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Moonstruck
2nd Avenue
New York, NY 10003
Ah, Moonstruck Diner. Elephant Larry has spent many an after-hours meeting hanging out here, eating the bare minimum of food required to maintain our table privileges. Usually what happens is, we run out of time at Alex's work (it's only open till 11 or so) or we don't have rehearsal space for whatever reason, so we head down about two blocks from NYU and set up shop at the Moonstruck. It used to be called something else just prior to its bizarre renovation, but for the life of me I can't remember what it is. If anybody knows, e-mail me.
Decor: My favorite thing about the renovation is that they've added strange, vaguely abstract paintings in the ceiling panels. They look kind of arty in the way that prints from the 80's look vaguely arty. It's obviously somebody's idea of sophistication. Not mine, but whatever. It's a lot more effort than most diners put forth, so I'll give them that. They also follow through with the painting on the menu cover as well, which is nice. Aside from that, tables, chairs and the rest of it is totally standard "new diner" style. By which I mean, not busted or made out of red vinyl.
Bathrooms: Clean, for the most part. And covered in fake green marble linoleum. The most interesting thing about the bathrooms is that the men's bathroom door makes a sound like there's somebody inside when you open it. It's weird, and it throws me every goddamn time. I'm a sucker.
Staff: Uh, totally fine. Occasionally surly if you sit there for about 3 hours being loud sketch comedians, but I try to ignore that because the way I figure it: we're there in their window making it look like their diner is busy and popular. Which it most certainly is not. There's usually not more than 4 tables or so full. That's another advantage of the place -- always tables available.
Food: Totally negligible. Nothing to comment on here. It's the usual junk. They even have my favorite, the "diet burger," which is, of course, a regular fatty burger that they've thrown some cottage cheese onto. I don'tget it, man. This is such a fraud. Also, stop calling a couple of pieces of canteloupe with cottage cheese on it a "California Salad." It's an insult to California. I can't even deal. Also, the food is pricey. Thinking about all this, I'm not even sure why we go there so often.
Ambience: Loud. At least when we're there.
In conclusion, I find the Moonstruck Diner to be worth about 2 octopi. I was going to give it 4, but while writing this review I realized I didn't like the place all so much.
- Stefan Lawrence
