The NYC diner isn’t dead — top critic picks city’s 5 best right now

Adapt or die-ner.

Times are undeniably tough for New York City’s legendary diner culture, squeezed by skyrocketing food costs and rent hikes leading to higher menu prices — all amid stagnating demand, as Big Apple eaters turn their attentions elsewhere.

Longtime local restaurant critic Robert Sietsema told The Post that the city is currently locked into an “era where everyone is obsessed with food” — where younger diners need their food to be more “innovative” and “beautiful” than any homely diner burger ever could be.

“They’re willing to pay more —  [but] somehow the old food doesn’t cut it,” said the former Village Voice critic, who maintains an active Substack newsletter. “They want foie gras on top of their special blend of rib and brisket.”

But even with the decks stacked higher than pancakes against the beloved genre, fans of Gotham’s storied greasy spoons need not lose hope, Sietsema stated.

Just as the city is ever-evolving, a new generation of grub shacks is reinventing for the modern age — with haunts like the Lower East Side’s thriving Golden Diner and Nolita’s Thai Diner wooing younger gourmands.

And as long as there’s demand for “normal” and “reasonably priced” fare, Sietsema said, some iteration of the classic diner will be here to service that need. Here are the critic’s five favorite retro luncheonettes right now — and how they’re meeting the moment.

Kellogg’s Diner

Perhaps nowhere is the diner’s evolution more evident than this near century-old Brooklyn standby, which Sietsema said was once of the city’s worst diners, notorious for its “jiggly” fried eggs.

However, after filing for bankruptcy in 2023, the nosh-talgic haunt — which had a cameo on HBO’s “Girls” in 2013 — was revived by Louis Skibar, owner of Coppelia.

Texas native and Roberta’s alum Jackie Carnesi came in to helm the kitchen, and with her input, Kellogg’s experienced a major gastronomic glow-up.

This renaissance saw the introduction of Tex-Mex classics such as guajillo-braised short rib hash with chipotle sauce ($15) and San Antonio cheese enchiladas with chili gravy ($22), which Sietsema especially enjoyed.

“Kellogg kind of led the way among diners adding Mexican food and doing a really great job of it.” Sietsema told The Post. “[It’s] not Mexican food busted down to diner hamburger level or nachos level.”

He also noted that even the classics like chicken pot pie ($23) were “rendered with superior fidelity, washed down with a wine list that wouldn’t make you gag.”

Sietsema also praised Kellogg’s for expanding its service to 24 hours a day, noting that they upped the prices a bit but not “overwhelmingly so.”

518 Metropolitan Avenue, Williamsburg

Azara Kitchen

But is a diner that serves more upmarket and diverse fare really still a diner?

Sietsema thinks yes — citing Azara Kitchen, where diner classics like Caesar salads ($19) and plain omelets ($17) bump plates with West African classics like peanut butter lamb stew ($20), along with shrimp n’ grits ($24) and other soul food staples.

The former Gourmet Magazine contributor billed Azara as a “West African restaurant that is “no question a diner” claiming that “it is possible to take the diner as a format and reproduce it.”

“This place represents something like a contemporary compendium of Harlem cuisine — at diner prices,” he observed, noting that the restaurant serves three meals a day.

348 Lenox Avenue, Central Harlem

Square Diner

Serving hungry diners for around 100 years, the hip-to-be Square is one of the last remaining train car diners in Lower Manhattan, making this early 20th-century straggler an anomaly in the trendy and ever-changing neighborhood of Tribeca.

Sietsema said Square most likely lucked up in the real estate lottery.

“It’s on a lot that is useless to real estate people. It’s a tiny triangle of land,” he told The Post. “You’re not going to build a high rise condo there, and nobody wants to build what the real estate people call taxpayers, which would be just a little tiny building with retail in it.”

The shingle-roofed eatery, reportedly manufactured by the Kullman Dining Car Company of Newark, NJ in 1952, serves an encyclopedic array of diner classics from Greek omelettes ($19.75) to corned beef Reubens ($26).

However, the expert said the highlights are the all-day breakfast, the legendary tuna melt ($23) and the Mile High Apple Pie ($10) with “flaky crust and thinly sliced fruit.”

33 Leonard Street, Tribeca.

Jackson Hole

Located just west of LaGuardia Airport, the 1950’s-era Airline Diner is currently the most iconic location left in NYC’s classic Jackson Hole Burgers chain — a neon-lit beacon just above the Grand Central Parkway that’s open late into the night.

“The menu holds few surprises,” Sietsema said of the airport-adjacent eatery, which cinephiles might recognize from the scene from “Goodfellas” where Henry Hill and Tommy DeVito hijack a truck.

But surprises aren’t why you come here — rather, the point is to celebrate the unadulterated old-school charm — from tight booths and a black and white checkerboard lunch counter to the twirling stools lined up alongside.

Offerings entail behemoth 7 oz burgers ($12 for the regular), steak fries ($6), classic milkshakes ($6.75) and chicken sandwiches ($12.50).

69-35 Astoria Boulevard North, East Elmhurst

La Bonbonniere

With its Spartan red and white sign advertising burgers and “Coca-Cola,” this cash-only, vintage snack bar and fountain in the West Village feels like a visitor from the past.

Fare here is equally no frills, entailing hearty, stick-to-your-ribs breakfast staples like omelets ($11) and French toast ($12.50).

This is where Sietsema prefers eating his “favorite breakfast of two eggs over easy, fried potatoes, sage pork sausages, buttered whole wheat toast, and decent diner coffee.”

“They are expert egg cookers here, and the coffee is better than average, still with free refills,” he said.

How does a throwback like this manage to stay afloat in the wealthy West Village neighborhood? Sietsema believes that “fundamentally, the love of diners cuts across all social classes.”

“I used to go, and there would be Ethan Hawke sitting there eating his breakfast, and I would go, ‘why are these celebrities in this diner?’” he recounted to The Post.

“And that’s because people go to a diner to feel like a normal person, which is a feeling that they rarely get to have.”

28 Eighth Avenue, West Village