Hibernia Diner, a mini-review

Everything this man touches turnes to crap, seriously. Everything from small Caribbean nations to sandwiches. Why do we invoke el Fidel himself? Enter the Hibernia Diner, located at 9 Green Pond Road, Rockaway, NJ.


This is a popular trucker's diner for its location directly off route 80 and its 24 hours of operation. Also popular for the local youth of Rockaway and Denville. We visited this diner long before DM existed (like 2 months, man) and it turned out to be not the best experience.

It has your typical modern layout, nothing to write home about there. We were seated at the dining area and proceeded to read the menu. I noticed they offered a Cuban sandwich. Having fond memories of Cuban sandwiches my stepmother brought back for me from Bloomfield, I was tempted to try it, despite being unusual diner fare.

Our food came pretty quick. Perhaps a little too quick. We both chowed down on our respective dishes. My Cuban sandwich was actually pretty good - I wolfed it down pretty quickly.

It was pretty uneventful from that point. I think I remember it being somewhat expensive, but most 24-hour diners are. All was normal, until the next morning.

I awoke at 7:00am the next morning, for what seemed like no particular reason, until I got that feeling: I'm going to fucking throw up everywhere. I made it to the bathroom at least, but 40 years of struggle against capitalist pigs exited my digestive tract at that point. I was sick the rest of the day, and had to call out of work.

As much as I'd like to give Hibernia a negative rating, we did have an okay time there, and the service was pretty good. Hibernia gets 1/5 Munchies.

Munchies!

Double S Diner

154 State Rt 23 Sussex, NJ 07461
http://doublesdiner.com/

I cannot stress how charming this diner is. Do not go to this diner if you're expecting the chain restaurant experience that is in most modern diners (Chester Hills Diner) or the over-the-top-trying-too-hard-neon-lights-everywhere diner experience (Tick Tock Diner). No, this diner is just that, a diner. It's homey, it's cute, it's quaint. Even the bathroom has the feel as if you're walking into the half-bath of a friend's house- if it wasn't for the automatic paper towel dispenser and lack of bath tub it wouldn't've been any different from my bathroom.

Everyone seemed to know each other, and even though the diner was filled with community chatter I could easily hear the 50s classics filtering through the speakers.

Instead of filling up the small converted train car with neon lights, making it feel more like a disco than a diner, the walls are plastered with actual vintage material. Everything from clocks in the shape of Miss Marilyn Monroe, movie posters featuring The King himself, even the table tops of the booths are painted with black and white portraits of stars from the Era- the one behind us had Lucile Ball and I think we had our plates on James Dean's face.

They even had decor with function: beside each booth by the "bar" area is a long pole with hooks to hang your jackets. And just to prove that this Diner wasn't stuck in the 50's, they had a small flat screen T.V. at the end of the bar playing the local news.

And the service was wonderful. We were allowed to seat ourselves, and even waitresses who weren't "assigned" to our table came up with a smile asking if everything was to our liking.

The only issue we had was that there was some miscommunication on the menu. The prices were reasonable- hell, they were cheap compared to most of our diner experiences - and the quantity and quality for what you paid was most definitely worth it. But my better half was a bit disappointed with his order.

What we got:

- One plate of "chunky monkey" pancakes (bananas and chocolate chips in three, dinner plate-sized, griddle-fresh pancakes)
- One plate of strawberry pancakes.

Now, usually when we order strawberry pancakes, or pancakes with strawberries, they are served with fresh strawberries either on the side or cooked into the batter of the pancake. Both are accepted as normal. These strawberry pancakes were more like the ones seen at IHOP, doused with a type of strawberry syrup with soggy, jelly soaked strawberries. Though my partner said it was no where near as disgustingly sweet as IHOP's strawberry syrup-soaked pancakes were, and the consistency of the "syrup" was closer to jelly and wasn't as sticky, I could still see the disappointment on his face. He enjoyed them, but would have enjoyed them more if they were "normal" strawberry pancakes.

Despite this set back we both enjoyed our pancakes, nearly clearing our plates- which is hard to do considering the size of the three massive pancakes.

All in all, the Double S Diner was wonderful and is worth the trip down 23. The food is fantastic, the atmosphere charming, and the service top notch. Just make sure you ask about their pancakes before you order.


4.5/5 Munchies