City Diner

146 Tongren Lu,
Nanjing Xi Lu
near Nanjing Xi Lu, Metro Line 2 Jing'an Temple Stop
铜仁路146号
近南京西路, 地铁2号线静安寺路站

6289-3699

info@citydiner.cn

Open 24H
Price Y100-Y199 per couple
Accepts International Credit Cards

City Weekend
says

Greasy spoon with a gourmet twist that churns out super-sized portions, 24 hours a day of debatable quality - some love it, others hate it. Along the street from the Tongren Lu bars, it’s a Western bet for both late night snacks and energizing breakfasts. Try Dad's Steak Sandwich or a mac and cheese that occasionally smacks of your grandmother's kitchen.

Reviews Been there? Add a review!

maylinglai

A great place for Homesick Americans The City Diner really reminds me of every diner I grew up with in the US, and this can be wondeful when you tire of xiaolong bao. I personally was craving bisquits and gravy which was pretty good. This restaurant also has internet access.

1 year, 5 months ago

binney

City Diner... My husband and I had heard good things about the City Diner so we went to the new one on Hongmei Lu for lunch this weekend. We had just finished our meal when we heard that dreadful noise that precedes spitting that I loathe so much and am subjected to numerous times on a daily basis. We heard the same noise recently at another restaurant on Hongmei, but it turned out to be the cappuccino machine; we breathed a sigh of relief! This time... not so! The young man manning the counter was the culprit (spitting followed the noise, by the way). Another family had just sat down and ordered (he appeared to be American and she, Chinese, with their two teenage children). In fluent Chinese he admonished the young man and they walked out. We would have too, had we not already eaten. I do not understand how someone working in a restaurant would not know this is unsanitary, disgusting, inexcusable, and bad for business! I have also witnessed this same behavior from shoppers in the Carrefour (spitting directly on the floor) and from someone working behind the meat counter at The Pines Market. I don't go there anymore, either. What needs to happen before this habit becomes something that occurs in private and not on the streets and in the public buildings of Shanghai? Becky Blair

1 year, 3 months ago

sharry

Were looking forward to a pleasant Sunday dinner at the Tongren Lu branch but instead had a wholly stressful night, care of the most outrageously rude restaurant manager we've ever encountered. When they first opened, the bad service was excusable. But that night's experience was unforgiveable. Their service, especially the attitude of their manager, was outrageous. Earlier, raised voices were already heard from the table next to us. The manager turned antagonistic instead of trying to placate the customers, and was only subdued because the unhappy customers let loose a stream of admonishings in Chinese. He then turned to his staff and yelled at them, in front of the whole restaurant to see. One of the waiters then turned around and started going about his job, loudly banging plates and clanging utensils, mad that he was scolded. We don't know what the manager was trying to do, but clearly he had no idea what running a restaurant and being in the customer service industry means. You do not raise your voices at customers or dress down your staff in front of customers. The bad service continued: one of our party's order wasn't taken down, a plastic container that was dropped on their dirty, sticky floor was promptly picked up to hold the unfinished burger I wanted to take home. A bit later, the music was turned up to an uncomfortably loud volume level. Our polite requests to turn it down were ignored. They would turn it down for a couple of seconds and bring it up again. We had had enough, and billed out. I presented my Enjoy coupon that said to "enjoy any one of our delicious burgers for RMB10", and was then rudely informed by the manager that I could only use it for a City Burger. I reasoned out that nowhere on the coupon did it say I could only use it for the City Burger. The manager turned antagonistic and started to raise his voice. We got pissed off by being treated that way, and the monster of a manager just gives us a flat look and said, "Ting bu dong." When asked to be put in touch with HIS manager, and was loudly informed that "mei ban fa", he didn't have their number. He then said that we didn't need to get in touch with his laoban, because he feels he can handle everything that might come up. How can you manage an American restaurant geared for expats without understanding rudimentary English??? We stood up to leave, and the cherry on the sundae was the manager giving us a shrug of the shoulders and a smug, spiteful look, as if to say sorry, we couldn't do anything about his outrageous behavior. To further anatagonize the situation, he began loudly talking on his cellphone in Chinese, relaying the events of the night to someoene we presume is his laoban. UNBELIEVABLE. I hope this comment gets read by the upper management of The City Diner, because you have to do something about that cretin who's in charge, or else he'll be running the place to the ground.

