Mid-Week Treat: Moonlite Diner, Ft. Lauderdale

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Right next door to our mini-suite at the Sheraton Suites Ft. Lauderdale Cypress Creek sits the Moonlite Diner’s Ft. Lauderdale location. They also have a location in Hollywood. This is an old-fashioned, retro diner in many ways, except one important way. (I’ll come back to that).

My husband loves a good diner. We both thought the retro Airstream look of the building was fun and we suspected we could get some yummy American classics inside, so we hoofed it next door and picked up take-out for lunch one weekend.

He chose a burger and fries (no surprise there) and I chose a patty melt and onion rings. His burger was really tall and impressive looking, and my patty melt was ooey-gooey, just the way I like it.

Apparently, this diner is well-known among the residents of South Florida because their website features several music videos by Spanish language artists that were filmed at one of the two diner locations. I’ve never heard of these artists, but that’s not saying much since I’m no music aficionado. So, here’s the bad news. The one major way that Moonlite Diner is NOT retro is the prices. I thought it was a bit costly.

My husband’s burger and fries were $14.99, which was a good price for such a large burger/fry combo. However, my patty melt was $11.99 and came with fries. This, too, is a fairly reasonable price, but I wanted to switch out my fries and get onion rings instead, and for that I had to pay a $2.50 surcharge. In the end, I only received six onion rings and had to pay more than someone who just accepted the fries. I don’t get the concept of paying more for less. If a restaurant is going to upcharge me for onion rings then I expect to see more than six of them on my plate.

I bought I slice of their chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. I nearly balked at the $6.99 price tag for this, but I suppose if a diner wanted to eat it in two servings (as I did) then that helps bring the per-serving-price down some. In the end, we paid $39.00 for that lunch, and I’m sorry, but I thought that was just a tad too expensive. Knock my meal down to $11.99 including 10 onion rings and subtract a dollar off the cost of the chocolate cake, and you have yourself a reasonable bill.

Anyway, dear readers, the next time you swing through South Florida and are hankering for some true American classics, here is a place where you can find them. The food isn’t mind-blowing, but it is good enough. Just remember to keep track of how much you’re spending. And don’t miss the chocolate cake, it’s delectable. On a side note, if you want mind-blowing food, visit Dolce Salato while you are in Ft. Lauderdale.