BUD

DAN

Main Dish

Tribeca Steak Sandwich

This is what we’re dealing with here: sliced steak, cherry and sweet peppers, caramelized onions, and mozzarella on a ciabatta roll. There’s nothing not to like.

Well, maybe a couple things not to like. The good news first: the peppers were custom-made for this thing. Sweet peppers and steak are a classic combination, but the cherry peppers were the star. They were just hot enough that I noticed—which, incidentally, is also just hot enough to make Dan sweat profusely and chug half her water. (That’ll teach her to steal my food.) I’m of the belief that a little spice can make most dishes better, or at least more interesting, and this one greatly benefited from it.

The flaws with this sandwich were a couple. First, the heat was hardly overwhelming (for anyone except Dan), but it was strong enough that it begged for a foil. Maybe some kind of cool spread. Ranch dressing? No, that’s not right. But something. Second, the steak. It was good steak as far as sandwich steak goes. But I guess I just don’t like sandwich steak. Unless the stuff is sliced thin enough to qualify as a cold cut, or slow cooked so that it virtually melts down into little stringy bits, you just can’t bite through it cleanly enough to get a neat mouthful of sandwich. Instead, you end up pulling out entire pieces, then there will be bites of bread without any filler, and quickly it gets out of hand. I found that to be the case here, and so while I appreciated the different flavors, the texture became a mechanical issue.

Main Dish

Banzai Burger

Quick note: Buddy’s sandwich was so hot that after one bite I swear I was taking a vacation to hell to visit my grandmother. LOL I’m kidding, she’s still alive. If you’re reading this, hi Nonna!! I don’t know if I’m a huge wimp, or if Bud is a spice monster, but I was literally tearing up from those peppers. Quicker note: I think it’s that I’m a wimp.

SO—Always eager to experience a unique burger, you KNOW I wasn’t about to pass up the “Banzai Turkey Burger” (replacing the turkey with beef, of course). I was very excited for this because the last time I had a similar burger was at Tenafly Classic Diner, and it stands as one of the best burgers I’ve ever had.

Pompton Queen’s version was…not as good. What Tenafly Classic Diner’s Big Kahuna Burger did differently than the Banzai Burger was that they included lettuce and tomato, and replaced the teriyaki with General Tso sauce. The burgers were similar enough for me to mentally compare them to each other, but different enough for it to be an unfair comparison. So, when it comes to rating the Banzai, I’m taking the Kahuna off the plate (heh) and rating it off what it was, rather than what it could have been.

The teriyaki is always a fun condiment choice for a burger. That combined with the grilled pineapple give an unusual but welcome sweet flavor to such a savory sandwich. The melted cheddar brings it all together and all three ingredients work together to make an excellent tasting burger. If I had one complaint, it would be that despite everything, the burger felt a bit dry. Maybe there coulda been more teriyaki, maybe it was the bread, maybe the burger was cooked more well than the medium I had requested. I have no idea. Regardless, I’d highly recommend this to anyone who isn’t STAUNCHLY opposed to adding fruit to their proteins (Buddy), and to someone who wants a classic burger experience with a fun twist.

Fries

This is it, everyone. Call off the search. Nice, thin fries, crunchy at the tips but not fried to a hard crisp. Just great. Definitely needed salt, though.

Fries

Absolutely excellent fries. Best I’ve ever had? Certainly not. But these really stood out from about 90 percent of the pathetic potatoes I’ve suffered through in the past.

They were almost shoestring-like and had an excellent consistency of crispy outside, soft inside. I’d obviously have preferred mine a bit soggier but I can still appreciate a good-quality fry. The honey mustard was gross and looked like white sauce, otherwise I’d probably have gorged myself more intensely on this side. It’s good thing I didn’t because I was obsessed with the dessert options and wanted to keep an appetite for some cake.

Dessert

Godiva Fudge Cheesecake

When we walked into the Pompton Queen, it felt like stumbling upon an oasis in the desert. It’s been ages since we’ve seen a really compelling dessert case, and this one really made up for lost time. Just look at that thing. There were probably five different cakes I would’ve ordered without a second thought. But I am a generous dining partner and I let Dan make a suggestion. She was very enthusiastic about the Godiva fudge cheesecake.

It wouldn’t have been my first choice, but I don’t regret it at all. The standout feature, as if you need me to point it out, is that eight-inch-thick layer of fudge on top. It was almost too much—and yet somehow not nearly enough. Very tasty. The cheesecake layer was a little stingy, but what was there was excellent. It was sandwiched between two layers of conventional chocolate cake, which I wouldn’t stand for on its own but which was a perfectly fine texture and flavor complement. All in all, this was done beautifully, to the point that I’ll insist on a return trip so I can try three or four other options. (I’m looking at you, caramel cheesecake.)

Dessert

Godiva Fudge Cheesecake

Considering the fact that my life revolves around the pursuit of chocolate, when Bud told me our dessert selection was up to me I knew nothing would sate me quite like the Godiva Fudge Cheesecake.

