Location: 450 N. Main St, Glen Ellyn (on the northwest side of the intersection where Main St meets the railroad tracks.
Type of Place: Train Themed Restaurant
Secret: Go at around 1:30 pe 2 pm... the lunch crowd has left, and the dinner crowd isn't there yet. You'll have the place to yourself! If you get there any earlier or later, it will be crowded and noisy, and you'll have to wait in line to eat.
Appropriate ages: everyone
Cost: $3.65 - $3.95 for a kid's meal including a drink; adult meals range from about $5.00 - $7.00, not including drinks.
Both Little Bear and Pufferfish have summer birthdays... Pufferfish turned 3 in June, and Little Bear will turn 7 in a few weeks. I signed them up for 2Toot's Birthday Club a while ago, and I recently got both postcards in the mail, letting me know that each of the girls could get a free kid's meal and birthday cupcake. So, yesterday, I piled all the kids into the car, and off we went!
We got there at about 1:00. It was really crowded at the time, and we had to wait in line for a while. The kids didn't seem to mind, though. There was oldies music playing, and we danced to it to pass the time. And Pufferfish liked taking a ride on the mechanical horse!
The diner is designed so that the counter goes around in a circle, with the employees in the middle, and the customers seated around the outside. The first thing I noticed was that the employees were very energetic, cheerful and attentive, even when the diner was swamped. They worked hard to seat everyone as quickly as possible. So we didn't have to wait long before we got a table.
And imagine the kids' delight when their baskets of food were delivered by train!
All of the kids had a great time. They've been here a few times before, and its definitely a favorite. During the school year, I also like to make trips here after school, when the places is nearly empty, for milkshakes or rootbeer floats. I especially like to do this as a treat when I manage to only have one of the kids with me. And we sit up on the counter at the stools. It makes for a fun, cozy, old-fashioned bonding experience, sitting side by side at a lunch counter while listening to oldies music and drinking shakes. Give the kids each a quarter to get a trinket out of the machine by the door, and let me tell you, they feel like their lives are complete!
Here's another interesting fact for people whose kids have special dietary needs and cannot eat the things on the menu. You can bring your own food with you and give it to the servers, and they will have it delivered on the train along with the rest of the food!
There is a second location in Downers Grove, which I've never been to, but I definitely recommend this restaurant for people of all ages.
4 comments:
The location in Downers Grove is fun, but we prefer the food and activities at All Aboard Diner on 75th in Downers Grove.
@Nan and Aaron
All Aboard Diner is definitely on my list of places to check out this summer!
We've also visited the Downers Grove location, but it pretty much looks like the pictures you've posted. The kids loved going there for their birthday, too!
Have been to the other train restaurants as well. As far as food quality, we found 2Toots to be the best and the article on the wall from Food and Wine Magazine raving about the high quality of 2Toots Double Bacon Cheeseburger reinforced our feelings. Another huge difference is 2Toots was the only restaurant that had all of the seating on the tracks. We were stuck away from the train in a booth at the other stores and the disappointment my child experienced watching the other kids having fun at the counter was not fun. Our child loved the old fashion horse ride too!
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