Michael’s Goody Boy Diner

Always a safe option!
The Goody Boy Diner is typically never crowded. It’s a little north of the main drag of the Short North. I especially like going there to sit outside on their large patio in the summer. They have a TV on the patio for some sporting events too! The indoor seating is great with plenty of TVs to watch sporting events.
The menu offers some Greek options like gyros. I usually order one with a side of fries. Perfect fries for some malt vinegar — yummy! Everything is very reasonably priced. They also have some decent drink specials.
Service is typically pretty good with minimal waiting time. I feel like this place is a hidden gem that is often overlooked.
Grab a beer. Order your gyro. Invite some friends. Enjoy a game. Live that diner style life.

1. Good lunch specials.
2. Not to busy. (At least at lunch)
3. They have their own parking lot in the rear. (Don’t look any further into that one you sick-​o)
4. Good food, prompt service
5. Cool theme and matching décor.
6. Outdoor seating is nice but keep your valuables close and the stragglers down the road seem shady at times.
7. If you don’t like it walk 20 feet and try something else. A lot of neat places are around here.

Gave them a chance as the couple other places on Labor Day were pretty packed. Nothing special about this place. Okay in a pinch and nothing to write home about at all.

Tiny drink with zero alcohol! I mean seriously if you had a shot in it you couldn’t hide it with the quantity of other liquid/​ice so either it’s watered down or the low proof grocery store stuff

I dined at Goody Boy Diner last weekend and boy was it NOT good. Okay that was kind of lame, but still I had a less than impressive experience there.
Usually I applaud restaurants with a simple menu. Not in this case. For a «diner», the food selection is pretty slim. It’s pretty much limited to breakfast, burgers and sandwiches.
I suppose these items make good late night drinking food, which is probably the main reason why Goody Boy is still around. It’s right across from Skully’s and I feel they share the same clientele.
With their «focused» menu, you would expect the food quality to be better. Unfortunately, my club sandwich was pretty forgettable. The pretzel bun was okay, but I missed the crunchy toast in a traditional club. The turkey, ham and bacon were present but all seemed a bit bland.
The included fries were crispy but also underseasoned. My buddy ordered a cheeseburger that he thought it was «decent.» However, he also thought the value was lacking as he paid $ 8 for a single patty burger.
Our server was pleasant, but new and fairly inefficient. She fumbled my friend’s order a few times and was all-​around slow. I think being new to the job was a big reason for this, so I can’t totally hold it against her.
Anyways, the food and service at Goody Boy were just meh. Its redeeming qualities were: the awesome patio + $ 3 Yuengling drafts.

Bad experience for brunch. Sunday, July 5, 2015. Check # 1371. 10:15am — 11:34am.
Spent $ 25 to wait for over an hour to get bad food, bad service, and drama. The waitress may not be to blame as much as highly understaffed shift and confused management.
Coffee was meh and we never got a refill until after we paid (to go). We asked for refills– twice. One time I had to go inside to ask at the bar. Still didn’t get it.
Food was also mediocre to say the least.
Took way too long to get our tab.
I will not go to Goody Boy until it’s under new ownership or hear about major changes.
We could have gone to Union or something. This place is a joke.

The most disappointing thing about living at The Jackson on High (across the street) is looking out the front windows at Michael’s Goody Boy with the feeling that something really special could be there.
This is hands down the worst restaurant in the Short North. BRUTAL service, uninspired food, argumentative and dramatic staff, and way too cold and uninviting on the inside. It’s as if they do not want any business.
A greasy spoon should take them over. Nobody wants to get quarter-​off 43-​degree yuenglings and get snark from servers and wait 30 minutes for an unusual Greek inspired dish, all the while some guy is brownbagging a tall boy at the far left table.

Still the same thoughts about everything else, but wanted to leave in a quick tip: BREAKFAST ALL DAY! Got the breakfast burrito add tater tots last night and it was just amazing. And big enough to eat half for dinner and half for actual breakfast. Just sayin’.

