Clinton Diner & Bar

I like this place. It’s just a basic diner but has that old time charm. My favorite dish is the franks and beans!!!

The place looks really old outside and once you enter you feel like you are in an old movie. I really like the food, I have tried gyros, to burgers (including Veggie, Beef and Turkey) tuna sandwiches, grilled chicken breast. I’ve been going here since I was a little kid and the place never failed to make me enjoy my food. It’s more of an old fashioned dinner but I would recommend it!

Great old atmosphere inside, food pretty good. Great to chill out and relax in.

Okay, I will admit that the goodfellas sign brought me in. Such a cinematic staple, how can you not stop in?
So I will warn you that this place is legitimately a dump. They have the original 1930s décor, and they probably haven’t cleaned the booths for a good 40 years.
The food was nothing to rave about, I got a chicken salad sandwich and while it was pretty good, it wasn’t worth writing home about. I would say that it is typical diner food. Not amazing, but not terrible.
This restaurant is a staple of Queens; and also a pretty popular spot for movie and TV show filming. I can understand why, it’s a true NY diner feel. Oh and friendly reminder: this is a cash only establishment.
So for a trip down memory lane, and friendly service, I would suggest checking them out. However, don’t go too out of your way because you won’t be impressed.

Ok, so it’s not a hipster hangout. And that’s a good thing. Sure it’s seen better days but you can’t always judge a book by its cover. When I worked nearby I enjoyed the occasional breakfast or hamburger at lunch. The food is quite good. $ 6.90 for eggs, yummy bacon, perfectly made homefries, wheat toast & coffee. Hard to beat that. Not bakery bread, no jam (Welch’s grape jelly) but it’s a bargain. The waitresses are always kind and attentive, never rushed. The cooks look like they’re characters from Goodfellows.

If you want to really «feel» like you’re back in time — or maybe an extra in your favorite mob movie — check this place out! Really really great breakfast that beats the hell out of whatever freebies you would score at Holiday Inn Express around the corner.
I had the pancakes with scrambled eggs and crispy bacon — basically the best breakfast I’ve had on the road in a long time. Everything was done really well — the pancakes were homemade like Grandma used to make and the bacon was cooked to perfection.
Really can’t say enough good things about this place. I wish I could go there again soon…
Be sure to bring cash — they don’t accept credit cards.
Also, word on the street is that they serve up one of the best burgers in town. Swing by for lunch!

LOVE this diner. Been here a few times when I stay at my friends place. They filmed Goodfellas here! It still has the same old décor from the 70s. The food is GOOD and every inexpensive. Love it!

Hey! All the mob movies are shot here! I gotta give it a 5 star! The food and service is great and makes me feel like I just sat down and ate with Johnny Two Times.

Found new breakfast spot! Has a lot of character! Truck stop turn celebrity destination diner (from Goodfellas to Good Wife). Want to try dinner menu too!

This is the famous diner that was in the movie ‘Goodfellas” which is one of the only reasons that I came here in the first place. I’m an avid Diner attendee and love everything about them. (it’s my thang, don’t know why.)
I asked for simple things, like two eggs over with hash and rye. (two eggs over easy with with hash browns and rye toast) and potato delight/​disco fries (fries with melted cheese and gravy) we also ordered at the table, Texas burgers, pizza burgers, turkey burger deluxe, and triple decker sandwiches. Everything came out hot, good portions, and everyone’s burger came out the way they asked for it. There was nothing spectacular or horrible about this place.
We were actually the only table there, but that is normal for diners, they are full unless its a night with specials on the menu or the weekends. The waitress did what she was supposed to do, she came over took our order, gave us our order, came over once to see if everything was okay, and occasionally came over when we needed drink refills, and then for the check.
If you are there a very long time, and your waitress/​waiter did all these things, then they filled out their duties. Unless you specifically ask for more napkins, straws, lemon with your water, etc. you find her. That is just how diners are, and they are laid back for a reason.
Yes it looks dingy from the outside, but if you consider that they near a bunch of factories, and it used to be considered a big truck stop before the movie came out, then yea, all the dust and debris that the trucks pass by with will make it look nasty. But who’s going to clean it? Not the owner, and surely not ‘Lorraine’. Ha, ha

food is good atmosphere is better. nostalgic and blast from the past.
i eat there for lunch when im working in the area. I also bring the wife and friends there for breakfast sometimes too. Other 20 and 30 somethings do the same after a night of drinking.
The hamburgers are good, the meatloaf is good too. The old lady always tells me how good the homemade food she and her husband make after i order it. and she is right.
lots of workers and truckers from the area. real homey feeling. Lots of regulars and an occasion tourist. Quite a number of scenes from Goodfellas were filmed there.
old couple that own it are hilarious I work with a guy that used go there in the 60s hasnt changed since then and quite honestly that one of the many things they are doing right.
Delicious coffee, food and great décor from the 60s and 70s bring a razor blade to scrape the grease of the windows to see out of them.
btw– stop using credit cards at these mom and pop establishments. its costs them processing fees and causing them to be less competitive with these lousy chain heat and serve joints

