I've gone to the Diamond an many occasions, and it has always been spotty.  One visit terrible, one visit pretty good, but never great.  After my visit this past weekend, I guess I'm calling it quits.  The bottom line is that it's not worth going to a place when the odds are the service and food will sorely disappoint.  \n\nWe had two people visiting from out of town, and forgot Dish was closed, so we figured \""hey, the Diamond wasn't too bad last time, let's go there.\""  Luckily, there was no wait, the four of us sat down, asked what the specials were and it turned out they were out of the specials.  Two of us then ordered the black bean burger.  They were out of that too.  We got some other stuff, and a starter of fried pickles, which were okay.  My friend asked the waiter if the tomatoes were fresh, because she was thinking about a BLT.  The waiter seemed offended and gave a dismissive,  \""yes.\""  Then we waited and waited for the food.  It took way too long to come out.\n\nWe finally got our dishes.  I was okay with mine, but everyone else was very disappointed.  It was as if Diamond shops for the absolute bottom-rung ingredients.    If you put a salad on a menu, it should be at least somewhat appetizing.  The small block burger was a sad, ugly  thing.  The tomatoes were hard and without much flavor.  One person at our table referred to the general quality of the food as \""disgusting.\""  I was embarrassed to have brought friends there.\n\nThe take-away lesson here is that it's great to be a local institution.  It's great to have cool decor and a loyal clientele.  But if you're a restaurant, it's still all about the food for most of your patrons.  You need to have quality food.  And don't think you can get away with serving mediocre grub just because you call yourself a diner.  Especially when you're charging $9 or more for some plates.  A lot of real diners serve superior food at half the price.\n\nSo the Diamond is still a great place to get a drink, but they've got to overhaul nearly everything when it comes to their food.