here are two chains that do this:

https://www.frankieandbennys.com/

Home


48 comments

  2. As an American in Germany, I am perplexed and often embarrassed by it. You guys seem to take “American” as synonymous with “low quality”. More than half of everything described as “American” on a pizza menu I have never once seen back home. However, the American Diner themes are spot on, if on the tacky side.

  3. Hahahahahahahaha

    What is Holloumi? What is fizz? Who makes hamburgers out of *brisket*???

    OP I’m going to die of laughter and you’re gonna have to pay my funeral expenses

  4. Looks at a glance like any middle of the road American place here in the States tbh. Food everywhere and meat playing center stage.

  5. There aren’t many rules to American food in general. I think it’s pretty cute honestly, it looks fine like street/diner food here. I will say, the shot of the cilantro/coriander on the pizza looks wack; way too much, and not spread out. And I very rarely see cilantro on American cuisine too often unless it’s ethnic or ethnic-based foods.

    *Not saying white people don’t eat cilantro, but for some reason, most white people I know have that ‘cilantro soap’ gene, so I can’t imagine that much cilantro on a pizza like that lol.

    ETA: I was so focused on the friggin cilantro that I didn’t notice how off everything else was. Not necessarily that they don’t sound appetizing, but the ingredients are all wrong. And there’s not nearly enough cheese and garlic in some dishes. Not too much, but cheese and garlic could really make or break a dish.

  6. I’ve been to an American restaurant in Germany (mostly because my colleagues enjoyed it as a lunch spot, and I was interested). It was good, got a bacon cheeseburger, some fries, and a soda. I guess it was a little taste of home, sure. It wasnt a negative experience. I suppose this is how foreigners feel when they see their food on a menu here. My dad’s a Mexican immigrant and while he enjoys Tex-Mex, when we go to the local ‘Mexican Restaurant,’ he enjoys it but can’t go a meal without mentioning how it’s not REAL Mexican food.

  7. Is that a fruit pie with gravy? I’m not saying I wouldn’t eat it, just curious. 🇺🇸

  9. Frankie and Bennys doesn’t seem American to me at all, lol… Poridge? OK Diners has realistic American menu, I like it!

  10. That diner menu seems like a combination of stuff you’d probably find at your average diner and stuff that’s similar but not quite right. And they use the non-American definition of chicken burger, and that version of a Philly cheesesteak is pretty fucked up.

    The other menu…I dunno whatever that pizza on their website is (arugula and brisket? lmao) immediately tells me they’re gonna be off on some stuff.

  11. The most American thing about those menus is that the food looks heavily adapted to fit local tastes— we wouldn’t serve tomatoes and beans with breakfast, but y’all do over there, and that’s cool: hell, our “Italian” and “Chinese” and “Greek” and “Mexican” food are constant sources of circle jerks about inauthentic cuisine on the internet, so making it your own is exactly the right spirit.

  12. The ok diner looked pretty good, compared to, say, a Denny’s. One thing I noticed was beans and black pudding are not breakfast items in America, not from around where I am at least.

  13. The OK Diner seemed more “American” than Frankie and Bennys, although we don’t eat porridge.

    A new British style pub opened close to me recently. They serve Fish and Chips and meat pies. It was OK but I’m sure the actual British foods are superior. Plus it was damn expensive–$12 for Fish and Chips.

  16. every country has weird shitty interpretations of other countries foods. the american restaurants here in taiwan are pretty wack though lol

  18. In Paris, I visited a chain restaurant called “Indiana” (IIRC – it was a state, couldn’t remember which one). The people involved decor-wise seemed to think Indiana is more akin to Oklahoma or Texas.

    Kind of like Dizzy Gillespie’s “Tunisia” in “A Night In Tunisia” – an imagined exotic place

  19. It’s always interesting to see how other cultures invent an American ethnicity. I went to an American restaurant in Wales in the late 90s, when I think this trend was just getting started – it had photos on the walls of James Dean and Marylin Monroe, and served shoe leather hamburgers, utterly disgusting soggy pizza, and reasonably acceptable milkshakes.

    It’s only fair. The US has all kinds of restaurant styles that have little or nothing to do with their supposed country of origin. Nominally Mexican food is more popular in America than nominally American food like hamburgers.

