally across from a large poster of Guy Fieri, signed by him:
"Tick-Tock.
One of the best diners on the tour
Tick-Tock Rocks!"
It was a sign.
Okay, it wasn't that bad, but there were some minor snafus. I was looking at the burgers, having had too many pancake dinners lately. I ended up ordering the "Black Jack Burger", featuring "Cajun spices, jack cheese, grilled onions, and French fries". I made an attempt to order it without fries, trying to save a little dough, but this was not possible. The waitress was kind enough to suggest alternatives such as peas, green beans, and Brussels sprouts (?!) but I assured her I was just trying to cheap out on her.
Moving on to the other half of DM, she ordered a French Toast plate (can't find it on the menu now), but the menu listing looked kinda like this
Stuffed French Toast
Bananas, Strawberries Whipped Cream, etc....
Bananas, Strawberries Whipped Cream, etc....
She had thought you could choose which thing you wanted it stuffed with, but the waitress told us, "Oh, it has bananas and strawberries", so she said "okay" and ordered it.
The food took a while, about 25 minutes. The diner wasn't busy around dinnertime on a Friday, and I would expect a little faster service from a diner which is used to being very busy on typical weekend nights.
My burger came out first (dock one point for not bringing the dishes together). The presentation was OK, and everything was as advertised. It tasted pretty much like any other diner burger, not quite worth the $7.95 premium IMO. The fries were good though, they were actual steak fries instead of the shoestring variety. Another surprise: the ketchup bottle actually dispensed ketchup easily! No "knife trick" required.
As for the stuffed french toast, this was also a surprise. It turns out that all of the things listed on the menu as supposed choices were all thrown together for this dish. It ended up being more of a dessert, covered in chocolate syrup and ice cream. DM reviewess #2 wasn't too happy about this, proclaiming "This is not breakfast!". It was supposedly pretty good, but not exactly a well-balanced meal.
With drinks (just a diet Coke) we spent about $21. Not too terrible.
Tick-Tock gets 2.5/5 Munchies for having a misleading menu, crappy prices and mediocre food. Tick tock needs to stop worrying about the aesthetics and go back to the fundamentals of a diner: cheap, good food without the frilly packaging.
Rating:
The food took a while, about 25 minutes. The diner wasn't busy around dinnertime on a Friday, and I would expect a little faster service from a diner which is used to being very busy on typical weekend nights.
My burger came out first (dock one point for not bringing the dishes together). The presentation was OK, and everything was as advertised. It tasted pretty much like any other diner burger, not quite worth the $7.95 premium IMO. The fries were good though, they were actual steak fries instead of the shoestring variety. Another surprise: the ketchup bottle actually dispensed ketchup easily! No "knife trick" required.
As for the stuffed french toast, this was also a surprise. It turns out that all of the things listed on the menu as supposed choices were all thrown together for this dish. It ended up being more of a dessert, covered in chocolate syrup and ice cream. DM reviewess #2 wasn't too happy about this, proclaiming "This is not breakfast!". It was supposedly pretty good, but not exactly a well-balanced meal.
With drinks (just a diet Coke) we spent about $21. Not too terrible.
Tick-Tock gets 2.5/5 Munchies for having a misleading menu, crappy prices and mediocre food. Tick tock needs to stop worrying about the aesthetics and go back to the fundamentals of a diner: cheap, good food without the frilly packaging.
Rating:
