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| - Being new to Charlotte, I'm not sure I fully understand the whole history of the Penguin/Diamond fiasco, so my rating is based solely upon what we ate on the night we visited.
First off, the clientele is ahhh....interesting. As we pulled up, the crowd exiting looked like they were surely leaving to get a fix somewhere. Made me a little leary. Then the hostess, a cute girl, had pretty much full arm sleeves on both arms. Everyone in sight was dressed in head to toe black and clearly spent enough on tattooing to fund a small nation. Given that we just hopped out of our minivan and had two young kids with us, I wasn't too sure. But, the more I looked I saw a few polo shirts in the crowd, heard a few kids squawking and felt a bit at ease. Near the end of our meal, an older couple was seated next to us looking like they had skipped the country club mixer to eat some grease at The Diamond - she even asked for the wine list (ha!) - so it's definetly an ecclectic blend.
Anyway, on the good stuff. I LOVE fried pickles. The Diamond's pickles were awesome!!! Lightly battered, very tangy pickles, served hot out of the fryer. A fried pickle is all about the pickle after all, so you better use a tasty one. The only problem is that the ranch dressing they served them with was downright NASTY! It was way too thick - pretty much the consistency of straight mayo - with very little seasoning and lumpy. I didn't even realize it was supposed to be ranch until my side salad arrived and I realized it matched the ranch dressing with my salad. Ranch dressing is seriously easy to make, there is no excuse for that scary stuff. We also ordered some hushpuppies and they were really, really good. Probably the best I have had around here. Nice lightly corny batter and lightly fried. I find most places around here cook the puppies 'til they are almost black and that's not really my thing.
The menu is pretty extensive, much more so than we expected. That almost worried me because I feel the best restaurants are those with a very clear focus. This menu is not terribly focused. My son ordered the homemade corndog and it was delish. Think state fair corndog - fresh fried and yummy. Hubs had a chili dog which was somewhat ordinary looking, but the dog itself was super tasty. I ordered the crab cakes, which were surpisingly very crabby with not too much filler. I was a little unsure of ordering them, but I was pleasantly surprised. I had the mac n'cheese for a side and it was very, very cheddary and rich, but good.
Our waitress was pleasant and efficient and the food arrived quickly. No complaints AT ALL about service or wait time. If you are looking for a break from the TGIFridays of the world, The Diamond is a good bet. It would be a fun place to take out of town guests, etc. We will be back.
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