YDKJ Diner Challenge! Allwood Diner, Clifton

by Alice Magdziak • January 22, 2016 • Counties, Dinerland, Food, Passaic • Comments (0) • 2278

We’re making our way around the state reviewing diners by ordering the same dishes at every diner to see how they match up. The Allwood Diner in Clifton, like many diners around New Jersey, has had a few different names over the years. They’ve been the Allwood Diner for a few years now and this latest batch of owners brought some good cooks with them.

Here’s how the classic diner dishes came out at the Allwood Diner:

Taylor Ham, Egg and Cheese Sandwich

Nice thick slices of meat that could have been grilled a little longer for my taste with a little egg and cheese. This is a good sandwich that could have been made greater with a closer ratio of meat to egg and cheese with crispier Taylor Ham.

Pancakes

The pancakes were pretty well-done on the outside but were nice and fluffy on the inside. They just weren’t pretty.

Western Omelet

The eggs were well-done but the omelet was really good. The veggies were chopped small so you could get a bit of bell pepper and onion in each bite with some ham. The potatoes were really creamy on the inside and super crispy on the outside.

Chicken Tenders

We got chicken tenders with a sampler appetizer platter that also came with mozzarella sticks, chicken wings and stuffed potato skins. The tenders were lightly breaded and had a nice thick chunk of chicken inside. Everything in the sampler platter was good, actually.

Burger

The Taylor Ham and Egg burger is called the Mustang Burger at the Allwood after Clifton’s high school mascot. It represented Clifton well because it was delicious. The Taylor Ham was grilled better than the breakfast sandwich. The burger was moist and well-grilled. This was a really great diner burger.

We always try some wild card items from the menu just to try something different at each diner. Here’s what we tried in Clifton.

Soups

The soups at the Allwood Diner are really good. The Manhattan Clam Chowder was filled with seafood and very tomato-y. The pea soup had nice big croutons on top and was creamy and delicious.

The chili bowl came with nacho cheese and tortilla chips on top. It was more like hot dog chili than a regular bowl of chili. I was glad to have the chips and cheese to break up the homogeneous chili. It tasted good but it wasn’t too great looking.

Fish Sandwich

The fish was a little smaller than the bun which was a little disappointing. It tasted good but could have been a little meatier.

All in all, we’ve been enjoying our visits to the Allwood Diner. It’s nicely decorated and always busy which is a pretty good indicator of a quality diner. We wish it was open 24 hours to make it a classic New Jersey diner, though.

Check out all the pictures from our visit to Clifton’s Allwood Diner: