Infamous Diner Manchester

Manchester has seen a number of American style diners come and go over the years, the most successful being Starvin’ Marvins back in the mid – late 90s

Welcome

Infamous Diner just off Shudehill and Cross Street begins where Marvins’ left off. Aside from the giant LED screen hanging from the corner, you could be forgiven for thinking you had been transported back to the 1950s along with Marty McFly, as the interior looks very authentic, right down to the jukebox and the red leather seating. But whereas the styling is authentic, unfortunately the same can’t be said for the food, that’s not to say the food is bad, it isn’t, it just isn’t as good as any diner I have been to on either the East or West coast of America, but then I don’t know any UK places that are.

Infamous Diner

We only had a main course and one drink each, so to judge the entire menu on two meals just wouldn’t be fair. I think one of the best measures of an American style restaurant has to be the hamburgers and we didn’t have any, maybe next time. But we did try perhaps the second best measure of authentic American food, the hot dog. I chose the Fat Face, an all beef hot dog covered in St Louis pulled pork, BBQ sauce and dill pickles, served in a brioche bun.

Fat Face Hot Dog

The hot dog was very nice but there was very little pulled pork and what there was didn’t have much taste. I didn’t even notice any BBQ sauce so I put ketchup and mustard on it. The fries were well cooked, crispy on the outside, soft in the inside and tasted like they had been cooked in fresh oil.

My girlfriend chose the streaky bacon, cheese and tomato griddled sandwich. Before ordering, she did ask if the bacon was thinly sliced and if it could be cooked extra crispy and was told yes. If you have ever tasted streaky bacon in America, you will know how thin and deliciously crispy it usually is, the bacon at Infamous Diner was neither. The American’s will generally give you far more than you can eat, this sandwich had four slices of bacon on.  The curly fries tasted like McCain curly fries if I am being honest.

Apologies for the half eaten sandwich, somebody was hungry 🙂

Streaky Bacon, cheese and tomato sandwich

There is quite a large drinks selection, from cocktails to American bottled beers, ice cream floats and soft drinks. I had a can of Ting, which is similar to Lilt but much tastier, a little pricey at £2 especially as it arrives in a can. There’s just something I begrudge about paying more than 50p for a drink when I know its from a can,  but I understand the principles of overheads, so I won’t dwell on it. 🙂

The premises were spotless and well managed, we called in without a booking at 6:30pm on a Saturday night and had no problem getting seated. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? I’ll let you decide. Bigger parties who arrived after us weren’t so lucky though and plenty of people were turned away. The music is played from an old fashion styled jukebox and was far too loud for comfort; when the opening line of  Bon Jovi’s “You Give Love a Bad Name” blasted out, two of the waitresses looked like they had literally been “shot to the heart” they jumped that high.

Jukebox

A final word of warning, the toilets are down in the basement and you need to navigate a hundred steps at various angles to get there, just when you think you’ve managed it, a final step catches you out. Proceed with caution.

Overall, this wasn’t a bad place, better than some of the new additions to the American / Burger themed restaurants in Manchester. Prices were reasonable at £22 for two meals and two drinks.