Have always wanted to try Goody Boy and so today decided to stop in after Doo Dah Parade.
Patio had just a few tables open, we decided to eat inside though… About 4 other tables eating indoors as well.
All servers seemed to have tables on the patio as well as indoors which doesn’t make a lot of sense and after our server brought drinks she never checked back for our food order even though she passed us several times en route to taking care of other guests. We tried to catch her attention but she did a great job of avoiding eye contact.
We decided to just leave. With all the options in the Short North the menu didn’t seem worth working to get an order into the kitchen.

I did not eat here, only had a couple of drinks. Bartender was inattentive and rude. Apparently we were supposed to sit there indefinitely with empty glasses until she finished her unreasonably loud bitchfest with her friend because she definitely did not appreciate when I said «excuse me». Will not be back.

Late last night a friend and I were walking around High Street looking for a place to eat and decided to give this diner a try. The outside had always seemed iconic to me when I would go by it and I was curious about the food here as well. When we came inside we were the only customers in the entire place but there were three people working, two were cleaning up outside and another was just hanging out inside. We weren’t entirely sure of what time this place closed considering it was so empty but we were assured that they were open until 2:30. So we decided to sit at the bar area and were greeted shortly by one of the workers who had been outside. He was polite and gave us our menus for us to look over, and since neither of us had been here before we were taking a little while.
The server wasn’t coming back to check on us being ready at all, so we had to tell him that we were so he would come take our order. I ordered the Bad Boy Grilled Cheese with a side of tots and an unsweet tea and got the tea right away. My friend ordered an appetizer of potato skins, a double burger with fries and a coke. While we were waiting on our food I looked around the diner a bit and liked the authentic feel of a classic American eating experience it gave. It was able to do that without making itself «out of date,» there were televisions around the main bar area playing SportsCenter and Two and a Half Men. The bar top was metal and clean, there were a number of beers on draft and the décor was appropriate. I liked the look a lot in here, it just felt like the right setting to come into late at night and eat.
When the potato skins came we split them up, each of us took two of them. They looked like a bake potato that had been cut in half and cheese and bacon was put on it, then was cooked a really long time. That being said, they were super hot and tasted pretty good actually, just the appearance was lacking to me. Our refills were taking quite some time and considering we were the only people in the entire place that was ridiculous. The food was taking a little while itself but once it came, I saw before me what looked like artery clogging deliciousness. The tots were your average kind of side that you could go by at Kroger and heat in the oven and serve your kids. They weren’t anything spectacular and were super greasy, but I was hoping this food would be that way considering the style diner.
Let me talk about this Bad Boy Grilled Cheese, it was greasy and messy and absolutely perfect. The amount of food I got was immense, which is good because I was really hungry and it was just an added bonus that this was so amazing. I got the impression that after the appetizer and chowing down on my tots that this place was just your old «run of the mill» diner experience. This grilled cheese was spectacular and it single handedly got this review from a 1 star for an utter lack of quality service to a 3 star review. If you go there, I would recommend it for sure, but just a quick side note I ended up eating it with a fork because it was practically falling apart in my hands. Nonetheless I liked the place, just wish we could have had better service considering we were the only people there. I do get the impression that this place would be the killer hangover destination!
My bill was 9.50 and I gave them 12 and didn’t ask for the change. I usually tip much better than this but the service here was really lacking for me. That said, if you haven’t been here before, check it out and share your experience!

This place was very good. My friend had a burger and I got the breakfast. The bite he let me try of the burger was very tasty and my breakfast had amazing hash browns. Forgot the guy’s name who served us but he was very nice and kept checking on us while he was in training. I’ll be back to try something else soon.

First and foremost, chose another option to dine and drink in the Short North. This diner has poor quality food and terrible wait staff.
I ordered their pork «rotisserie» gyro. It was filled with fatty pieces of pork that was probably microwaved from a few days ago. The waitress had a terrible demeanor and did not get the order correct. She also walked away when I was clarifying how I wanted the check split.
Overall, I will not be back. I hope that their management holds their employees to a higher standard where they treat customers with respect and prepare and serve food that is fresh.

Not good at all. Not what I expected for diner food. Very cold and not to clean. I felt like no one was interested in me being there.

This place has potential, but needs better staffing… I don’t know how else to say it, but the people have drama and it affects the service. The waitress was distracted and seemed to not get along with the rest of the staff. There was a straightening iron and a hair dryer plugged in in the damn bathroom. Is this a hotel? If so, can I check out? The food is good, probably a dollar or more than it should be, but the atmosphere just doesn’t make up for it.

