this place, and the place below it called "blues room" , sums up what most midpriced "western" restaurants are all about in shanghai: crappy food, even crappier service and too high prices. for the same price you can have the divine burger in a future perfect. not a difficult choice.

My experience was pretty unreal. We had about 14 ppl get there all within a half an hour of each other, so we did have a pretty big table. I'm a pretty patient person and was ok w/ not having menus at first b/c I wanted to wait for my friends, but after all 14 of us were there, our table had... ONE MENU and no drinks. The waiters had to be flagged down and never got us all our drinks. I got my food first, which was a chicken caesar salad, however other people at my table waited OVER AN HOUR for their food. I actually order AFTER several people. We couldn't figure out what the issue was until my friend got fed up and went to talk to the manager. There was NO MANAGER at the restaurant and they had slid a huge order of Sherpa's for carry out in between our order. So, they had to wait for their food until the delivery was ready to go. We had to hold out on the bill and say we aren't paying to speak with the manager, who ended up giving us a 10% tip. I'm tired of letting places get away w/ bad service and nobyd else hears about it. I'm never going back there.

Went for late breakfast. I got scrambled rather than 'over easy'. They replaced the scrambled with 'over cooked to death', very obviously not over easy, why the hell not cook them again rather than treat your customer with utter disrespect? Had to ask for ketchup, had to fetch my own toothpicks. To top it off the place had that lovely sewer stench for half the time I was there. The wait staff were very friendly and tried hard, the breakfast was pretty good.

I went to City Diner at around 4am on New Year. I was from a club and assumed most people at the restaurant were similar to my situation. Most people are probably under alcohol influenced. When I reached there, it was already kinda full. I was seated and before my friends and I could ordered, we saw this big fight. It started by one waiter having a heated argument with this group of people. Then one of the people from the group pushed the waiter away and started asking his friends to leave the restaurant. They tried to leave. But before I knew what happened, all the waiters were all out and the fight broke out. It was not only waiters who attended to the customers, also the cooks from the kitchen, and what's worst of all is that the manager joined. Since the number of people in the group outnumbered the waiters/cooks, they were actually beaten up pretty bad. The waiters/cooks were actually ganging up on those customers. When we tried to leave after the police came and took those people (incl.some waiters/cooks) away, there were actually a lot of blood on the stairs. I wasn't sure what happened exactly. But since when are waiters allowed to beat up customers??? I wouldn't want to know what happened, but i sure will think twice to go back there. What if one day, I'm having too much to drink and acted kinda rude, will they beat me up too???

Dear citydiner, Care to explain what 'disciplined appropriately' actually means? I'm assuming by not saying 'sacked' the waiters and cooks are still working with you...?

Well I think I have now experienced everything in China. Went to City Diner as have eaten there before and the food is not bad. So we ordered and waited and waited some more. Eventually our food came but no cutlery. We asked and after some time someone came to tell us they don't have any cutlery and then walked away!! Had to go find spoons myself to eat our dinner. HAVE YOU EVER!!!!!!!!! As a foreigner I often bitch about China this and that, but I must say that on average the mid-range Chinese restaurant beats out the mid-range Western restaurant again and again in terms of taste, service, decor, speedy and friendly service, and value for money. OMG I still can't believe they said "no cutlery". I don't know whether to laugh or cry.....

Asleep at the wheel. That is all I can say about whoever is running City Diner. I went for breakfast this Saturday morning and they were out of orange juice. Come on! They don't seem to have a budget for silverware or dishes because something is always missing. No saucers for coffee mugs. So why do I go back...I just don't know actually. I keep thinking that it just must be a bad shift and that the next time I go they will actually have their act together...but sadly, no. If someone is listening out there, PLEASE, do something!

Dear Patrons, We are deeply sorry for and shocked by the occurrence at City Diner on New Year's Eve. Your safety is important to us. We have investigated the matter fully and are taking the following actions immediately: 1) the staff involved in the incident have been disciplined appropriately 2) all staff is undergoing strict service training City Diner is a family restaurant. We want you to feel at home when you visit us. We do not condone fighting on our premises and are taking full measures to prevent such things from happening in the future. Again, we apologize for the events on New Year's Eve. As always, we welcome your feedback. Best wishes for 2008, City Diner comments@citydiner.cn

same here : Went to City Diner as have eaten there before and the food is not bad. So we ordered and waited and waited some more. After 45 minutes I went to the 'manager' to ask when our food would be coming... no answer, she just walked away into the kitchen (looking for our food i was hoping). nothing. after 1 hour my friend went to see where our food was... nothing. so we decided to leave, very hungry. while walking out one of the waitresses came up to us telling us we should pay for our coffee. Instead of apologizing or trying to 'fix' the situation like they would do in a real restaurant the only thing she could say was we had to pay for our coffee. My friend (starving) nicely shouted at her, telling her we wasted an hour of our time and she could pay for the coffee herself. Note #1: people at the table next to us who came in 30 minutes later did get their food before we left. Note #2 : at the other table next to us 2 people were having lunch and left 15 minutes after we arrived. This table was NEVER cleared. their left-overs were just sitting there for at least 45 minutes. Note #3 : a person that wanted to have lunch was looking for a table and was told to sit at the table next to us that still had all the left-overs (yummy!). After he heard us talk about the crappy service he wisely left. Note #4: they had trouble with an order of 3 coffee's and 3 glasses of water (bringing 2 coffee's and 2 glasses of water and bringing 2 more coffee's after telling them we should have 1 more). Note #5: the manager seemed very annoyed when we asked for a coffee refill and she needed to fill up our cups. poor girl. City Diner, never again. Train your staff, please!

