With an extra day off to bum around, it was time to try a new place in town. I spotted the Diner on Main and decided to give it a try. While classified as a meat-n-three, it’s at the opposite end of the spectrum from Bill’s Place.
A blurb on the back of the menu gives a bit of history of the Diner. Tommy and Marylin Kameda are the owners, and Bruce Rivera is the chef. The first location opened in 1993 in Mauldin, and this location has just recently opened on Main Street near the corner of Coffee.
Atmosphere
The Diner on Main is as upscale as Bill’s Place is humble. There are rich wood finishes, tasteful artwork, and a warm comfortable feel. It’s obvious that the target demographic is the downtown professional. Like many restaurants downtown, the space is long with a narrow street frontage. The main seating area is on the right, and a bar is on the left. That’s right, a bar – not a common feature in meat-n-three places.
Menu
The menu is quite extensive, with a large selection of appetizers, soups, burgers, and sandwiches. Burgers and sandwiches hover in the $7 – $8 range. There is a small selection of steaks, seafood, and stirfry entre’s, in the $13 – $20 range. The highlight, though are the meat-n-three selections. There are the usual suspects – country fried steak, meat loaf, fried chicken, etc. But there is also marinated, grilled chicken, smokey sausage and kraut, and salmon patties. The vegetable choices are equally varied. Meat and two veggies are $8.50, with another buck needed for meat and three.
Food
I ordered the sausage and kraut with black-eyed peas and smashed red skin taters (meat-n-2). The peas were delicious, cooked with copious amounts of pork for flavoring. These weren’t just emptied from some gallon-sized container. The mashed potatoes were equally good, with flecks of the red skin adding color and interest. The grilled sausage did have a deep, smokey flavor, and was quite tasty. While the kraut was good, it was a touch drier than I might have liked. It looked like the sausage and kraut had both been braised in an oven before serving, and that might have accounted for the toasty color of the kraut and it’s dryness. Regardless, everything was excellent, and was much more food than I needed for lunch.
Service
Service was efficient and friendly.
Conclusion
Definitely a keeper, this will be a place that even my parents would enjoy. I think we will be back.