Matthew Stibbe's Homepage Writer Everything I've Written Ed's Easy Diner Ed's Easy Diner

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Ed's Easy Diner is a chain of American-style retro diners dotted around London.  P.S. Ed's no longer serve a tuna melt (although the Portabello mushroom burger is pretty good) and I no longer eat fish...

My local Ed's Easy Diner (on the King's Road between the Bluebird and World's End) acts as a kind of surrogate dining room for me. I eat there probably once a week and, pathetically for a would-be food critic, I have the same thing each time - tuna melt and fries. If I want to gorge then I add onion rings and a banana milk shake. My reasons for this are complicated but a few of them are:

1. Since Parsons on the Fulham Road shut down, Ed's is the only place I can get a really good tuna melt.

2. I am a vegetarian who cheats by eating fish and this is one of only a couple of things that I can eat on the menu

3. Everyone there knows me as I have been working and living in the neighbourhood for over five years and I think they would be a bit disappointed if I didn't have it now since they have taken the time to learn my 'usual'. I know they got a bit weird when I first took Aileen in there a couple of years ago.

Interestingly, I am a constant in Ed's Easy Diner but the only staff member who has lasted these five years is one of the cooks. When the Ed's on the Fulham Road shut down a year ago and I transferred my allegience to the King's Road branch some of the staff came over too but I don't see them any more.

Anyhow, back to the Tuna Melt. I have it on brown bread, but white or rye (yuck!) are available. It has dolphin-friendly meat, lots of cheese and, I think, some egg in it. They make it on the griddle and it gets a lovely grilled texture. When done right the whole thing congeals into a single gelatinous mass. When done badly, it is very runny and needs to be eaten with caution.

I have, in the past, tried the vegetable burger and these are now available in several different flavours. I am told that the hamburgers are excellent. Also, the banana split is highly recommended but mountinous and practically a meal in itself.

Finally, Ed's will deliver in the local area evenings but the service is a bit erratic (one time, the driver hadn't showed up, another time one of the staff brought the tuna melt around in five minutes flat). The take-outs and deliveries are well presented with clean-up towels and ketchup in little packets.

Overall, highly recommended for quick, comforting 'American' food. 8/10