  21. You shouldn’t call chicken tenders “southern fried chicken”. That’s not ok. The menu didn’t look too far off from American stuff though. There were some oddities like the Cajun halloumi. I’d totally try it though.

  22. Of course every restaurant is going to tailor their menu to fit the tastes of the country they’re in, so there’s a couple things off (like way more mushrooms on the menu than there would be here), but otherwise, these look totally American to me! Okdiners looks delicious actually

  23. Reading these menus has me questioning how much I know about my own country. Like I’m reading this thinking…

    *Does any place in America serve pizza with a sourdough crust? Maybe they do in California….?*

    *I’ve never seen a chicken sandwich referred to as a burger… but I think in the Midwest they might…?*

    *Wow, green chilis on pizza. Never heard of that but I’d eat it. Maybe they do it in New Mexico…?*

    *…or is the chef just pulling all this out of their ass?*

    Stuff like that. But I’ll tell you this much… if there’s a region in America that commonly refers to arugula as rocket, I’ll eat my hat. It’s also funny to see “pot of tea” offered on an American themed menus but I guess you need to cater to your customers.

    I would absolutely love visiting a restaurant like this. It’s adorable.

  25. Five years ago, I went to a small 1950s style “American diner” in a relatively remote part of Iceland.

    I’m completely brainfarting on the name of the place, or where exactly we were. We covered a lot of ground while we were there. They nailed the vibe. The food was fantastic – better quality than greasy 50s diners, while still maintaining selections of burgers, hotdogs, shakes. And I think beer..maybe a full bar??

    Will update this if I can figure out the name of it.

    I remember initially thinking “Why, when there is so much great cuisine in Iceland, would you choose to open something 1950s American?” But they did it so well, and the place had heart to it.

  26. F & B: what is “Toast with Flora”?

    OK Diners: white bloomer bread? streaky bacon? a crisp crumb?

    I am from Texas and I do not know what these items are at all. I agree that OK Diners has a more authentic American menu than F & B’s. Absolutely any American restaurant at a mid to low price point will serve iced tea, typically a choice of sweetened or unsweetened, and occasionally a special flavor as well (i.e. peach, mango, etc).

  28. These are mostly typical of a chain bar and grill. This is a place that has at least 3 TVs but maybe dozens playing different football games on each. A little uncanny valley (“griddled” etc). The breakfasts seem foreign though, and it’s really fucking hilarious that F&B’s breakfasts go through pains to sound nice but their Scotland only menu is “EXTRA BIG ASS SAUSAGES!”

  29. Alright. A glance at either of these makes me think they could almost pass for a true American diner. There’s burgers, brisket, tenders, pasta and pizza, the BLT……but there’s one huge, glaring, screaming omission that lets any American know that they are not at home.

    There’s no ranch dressing. All the fried snacks that would be accompanied by ranch come with BBQ sauce, hot sauce, mayo, chipotle mayo, sweet chili, sour cream….. anything but ranch. Other that than this seems like a pretty accurate representation. We’d never put steamed rice in a burrito. Spanish red rice, yes. And in an American menu, replace every instance of griddled mushrooms with some kind of potatoes.

  30. American living in Australia. This is definitely a two way street. In Australia, I saw an ad for Mexican to go. Which consisted of a soft tortilla shell, shredded tasty cheese, MaRiNarA sauce… and shredded ham.

    Conversely, there’s no such thing as a bloomin onion here. And definitely don’t order a Fosters. They’ll look at you like you have a big dick tatted on your forehead.

  31. It’s fine. Every culture is going to put its own spin on other culture.

  32. American in Italy here. While there is the occasional exception, 95% of American food here is done half-assed with little attention paid to the quality of ingredients. This is ironic, seeing as how the Italian approach to cooking is using high-quality, fresh ingredients, first and foremost. They tend to just slap frozen patties on a grill and serve them on a mediocre bun. Their idea of barbecue is to cook meat and then baste it with barbecue sauce like you would if it were ketchup.

    That said, there is a place near me that serves the best burgers I have ever eaten. It is the lone exception, but it is one hell of an exception.

  33. It’s the same here.

    Best ramen around is in a building shaped like a pagoda and the Italian food place looks like they ripped a Venice souvenir shop off and decorated with it.

