Athenian Diner

Good diner for breakfast stuff. The french toast was great.

Listen, this is your run-​of-​the-​mill working man’s diner. Don’t expect 5 star service with mind blowing food. Sometimes all a girl wants is greasy, simple, comforting breakfast food without the frills. Reminds me of all the diners in New Jersey that I miss. Girls working the cash register were nice, staff was attentive, and it seemed family friendly. Saw lots of kids and it was pretty busy with a constant flow of diners.
4 stars for what I wanted and expected. Gave it three stars for overall breakfast experience in New Haven. Will return for breakfast.

So many positive reviews for a place I found to be disappointing
I’ve had breakfast and dinner here recently, and in an area full of excellent diners, this is not one of them. My omelet was dry and scanty in content, and they shrugged off the fact that the cheese was the wrong type. For dinner I was craving prime rib which was a feature on the daily menu and there wasn’t any. I tried the stuffed cabbage which another customer raved about, and it was overstuffed with rice with very little meat. The gravy delivered even though it was designed to accompany the prime rib had the consistency of glue and was loaded with cornstarch and tasted as if it was out of a can. My daughter’s salad resembled a Cesar only because it had Romaine lettuce. There are too many better diners here.

Great service from Cooki! Eggs bene just right. Homemade hollandaise. Potatoes very good. Eggs poached perfectly. Nice booths.

The Athenian Diner is a fine, workman-​like restaurant. This may seem like faint praise, but there is no better way to describe it. They are not the best, nor the worst. They deliver what they promise every time, but you’ll never walk out raving.
They offer a good wide variety of diner food including some Greek specials which are not available elsewhere. The burgers are good, and their specialty sandwiches are tasty. There is a good rotation of side vegetables, as well.
The staff is competent but not usually friendly. Again, workman-​like.
Overall, it is not a bad choice for lunch or dinner in the New Haven area. But not a place to come for anything special.

Stopped in the way home from NYC. The staff were friendly and I have one of the best Reuben’s ever. Plenty of food and not expensive. There a ton to choose from on the menu too! They do diner food well!

My all time fav diner!!! Always fresh Always delicious! My go to dishes are chicken souvlaki, cheeseburger, London broil w mashed and grilled salmon. Of course, I always start with a soup of the day and sometimes treat myself to cheesecake with strawberries or rice pudding! Yum!

Athenian is a solid diner choice in New Haven. One of my favorite, if indulgent, breakfasts at Athenian is their Belgian waffle with chocolate ice cream. They have the usual expansive diner menu which is generally well-​executed. They conservatively portion out creamers, jellies and the like, but the waiters and waitresses are always happy to help and get more when asked.

Having attended college in New Haven (SCSU), this was sometimes a godsend because it was opened late at night. Those lat night study sessions needed food, this was a good place for quick food (Filling and Edible).
The only down side is that the service depending on the time you arrive is either really slow or really fast. And the no delivery thing is a bummer but the quick drive makes it okay. Most of the meals that I had were decent (predominantly breakfast meals) but I wasn’t fond of their Tuna Melt; left an odd taste in my mouth.

This is, so far, my favorite diner. The french toast is fantastic and their tuna melt was very tasty. I recommend going in the morning/​early afternoon for the best service and food. This is my go-​to place for good food for a decent price.

Context (viri viri viri important like my mum will say in her cute french accent) :
It was ramadan, I was fasting, it was 7.45 pm and It was time for me to eat. I was on a read trip with friends on our way back to Boston. I wanted a real diner experience and got instead a stomach pain (not a metaphor, true pain). I am the only one to blame since my friends wanted to head to the next Five Guys and I am the one who begged for Greek Food. What I got was EVERYTHING BUT GREEK. I know what I am talking about since I have been to Greece and eaten greek food in a couple of places all over Europe and North Africa. I almost cried when I was my so called Gyros: bread no that warn, meat and tomato and oignon cut in vulgar pieces. I know how to cook and present a plate better than they did. The only good point was the fries but at 4.99, they better be good since it’s the only thing I ate.
The other bad surprises was the no-​refill drink policy and the bill. TOOOOOOOO EXPENSIVE for the amount and quality of food serve.
So to resume the star is for the fries and the bathroom which was clean and smelled good. But even this did not make up for the 60 bucks we paid for 3 persons at a diner.
Like they say in French, passé ton chemin and go eat a burger at Five Guys.
Message to the Greek owner: Your ancestors would be ashamed of the so-​called Greek food you served. Rename the place or change the cook.

