Late night dining in Tokyo might mean chain izakaya, possibly sushi, or ramen, but definitely family restaurant. While your ‘fami-res’ choices in Japan are limited to Denny’s, Jonathan’s and a very few others, New Jersey is wonderful in that it’s still packed with late-night diners. The Seven Stars Diner is one such, residing as it does at the important cultural and vehicular crossroads known as Five Points. It’s like a beacon in a dark dessert.
They all look pretty much the same inside – a counter, a bunch of booths, a rotating cake case up at the front, a bowl of those white mints with the internal jelly layer by the register…
Did I mention that this used to be the Five Points Diner, and when I suggested it as a destination between where we were and our homes, I said “How about the Five Points?” I guess the name changed recently. So recently, or so much on the cheap, that there was no need to order new placemats bearing the new ‘Seven Stars’ name. I ain’t sayin’ I care, I’m just pointing it out because it was funny. Everybody funny.
So we got some food, and this was Carson’s diet in action. What’s late-night dining if you can enjoy yourself? His fascination with health and Greek food has certain drawbacks, and one of them is the need to order salad, Greek salad, even in a diner that is unmistakably not Greek (some diners are). Ah well.
You know, at least he didn’t eat all this. Neither did I, of course – I refused the toast that would have come with it (he ate that) and I skipped half the potatoes. Do you know what’s on the left here? I’ll tell you what, the waitress didn’t. It surprised me that a waitress wouldn’t know what was on the menu, and not knowing what lox is, that’s criminal. It’s smoked salmon, and now we can all be on the right side of the law and smugninity.
In all honesty, frankly, and choku-setsu-ly, this is a crappy diner. I woke up the next day wishing I had gone home hungry.
(856) 228-5166