    I mean… gotta have a theme

  34. It’s not a problem for me. Because, trying to mimic another country’s cuisine, means that they admire or want to be similar in the type of cuisine they offer not just for the local people but for tourists as well. Because, most people want to come to America and see how Americans live and what we eat

  36. It’s interesting. Just as we have our views on food of other places, they have their views on ours (and others too!). It’s a very healthy thing to be curious about.

  37. I’ve only seen videos but some of the things aren’t authentic.

    A big one is pancakes. In Europe pancakes are like crepes. American pancakes are thick and soft and fluffy. If you stack a bunch of pancakes and the entire stack still is about a inch or two tall, those aren’t pancakes.

  39. This makes me think of the episode of The Good Place where they went to an American themed restaurant in Australia. Called the Cowboy Skyscraper Buffet.

    There was a wait so they gave them a loaded gun that would go off when your table was ready. If you didn’t want to wait, you could get the Manifest Destiny Package that would let you kick anyone else out of their table.

    The signature drink was the “Fourth of July”: half an apple pie blended with Southern Comfort and Coca-Cola. It’s served in a hubcap.

  40. I found a cute diner in Poland that was very much like a 1950s/1960s American one. It was cute and had decent food.

  41. Frankie and Benny’s: Well unfortunately without giving a location I can’t view a menu. They will only let locals view their menu, apparently. So maybe someone could copy and paste the menu here? Since I have no idea what would be close enough to them?

    OK Diner: Seems pretty unobjectionable overall. Main beef no pun intended would be the blood pudding and porridge. Call the porridge oatmeal, and x the blood pudding. We just do not have that on menus here. I’m speaking overall.

    A lot of the menu seems a bit trendy or fancy for the average American diner. But it has things that are trending. I notice the kids’ menu has a British beef burger. Lol Okay. Probably a lot more mushrooms in the menu than would be popular here. Not sure what is “Mexican” about the burger other than the guacamole on it. Jack cheese? Not sure that is “Mexican.”

    Where is the chicken fried steak? Which is beef steak btw, battered and fried like fried chicken. And white gravy is a must on top of that. Not brown gravy.

    Or how about breakfast biscuits? Meaning those doughy things, not cookies. Biscuits and gravy. If they’re gonna do faux Cajun dishes and tons of ‘wraps’ (not sure how popular wraps are, in the average town) why not beignets, or biscuits and gravy or grits or other Southern dishes.

  42. In australia Burger King (it’s called hungry jacks here though) literally is made to look like a diner, with 60s/70s car & Elvis pictures around the room. I think most aussies just think “seems wierd but whatever”

  44. First one doesn’t look very American at all to me, second one looks better but the menu is definitely adapted to local palates.

    I don’t mind at all there being “American themed” restaurants and the like, I think it’s pretty neat. As long as they’re not totally off base or calling garbage “American style” as a short hand for cheap and shitty.

  45. I won’t repeat what others have already mentioned. one thing I haven’t seen anyone else talk about is that the one place serves wings with….plain sour cream for dipping?

  46. Frank and bennies was a bit off. Never in my life have Iet any American eating black pudding or porridge for breakfast. They also have a random Scottish section…? What was the American part?

    Okdiner (bad name) was actually pretty cool. The theme was great. At first glance the menu is okay but sour cream alone does not go with salad… where’s the ranch? Cheese bacon bread is definitely in the spirit but I’ve never had that at an American restaurant. Also mushrooms are not a side dish, is that a British thing? And the random items with guac or “mexican” slapped in the name (ironically *not* the ones with guac) is random af. I guess avocado toast is a western thing but what the heck is “Mexican fries”?

    Overall…
    Not as bad as I thought it’d be. I’ve seen some true butchers on American burgers and pizza though.

  47. Both look like they’d be a good meal. OK Diner looks more like what I would consider to be diner food. Some of the terms are confusing to us. I wonder if the “pancake syrup” is real maple syrup and if the bacon is the bacon we know in America. I’d definitely give either one a try.

  48. >garlic bread with cheese and bacon

    On the one hand, I, an American, have never heard of such a thing

    On the other hand, I, an American, really want one lmao

Leave a Reply
You May Also Like