Diner Dash 9-11

We slept in a little later today and made use of some leftovers from yesterday to start the day. After checking out of Harrah’s around 11:45am, we headed out to the streets of south Jersey again.

Our first destination was going to be Cumberland County, but we didn’t see the diner we were looking for so we continued into Gloucester County to make our first stop.

Malaga Diner
Routes 40 and 47
Malaga
County: Gloucester County
Arrival Time: 12:45pm

The most interesting aspect of this visit was the people one table over from us. Based on their interaction with the waitress while ordering, they probably didn’t even glance at the menu. The waitress remained calm and pleasant while we wondered how they could be so clueless. Their conversation included cell phone bills of $800 up an over $1000 because of their misunderstanding of long distance and roaming charges (probably didn’t read the information in their contracts).

I ordered the gyro lunch special ($5.95) which came with cream of broccoli soup, French fries, a pickle, cole slaw and dessert (rice pudding). The soup was really good, probably the best soup I’ve had so far on our quest. Ali ordered the chicken marinara Panini lunch special ($6.25) which came with French fries, a pickle, cole slaw, a salad (ranch dressing), and dessert (bread pudding). She was disappointed with the entrée because it was a fried chicken breast on a big piece of bread instead of a handheld sandwich.

Matt’s Rating: Atmosphere – 8, Food – 8
Ali’s Rating: Atmosphere – 8, Food - 6

From there, we found a different road system and traveled in the direction of Bridgeton, back in Cumberland County. We made it to the Bridgeton Grill with a stop on the way to update the blog with yesterday’s info. Unfortunately, as we walked to the door, an employee came out from a side entrance to tell us it was closed. Back on the road…

We stopped at the next diner we came across, not too far away in Bridgeton.

Gallery Diner and Restaurant
Route 77 North
Bridgeton
County: Cumberland

It had only been about an hour since the last diner stop so we planned to just get coffee and a nice dessert. We’d been avoiding the mouth-watering display cases at previous stops and wanted to make an event out of it.

This diner turned out to the be the only one we passed today without a bakery or even baked goods of any kind so I ordered coffee ($1.10) and vanilla ice cream with whipped cream ($1.40) and Ali had coffee and strawberry cheesecake ice cream. Things were fine – nothing exceptional.
Matt’s Rating: Atmosphere – 8, Food – 6
Ali’s Rating: Atmosphere – 9, Food – 7

We did little more than traverse the southern third of the state on small, rural roads with diner stops today. The last direction for the day would take us into Camden County.

Ali, as navigator, made some excellent decisions as I came up to the county road intersections and got us to our planned destination with little trouble.

Winslow Family Diner Restaurant
491 Williamstown Road
Sicklerville
County: Camden

This was the first diner we visited serving liquor. It also offered a large banquet room for rentals and large parties.

I ordered the crab cake early bird special ($10.99). It came with soup (chicken barley), string beans and dessert (German chocolate cake). I also had a cup of coffee with dessert ($1.10). Ali had the chicken rio wrap which contained peppers, lettuce, tomato, chicken and honey mustard ($6.25). It came with string beans. Ali also had cake ($1.10) and coffee. There was a basket with a Danish and cornbread on the table too.

This was the kind of dessert we were looking for early this afternoon. It was worth the wait as this cake was great. I was pretty full and saved one of the crab cakes and some of the string beans for tomorrow, a day we’re not planning to leave Atlantic City.

Matt’s Rating: Atmosphere – 8, Food – 9
Ali’s Rating: Atmosphere - 9, Food – 8

Another successful day. We finished having completed the southern Jersey counties and are going to spend tomorrow walking to the shopping pier at the Tropicana and through the Atlantic City outlet stores. If we start going through diner withdrawal, we could always head up to Burlington County, but that’s not in the plan for now. We’ll hit a couple more on the way home Friday and then take a break until after Christmas is over when we’ll take care of those in north and central Jersey.