Review of 'Kennedy's American Diner'
Kennedy's American Diner has recently opened on the corner of the High Street and Waterlode (opposite the entrance to Welsh Row). Much advertised as a local business and serving up food we are fairly familiar with of course we wanted to visit. Unfortunately, it was a bit of a disappointment…
The diner is quite large with quite a number of tables, an outdoor terrace looking across the busy Waterlode road towards the river as well as a long bar area. On the Thursday night we visited, shortly before 7 (they close at 8) there were a few tables busy but it was only about half full.
The interior is quite simply and boringly decorated with a white/red interior and black seats. There are a few “American” pictures on the wall but otherwise you get the feeling that they furnished the massive interior as basically as they could…at least in these early days…with perhaps better to come in later years. The dinner menu shares this thought with quite a basic offering of American food divided into “Starters” (£4.50 to £7; wings, mozzarella sticks, belly pork bites, nachos, loaded potato skins and jalapeno poppers), “Burgers” (£9 to £12.50; loads of choices here, all served on brioche buns with seasoned fries and house slaw - burgers are two patties, less £1.50 if you want just one) and “Burgers & More” (the “Big Frank” hot dog, £8, and chicken strips, £7.50).
Looking for something a bit different to drink I had a salted caramel milkshake (£3.50) but they have a number of other flavours (they also do sundaes with three scoops for £5.50 and two scoops, a child's portion, for £3.50) which was not too bad but a bit sweet with not a huge flavour of caramel.
We started with “Cheesy Nachos” (£5, “Nacho cheese sauce, sliced jalapenos, guacamole, and sour cream) which were quite good and as you might imagine. Except for the cheese and jalapenos the sides were oddly in a bowl on the side on top of a pile of lettuce, perhaps to make it look like more than was actually there? Quite tasty.
For our mains, my companion had “The Empire State Burger” (£12.50, “2 beef patties, pastrami, melted Swiss cheese, extra pickles, extra mustard”) which she had “skinny” (only one patty, so £1.50 cheaper). She found the burger quite tasty particularly with the thin layer of pastrami (it would have been nice to have more). The patty was quite juicy and it was nice to see mustard and ketchup on it.
I had “The Big Frank” hot dog (£8, “The 'Big Frank' smoked hot dog sausage served in glazed brioche bun with ketchup, mustard and relish, served with fries and house slaw”) which was quite nice with a good sized, though not massive, plump, juicy sausage. There were no toppings to speak of, just ketchup and mustard. The fries were ok but nothing amazing and same goes for the rather bland house slaw, despite it's promising bright orange colour. I can't say it was an American hot dog, more a sausage as I have described it here. Still, tasty.
The staff were relaxed and fairly pleasant though it was nice to have the owner (?) come over to our table to chat for a few minutes. At £31.50 for the two of us including our drinks it was a reasonably priced meal. I do have to feel they have missed a few tricks here with the simple, fairly boring, menu, basic servings, and decor, this could be so much more and I only hope it is in future. A few tips: Onion rings, hockey/baseball pendants for the walls, REAL hot dogs, cherries on the milkshakes, MORE toppings on the burgers/hot dogs…
Great to see a local business serving different food. I hope they continue…
Rating: “It is OK but I have some issues”
Review Date: 2022-06-30
Cuisine: American/British
Address: 1-7 High St, Nantwich, Cheshire CW5 5AW ENGLAND
Location: Cheshire (England) - Nantwich
Map:
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Telephone: +44 (0) 1270 626066
URL: https://www.facebook.com/KennedysDinerNantwich/