Once a Waitress

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Misty’s Diner (and car wash) Prahran

Misty's Diner, colour blocking at its best

This is not real a review, in the same way that Misty’s is not a real restaurant. It is no more a “restaurant” than a  McDonalds, or a KFC – but I tell you it has a hell of a lot more character. I mean look at all that pink? Who could take that much pink seriously?

More pink!

I finally made it to Misty’s Diner. I am apparently in training for an upcoming trip to Mexico and US in September. So I feel I should be prepared. Don’t have a car though, can’t attest to the quality of the car washing service, however I took a real American along with me to help decipher the menu and make sure I didn’t order anything too stupid. Like a bucket of meat – but you will see that it didn’t work.

Warning, does not contain actual fruit

Speaking of pink, here’s my pink drink. Relax everybody – I might be about to consume enough high fructose corn syrup to kill a cat but there’s antioxidants in this here soft drink, so that must cancel it out. It tasted like cherry cough syrup and lemonade and the side of the can warned “does not contain real fruit”.

The service – oh it was shockingly bad. We asked for same things from three different waitress didn’t get any of it (another drink, paper towels, straws, the drinks we had ordered in the first place). But that’s okay, I wasn’t there for the service. I was there for the fried.

And fried we got. I think it’s best to do these things thematically. Next time, we’ll probably do all hot dogs, then all burgers. We had chilli cheese fries – yes! – the desire for which stems from years of watching American teen sitcoms and reading baby sitters’ club novels. They were awesome, but I can’t find the photo.

Onion ring tower

Ahh onion rings, real onion, real paper towel holder. In fact, every dish came in all sorts of odd metal food holding contraptions that may or may not be intended for napery storage. Must be seen to be believed. The limp lettuce moat was a nice touch.

Cheese stuffed pepper, fried

Pepper stuffed with cheese – fried of course. My lovely American insisted on ranch dressing and blue cheese dressing to dip them in and I am not one to argue against anything with blue cheese in. I broke protocol and used a fork.

Fried pickles (yep)

Pickled gherkins: a fried palate cleanser. So much salt, crispy tangy fried goodness. Or badness, depending on how you look at it. Just don’t think about it too hard okay? It’s not a double meat burger or anything.

Tater tots

Tater tots. Only ordered because I have watched Napoleon Dynamite too many times. Yes, everything did come with an American flag stuck in it, and no I don’t really rate tater tots. Childhood dream crushed – they suck.

Bucket o Buffalo Wings

Buffalo wings, how do I love thee? When my lovely American was explaining to me what Buffalo wings were her mouth was watering, this is all the convincing it took. They come in a bucket (why, oh why?) and there’s a special trick to eating them.

Buffalo wing eating technique

You roll the whole wing in the hot, salty, sour sauce, then you roll it in the dressing (again, ranch or blue cheese) then you eat with your hands – although apparently they should usually come with the sauce already on, but no matter. They were delicious. You can see the edge of our chilli cheese fries in the corner.

Peanut butter filled chocolates

Imagine for a second that we could eat anything else… we wanted cherry pie but they were out. I elected for “candy” instead. I wanted to eat it right then and there, but I felt that if I did, I could have had a heart attack and died on the linoleum. So I held off until the writing of this post and I can tell you I am suffering from the most intense sugar high right now.

By the time got home I wasn’t sure whether to sleep, shower or go for a run, so I swore off fried food for at least a month. Okay, a week. It’s important to be realistic in life.

Next, Little Miss Lotus will take me to USA foods, and my lovely American will take me to Highway 31 (which is really on Sydney Road) for a comparison study. I’ve just enrolled in a Spanish language course as well (for the Mexico and LA leg of my journey), I’ve decided not to ever read Jamie Oliver’s America and I’d go to Mamasita if I could get a table. Let the games begin! Now, where is that Taco Truck?

