Old Liberty Diner

Really yum American style food. The chicken wangs are especially dope. Cool atmosphere too.

I hate to say it, but a resounding disappointment. Was sort of excited to hear that a diner style restaurant was open in the Shire area, but was unimpressed at the end. The restaurant is cramped and the posters on the wall that are supposed to give the true americana diner vibe somehow feels more like the arts-​and-​crafts room in a preschool vibe. The crampedness of the place especially did not help, particularly as every person in the restaurant thought it appropriate to have a 20 minute stare at me as soon as I walked in (what a surprise in Engadine, if you’re the only POC in the room you can’t expect much more from these folks). The staff were lovely and friendly which was a plus, we ordered cheese sticks, southern fried chicken, a beef burger and two milkshakes. The milkshakes were… well milkshakes, would be hard to screw that up. The cheese sticks were an odd consistency on the inside and I’ve eaten the exact same ones at hogs breath café so clearly just frozen and fried, not at all worth the whopping 10 dollars i paid for them. My friends burger was underwhelming, crumbly patty and semi stale ‘brioche’ stiyle bread. The southern fried chicken (20 dollars mind you!!!) was such a let down, I was so hungry but still ended up sending it back. Semi-​cold mash potato with microwave hot gravy, a stale cornbread biscuit, bland coleslaw, and the crème de la crème blacky/​brown fillets of springy crumbed chicken (thought fried chicken was generally just chicken pieces fried not chicken fillets but anyway…) that tasted absolutely awful. I mean I’m a dumpster when I’m hungry but I simply could not, and didn’t want anything else after that experience. Although the staff were lovely and didn’t charge me for my meal, it’s not at all worth it folks. Save your excitement and visit one of the more quality diners in the city area, the vibe is better, and the food is actually decent. A let down and I won’t be back. Sorry bout it!

I NEVER go to Engadine for anything — but this place is Definitely worth the trip, my sister had been raving about this place for months & since enjoying New York food first hand I was a tad sceptical — Old Liberty Diner defiantly lives upto the hype || the most delicious buffalo wings & sweet potato fries (My favourite) I have been back 5 times & am yet to have a bad experience! Oh and did I mention the Chef is from NYC!!! Make sure you book as the word is out!

I’m going to try to be nice, as this is definitely a small town family operation, and I feel for them. You can just tell that the owners had a dream of creating a buzzing American style diner deep in the Shire. But not all dreams come true, I never did get to marry the pre-​cocaine-​pre-​Paris-​Hilton version of Nick Carter.
Old Liberty Diner is very DIY. if you check out the Facebook page you’ll see photos of the family building the booths that line one side of the diner. A lot of the photos pinned up around the joint appear to have been laminated fresh off the Brother all-​in-​one in dad’s office. And that’s fine, they’ve kept the décor true to the American Diner theme, complete with juke box and popcorn machine.
Staff are friendly, as you’d expect — they’re vested in the place.
Then there’s the food. They have figured out wings well beyond my expectations. The sauce is perfect, the celery and carrot sticks are crisp, and the ranch dressing is spot on. Tragically, my wings were a bit undercooked. Not «oh my god I’m going to die if I eat these» undercooked, but very pink with some red in spots.
The burger also needed some help. The meat was too crumbly, I can only assume they used too lean of a mix for the patty. The bun had a weird flaky-​stale texture as if it had been frozen for more than a few days and defrosted just before service. It took me half the burger to figure out what flavour was missing– mustard. The pickle wedge on the side was lovely though.
The fried chicken was okay. The meat was juicy. Again, slightly undercooked in spots for my liking, but overall not bad. The batter could have benefitted from some salt, but the rest of the spices were there. The sides (coleslaw, fries, cheddar biscuit & mashed potatoes with gravy) were nothing to write home about and mostly lacking in seasoning.
Old Liberty Diner is licensed for BYO only (more Australian than American IMO), but the atmosphere didn’t really seem conducive to cork popping.
Prices are pretty reasonable. A can of Dr Pepper (or any other soda on the menu) will only set you back $ 2.50. The burger was under $ 16, and the wings just under $ 9.