University Diner

They are closed and property is for sale. This was one of our favorites and we sure hope someone else buys it soon. I’m already missing the mousaka and stuffed cabbage.

Omg I saw a for sale/​rent sign and I called and the number is disconnected. I believe this diner has closed down. What a shame the people and servers were amazing. It was our Saturday morning diner spot. Very said to see it close down.

Great food. Great atmosphere. Great service. Although they didn’t have the bread that came with my sandwich, they found a quick way to accommodate and gave me a meal that was very satisfying. They also have great prices, if you’re a kean student, there are great discounts and it’s great prices even for non-​kean students. Great place to eat. Definitely recommend.

They’ve really improved. I’m a student at Kean, so I get a 10% discount, but I stopped utilizing it after a few visits years back… I recently revisited this place and there has been a GREAT improvement. Even the matzo ball soup is better! It used to be just chicken and carrots but they’ve now added more vegetables and it just tastes more homemade. 4 stars!

Oh dear me. No, no, no… just no. This diner is probably the worst diner I have ever been to. I’m not going to pull punches here, not going to do it. I would never wish the diner on my worst enemy.
We walk into the diner at 7:30 on a Friday and the place is empty, save for one couple. That should have been the first indication that this place was bad. I have been to many-​a-​diner at later hours than this and there are always quite a number of people in the place.
We sit down and the waiter takes our drink orders and brings out our drinks in what has to be record time. Oh how I wish I knew that this would be the best part of the service all night long. In any case he came around a few times and refilled our drinks quickly.
When we were ready to order he comes around to begin taking orders and manages to get through four of the six people in or party when his cell phone starts ringing. I figured he would ignore it and take the rest of our orders, but to my surprise, he actually answered his phone and said to us, «I’m going to take this, I’ll be right back.» Is this your first day as a waiter? I don’t know where you’ve waited tabled before, but waiters take care of their guests, not talk on phones. When he came back to take the last two people’s orders he told us, «the food will begin coming out in three minutes.» Oh what a lie.
Slowly, and I mean slowly, the food begins to come out with the soups and salads coming out first. He managed to get the matzo ball soup confused with he chicken noodle. Oh god. More time passes and no entrees yet. We try to get his attention and nothing.
At this point it’s around 8:35 and we placed our orders around 7:45. Where is our food? Did they order it from another diner? Nope! In fact the waiter explained that our food was ready all along and that he was waiting for us to finish our salads and the coleslaw and pickles that came with the burgers. Really? That’s not your call, buddy. If the food is done, bring it to the table. There’s no reason to let it die in the window because you, as a waiter, are waiting for the customer to finish their salad. I have never seen this practice because it absolutely ruins the food as it cools off.
The burger I had was mediocre at best. The best part of the burger was the «free» plastic that came with it because the cook didn’t unwrap it correctly. How do you mess that up? The rest of our party also has similar complaints that’s the food was bland and that it was mushy.
Finally we just asked for the check, so we could get out of the place and move on with our lives, hopefully forgetting this awful experience. Would I ever come back here? Hell no, not in this life and not in any other. I’ll never let anyone I know ever make the mistake of walking in here. If you’re starving and this is the last place on Earth to go to, you might as well starve to death because you’ll have a better time doing that. My god, this place is bad and I would not be the least bit surprised if this place closes it’s doors for good one day soon, but until that day comes, avoid this place like the plague. Ugh… at least the water was good.

I’ve watched Kitchen Nightmares and Restaurant Impossible before and this place pretty much belongs on one of those shows. Sitting here right now although I should have been home now. We’re here as a group of 7. Walked in and the place was absolutely dead on a Friday night. It’s so quiet that you could literally hear a pin drop. The décor here is just plain old tacky and looks like a bad marriage of flowers and mirrors. We sat down and as the waiter was taking our order his phone rang and he ditched us to take his call. WTF??? When he finally came back, he finished taking the order and said 3 minutes and food would start coming out. Maybe he meant 3 hours. We waited almost and hour and then asked when the food was coming. He told us that he was actually waiting for us to finish our salads. Finally the food came out. This whole process took another 10 minutes since the guy nervously walked out with each plate one by one. As he delivered each dish his hand was shaking like crazy. We couldn’t help but laugh. When I cut into my food, it clearly made sense that he was waiting for us to finish since it was as hard as a rock. Maybe it was ready within 3 minutes but just sat there for another hour until finally being served. Everything here is just slow from the waiters voice to the food to the delivery of our plates. I would understand the long wait if it were packed but it was empty. If this place is dead and they are this confused imagine what it would be like if they were full.
There were a few red flags though
1. It’s Friday night and the place is EMPTY. Union is like the diner capital of NJ and I’ve never had an issue at any other diner in this area.
2. The waiter said thank you so much for coming like ten times when we sat down as if they were so desperate to get people through the door. Who the F does that???
There’s plenty of other diners on Morris Ave. If you have somewhere to go after, don’t come here cuz you will run late. Over an hour for just mediocre, bland, and rock hard food is ridiculous!

