Gold Dig #33

Nickel Diner is a regular on Jonathan Gold’s 101 Best Restaurants list. While you can’t actually get anything for a nickel, the food is more affordable than many of its pricier downtown neighbors.

It has a great old-school feel, with red leather booths and vintage wall paintings of menu prices from back in the day. They don’t take reservations in the usual sense, so you’ll recognize when you’ve arrived by the striped awning and the crowd of people waiting outside. They will let you call ahead to put your name in, which then moves you automatically to the top of the list once you arrive, so that you get the next appropriately sized table that opens up.

The Dish

Nickel Diner does fancied-up diner food. At first glance, the menu looks filled with the typical items you’d expect, but on closer inspection you’ll notice they’re just a touch stepped up. And they’re famous for their Maple Glazed Bacon Donut, which I’ll get to later – read on.

Daddy’s Breakfast Burrito

We went for breakfast and got several of their specials, including Daddy’s Breakfast Burrito. It has eggs, chorizo, mushrooms, potatoes, and pepperjack cheese inside, with a smothering of salsa verde on the outside.

Very Berry French Toast Special

Also on their specials menu is the Very Berry French Toast Special. There is a French Toast on the regular menu, but this special adds strawberry, blackberry, and blueberry compote with mascarpone cream to their house-made cinnamon swirl brioche toast. At one point I was just spooning mascarpone straight into my face.

Pig and a Chicken Walk into a Bar

We were tempted to order this special just so we could say “a Pig and a Chicken Walk into a Bar” to the waiter. Then we read the description and decided a buttermilk brined pork chop, 2 eggs, biscuits and gravy, and sautéed apples and spinach sounded pretty good. The pork chop had a sweetness I wasn’t expecting from a buttermilk brine; not that I suppose I knew what to expect from a buttermilk brine.

BLTAE

Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato, Avocado, Eggs. Oh, that’s what the “A” and “E” stand for! It also had a really great aioli on the bread.

5th and Main

The 5th and Main is a plate of spicy BBQ pork hash topped with 2 poached eggs. It is one of the most popular items at Nickel Diner, and for good reason. The pulled pork has a spicy robust flavor and is generously present, with just a sprinkling of potatoes – my kind of hash.

Donuts

The Maple Glazed Bacon Donut is the reason I wanted to go to Nickel Diner. The name speaks for itself, and it lived up to the hype. While we were at it, why not also try a Nutella Donut? It was also good – reminiscent of eating a Ferrero Rocher chocolate, if you’ve ever had one of those.