The All American Diner opens in Hyderabad with classic American comfort food

The All American Diner is back. After more than two decades as a Delhi institution, it has reopened in Hyderabad at The Loft, RMZ Nexity, joining EHV International’s Hosa, Fireback and Barback at the group’s new dining destination.

The room is familiar territory for anyone who remembers the original: red vinyl booths, chrome, checkerboard floors, old American signs and an Elvis Wurlitzer jukebox playing songs from the 1950s and ’60s. The menu follows suit, with pancakes and waffles, burgers and hot dogs, milkshakes, ribs and desserts best approached without doing the arithmetic.

The original All American Diner opened at Delhi’s India Habitat Centre in 2001, when the city had far fewer international restaurant concepts and an American diner still felt novel. With its red booths, jukebox and classic American comfort food, the room could have come straight out of Archie Comics. People queued for its shakes, chili dogs, hot dogs and chicken pot pie, and over the years it became part of the Habitat Centre experience, as familiar as catching a play or wandering through an exhibition.

For Rohit Khattar, founder chairman of EHV International, the idea had been brewing for almost two decades. He first visited the United States in 1983, when he was in Michigan, and was taken by the informality of the American diner: families eating together, people dropping in for a quick meal and nobody making a production of lunch. He compares it to an Indian dhaba, where the food is straightforward, the atmosphere relaxed, and you can come hungry without having to make an occasion of it.

Khattar eventually visited more than 50 diners across the US, collecting ideas for both the food and the visual details that made them feel lived-in. “Back then, I used to buy some of this memorabilia for between 50 cents and a dollar,” he says. “You won’t get it now.”

Some of those pieces have made their way to Hyderabad. The walls are crowded with tin and enamel signs, Route 66 memorabilia and other bits of Americana collected from antique shops and flea markets over the years. The Elvis Wurlitzer is the centrepiece. The jukebox at the Delhi restaurant was originally coin-operated; this one no longer requires loose change, although Elvis is still doing his bit to soundtrack the room.

Incubis Consultants, which designed the Hyderabad restaurant, was asked to retain the character of the original, hence the cherry-red booths, black-and-white checkerboard flooring and chrome detailing. It feels nostalgic without looking like someone has simply gone shopping for “vintage diner” props.

Hit or miss?

The food follows the same philosophy. Executive Chef Sumit Sawardekar heads the kitchen, with creative and operational oversight from chef Dhiraj Dargan, who has spent two decades with EHV and began as a management trainee at the original Delhi diner. The menu runs from stack o’ pancakes, waffles and sunrise skillets to hot dogs, burgers, Old Bay garlic shrimp and barbecued baby back ribs.

Breakfast and brunch are where the restaurant feels most at home. The pancakes are soft, fluffy and substantial, while the waffles and skillets continue in the same generous vein. This is not food interested in pretending breakfast should be virtuous, and nor should it be. Potatoes, eggs, toast, syrup and butter are given plenty of room to do their thing.

If you are on a diet, this probably isn’t the place for you, unless you are coming for the nostalgia and are happy to watch everyone else eat. The portions are generous, the food is carb-heavy, and the desserts are better shared.

The burgers and hot dogs are comforting rather than complicated, while the shrimp and ribs make the menu more substantial as the day progresses. For me, though, this is a brunch restaurant. Dinner could be a little too heavy after pancakes, fries, a burger and dessert. I would much rather come late in the morning, order across the table and let the meal stretch into the afternoon.

The drinks are playful, although not everything quite lands. Alongside milkshakes, malts, smoothies and “crazy shakes”, Head of Bars Varun Sharma has created cocktails inspired by American desserts, including the Creamsicle Highball and Mixed Berry Cheesecake Martini. There are also classics such as the Manhattan and Mint Julep, as well as large frozen Margaritas.

I would come here for the milkshakes and floats, which are much more in keeping with what the diner does best.

There are, inevitably, a few teething issues. The kitchen and service are still finding their rhythm, with some dishes needing greater consistency and the pacing between courses occasionally uneven. Given that the restaurant has only just opened, I would expect much of this to settle over the first month as the team gets comfortable with the volume and flow of service.

Dessert is where the diner really commits. There is pecan pie, New York cheesecake and a banana split, the latter an appropriately extravagant combination of ice cream, fruit and sauces. After a full meal, I would share it rather than attempt it alone.

Khattar says The All American Diner was the second restaurant he conceived after the original Chor Bizarre and remembers it as a place where “countless mornings, celebrations and memories unfolded.”

For now, the best way to experience it is probably over a long weekend brunch: pancakes or waffles, something savoury for the table, a milkshake or float and, if there is room, the banana split. The Elvis Wurlitzer can take care of the soundtrack.

A meal for two costs ₹1500 plus taxes

(The writer was at The All American Diner on invitation of EHV International Group)