I live literally around the corner from this diner and have been coming here off and on for the past 15 years since I’ve been in NJ (I’m 22) the food is good. I usually get breakfast here but the staff is always friendly and attentive. Prices are reasonable too. No complaints

I’ve had University Diner twice and I was very please each time. Second time I got the Juevos Rancheros… which if I know my Spanish (and I don’t!!!) means a couple of sweetass eggs covered with salsa beans cheese and all the most amazing things on the planet. Oh, and some tortillas for good measure. I also got the monte cristo, which isn’t as good as the monte cristo from Bennigans (god I miss Bennigans), but it was still very very tasty.
Prices aren’t bad either.
Also, they have a counter you can sit at if you’re a loner and have not friends to go to breakfast with like me.

Very clean typical Jersey diner with a nice menu filled with a few suprises. Had the fajita omelet which was very good. Service was fast and friendly and the prices were good. all and all a good experience.

I think I can call myself a diner expert. Living my whole life in NJ. The university diner is close to my house and offers you typical diner food. Service is great but overall experience is just ok.

Must have changed hands… worse dinner food ever. Don’t waste your money.

This restaurant is under new ownership. I went there on Wednesday with my fiancé at 5pm. My fiancé asked for the chicken and rice. I asked for the buffalo chicken salad. The waiter came back and told us that they didn’t have any chicken and rice! How doesnt a restaurant have any rice? urgh! so then she had to order something else. (She is preggo mind you) it was hard to choose something else. My salad was amazing. She hated her second dish which was the tostada taco salad. The waiter forgot my side order. I told him to cancel it. Only reason i gave 3 stars is because my salad was amazing. My fiancé on the other hand has disappointed. Our waiter was nice, but the place needs to be stacked with food. Kean University students get a discount. 8)

