Friday, January 23, 2009

Nickel Diner Now Serving DINNER!

As one may have already read from NewDowntown (yahoo group), BlogDowntown or other blogs, the Nickel opened for it's first official Dinner hours tonight, the 23rd. Before the Nickel experimented with dinner hours on the monthly art walk nights.


The Nickel: Now Serving Dinner
Nickel Diner opens for dinner from Tues through Saturday from 6-11pm.


Checking in at The Nickel shortly after 6pm, there were already a couple tables seated for dinner. Apon sitting, ordering a couple glasses of water and perusing the menu.. we saw that there are many items one will see on the regular lunch menu. However, a list of dinner entrees are now offered including: a double stuffed chicken, a salmon dish, catfish dish, flatiron steak with arugula & tomato salad, and a couple veggie leaning options.

Lunch regulars will see they have the pulled pork sandwich, the Nickel Burger, and Lowrider among many other favorites. (Smac and Cheese anyone??). Knowing I could get one of my favorite lunch items.. during lunch, I made sure to try one of the new dinner options.

"eat your vegetables"
"Eat Your Vegetables" hashed bacon Brussel sprouts with green beans, sauteed spinach, and roasted parsnips and carrots over a bed of buttermilk mashed potatoes. OMG! This was sooo incredibly delicious.

The hashed bacon brought a gently salted savoriness to the Brussel sprouts. The parsnips & carrots worked well together.. the parsnips providing a meaty texture and the carrots a sweetness. I was happy with the green beans and the spinach. Perfect!


"beef stew with mushrooms"
SeanYoda ate with me of course (he's been wishing The Nickel opened for dinner only slightly more than myself, and probably was more vocal about it though). He chose the beef stew. I tried his and having been slices of beef with vegetables on buttermilk mashed potatoes, it reminded me ever so slightly of Shepherd's Pie (which Sean says 'no it's beef stew!!') so yeah, it's got a hearty thickness that I imagine would be very filling and hearty.

Ok.. getting over the "It's stew!" "It's Shepherd's Pie" argument.. let's move on to everyone's favorite.. dessert! Yes, we had dessert.

Tonight's options included the Red Velvet cake, tres leche cake, tapioca pudding, cheesecake, lemon pie (with the entire lemon!), and the salt peanut cake.

Salt peanut cake
"Salt Peanut Cake" chocolate cake layered with a peanut butter cream cheese frosting & potato chips. YES! Potato Chips.. omg crunchy sweet, salty, chocolatey.. **Please note the above photo is 1/2 a slice (we split the serving down the middle).

With a Diet Coke & Cherry Soda, the entire dinner came to about $34 (not including tip).

The Nickel has been doing fantastic since day one, and if our dinner was any sampling of what will come from the future dinner service schedule, all is well at 5th & Main. There's no question I'll be coming back for dinner again.. and again.. and.. well, you get the idea!


The Nickel Diner
524 S. Main Street
Los Angeles, CA 90013

Open:
Breakfast/ Lunch: Tues through Sunday 730-330pm
Dinner (currently): Tues through Saturday 6pm-11pm

2 comments:

Love and Hate LA said...

Mmm great review...and even better pictures..thanks for sharing.
Great filling comfort food.

MeekoRouse said...

Hi! Thank you so much! Appreciate your kind words.. I love going here. I teased Kristen once that I thought I could probably blog about every meal I had at the Nickel and turn it into a "Nickel Blog"

I love eating here but I'm going to probably start cutting back on my meals out.. I've gained so much weight (back)!

I do hope they work out the dinner issues though.. We were so happy when they finally started opening regular in the evenings.