A SEMI-DELUXE DINNER AT DELUXE TOWN DINER

On Friday night my sister took her last exam as a med student, so we decided to celebrate by having dinner at the Deluxe Town Diner in Watertown. I was pretty excited to go to this restaurant, which I had driven by a few times, but had heard more about of late due to the cupcake shop that they'd opened next door. That's right, a cupcake shop. But we'll get back to that later.

So like I said, the diner is located in Watertown. Which for those of you without a car, may seem like a world a way. It's funny how small a city Boston is, but you never realize it until you get a car and find out that the trip which once seemed unreachable by the T is only a 5 or 10 minute drive away. (which is what I figured out one I got a car and started going to JP, Watertown and Brighton) This diner is less than a 10 minute drive north of Harvard. So for those of you without a car, what can I say, find a friend who has one.

Upon entering the diner, you immediately see that it really is like one of those old school diners. This one wasn't super fancy, but what they're known for is having an untraditional diner menu. And it was actually fairly empty, which I was a little surprised about, but I guess this place is also more famous for their breakfast/brunch. We sat in a booth in the back and I already knew what I wanted to order, having perused the menu online prior to arriving. You can find it here on their website: www.deluxetowndiner.com. So back to that untraditional menu, i did consider ordering off their all day breakfast menu. And they do have the traditional diner stuff, but they also serve stuff like sweet potato pancakes, veggie sausages and you can add sun dried tomatoes, avocados and goat cheese to your omlettes. But I opted instead actual dinner food.

Still, I didn't order the regular diner dinner. (though they do have the burgers, sandwiches, etc.) Instead, I got an order of polenta fries with garlic aioli. These were actually pretty good. Though not really what I had expected. When I read "polenta fries" on the menu, I kinda imagined in my head these thick cut pieces of polenta, panfried and served with the sauce on the side. Instead, these were literally french fries that just happened to be made out of polenta rather than potatoes. They were crunchy, corny and had a little head to them, which I liked. And the garlic aioli was a great accompaniement. I kinda wish I had gotten sweet potato fries instead.

For dinner, I ordered the Maine crab cakes. Here they are below. And i got to pick two sides. I chose the "real" mashed potatoes and broccoli.
As you can see, it's a very generous portion. I ended up taking two of them home. I actually ended up liking the sides more than the actual crab cakes. Those mashed potatoes were great! The crab cakes were ok. They clearly been made ahead of time, which i think contributed to their dryness. Also, these crab cakes had been deep fried, so they developed a very thick crust on the outside. And you'd think this would help seal in the juices (kinda like fried chicken) but again, they were quite dry. Lots of tartar sauce helped, but I would've preferred panfried crab cakes.

By then time our entrees had arrived, the restaurant had started filling up. With a lot of family with young children. And I could see why parents would bring their kids here. It's very low key, no fuss, and it's the kind of place where it's so loud that people don't care if your kid is screaming their head off, running around the restaurant or throwing food on the floor. So not exactly the romantic date type place. Also, I think there was only one waiter for our entire half of the restaurant, so even though we ordered quickly and the food came out fast, it took almost as long to get our check. Oh, and here' s my sister's mealoaf dinner, just so you can get a look.In conclusion, I guess the food at Deluxe Town Diner is a hit or miss. I think next time I'll order off their all day breakfast menu, since that's their specialty. Oh, and back to that cupcake store. So by the time we had finished dinner (around 8) the place was closing.It's located just around back of the diner. But we were able to get some cupcakes to go at the front of the diner. and though my chocolate cupcake was very pretty with its colored frosting, it turned out that the cupcake itself was very dry and I could've made better cupcakes at home with a box of cake mix. So the next time your in Watertown, check out the diner, order the all day breakfast and skip the cupcakes.