Recently I’ve had a hankerin’ for some good ol’ diner food.  Some people call it “comfort food”.  No matter what you call it, the experience usually involves heading down to a building that looks like an old RV and has a counter full of old guys shooting the breeze with waitresses that call you “hun”.  Recently, new upstarts have tried to capitalize on the diner experience: the Silver Diner is one which has evolved into a chain.

The Nautilus Diner is another with two locations -  Crofton, MD and Timonium, MD.  I checked out Crofton.

The morning I went it was a nice, sunny day about 10:30.  I had a couple of cups of coffee but I really had a taste for pancakes.  Since these diner places tend to sell breakfast all day, I thought I would check out the new diner (I would ride by it while it was being built while I was showing homes to my buyer clients).

The verdict — don’t bother.

Even though the diner wasn’t that busy it took a few minutes to get seated and a lot more minutes to wait for someone to come up and ask if I wanted to order or wanted some coffee.  Eventually the diner’s manager or owner — he was pretty official looking — came over and asked if I was being served.  I told him what I had in mind and as he turned away he relayed my order to a waiter in the area. I ordered the French Toast special which was supposed to come with a breakfast meat but, of course, no one asked me what kind.  The French Toast came out a few minutes later without butter or syrup.

After I asked, the sausage, butter and syrup and it came out pretty quickly.  The condiments were pre-packaged.  The French Toast itself was under prepared with a mushy taste and the sausage tasted like  a hot dog.

What About Lunch and Dinner?

I’m guessing that lunch and dinner might be a different experience.  They have this absolutely beautiful display of all  kinds of desserts and cakes right in the front as you come through the door.  If breakfast wasn’t already dessert I would almost feel compelled to order something.

However, the breakfast experience with the slow service, the food that was well below expectations (even for diner food) was enough for me to know that it’s not worth the trip back.  There are plenty of other nice diners — Plato’s Diner in College Park, MD, the Tastee Diner in Laurel, MD, Silver Spring, MD and Bethesda, MD as well as the Silver Diner chain — that have much better food, better service and, truth be told, better prices.