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Blue Moon Diner
Rating Details »
- Price Range:
-
$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Private Lot
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- No
- Delivery:
- No
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Good for:
- Dinner
- Alcohol:
- None
10 reviews for Blue Moon Diner
This may get a bit confusing, but...wow, what an awful place...
...yeah, I said it: as a restaurant of any stripe, the Blue Moon Diner is, well, not all that great. Three stars at best; one star on its worst day. Really. Truly terrible.
So, let's say your food arrives (already you're pretty lucky right there, so good on you; lemme know what voodoo curse/shamanic blessing you received earlier in the day for bonus points.) and now you're staring at, what? Soup? Ok, let's say you ordered the soup. For the money you pay, you could have gone out, bought the Campbell's or Progresso you're eating along with a can-opener and heated the thing over your car engine - same difference. Milkshakes and malts? If you like half-mixed powder with a half a serving of ice cream on the bottom, great.
Oh, and the service? I imagine that you'd get more personality from the meanest of lunch ladies in an elementary school cafeteria.
So, why the 5 stars? I mean, I've come down on this place with Thor's Hammer and I'm actually recommending it to you? Well, yeah. I am. And a'here's why:
Much like "Plan 9 From Outer Space," "Manos the Hands of Fate" or any other number of terrible movies featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000, things that are SO-awful-they're-good have made their way into the shining collective that is Amerikana by simply exemplifying a stereotype to such an outlandish degree that make the experience (especially with friends!) more important than the quality of the service or food.
For one thing, the Blue Moon IS the 30s (and somehow 50s) - this place is art deco all up and down this joint! From the neon lights to that comicly over-ergonomic roundiness that turn of the century architects slathered all over the country, this place just needs to add girls in poodle skirts and guys with buzzcuts and letterman jackets to really tie it all together!
And then the waitress...wow! Imagine any waitress from any movie you have ever seen in a greasy-spoon diner; the irritated stare, the sass, the utter disregard for your happiness or even worthiness as a human being, all combined with that oh-so-awesome "What'llya have hun?" delivery, and already you're living an iconic institution! I've driven from Michigan to Oregon, Oregon to Texas and Texas to Oregon, but never before have I experienced anything quite like this.
Here was a great exchange:
Me: And could I get some crackers with the soup?
Waitress: You want I should make 'em myself or just bring you a whole box?
XD (Sorry for the emote but...how do you put such amazingness into simple English?)
And then you have the surly chef; looks like a former Army Ranger - sure to (metaphorically, of course!) kill the first person who ever criticizes his food (which MUST be a common occurence at the Blue Moon...) it almost seems like he stepped out of a 30s period gangster film like the Road to Perdition! VERY cool...most of me was unable to keep from just busting out in laughter from the sheer awesomness of the whole scene!
Really, this is truly an experience, tucked away by a Hollywood Video and some other food options...if you're like me, and are a fan of the iconographic and satirical, you owe it to yourself to eat here at least once!
Well, you know a review is in trouble when I can't make up my mind on how many stars to give it. First visit: four, second: three, slipping to near a two, last visit: a generous two.
And that last visit has a story and as we all know, in a review a story is normally scary/funny.
You just have to know this about us: we never laugh at food and very rarely send it back.
But I am getting ahead of myself.
We have been on the look out for a good diner for quite a while and not much luck, at least locally. Something that we can go to in our shorts and a semi-clean T shirt on a warm day and get a good meal for two for twenty-ish dollars.
The first time we had a wonderful meal--the chicken fried steak with hand made mashed potatoes, great pan gravy, a wonderful salad to start, the SO a very good home made soup. All of it wonderful! And with the flavor of a good diner, that je ne sais quoi without the need to add ketchup that we all want in a diner.
We got talking to our server and she had said that the place had been for sale, the owner was just tired of it and had closed it but reopened it when he couldn't find a buyer and that it had been a very, very busy place but that since reopening word just had not gotten out yet, the trashed economy, etc. Sounds reasonable.
We over looked The Clues that visit and the next that there was problems--burnt lights, bad repairs on the banquettes, goo stains
Second visit, not so good, but worth coming to another time. But, you know what I mean here--it is kind of like a person that you start of conversation with that seems nice and then the mask starts to slip off and the person is really a crazy weirdo?
Third visit the SO tries the blackboard special a rib eye steak. So, now we are back to the beginning of my story. It comes out late. We have both been in the industry so we know what happened. Order comes in, cook looks, no steak--what's this in the freezer? Thaw it in the microwave too long--shucks--toss it on the flat top for some camelization--more shucks! It's too cool, no carmelization! But it's hot, that's good! Toss it to the server, who lets this dead grey--not rib eye, as advertised, steak, we are guessing flank steak of some ilk--and slid it under my SO's nose. A well-done, not rare...thing. Discussions about replacements, more discussion about the bill, etc.
So? I don't know. I'm thinking sinking ship. And a shame because clearly it could be a good little joint, but it just ain't.
This is a tough call. I had my birthday dinner here because I love simple comfort food and milkshakes. Sometimes less is more on a birthday. I'll save the posh places on birthdays for when I'm real old and serious. Service was EXCELLENT but the food, not so much.
My chocolate milkshake was DELISH! The fried zucchini I was excited for hearing they were straw cut and amazing from the reviews? Um no.. Heavily breaded, and they're not straws honey.. they were chunky log type cuts. These came out late so she comped us. They were dry.. I found myself peeling off half the heavy breading which was seasoned well by the way but as a whole, the zucchini's sucked. I had the meatloaf.. it was also just ok. They give you thin cuts which makes me beg the question, how about just one thick slab? So the meatloaf thin slices tasted a tad dry and the saving grace maybe is the brown gravy on top. They give you a lot of food here and it's all at bargain diner prices. My side of fries that came with my meatloaf platter was so much, it was served in its own basket. Yummy fries by the way. The big hunk of cornbread wasn't so bad either.. a tad dry though.
