Failing to push the right buttons

The American diner never goes out of fashion. It feeds our faux-nostalgia for an age and culture we never knew: our inner desire to be Fonzie chewing gum and snapping wisecracks over the soda fountain. Done well, the food is awesomely, unhealthily delicious. Who can resist the trashy charms of a fine burger, stack of pancakes or thick, creamy shake?

The Diner looks as if it's pushing all the right buttons, a fun reincarnation of a 1950s dream - those light fittings, that cinema lettering over the bar - plonked in cool west Soho. But the welcome isn't quite as warm as the nostalgia. The food, though cheap and gut-filling, falls a little short of the ideal.

Waldorf salad comes as a solid mass of apple and walnut - no celery - in clotted mayo. We're excited by 'tortilla bread' and score a couple of plain flour tortillas. Duh. Cajun-spiced chicken burger is overcooked and sinewy, and my burger, though correctly mediumrare, doesn't drip seductive meaty juices down my chin. But we love our crunchy onion rings and cheap cheesy fries. We also loved our thick, 'hard shakes'; peanut butter whizzed with ice-cream and spiked with bourbon - all the major food groups in one glass.

The Diner is fun, sure. Just not as much fun as it thinks it is.

A meal for two with cocktail, water and service costs about £50. 18 Ganton Street W1. Tel: 020 7287 8962. www.thedinersoho.com Tube: Oxford Circus

Diner
Ganton Street, London, W1F 7BU