FINE FOOD • FUN FOOD

Keep It Simple: There’s

Nothing Like A Diner

– Or Simple Tuna Melt

Editor’s Note:  These mini restaurant reviews are prepared by the Summer Dreams staff.

Nothing beats a good tuna melt.  And I mean a GOOD tuna melt!  Plaza Diner in Oneonta has just that.

The tuna doesn’t have so many fillers that you can’t taste it. It’s got just the right amount of mayo mixed in.  Then it’s topped with melty cheese and grilled on your choice of bread.

Not everywhere you go can grill a sandwich – sometimes it’s too greasy or burned.  Not here – grilled to perfection.  It’s served with fries that are to die for too!

My friend had the ham and Swiss cheese club.  It must have been 5 inches tall, loaded with ham and Swiss and lettuce and tomato.  Good club sandwiches are about as hard to find as good tuna melts.

Give them a try, the menu is huge and sure to please everyone! (Plaza Diner, 122 Main St.

Oneonta.)

TARA BARNWELL

General Manager

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and at Jackie’s Restaurant, they know it!

They’ve got all the traditional diner fare – eggs and bacon and pancakes, but I’m always drawn to the Biscuits and Sausage Gravy. They do not skimp on their peppery, savory sausage gravy, and the biscuits are fluffy enough to hold their own – ask to have the biscuits toasted for an even deeper flavor! (Jackie’s Restaurant, 3688 State Highway 28, Milford.)

LIBBY CUDMORE

Managing Editor

Looking for something sweet and crunchy? Give the Cooperstown Diner a try.

The honey-dipped fried chicken is fills both cravings with a crunchy exterior and soft, juicy, and sweet interior. Served with apple sauce and a choice of sides – fries, broccoli, potato or macaroni salad, to name a few – this is a delicious way to spend a meal. (Cooperstown Diner, 136 1/2 Main St, Cooperstown)

LARISSA RYAN

Office Manager

A good diner will offer you friendly comfort both in food and in atmosphere.  Sandy’s Diner, located at 5626 Route 7 at Oneonta’s Price Chopper Plaza, checks off both those boxes.

I ordered two eggs over hard and they came out perfectly – the yolks were not dried out yet held firm, and the eggs were not greasy.  The bacon I ordered with my eggs wasn’t too crisp and wasn’t too limp.

My side of French toast was delicious, the bread soft and coated in just the right amount of French toast batter.

My daughter Alexandra ordered two pancakes, which were good and enormous, almost completely covering the cute, colorful plate they came on.  She probably won’t have to eat anything else today!

And then there is Sandy’s comfortable atmosphere.  It may be located on a huge concrete parking lot, but Sandy’s interior is the opposite of its exterior.  The walls are decorated with sparkly butterflies, uplifting mottos, and rows of photographs of Sandy’s customers over the years – babies, kids, parents, grandparents, and so on.

The waitresses do what good diner waitresses do: call you “honey” or “sweetie” as they swiftly take your order, bring out your dishes, refill your coffee cup, and gab with the people sitting at the counter.

Sandy’s diner is one of those places you want go back to at least once a week until you’re known as a regular and photos of you and your family join the ones on the wall.

JENNIFER HILL

Staff Reporter