I’ve been to this loc several times over the yrs but only joined Unilocal a few yrs & I hdnt been back since because the reviews from a few yrs ago were bad since an earlier sale, now Tropicana recently bought this place & that has been my exclusive diner so I decided to try UD figuring it had to be better.
The exterior has been redone – the interior somewhat though the layout is virtually the same.
Good sized parking lot – easy to find. Arrived at 6 on a Thursday nite – place was about ½ full & by the time we left the front area was virtually empty (keep in mind there were a decent amount in the expansive back area so it gives the false impression the place is empty). Since they’re next to Kean I’m sure there are times when the place is busier.
Soda & raspberry iced tea (decent not as good as Trop). We tried the mac/​chs balls which came over ricotta & a bowl of marinara. Balls were light tasting & a curious accompaniment of ricotta (virtually tasteless) & decent marinara. The fact this was only $ 4.95 made it almost worth the price.
They were out of bread???(1^st time ever this happened not that it would be a deal breaker but a mental note)
With each of our entrees came soup & salad (as opposed to one or the other with Trop’s reg menu). Both salads very fresh even though 95% iceberg & a couple of other leaves, creamy Italian dressing excellent, The soups were not as good – chicken noodle LOADED with chicken but broth tasteless. French Onion not much cheese, bread at bottom was rubbery – had an light unusual taste when I discovered a bay leaf? If this wasn’t an accident my suggestion would be to never put that in that soup again & to concentrate on using more beef stock – Tropicana’s is excellent (rivals any steakhouse)
Entrees were shimp parmagiana (pretty good) & chicken/​shrimp francais – chicken a bit dry, shrimp good (though you only get 3 large, maybe xlg), sauce thick, ok taste but had a «sandy/​coarse» consistency.
Desserts also came with the meal we both got the bread pudding to go as we were pretty full.
We also both got cappuccinos which were surprisingly strong & tasty & at $ 3.25 each a good value.(they were better than at some Italian restaurants I’ve been to)
I also got the roast turkey with cranberry sauce dinner to go – when brought it home the cranberry sauce wasn’t there – fortunately had a can of it at home (which I’m sure is what they use here) which also came with soup (split pea) & salad. It is enough for 2 meals so if after having my take home dessert & the togo meal if it will change the # of stars I will adjust accordingly.
If she is working when you go ask for Maritza – she was very engaging, sweet, happy (so many servers look miserable) & didn’t hesitate to apologize for any delay (they were a couple of small lapses but I overheard someone didn’t come in & as I said before the back area was pretty busy as it had some larger parties – idk if they tried to call someone else to fill in I would hope so on a Fri/​Sat/​holiday).
So for 1 appy, 3 entrees, 2 soft drinks, deserts & cappuccinos the total with tax/​tip came to $ 75 which is reasonable.
Also, I had a $ 5 coupon from a mailer menu. They are having a «grand opening» from May 1^st to May 10^th & it’s some sort of 3% discount (not sure if it’s just this week & you get a points card?) The guy at the counter said that was the last day for the coupon which I didn’t want to discuss there because the exp date is 6 – 30 & I’d like to come back another time or two to use the other coupons.
I prefer to give a detailed rating as opposed to just saying I liked it or I didn’t.
For me I rate a restaurant in 4 categories in order of importance:
Food
Service
Value
Décor/​ambience/​misc
If you’re wondering why this is the order for me I rather have great food & so-​so service than the other way around. You can always plan around a slower evening to make it just as enjoyable but not around mediocre food whether it’s fast or slow paced.
My 3^rd item I call value instead of price because based on the taste & serving portion of the item compared to similar items at other restaurants tells me if it’s a good value. For instance the best steak I’ve ever had to date runs about $ 44 but besides being delicious (a way to tell is it stands on its own w/​o adding any sauces) it is boneless & about 24oz so you get two good meals.
Food (2.0), service (1.5), value (1.0) & décor/​ambience/​misc (0.5)
I then take the # stars for each category & multiply by the # in parentheses then divide by 5 to get my final rating. If the final average is exactly ½ I’ll round up or down depending on other reviews.
So my calculations are as follows:
FOOD 2×2 = 4.0
SERVICE 4.5×1.5 = 6.75
VALUE 3.5×1 = 3.5
AMBIENCE/​OTHER 3×0.5 = 1.5
Total pts 15.75 divided by 5 = 3.15 which rounds to 3

Great food. great service .everything about the restaurant is great .very polite servers and food was fast as well. never a problem or a wait in this place .its a must go for breakfast

It used to be a good diner but now the food is just blah nothing great. I ordered the Philly cheese stake and it was small. I thought I ordered from the kids menu. I know for sure I’m not going back. Maybe they are cutting back .
That place is always empty I don’t know why cause they have Kean university right next door. So it should always be packed. They have a lot of competition around so they need to step up their game on food quality.

A very solid diner with a friendly staff. I do come here often for breakfast. The food is good and pricing is standard. There are diners with lesser food that price higher. The servings could be a little larger, but all in all, its a great diner!

Service is blah!
Food options are what you would typically expect at any diner. The food is good in my opinion (not great) especially after a long day of classes or studying.

University diner is a very convenient place to go to. If you want good taste don’t come here. The service is mediocre.

Was feeling under the weather and got a matzoh ball soup to go. Hands down, THE second BEST I have ever had, after my grandmother’s recipe. I am sure there are other great items on the menu but I cannot get past that soup!

The food is good & the prices are really good. My bill after tax but before tip was roughly $ 30 for 4 people (I was with my parents & sister) at breakfast. I was not pleased with the service — we had to remind our server twice that our toast & orange juice were missing & she automatically put lemons in our water, which displeases me. I actually got the impression that the server wasn’t as helpful as she could have been. I’ve been here before, but I never got the bad service feelings before. Hopefully the service can improve on the next visit.