After having had a terrible service experience at City diner on Tongren lu, yet still addicted to the great hamburgers, me and my friend decided to give City Diner another shot. We decided to try out the new Hongqiao location. The staff were far friendlier, and the service was good. However, the food was not. I ordered the basic City Diner hamburger. Normally, the meat is grilled and tasty, and cooked correctly (i had asked for well done). What i got seemed like it had been cooked a la McDonald's, a kind of flat flavourless patty. When I took a bite, i realised that they had prepared it medium-done. So i sent it back. When i did get it back, it looked even worse. Grey with a layer of moisture around it, typical of microwaved meat. Yecch. Anyway, i'm no longer hooked on City Diner burgers, to say the least.

so I went to City Diner on Friday night/Saturday morning (about 4am), had an unpleasant time there as me and my friends had some crappy ass food. I mean, after drinking, how can any late night meal taste bad? Anyways, I realized i forgot my cell phone after we left the restaurant but I remembered in the cab and i told the driver to head back. I wasnt gone for more than 5 minutes and the wait staff has the nerve to say to me that they didnt see my phone. Basically, the wait staff stole a phone off of me and wont give it back. WTF is that? I called it and it was ringing... shady ass staff there, that place should be closed down...

something has gone wrong with this place. I had no idea about the NYE incident till just now. But whats with the new Menu that is horrible? You took off all the best bits and favs. Whats with the cockroaches that were roaming around our booth when we sat there. THATS GROSS! And the food quality has gone to shit. I would much rather go to Steak and Eggs now, we used to be big fans of this place and it is such a disappointment to see it turn into a roach infested, menu depleted, chef fighting disaster !

not too bad for the burger & breakfast menu... me & my fren try jalapeno burger and loco moco but the appetizer chicken quessadilla nothing special... good place & it almost full after 9pm

My FIRST and LAST time at City Diner was absolutely atrocious. We were left waiting for more than one hour for a simple order of French fries! Completely fed up with the lack of service, we complained to the waiter and paid only for what we were served. As we got outside, I noticed that the waiter had followed us out onto the street. In an angry and arrogant tone, he yelled: "ANY MORE PROBLEM? NO? GOOD! THEN GO!" Stunned by such rudeness, I just stood there as he stormed back into the restaurant and slammed the door behind him. Seeing us still outside, the waiter storms outside again and continues to confront us: "STILL HERE? ANOTHER PROBLEM?" Having lived in Shanghai for almost 2 years, I have never experienced such HORRIFIC treatment before at a restaurant. First they cannot even take care of a simple order. Then they are completely unable to take care of the situation, instead choosing to attack the customer. If this is how City Diner trains its staff, then all I can say is this: MOON RIVER.

I thought the burgers were tasty, the carrot cake was fantastic but agree with most everyone that the sevice is deplorable. However, I'll continue to drop in after a night of drinking on "Tongren Hooker Street" for some take away burger with gravy fries and the carrot cake for my sweet tooth....

Should i say, the biggest THANKS for city diner for ruining my 1st NY breakfast? (Extremely sarcastic on above statement) The night was fantastic at BR. Champagne, the view, fireworks and mostly i was compelled by the waiters service even though bunch of boozed up gents were pushy & being retard. But hey it’s NY who gives a flock of those intoxicated night crawler, that’s what you get for undertaking nightlife jobs. After party me and 2 guests from France decided to fill our starving crave for snacks, since we passed the road we made an emergency stop at city diner without knowing chaos would exploded. Was at dawn when a group of Asian men and women thumping the stairs and boisterous laughter echoed across the hall. They were seated in the den opposite the stairs (we were seated on the outside near the stairs with a slight angle viewable). An argument broke out between them and a few Westerners. After blowing off their steam they all calmed down and began to sit. While a pack of them moving around and trying to sit their dumb drunk asses, a glass flew of the table & shattered on the floor. This is where actually the madness unleashes upon the customers. A waiter about 5.1 feet, crew cut hairstyle, and rigged facial expression hopped in the scene pushing and shouting to all of them (as if the glass was Riedel Sommeliers). An Asian man rebelled and thrust the waiter into the corner. As the group about to go home and walked off, the waiter rushed from back and threw a punch onto his head. More waiters came to help gang on a few of them. 3 guys were dragged into the washroom, 4 waiters and 2 chefs on rampaged. Unimaginable 2 freaking chefs from kitchen also beating up the 3 ambushed customers (chefs who made us the hamburgers & fries). Even a one eyed man could see that, a chef going inside the toilet carried a fire extinguisher and swinging to the 3 ambushed tipsy men. That is what happened on the hallway to the toilet, can’t imagine while they were trapped inside. All we could hear was just commotion, roar of help and women crying and shouting from inside the toilet. Some of the friends from the group stopped the harassment and rescued the 3 guys. They walked off carried by their friends with cuts, bumps, and blood on their faces on the other hand those hooligans’ waiters and chefs proudly walk away without the slightest guilt. My own personal feeling and I’m guessing most of the other people in city diner that night felt the same way as I do, frustration, anger, disappointment, anxiety, and stressed on the first breakfast of the year 2008. Read the comment from others, it mentioned about “MAFIA”, by experienced that night, I’m not surprise if it is owned by “them”. How many of us seen people being silly when they are tipsy, gazillion time. How many of us seen bouncer protect and cease fight, trillion time. How many of us seen waiter & chef smash tipsy people, NONE. Contemplate deeply before eating at city diner unless you want to participate in real life Kung Fu.

Absolutely indecent service and food quality is a disgrace. Found strings of hairs on salad in a Popular American Diner, what is that? The fight was a tragic for any customer who just wants a simple meal but instead ends up in hospital with bruises, cuts, and broken bones. Thought the management was better after the tragedy, but when I & buddies went there last week, sad & disappointed to say that no improvement or whatever on service & food.