Yesterday, my family and I went to the All American Diner - wife’s choice, she wanted non-Indian food on her birthday!
The location couldn’t be better - India Habitat Centre with its own(free!) underground parking, lots of space. Step into the place and a jukebox confronts you while the Bose speakers play American hits from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s(Tutti Frutti, Good Golly Miss Molly and Everlasting Love were a few we heard). Nice red seats just like an American Diner, with *genuine *posters of old American ads("Uncle Sam wants you, join the US Army" and the famous poster from "Gone With the Wind" were some of the many). Neon lighting and wall clocks of Marilyn Munroe and Elvis Presley also added to the American look and feel.
The menu is all American too, so watch out for those calories!(or throw caution to the winds for the evening). My wife had a Norwegian Salmon dish with pepper sauce - one of the few low-cal foods there - but avoided the mashed potatoes that came along. Of course, I polished them off. The kids had hot dogs with potato wedges, while I had something in Chicken - I forget its name, but very nice. We rounded off the meal with waffles and ice cream, but had to skip the planned lattes because the service was too slow, and today was a school day.
That’s what took the edge of the whole experience: the slow service. Kids get edgy sitting in one place for too long, and in the process, make the parents edgier. Surprising then, that an American’diner’ from the land of fast food took so long to serve. We also had to ask for water, first at the beginning(*wayyyy *after having placed our orders) and then later during the meals.
What made us even more impatient was the fact that this place was hot! I don’t mean it figuratively, but literally hot - the temperature inside must have been in the low 30s, and here we were, walking in from the cold Delhi evening sweatered and suited up. My wife and kids finally couldn’t take the heat, and elected to wait outside while I paid the bill. I had no such luck, and had to take off my coat till the bill got cleared.
As for the bill - quite reasonable I must say, for the food and ambience. I paid 1600/-(with tips) for a meal for four. Of course, had there been coffee and smoothies, it would have edged past the 2000/- mark - still quite reasonable I think.