I have nothing more to add that Bud hasn’t touched on already. Loved the cheesecake portion of it—super creamy! And the FUDGE. Oh man that was good stuff. The cake parts of it I wasn’t crazy about.

This place reminds me of Nevada Diner, where you walk in, see the dessert display, and immediately know you’ll have to come back to try three or four other cakes.

Service

At the table, the first thoughts we shared about the waitress were that she seemed a little impatient and didn’t have much interest in us. Obviously, I was skeptical because it’s impossible for anyone to not have much interest in us. By the end, though, we decided that she was just very busy, scrambling to serve several tables at once. And she did a very nice job of it. She noticed when our drinks were empty (which, I just realize, has been a rarity lately), she was pleasant and smiley—and, when Dan told her it was my birthday, she threatened to have the whole staff come sing to me.

Now, I don’t believe this would’ve actually happened. (If you’re interested in stories where it does, go subscribe to our other blog, Half Apps, the Applebee’s Blog with Dan and Bud.) But she did come out with a candle and a matchbook, which was just the sweetest lil’ thing.

Service

What a redemption arc our waitress had! I actually leaned over my dish to whisper to Bud that I didn’t think our waitress liked us. He disagreed with an uninterested grunt.

Throughout the course of the meal, though, she really pulled through. Bud is right, she must’ve been just a bit busy and overwhelmed at the late lunch/early dinner rush. Her attentiveness to giving Buddy a birthday candle was much appreciated and totally changed my opinion on her. Anyone who is good to my Buddy is good in my book.

P.S. Don’t visit our Applebee’s blog quite yet, we haven’t been able to make a new post since all of the microwaves at our local chain broke down and all the chefs are sitting there, helpless.

Value

This is the only category where I can say that Pompton Queen was mediocre. My steak sandwich was $15.95 and the cheesecake—priced as a “specialty” variety—was $6.95. Those are fair prices and I don’t have any complaint. They just aren’t a remarkable deal.

Value

Yikes. I may have to take a look our spreadsheet, but my Banzai Burger may be THE most expensive hamburger I’ve ever gotten. Pineapples must be a new entry on the endangered species list because there is no other reason I could fathom that would justify an almost $13.00 burger. At $12.95, you’d think that this burger comes with a complimentary Japanese chef telling me the fulfilling but tragic life story of the cow from which the beef was rendered. Instead, it came with a pickle.

That burger was pricey, but you didn’t do any better, Godiva Fudge Cheesecake! Now don’t get me wrong, I love diner cheesecakes. LOVE THEM. But, I firmly believe that the gold standard of cheesecake making belongs to The Cheesecake Factory. Unfortunately, Bud and I can’t eat there every week because we aren’t made of money and that Applebee’s blog isn’t going to write itself. Anyway, if you’ve ever been to The Cheesecake Factory, you may have had the out-of-body experience that is eating the Godiva Chocolate Cake Cheesecake. It’s perfect and it’s one of my top twenty favorite cheesecakes at the Cheesecake Factory. What I’m getting at here is that this perfect cake is chocolatier, has more Godiva, is a much bigger slice, and is only a dollar more, at $7.95. Our Godiva Fudge Cheesecake at Pompton Queen was fine I wouldn’t say it’s worth just about as much as this beauty is.

Ambience

I’d have trouble putting my finger on the exact style choice here. It’s not a classic diner per se, it’s definitely not sleek and shiny. I’d call it modern-comfortable: a lot of wood and earth tones, stone floors, paneling, but none of it in a grandma’s house kind of way. It evoked Candlewyck Diner for me, which is a compliment.

Ambience

Pompton Queen does one of the most important things a diner can do: display their desserts right up front. As soon as I walk in, if I’m not seeing cheesecakes cascading atop each other behind a window, then I’m skeptical of the quality of the establishment. Bud and I will soon be working on a scatterplot that we’ll be able to manipulate and make breakthrough diner discoveries. I am POSITIVE though, that even without having made the graph yet, the diners that have a dessert display visible through the entrance are better than those with the desserts stowed away in the back.

I got a little sidetracked there…what I’m saying is: I liked the ambience of this diner very much. The dessert display was only the beginning. The environment was very clean and inviting. There was soft but upbeat country music playing the whole time. People were popping in en masse to pick up their take-home meals (which I always see as a good sign of a diner’s quality). There was a tiny little red telephone booth in the foyer and it was adorable.

OVERALL

It feels like a while since I’ve been really impressed by a diner, and Pompton Queen reignited that feeling for the first time since probably our visit to West Essex. It feels like someplace special. The desserts deserve special recognition, and so does the service. I wasn’t thrilled with my sandwich, but even that was more an issue with my choice of meal than with their execution of it. I’d very gladly come back here.

OVERALL

Pompton Queen was a very welcome treat after what seemed like an eternity of very bleak diner experiences. This diner feels to me like it is to Pompton Plains what Tops is to Newark, or Stateline is to Mahwah. There’s still a ton of diners that Bud and I have to check out on that long stretch of Route 23, but I’ve got a feeling that none of them will hold a candle to this one.