Tom Sawyer Diner

They were able to quickly seat and serve our party of 7. This place is everything you can and should expect from a Jersey diner. They have all the expected diner favorites, and some great healthy options as well. Highly recommend the sweet potato fries. Great dessert options. Nice size parking lot. Very clean and nicely decorated.

I just met my friends there for the first time. Plenty of parking even on Martin Luther King’s holiday because lot is huge. We were seated right away. Food was fine– we had two Omelettes with a side of toast, roasted potatoes, fruit, the Smoked Salmon Platter, two coffees and tea. Bill for that came to $ 44+. I also got a Top of the World burger to go for $ 14+. They were all good, not the best I had, but good enough. We sat there talking for a while even after we paid and they did not rush us to leave. People were pleasant. There is a glass case of baked goods at the front that I want to check out next time. Yes, I’m coming back if I’m in the area because of its convenient location. But I would not go out of my way to eat there.

3 stars!?!
In order to be a great diner in my book you have to have A LOT of options on your menu, which this place does NOT. For breakfast they only have a two sided menu with a lot of it including coffee drinks. Don’t get me wrong… the food that they do serve is fresh and good but in NJ which is over flooding with diners you have to be at the top of your game to set yourself a part. This place is solid, but nothing special. The inside is clean and the staff is friendly and quick… but just nothing special. It is the closest place to our house so we go maybe twice a month, however if we drive 1 minute further there are 3 others we could get to.

This is definitely a less than average diner. My soup was served cold and the service was a bit slow. The soup was good but nothing special. My mother ordered an avocado sandwich and said it was fine. Don’t come here expecting something amazing so of you’re looking for «mediocre» dining then this is the place.

My family & I are visiting from PA & tried this diner. We were seated quickly & everyone was friendly, which was nice.
We were surprised by how expensive everything was on the menu so we decided to try the Shepherd’s Pie special. The Greek lemon soup that it came with was absolutely delicious. That was by far the star of the meal. Unfortunately, the Shepherd’s Pie had a really odd taste & was not good. We also had to beg for drinks, which I hate.
All in all I’d give this place a C or 3 stars.

As far as diners go, this one is awesome! The food is great and fresh, and I finally got a fruit salad that didn’t have dead squishy oranges and strawberries! Everything is very clean and looks new but it does get very busy especially early in the afternoon which is to be expected.

$ 80.62 for 4 turkey clubs and a mozzarella stick appetizer. NO that price isn’t a mistake.
And being a «To Go» order for 5 people visiting someone in the local hospital, there were NO forks given to eat the cole slaw with, NO ketchup to eat the french fries with, and NO mayo on the side as requested to eat the sandwiches with. Since there were no condiments given, everything was DRY.
Obviously the prices here are OUTRAGEOUS as at least one previous reviewer stated. My local diner charges almost $ 11.00 for the same sandwich and I think that’s a bit high but this is unacceptable. If it weren’t a Sunday night with very limited options I would have walked out.
This place is definitely watching their bottom line overpricing the product and not providing the condiments and basic utensils needed to eat.
THANK YOU Tom Sawyer… For making sure the only reason I go back in your place is if I have to use the restroom, or make a U-​Turn in your parking lot.
I wish Unilocal allowed us to give half or ¼ stars. The lowest number possible would be my choice.

This is not a diner! The prices are outrageous, there is no breakfast menu. The place was empty on a Saturday afternoon no one approached us for a good 7 minutes and we heard a couple ask when their food was going to be ready because they had been waiting a while. We just left. This is not a review of the food but of the service and of how their new «reinvented» diner experience is a joke. It’s neither here nor there. If you want to pay for $ 16 for a burger or a salad, there are classier places to go to

Diners are like a pair of well worn slippers; we all have our favorite and comfort is key. This joint is not comfortable (closer to creepy) and that about sums up my experience here.
It was late, we were hungry, and Tom Sawyer was on our way home. It is now morning, we both have bellyaches, and I stayed home to nurse mine. I like Mark Twain just fine, but this namesake eatery has only one thing in common with his famous character; a penchant for food related misadventures and mischief, and in that respect, it is aptly named.
You can usually count on some decent basics at a diner in NJ — like coffee, french fries, gyro’s or reubens. But here the french fries tasted like deep fried balsa wood, and the open faced“combo” reuben came with too much sauerkraut, a few paltry slices of rubbery «mystery meat» masquerading as pastrami and corned beef, soggy rye bread and a tease of swiss cheese (at $ 13.95). I gave up at 3 forkfuls. The gyro (at $ 14.99) was greasy and sold as lamb (seasoned chopped beef all the way) accompanied by a congealed tzatziki sauce that spread like cream cheese. The gyro stayed behind too — mostly.
The cole slaw looked and tasted old, and even the jarred thousand island dressing had an off flavor. The watered down coffee and iced tea was undrinkable. About the only item on our plates that tasted more or less as it should was the pickle.
C’mon folks — some people actually know the difference!
We declined dessert but our waiter brought a gratis piece of pumpkin pie anyway. I should have avoided this, but I was hungry and the meal sucked to that point. I tried it. It tasted like leftovers from well before Thanksgiving, and was served on a plate that had «Tom Sawyer» painted on in syrup. But the syrup (intended to be eaten with the pie) had hardened, providing some provenance of it’s age.
So far as service goes, it was little better than the food. When we arrived, the restaurant was empty — it’s night time after all — but our waiter was impatient (like hopped up impatient) and constantly at us to order — must have been to our table 7 or 8 times in 5 minutes. WTF? The lady at the cash register was surly and indifferent, and the maitre d was frenetically walking about the front of house — in a rush to go nowhere it seemed. Bizarre.
I hate slamming restaurants, much less after a single visit, but I saw enough flaws in this operation to give it a failing grade — and agree with many of the complaints posted by other reviewers on Unilocal.It seems TS survive’s mostly by dint of it’s convenient location. Just off the Parkway and astride a shopping mall with little competition nearby, it probably attracts plenty of suckers and stragglers (like us).
WIGB? Yeah — right. «Bang — zoom — To the Moon Alice!»