Meh.
I’ve been meaning to stop in here since I took a job in Queens, given the history of the place.
I recently had the chance to go for lunch and was totally underwhelmed. The burger was very plain and tasteless, the waitress seemed otherwise occupied and the place is generally run down and dumpy.
Won’t be back unless another sucker like me wants to stop in for the nostalgia.

How this place is still in business is beyond me. First warning sign: They don’t display their restaurant grade in the window. They used to be good for at least b’fast but they can’t even do that right. Their sausages used to be the reason I’d go there. Now they seem old, dry AND over cooked.
They do however make a great burger and some good shakes. And if you’re looking for an old fashioned nostalgic diner this is it.
While it was never considered a great diner, it was a whole lot better than what it is now.

A place frozen in time.
I grew up in Brooklyn in the 60’s & 70’s when it was chock full of places like this. I really miss the old Brooklyn. So I had lunch at the Clinton Diner this past weekend with two other people. The place is a real trip the 1969 renovation of a 1930’s diner is very evident (including the 1969 dirt) I had the London broil sandwich it was very good cooked perfectly and the meat was fresh. one of my friends had a Pizza Burger (another throw back) the burger looked great nice and charred. We were the only people there on a Saturday afternoon so the service was great the waitress was really cool possibly could have been an Ed Wood movie as a love interest. If you want to capture a little of the «Old Brooklyn» and do not mind a little schmutz then get to the Clinton Diner and check it Out.
Ciao–

There’s nothing I enjoy more than an establishment where time has stood still and irony has never entered the equation. There’s a reason it’s been used as a location for countless movies and tv shows… the interior is quite spectaular and appealed firmly to my nostalgic taste. I didn’t go for the food, though there are definitely some general diner items on the menu which were okay. I went to peek at a little piece of America, the way it looked to me watching it on TV thousands of miles away as a kid.

Shakes are great love that they give you the extra from the shake but thats about it that is good from there! Always passed there as a kid and always wanted to go! went in recently and was highly dissapointed, there shakes though were great but thats about it!

I’ve been eyeballing this place from the bus for years.
Last night, biking home from Greenpoint, we finally made it happen.
While the ambience is as excellent as one might expect, the food was pretty bad, even by diner standards. My first comment was: «how do you mess-​up toast?». To boot, service was nearly nonexistent, and we were almost the only ones there.

On a quiet Sunday morning, 20+ years after first watching Goodfellas in a cinema, I achieved an ambition and finally got to have brunch in the «Sherwood Diner» that features in at least three scenes. Although there were a few regulars customers already there (trucks parked outside), there was plenty of space, and we sat down in one of the booth seats. You might recall that in one scene Robert de Niro, as Jimmy Conway, sat «near the window so he could see everybody who drove up to the restaurant». We had a good, solid classic diner brunch; the service was cheerful, the coffee hot, and the atmosphere was just great.
Unlike other places that have featured in the movies, the Clinton Diner seems not to have tried to cash in on its fame. I can think of few places with such authenticity, but which have also served to create Hollywood myth. Unlike Jimmy Conway, I ate heartily, and took a few moments to reflect on the make believe of the movies and the tough, dangerous, destructive gangster lifestyle. The owner who was there in 1989 is still in charge, and his presence behind the counter reminded me of the hard work of building up a business over the decades; order by order, coffee pour by coffee pour, dollar by dollar.

OK, so three reasons to love this place:
1. GOODFELLAS was shot here.
2. CASH ONLY.
3. The bread used to make my french toast came out of a completely white bag simply labeled «BREAD» in big, bold text.
This place is surreal. The food is cheap, decent diner fare, but it’s the atmosphere that makes it all worth it. I really wanted to sit in Bobby and Ray’s booth, but they had that whole section closed off for some trucker’s birthday (also awesome).

Went here around 2am last night after a night of drinking with my friends. Due to the aesthetics of the diner, I felt like eggs and bacon would be the safest choice. The food arrived quickly, but the home fries tasted like rubber, and the bacon tasted like dirt. The eggs were okay, but who could actually mess eggs up? My friends were either extremely brave, or still extremely drunk; they ordered turkey blts. The fries were very greasy and the turkey was ridiculously dry. Half-​way through the meal, we noticed that there was MOLD growing on the corners of the bread.