I decided to go out of my way to try Michael's after seeing a special section in Cleveland magazine. It seemed fine starting out but I found it to be a waste of time. Let me say that the diner was maybe a quarter to a half full at Noon on a Sunday.
The mushroom and cheese omelette was rubbery and tasteless. The cheddar cheese (I had ordered Swiss) had no flavor and was likely the kind made mostly from oil. The pancakes, which came at the same time as the omelette, turned to stone in the time it took to finish the omelette. Though they added a bit of vanilla, the quality was hard and flat.
Diner coffee, which I usually expect to be powerful, was so weak I could see the bottom of the mug through it when it finally arrived.
My server took about five minutes to get the coffee to me, got half of my order wrong and had to be tracked down to get my check. I waited for a coffee refill for the best part of ten minutes while she rolled silver and chatted a few feet down the counter.
I paid the check and addressed my concerns to the owner but his response was "What do you want from me?" "I'll buy you a juice (pointing to the pop cooler by the door) What do you want me to do?!" I had not asked him for anything and never raised my voice, he did.
I have seen some good diners go under, Dodie's in Akron, and The Diner in Solon to name a couple. These were restaurants dedicated to quality and good service but other mistakes brought them down. Diners like Michael's, where they seem to think they are doing us a favor when we patronize them, we could really do without.
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