Lot’s of food options, as a vegetarian this is imprtant for me.
From breakfast to a full bar…
Great unpretentious place to grab a bite before partying on campus, Arena District, or Short North.

The food is pretty decent, but the service is rather slow.
The menu is also not very exciting or creative. If you’re in the mood for typical burgers, breakfast foods, and baresque type cuisine; then this isn’t a bad option in The Short North.

Service here is just terrible. Two stories about the last two times I’ve been here.
Popped in for a beer while waiting for an event at Stonewall. I waited so long at the bar (about 10 – 15 minutes) that the guys across from me started shouting «No tip for you!» at the bartender. Hardly anyone was in there.
Today, I went in for lunch. Again, hardly anyone in there. After I get water, it took about 15 minutes for the bartender to take my order. And then the burger came out medium rare instead of medium (lucky for them I didn’t mind, but still).
I don’t think I’ll ever come in here again unless they get new staff and management.

I’ve been here before, several times, years ago. My memories of it though are faint, shaky visions from shots, long islands, and quarter pitchors of Nasty Light at Papa Joes. Leaving there when the dopamine rush of high wore off, I went walking south, turned around by vertigo, nausea, and the gagging fumes of alcohol – went looking for grub to hold of the heaves. I saw its flaming, curving arrow pointing to a diner in a chilly night.
Since then I had forgotten it; since then it has faded to background by the new gentrified restaurants, bourgeoisie boutiques, and posh galleries under the ubiquitous crains and pulleys of the strip. Reminded by a chance online article, and noticing it walking by while hungry, I went in.
It’s bigger now with a spacey dinning area. The wood bar has been replaced by shinny stainless steal, sharp LCD TVs hang on the wall. The juke box has been replaced by a MP3 device and played 1990 era songs, programmed no doubt by the middle age gen-​Xer bartender, reinforced my nostalgic mood. Yet the interior looks more like a modern bar than the 1950s Happy Days diner suggested by its exterior.
It’s own by Jimmy V now and the food selection reflex this. I choose chicken panini which came with an order of fries, and washed it down with some draft ale. The food was good but lacked a kick of a higher rated – it hit the spot and was filing. It was worth the money. Their choice of beer is good, not extensive, especially for the competition of the area.
My angst with Unilocal rating raises it’s ugly head here; if this place was in a slower neighborhood, say my stomping grounds in the Northwest, I would give 4-​stars. But to do it here would put me in a pickle if I were to review Surly Girl or Rossi ect – what I call «star inflation.» Make no mistake, my one experience with one dish beats the similar dishes at many bars and joints in town. It is just around better places here. Do not hesitate on an evening to stop here if you want some good food and drinks but don’t want to wait at other places. Or if your just in an easy going mood and want a place to visit with friends and don’t need fireworks. Or on an afternoon of hoping SN shops, ect.
It’s an institution, it’s good, you won’t gave any complaints, in my opinion.

A solid three, which is disappointing. I wish I could say four or five.
The food was pretty darn good. Sweetie had a cheese steak, I had the «old world» gyro. We shared saganaki. That was very good, though not quite as good as some we had at a Greek place in Chicago last weekend. She liked her sandwich; I was too busy chowing down on mine to try it. She also had tater tots, and I tried the sauce on my fries (southwestern ranch maybe.) It was tasty.
My old world gyro was a very, very good gyro– fresh veggies, good pita, great sauce. The changes were the addition of french fries in the gyro itself (?) and roast pork instead of the typical lamb gyro meat. I love lamb, but wow, the pork was excellent and really worked in a gyro.
There’s other interesting stuff on the menu– a mix of diner and Greek stuff. The place itself is not very dinery, inside or out, which isn’t bad, just different. I liked the layout. Why not more stars? Service. It was very friendly, and professional when they were at the table (several people ended up helping us.) Just sloooooooow. Not very attentive. Not awful, though, so hopefully next time will be better. And we’ll be back. I’m surprised I hadn’t been sooner, but every time I’ve been in the area I’ve just had other dining plans. This time we were pretty serendipitous. Is that a word? Who cares?