Misty’s Diner
103 High Street Prahran
(03) 9510 1959 – bookings recommended on weekends, bring your best singing voice too (you’ll see when you get there)

Misty's Diner on Urbanspoon

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 2nd, 2011 at 3:22 pm and is filed under America, comfort food, fast food, Lunch, secret shame. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

5 Responses to “Misty’s Diner (and car wash) Prahran”

  1. April 2nd, 2011 at 4:33 pm

    Kristina says:

    I really rate the idea of those fried gherkins. Yum.

    P.S. Jamie’s America does not contain deep fried diner food. It’s actually pretty ace.

  2. April 3rd, 2011 at 1:17 pm

    Nola James says:

    Maybe I’ll check it out then, thanks for the tip.

  3. May 12th, 2011 at 3:16 pm

    essjayeats says:

    an update – the carwash was pretty expensive and a little bit lacking in attention to detail. (But the milkshakes were yummy!)

  4. June 2nd, 2011 at 2:15 pm

    Lynne says:

    So, I gave Misty’s a 2nd chance last night. went last year when I visited Melbourne before. Thought I would give it another trying, seeing how the first experience was pretty bad. I must first say, I, like Misty, is also American, currently living in Los Angeles. I cannot believe what is on the menu. No, not all Americans eat terrible fried food, but because of places like this, this is probably why you think so! First off, a burger is always served with frieds in America, Misty’s are extra. We don’t have eggs on our burgers either. I am pretty sure that is an Australian way. Not putting it down, but if you are trying to be authentic, stick with what the country is known for. Oh, we don’t have gravy on fries…well maybe a few in New Jersey do, but whatever. This really got to me last night. In the menu under “Starters”, there are 6 cheese sticks in an order. We ordered that. Out come 5 in our order. I said something to the waitress and she went back to get us another one and Misty told her to tell us she only gave us 5 because they were big. Excuse me!! How is that our fault and if you want to go by weight of your food, then list it that way and not by count in your menu. They are already like $11, stop being so cheap. 2 people are sharing, you don’t bring out 5 when it clearly says 6. Being from America, she should know that sh*t would never fly in any restaurant. She charges like $9 for a package of mini Reese cups, which might I add is $1.00 in the States, plus she probably buys it in bulk, so even cheaper. I understand a mark up, but please you are going to run your business into the ground with all your ridiculous prices.
    I wasn’t impressed with the service either. The waitress was wiping down the glass to the soda cooler, instead of taking our order. We waited over 10 minutes to be approached. One thing is for sure….in Australia, it is clear that the wait staff do not work for tips they just get a higher hourly rate. It shows by how awful the service is. I was a waitress all through college and I knew by being polite, and checking on my customers, seeing how their food was, offering refills, etc… I was going to bank.
    When it was time to leave, the restaurant got sat a few more tables and became a little busier. The 2 waitresses working looked as though they were slammed. We waited over 25 minutes for our dessert, which I ended up cancelling, even though it was already on the bill. Meanwhile, Misty who is chatting in a booth behind us about her upcoming trip to Greece with her husband Nick in July(talking loudly) must have not seen that her staff needed help and people were getting annoyed, because she never stepped up to the counter to help make desserts, cocktails that customers were waiting for, deliver food to the tables, or even cash out our bill.
    I will NEVER eat here again. She is a terrible business woman!! Her prices for what you get are ridiculous. I would pay more for better food, but not for that. Im not being cheap, Im being honest. When people get offended by comments like that, they assume the person is cheap. Think again. Why would I have come back a 2nd time? I thought maybe we just had bad luck, but no. We won’t be back and I will never speak highly of this restaurant or recommend it to anyone. Now that I own my own business, I know the best tool of the trade. The best advertising of your business is word of mouth, as long as you have a good business. Otherwise, it may run you into the ground.

    Lynne

  5. April 12th, 2012 at 6:11 pm

    good food guide says:

    good food guide…

    [...]Misty’s Diner Prahran | Once a Waitress[...]…

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