I stopped by this diner on a Thursday night on the way up to Vermont and I’m glad I opted for the diner over McDonald’s. The tuna melt and fries that I ordered hit the spot… the tuna was hot all the way through the scoop (if you’re a frequent tuna melt enthusiast, you know what I mean) and the fries were golden brown.
My husband ordered a Gyro. It was meh. Since Athenian is a Greek Diner, we expected an authentic Gyro, but it looked more like a bunch of ingredients placed on a plate, nothing cohesive about it. It was really kind of sad.

This is s typical Greek diner and I’ve been going there for 10+ years. They recently raised prices but not quality. When I asked about it the gentleman at the register was rude and acted like I was a moron for being surprised that a meal that would have cost 20.00 or less a year ago is now 30+ dollars. Not going back.

Moussaka. I don’t think they know what it is. We got rock hard ground meat with something akin to gravy or pudding and potatoes. Kinda reminded me of poutine.
It was just crap. I’ve been to Greek festivals and other restaurants and this was pathetic. I saw little that resembled eggplant. I had a Greek salad with it and there were no olives and almost no feta in it.
Breakfast is pretty good there. Skip the Greek food.

Your average run of the mill diner that looks like it’s stuck in a time capsule. But if you’re in the area and you’re hungry, as I was, this is decent enough place as any. The waitress was very nice and patient. As we had my very rambunctious 4 year old nephew with us. I ordered the roasted turkey dinner. It was very moist, but lacked seasoning and the potato skins were a little on the crispy side. I’m sure if you stick with the regular burger and friends you won’t be disappointed.

Been coming here late and drunk since high school. It’s a but pricey for a diner (thus the one star loss) but the food, from the mozzarella sticks to the chocolate chip pancakes is first rate, as is the attentive 24 hour service. Total mainstay of the Woodbridge CT resident.

This dinner over Dennis any day, great food, love the place, definitely coming back…

Not really a great diner in any way… even the service is just meh. The only great thing about this place is that it’s 24 hours.

The food was decent – standard diner fare. If you’ve been to a Greek diner in the United States, you know what you’re going to get here. The service was unremarkable. Our waitress, Lexi, was very sweet, but unfortunately it was her first night and she was being trained by an awful, overbearing woman who kept interrupting both Lexi and us to clarify our orders.
Anyway, the experience would have been entirely unreviewworthy if not for the refill situation. We were served our sodas in miniscule ten ounce glasses which required about two or three refills each to complement the salty meal. Only when we were given the bill did we learn that the refills were not free and that we had been charged for each one. At no point did anyone inform us that we would be charged for refills, nor was this information printed in the menu. I would expect a nice restaurant to charge for soda refills, but for a diner to do this is ridiculous. The staff members were dismissive and rude when we expressed our upsetment about this issue.

Godsend. Excellent service and the best Greek Salad yet, in a CT diner.
The first day I visited, we’d just finished the «used bicycles» portion of our Memorial Day and we were hungry. When we arrived home in New Haven, the place seemed a little more bustle-​y than we’d expected. By the time we cleaned up and walked over to the Yorkside the place was PACKED with proud, hungry graduation day families and their little Yalies. Same at the Educated Burgher. And at Mamoun’s. People in ties and pastel suits were spilling out of a falafel joint that serves everything on paper plates. It was madness. Anywhere that wasn’t mobbed was closed for the holiday.
Panicked, we hopped into our car and sped down Whitney until we found The Athenian. The place was open, but deserted. The food was fresh and the service was friendly.
Their gyro, souvlaki and tzatziki sauce aren’t as good as Yorkside; Yorkside sets the bar pretty high on these items. But the onion rings were hot and crisp and the Greek Salad was everything it should be — grape leaves, tomato, red onion, feta, anchovies, olives, dressing on the side — and a little greener than average.
On a second trip I tried the famous (thanks to Jonathan G.) turkey club. It is perfect. Lightly toasted wheat bread, crisp bacon, warm roasted turkey and a subtle smidge of mayo. The turkey is so fresh and of such a high quality, I ate this sandwich at workday lunches while I was expecting and craved bland, simple proteins.
And the (baby) spinach salad with chicken is a healthy heap of food.
On the other hand, their carrot cake and chocolate mousse cake are pretty darn good too.
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