El Diner gets mixed reviews in first days

Despite relatively large and steady crowds during its opening weekend, El Diner has been greeted with some less than favorable reviews from its student critics. Students had a variety of complaints about the much-awaited restaurant -- which replaced the former Eat at Joe's on the 3900 block of Walnut Street -- many of them aimed at the new establishment's atmosphere and struggling service. "It's not a diner -- there's no booths and the ambiance is all wrong.... It's like they're trying to be too classy for a diner," College sophomore Scott Sanford said. "I'd rather have Eat at Joe's back." Other students agreed that the restaurant's design was not what they had expected. "The couches are kind of random," College and Wharton senior Ariel Glasner said of the two sofas, where patrons are invited to wait for a table. "It's not like a diner." Julie, a waitstaff manager who refused to give her last name, said the managers wanted El Diner to serve food 24 hours a day, like a traditional diner, but to have the appeal of gourmet with a nice atmosphere. However, the ambiance was not the only thing students complained about. Many customers interviewed said they were displeased with the service. "I ordered fish and chips but they weren't sure what chips were," College sophomore Adam Gordon said. "They have such a large menu that I don't think they can do anything that well." "We waited over an hour for eggs," College senior Amer Yuchasz said. "I thought they were killing the chicken." Yuchasz added that the night before, he came to El Diner at 5 a.m. only to find the doors closed temporarily -- which the diner's management attributed to insufficient staff. "We haven't been able to find enough staff," said Gary Farmer, overseer of the restaurant division of Goldman Properties, which brought El Diner to campus. "The people get very impatient, so we've had to lock the doors." Farmer, who was forced to wait tables Sunday, said he is "looking for qualified employees who can service our customers the way they deserve to be serviced." Things are not all bad for El Diner, however. Some students attributed the restaurant's problems to the fact that it just opened. "A friend of mine came here the other day and said the service was awful, but today it's been pretty good," Engineering junior Jeff Braunstein said. Jason, an bartender now working at El Diner -- who also asked that his last name not be used -- said the restaurant's problems are normal for a new business. "They couldn't have anticipated the amount of business we were getting and the concentrations of types of food they'd be ordering," he said. "Whenever you start up anything, there's going to be problems, but we're fixing up things very quickly."