1 year ago

tallulah

2 words: Never Again.

8 months, 3 weeks ago

jbiesnecker

Went for a Saturday morning breakfast with my wife, and the food was pretty decent and the servings large.

My complaint came when a group of five or six drunk laowai came in and started demanding to be allowed to smoke. First the staff agreed, even giving them an ashtray. Then about 20 minutes later someone else (the manager, maybe?) came over and started yelling, saying that they couldn't smoke.

I could care less if people are allowed to smoke, but the argument that ensued just ruined the atmosphere of the morning. If the staff had just been consistent in the first place (or if the laowai had just gone outside to smoke like decent people) I think it all could have been avoided.

I probably won't be back.

 
8 months ago

jameslin

decent food if you can ignore the environment.

 
6 months, 2 weeks ago

salmonsusho

waiters suck.. they're not attentive, they don't attend to customers' needs and now they HIT customers!!.. with fire extinguisher!!.. those customers are my friends, they all went out of the restaurant covered with blood and all admitted to hospitals. One of them needs 5 stitches on his forehead!

6 months ago

cityweekend

The review above generated several user comments. As this page is dedicated to a restaurant listing, we have moved ALL of the response-comments to the following blog article, Can anyone explain what's going on at City Diner?. If you would like to comment further on the thread, please do so on the blog article. If you would like to submit a "Review" of the restaurant, City Diner, you can do so below. If you have any questions, please feel free to use the City Weekend Reader Feedback Form and contact us further.

6 months ago

jeremyseow

1st, Food is great! The salmon wt scrambled eggs is fantastic and the blue berry pancakes is excellent! Good burgers as well. The pecan pie, cheesecake, pumpkin pie are all very good. Fantastic breakfast, brunch and lunch place. Dinner is not so exciting. 2nd, Service is sub-standard. They are good at standing around and not caring about the customers. 3rd, Cleaniness is terrible. The place is a dump! Have you noticed the floors? It is dirty and there is no effort to clean things up. I have also witness the staff dropping a customer's cheesecake on the floor, while tranferring to a take-out box. Without delay, he picked it up wt his hands and put it into the take out box, and then give it to the customer in the "nice" paper bag... SCARY....

 
5 months, 3 weeks ago

mizzyang

when they first open..the service is considered as GOOD in shanghai..after two three months..these waiter/waiteress tend to avoid your call...some wit bad attitude..

 
5 months ago

blair

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.

2 months, 2 weeks ago

tristamarie

blair ... hmm ... I understand your frustration. This seems to be a recurring theme, though I'm surprised to hear about such an unprovoked confrontational attitude. It's unfortunate that the city's only 24-hour restaurant is plagued by such problems which, after a quick skim of the comments on this site, appear to have been continuing for quite some time. Servers with the kind of attitude you've mentioned, well ... there's really only one thing to be done there. F&B service and aggressive tendencies are, intrinsically, mutually exclusive.

2 months, 1 week ago

willrola

Few of my colleagues wanted to see and compare the food here and Moon River, so they force me to follow coz I was reluctant to go since I heard about some customers got bitten up by city diner’s waiters & chefs.

Their food was still no improvement, when 1st brought out the burger it was serve in a mess, when asked for extra cheese the waiter was kinda pissed off (eventho its not a free cheese). Salad was not fresh, felt like it was kept in the fridge for too long.

Poor service, fast food taste, place is dirty, bad food presentation, and definitely not coming back for good.

2 months ago

monyetputih

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.

 
1 month, 3 weeks ago

mansizerooster83

The food is half decent, although the portions seem to be getting smaller and the staff surlier. If you're looking for the best gourmet burger in town then you should be looking elsewhere. That's not what this place is about though, the key thing here is that it's 24 hours. Until Shanghai gets itself a chippy, this is one of the few decent places to go for drunk food after a night out

 
1 month, 3 weeks ago

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