Moonstruck Diner

(Welcome to TT’s Diner Week, on Tuesday you read about my favorite diner for breakfast, now it’s time for my favorite for dinner.)

For the holidays, one of the presents my Mom gave me was a voucher for three gift certificates to Restaurant.com. They offer a variety of deals to many restaurants for hugely discounted gift certificates. Sometimes the price is $10 for a $25 certificate and sometimes it is only $1 for that same certificate. You may remember we used one of these certificates at Sa Aming Nayon a while back. Oddly enough, there were only a handful of restaurants on the site that piqued my interest. One of these happened to be our local diner, Moonstruck Diner, so we decided to redeem one of these certificates for a restaurant we go to anyway.

Once again, I was sick, so I started with a bowl of soup. That night they had chicken and rice, which was just what I needed. It was quite a LARGE bowl full of plenty of pieces of chicken. It was warm, not hot, so it probably didn’t help heal me as much as it should. I wasn’t in the mood to send it back to get nuked. I think it was around $5 for a bowl.

CT said: I had a taste and actually liked it quite a bit, ordering a small cup for myself. Nice flavor and not too salty.

CT decided on the Chicken Souvlaki on Pita Bread with lettuce, tomato, onions, peppers and tzatziki sauce ($9.35). She is on a health kick so decided against getting it “deluxe” with fries. It was quite a large portion with three big chicken strips. She remarked how nicely spiced the chicken was and not dry at all. Pretty impressive for diner food. She also liked the fresh salad that came on the plate, except for the olives of course.

CT says: As TT said, I was really quite impressed by the chicken. I don’t order a lot of chicken when I’m out, but this had great flavor. I happily took home some leftovers to make a sandwich the next day. I also liked that the dressing on the side wasn’t a little cup, but they rather they bring out the whole bottle. You can take as little (or as much) as you want. Much less waste!

My cold wasn’t hurting my appetite so I decided on the Cooper Sandwich ($12.50). It had grilled breast of chicken, bacon, cheddar cheese, lettuce and tomato on a roll with french fries, coleslaw and pickle. As you can see, the sandwich was piled high with meats and cheese. Simple, yet delicious with flavorful chicken breast and nicely cooked bacon. I have had this sandwich before and usually enjoy it as I did this time. They have especially good and addictive fries, just make sure to request them well done.

All in all, it was another good meal at Moonstruck. Growing up in New Jersey, aka the diner capital of the world, I have a fondness for diners that hopefully never goes away. Fortunately Manhattan still has a few that allows me to reminisce this and have a happy belly. Thanks Mom for the gift certificate!