Skylight Diner (New York)

Our last night in New York (which thankfully means my last NY post!). We went to a New York Liberty game at Madison Square Garden, where the crowd was full of hyped up children drinking giant cokes and eating hot dogs. I had the giant coke as well, so was also full of sugar and excitement at the edge-of-the-seat game and the energy in the crowd (well, sugar high at least!).

For the very last hurrah, I decided we needed to go to a diner. An American Diner. The Skylight Diner was only a couple of blocks away and was almost completely empty at 10pm on a Friday night. It really looked the part - long counter, bar stools, boothes, baseball on the TV behind the bar. According to the menu, the Skylight Diner was voted the #1 Diner in Manhattan by the New York Daily News. Lofty praise, indeed.

It mustn't have been for the service. We were served by an exceedingly grumpy old man, who was clearly upset that we had interrupted his baseball viewing. No cliched chirpy blonde waitresses with pony-tails in this diner!

I really wanted pie (said in an American accent - paih?). I really wanted cherry pie and it was on the menu, but apparently even though the menu listed about 10 different pies, in reality, they only had apple pie. That was okay, I like apple pie. I would have preferred it heated but grumpy old man was having none of that. Kyle ordered pancakes and I also ordered a hot chocolate.

The pie and hot chocolate arrived quickly and looked impressive. The pie was a gorgeous shiny pastry, filled with chunks of real stewed apple. It was delicious, but very sweet. The hot chocolate (one I removed the huge dollop of canned cream from the top) was actually surprisingly not too sweet and helped to balance out the sweetness of the pie.

Kyle's pancakes finally arrived and I was immediately jealous. Three thick, fluffy, steaming pancakes served with lots of whipped butter and maple syrup to dress them with yourself. This is where McDonald's got the inspiration for their hotcakes. They were so good! Luckily, they were really filling, so I sacrificed the end of my pie to help Kyle finish the pancakes.

The diner was really cool! I wish the service had have been better, but otherwise, I loved it! The food was lovely, huge portions for fairly cheap - all of this cost about $10. And they're open 24 hours. 24 hours of pie . . . as long as you want apple.

An awesome ending to our trip to New York (I prefer to think of it as the ending - the next day, we actually had the worst meal of the entire trip at Lindy's Diner - bad food, bad service, really overpriced). We had such a brilliant time in NY - so much to see, so much to do, so much to eat!

Skylight Diner
402 West 34th Street (at 9th Ave)
New York, NY 10001