All in all, it was all pretty ok and you'll come out FULL. The diner is hidden in a strip mall, the inside of the place is clean and charming and again service was attentive and great. She definently was meant to work at a diner, sweet but gives some tough love.
A dream diner! It was just how you'd picture the perfect diner if you were dreaming about it - silvery, shiny and reflective on the outside; fun 50s memorabilia on the inside, an erasable board of daily specials above the counter, fresh-baked cookies in a case next to the register and a waitress with a no-nonsense attitude, quick with a laugh or joke and seemingly holding the place together single-handedly. The food looks like regular diner fare on the menu, but the quality is what you'd expect here in the Northwest - very fresh veggies, nothing is overly greasy or salty, they seem to use lots of local products and everything is flavorful.
We've been here twice in a month!
You MUST get the fried zucchini when you come here! They aren't spears, or slices, but thin, perfect, zucchini straws. Just the right amount of zucchini, breading and oil. And the ranch dressing that they come with is just right - not too thick, not too runny, but just right!
My husband loves the malts. I'm partial to the shakes and the Coke served in a curvy cup (it's plastic, not glass, so not quite euphoria, but fun all the same). The shakes come in a real glass with the mixing cup served alongside. If you don't like the cherry on top, they'll serve you a malt ball like the ones that come on the malts. That was a nice plus.
The first time here I got the patty melt which I didn't like as much, but I'm not a fan of so many grilled onions. My husband liked mine so much he got it when we went the second time. I got the burger the second time and it was lovely - fresh tomatoes, red onions and yummy pickles on top. I added Tillamook cheddar cheese and some bacon - perfect! I liked that it wasn't too big to fit in my mouth, but had all the yummy flavors in it.
They have heavenly homemade potato chips - don't even think about getting fries! (Actually, I don't know because I've only gotten the chips... the fries could be good... you'll have to test it out because I love the chips too much!) I recommend getting an extra side of ranch (the ranch from the zucchini straws won't get you through the chips)!
I really love this place and can't wait to try their pot roast and chicken pot pie... both are in the rotation as specials this month! Also, we've been so full each time that we haven't gotten a chance to try any dessert - they have a chocolate peanut butter pie on the menu and were listing homemade apple pie on their specials once... the other time they listed strawberry shortcake. I guess we'll have to make a dessert trip some time!
We ate here last week when it was 90 degrees out and too hot to cook. We wanted to eat somewhere with real ice cream shakes, but couldn't of anywhere close that wasn't overpriced. I had no idea if this place could deliver (we know now that it could) or even if the food was good, but I was pretty sure they had air conditioning.
We were very pleasantly surprised by the menu choices and the quality of the food. I figured just normal diner fair, but they have neat things like a large basket of fried zucchini for under $4 and not just shakes, but actual malts! Since we moved here almost 8 years ago, I've not had a malt that tasted right. Granted, I didn't look that hard, but anywhere that offered malts, I got one. This was the right taste/consistency. It was chocolate goodness!
I also got the meatloaf w/gravy and sides of mashed potatoes and cheese covered broccoli. Be warned... they give you a ton of broccoli... like more than a human should eat in one sitting. I was so full. It also came w/cornbread, but I was so full I couldn't even think about eating it.
This seems like a restaurant that we will probably come back to eventually to try other menu items. And drink more malts!
One star is because it is cute and very 1940's diner and because I can't give fewer anyway.
After that, there are no stars to give because it really was not good. At all.
I went with the "Blue Plate Special" which happened to be Sloppy Joes, and I somehow managed to eat most of it, but it was actually pretty terrible. I know, how can you screw up sloppy joes? Next time I'll just buy a can of Manwich - not quite like Mom used to make, but not as bad as this stuff. At least the fries were good. My man went with the bacon cheeseburger. Again, how can you screw up a bacon cheeseburger? At least his didn't actually taste bad like my plate, but it also didn't fall into the category of good. I asked if he thought mediocre was an accurate description, but he said it was slightly less than that. He went with the mashed potatoes instead of fries, and I'm pretty sure they were instant and also mediocre at their best bite.
Our waitress seemed pleasant enough when she came to take our order, but that was the last time we saw her until we were well past done and waiting for our check. At that point she didn't have the check with her, so she finally brought it after doing a bunch of other stuff, and by then we were way more than ready to have been out of there.
The people sitting next to us made for some entertainment while they discussed loudly enough that you couldn't help but hear all about their friends in jail and their own lawyers for who knows what. Classy.
This place is a-ok. Not a destination resturant, not the highlight of my week, but simply a shiny, out of place diner that my parents like to take my husband and I to on lazy Sunday mornings. Classic breakfasts that must have some funky msg added because I always have a headache by the time we leave. Diner coffee, diner food.
This is a cute little diner-car thing located behind hollywood video. Diner food at diner prices, gotta love it. I like fake cheese on my steamed broccoli. i even like it on my fries. i like their chicken fried steak with choice of gravy. I like the fried zuchinni sticks and club sandwiches. They have milkshakes and malts, and daily specials. and i can't think of anything else to describe a diner....
Really good comfort food in a cool retro style railcar diner.
Too bad they changed ownership and the menu. Things are really different there now. Not like it used to be. Prices went up too.... Just average now...
