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Review content:
We've been eating here for years. It's great before a Blues or Cards game, or after a night on the town, as they are open 24 hours on the weekends. Lately, however, we've noticed a significant slip in the food. About a month ago, a group of friends and I ate here around 3 AM on a Saturday night. I ordered meatloaf with mashed potatoes, one of their specialties. When my meal arrived, the meatloaf was lukewarm on the outside and stone cold on the inside. The mashed potatoes tasted as if they were made a few days ago and sat in the fridge, and contained some water. Meal rating: F. I realize even the best restaurants have their nights, so I figured I'd give them a pass on this one. So lets fast-forward to early this morning: I had a friend in town and as we were out for a late night on the town, I decided to treat him to the diner. I ordered their ""South City Philly,"" he had a Cuban sandwich. The meal arrived fairly quickly. My Philly was a big disappointment. Two greasy slices of bread housing a layer of green peppers, onions, and swiss. The peppers and onions were tasty enough, but the ""steak,"" or lack thereof, consisted of a few meager slices of tough, grayish meat, drenched in grease from the vegetables. For a reference, Subway gives you about twice as much meat, on a bigger slice of bread. The fries were the worst part. They were as limp as a 300-year-old corpse, and soggy as a wet sponge, just drenched in grease. They were disgusting, inedible, and my friend, who ordered the Cuban sandwich, said his weren't any better. Their fries USED to be perfectly crispy on the outside, tender on the inside, and deliciously seasoned. This meal rating: F-. I'm not sure what's happening late in the night behind the scenes in the kitchen, but it's understandable that it might not be easy finding a skilled cook who wants to work overnight hours on the weekends. Because we've had so many good meals here prior to these past two experiences, I'll give City Diner one more pitch. If it's strike three, we're not coming back.
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