The Spot Diner/Restaurant

Name: The Spot
Location: 1062 Upper Front St, Binghamton, NY 13905
Phone: (607) 723-8149
Cuisine: American/Greek/etc.
Attire: Casual
Price: Less than $20 for two (most of the time)
Review:
The Spot Diner is a default breakfast stop for Megan and me. The food is good, the service is quick, and the menu is vast. Plus, most things on the menu are pretty inexpensive. All of these factors add up to a winning combination.

The Spot is located on Upper Front St., a good distance from downtown Binghamton. It's not far from the Northgate Plaza where Grande's is located. The place is gigantic. There are 3 distinct dining areas making it easily the largest diner I have ever seen. There are probably 100 tables in the place, all told. The booths are large and pretty comfortable. The waitresses are very quick and come around with fresh coffee to fill your cup every few minutes. The place has a nostalgic sort of charm for me that I can't quite put my finger on. It reminds me of places I used to go when I was a kid, when I used to go out for breakfast with my grandfather every Saturday morning. There's a gumball machine and old-timey arcade games in the lobby. I guess it just reminds me of a much simpler time in my life.

The menu is extraordinarily humongous, with a ton of options of various prices. Usually I order off the breakfast menu, where you can get virtually any usual breakfast food you want, but their lunch/dinner menu is even bigger, with sandwiches/burgers, pasta, steaks, seafood, and a whole slew of Greek specialty items like gyros, souvlaki, spanakopeta, and moussaka. Megan and I like the souvlaki; she orders it often. They also have a huge dessert case that I've been meaning to sample at some point. This review will focus on breakfast, however.

We went yesterday, 10:00 Sunday morning. For many places this would mean a packed house but it's nearly impossible for The Spot to be completely packed since the place is so huge. We got in right away and were seated promptly in a booth toward the back. One thing we really like about the place is that even though it's busy, it never really *feels* busy. We both ordered coffee and it came out in about a minute. Typical diner coffee, these are no gourmet beans or anything but it's drinkable and they keep filling it up regularly. Plus, I believe they don't charge you for coffee with breakfast. Win. Megan ordered the Belgian Waffle (watch out, you can only order this item before 11:00 AM, but can order any other breakfast item at any time), while I went with the buttermilk pancakes with two eggs.



The food came out promptly. Megan enjoyed her waffle immensely. It looked quite good to me. As for my pancakes, they were a little more "done" than I would've liked. I like them a little more golden than brown, and most of the time they are. Yesterday's were a little subpar, but still tasty. The eggs were normal scrambled eggs. Nothing to get excited about, but nothing to complain about either. For an $11 breakfast, both of us left quite satisfied and weren't hungry again until dinner.

There are a TON of diners in the Binghamton area and I hope to visit and review many of them. To any readers who stumble across this post: which of the area diners do you like best? Which would you recommend we visit? For now, I like The Spot. The atmosphere is suitably old-timey (hello, operator?), the service is great (amazing for a place so big that's often crowded), and the food isn't flashy but it hits...the spot. See what I did there?

Grade: B