Overpriced, you do not get what you pay for. I have never been a fan of diner food but this is way below any other dinner that I have ever been to. The food was greasy and sucked. I am writing this review after eating here 3 times and have always had the same experience. Staff wasn’t friendly either.

Worst diner ever. We ordered the soup and it came out cold. The steak was tough and overall the selection was small for a diner. Service was poor.

As far as diners go, this one rates pretty high with me. I have to admit that years ago I wouldn’t have written anything special about this place but since they renovated even the food is prettier and tastier. When my family visits from Long Island they insist we go here for lunch. They have something for everyone. Their breakfasts are reasonably priced and you get a lot of food. The soups are great and so is their comfort meatloaf. Good place for Sunday brunch too! They like to turn the tables quickly so you might feel rush out at the end of your good meal. Great place to meet friends, especially if you gave toddlers and need quick reliable service and food. Be warned the parking lot can get packed on weekends and look out when backing up, I’ve seen some really creative parking there!

My experiences at Tom Sawyer Diner have always been four star. If I am on my way to Campmore, have business in NJ or on the way to Philadelphia; if it is breakfast or brunch time, you can bet this is where I will stop, hands down straight up they do it right for me. Eggs fluffy and light, smokey bacon that is more than plentiful and some of the best home fries on the trail. For me home fries are the tell tale sign for any breakfast restaurant, it sets the entire tone for the meal. Tom Sawyer has some of the tastiest crispiest home fires I have had anywhere. Damn, if you can’t golden crisp them tater’s with some excellent flavor drop that item from the menu or git out the bizzness. Sadly this admonition is never heeded and many restaurants are totally unaware that most customers believe and feel as I do, maybe not quite as militantly.
The Diner is decorated beautifully inside, the service is excellent and the breakfast menu rocks, give it a try and see if you don’t breakout in your happy dance.

The food was disgusting, asked for burger medium rare and came well done, and greasy. Told the waiter but he didn’t do anything about it. Ordered a waffle that was clearly very old, dry, and reheated, told the waiter after taking just one bite of it, again, he didn’t do anything, brought the check and I had to tell him myself to take the waffle off the check. The kitchen will NOT do substitutions, even though the restaurant was empty and just needed to exchange one side for another. Waiter suggested I just pay for the extra side because it «was just $ 6»… After expressing dislike, waiter didn’t do a thing, there was no manager to apologize or anything of that kind. Will NOT be coming back here, and if it’s like this when they are empty I can’t imagine when they are full.

How can a diner have lousy Tunafish? This place has gone down the tubes in terms of food quality and service. I gave it 1 star because this site didn’t allow me to give it no stars. yuk!
Roberta F

No alcohol in this place like it says on Unilocal.love the food and portions. it just gets better each day!
Love the owner and his employees.

When does customer service become customer bum rush? When you take less than 3 minutes to go to the restroom, and by the time you get back your unfinished meal and table have been totally cleaned away. This just begs for the customer to walk out the door, leave no tip, and pay no check. In fact the check was never given to me until I asked for it.
A little more attention to detail people!

Went for Mother’s Day with the wife. Ordered an overstuffed sensation called the Carnegie Deli which is available with either pastrami, corned beef or roast beef. Asked for toasted bread and pastrami. Got a wimpy sandwich with Corned Beef!
Mentioned it to the waiter. Came back from the kitchen indicating it was pastrami an showed some toast lines on the inside of the bread. This place used to be good but I’m not going to pay 8.99 for skinny sandwiches any more. We are not in NYC or the airport.

Great waffles and breakfast food. The menu is not a crazy diner menu with 10,000 options, but it does have a bunch of pages in it’s menu. Booths are comfortable, service is great.

Of course I didn’t get the waitress’ name but gave her a difficult order for four people… i want this well done, I want to add this, I want to exchange this for that. NO ticket. Just all in her head. Not one slip up either.
All our food was great, nothing out of the ordinary requested, but it all was delivered quickly and just as we asked for it. What else can you ask for?