Matthews Diner

I would normally give this place 5 stars but I ordered for pick up today and they completely screwed up my order. I asked for no tomatoes and got tomatoes and sweet potato fries and got normal fries. Not a big deal but I got home and was disappointed. Food was great but just double check your order

Nothing to write home about with the food. There are so many other diners in the area with much better quality of food, even when it’s simple (sandwiches, soup, eggs, etc). There’s no dish here that I can’t get elsewhere (and done much better).
But the real problem here is the service. Servers will ignore you, forget to refill glasses, leave dirty dishes piled up on the table and only come back to give you the check … it’s really bad. I don’t blame the servers themselves for this, because the problem is so widespread among staff that management is clearly failing to train their people. It’s sad.
If you want a great diner experience, try the Suburban Diner in Paramus or the Colonial Diner in Lyndhurst. Hell, go to Giovanna’s Café in Ramsey (technically not a diner, but the food is outstanding variations of the dishes you’d find at Matthews). Matthews itself isn’t worth it. Life’s too short to eat bad food and put up with bad service.

Love this place
Watched a waiter take someone else’s tip tonight
The food is outstanding and everyone is nice eat there most nights for dinner

It was a good diner once. but not anymore
Usually I go there with my husband. This time I went with my mother for lunch. We ordered burgers. The service was okay. The salad bar was nothing much. It was very basic stuff. In any case, we got the burgers and you can smell the meat went bad. We called the waitress to let her know. A few minutes later the manager came over trying to convince us it did not go bad. It was fresh meat and they were fine. I understood where he was coming from but I kept telling him the smell was very clear to the point we did not want to order anything else made with ground beef. He kept insisting that it was fine. We got around ordering some kind cold cuts sandwiches to play it safe. After we received the new order. He came to check on us and AGAIN insist that the meat was fine. First, in a different restaurant/​diner we would have received some discount or desert on the house or something. NOT THERE. Second, his consistent attitude that we were wrong and the meat was just fine… irritated me to the point of no return. Mind you we live in Waldwick and we’ve been there so many time. We were not too crazy about the décor/​ambiance to begin with (too senior citizen and that is most of their client tell) but the food was good to keep coming back. They used have the best prime rib on Sunday’s, not anymore. Now, the food was no longer good but it was addable. So we did not come as often but occasionally when we had no time to drive to RT. 17. NOW we stopped all together. No more…

While there is a little bit of everything on a huge menu it just consistently falls short. I don’t expect Michelin star food at a dinner but the quality just isn’t there. Simple items like buffalo wings are served cold (freezer bought pre-​cooked wings no less) to the burning of hamburgers, and mushy fries. With so many other options in the area it’s a major let down.

Hands down my favorite diner. The servers are great the food is good. I definitely recommend coming here if you’re looking for a great diner!

I’ve been to quite a few diners in my day and this place is probably in the upper half of the all time greatest. A nice quaint little place with quality food and quality service. You can just tell right off the bat it’s a family owned restaurant so they really do care for their customers and want to provide the best service possible. I always get an omelette when I go, and I can’t complain because it’s pretty good. This place won’t knock your socks off but it’s certainly no bottom of the barrel diner and is definitely worth the visit if you’re in town.

9÷23÷15 — today, I wanted a turkey burger deluxe with a replacement of mixed greens for the French fries. They actually gave me a hard time about making that switch. The manager actually tried to tell me that the price of 10 pounds of french fries was less than the price of 8 pounds of tomatoes, and the tomatoes were almost three times the price of the potatoes. This would be great, if I had intended to eat 8 pounds of tomatoes! Since I was only asking for a small amount of greens, this guy was totally off base. Every other diner in the area will gladly switch a small amount of greens for french fries. As a diabetic, the greens are much more in line with what I can eat. The carbohydrates of the French fries would skew my blood sugar to the point of requiring additional medication. Eventually, he gave in. But not without some gnashing of teeth and moaning uncontrollably. I am NOT a jerk water customer. I personally hold a servsafe certification and work in the service industry at times. Be careful who you try to BS, they may know more than you think.

There are 3 diners in my town within a 2 mile radius from my house, but I am so glad I went the extra couple of miles to Matthews.
My standard diner fare typically consists of A turkey or grilled chicken club, with or without sweet potato friends, depending on how hungry I am. We got nachos first, which is atypical, but we were starving and they were really good! My grilled chicken club came with blt, avocado and swiss plus a side of glorious sunshine — I loved it. My boyfriend had steak and eggs, which was above average from your standard diner.
This place is a step above the rest, definitely worth the drive for me.

Good quality diner. Very popular. I’m here on a Thursday at 2PM, eating the lunch special. ~$ 9.00. Handi-​accessible. Courteous staff. Quick! And there’s maybe five+ infants on here… I also can’t hear every word of my neighbors. = good acoustics. Oh. And clean.

It’s a diner. Adjust your expectations accordingly, and everything will be just fine.
One of the biggest, unfortunate standouts that I noticed immediately while dining here last night was that the number of items on the menu is simply overwhelming. Matthews has combined their breakfast menu («All Day Breakfast») with their lunch/​dinner fare, but this isn’t the problem, as the breakfast is a normal selection spanning about three pages. It’s the fact that the dinner options comprise EIGHT pages, not including the «Dastardly Desserts,» wine list, or breakfast menu (which would have brought the total to thirteen to fourteen pages)!
After scanning Matthews’s offerings for what seemed like forever — and even asking the waiter for additional time to make my final selection — I decided on what appeared to be the only non-​cheese vegetarian dish: the Veggie Burger (Reg. $ 5.25, Deluxe $ 7.25). I have the tendency to be a picky eater, in large part due to my vegetarian diet and general intolerance to dairy products. But even if I settled for a meatless dish containing cheese, my choices would have remained extremely limited. Of course, I’m used to struggling when ordering at restaurants, but at a diner with a fourteen page menu?! Matthews, I commend you for serving veggie burgers, but you desperately need to step up your game for those of us with dietary restrictions.
While we were waiting for our entrees, a few members of my party headed to the salad bar, which was included in their orders. Earlier, one of them had asked the waiter what the salad bar was like, to which he responded: «There are a few options.» When they returned with their plates of lettuce, a few scattered tomatoes, and dressing, we knew our waiter wasn’t exaggerating. It was enough to hold them over until their meals arrived, but the salads looked truly pitiful.
I received my veggie burger, and the presentation was actually quite nice. It was served open face, with lettuce and tomato, cole slaw, a pickle, and French fries. The size of my meal, as well as everyone else’s, was massive. The best part about this is that I know I’m getting my money’s worth. At the same time, however, it was a little sad to see the amount of food that was left over at the end of the meal.
My burger was decent. It didn’t taste freezer burned, like many restaurant veggie burgers I’ve tried in the past. It may be because it was drowned in cooking oil, though. The fries were equally as greasy. The quality of the patty they use is where Matthews wins its points; I’m pretty familiar with the mainstream vegetarian meat substitutes that are out there, and there’s no question that this one was a Dr. Praeger’s California Veggie Burger. So overall, it wasn’t lacking in flavor or real vegetables.
At the end of our dinner, the general consensus was that Matthews Diner does breakfast and brunch much better than its later meals. From now on, when I go here, it’ll be right after I wake up in the morning.

Went with family and we waited a small lifetime for our food. Food was bland and service was slow. Won’t go back.