My first thoughts walking into 9th Street Diner were, “Wow, this place is really busy today.” It’s always good to see a local business doing well. Glancing at the menu everything sounded good. Even the toast appealed to me, as I had once heard 9th Street Diner makes their own bread. Tempted by a hot ham and cheese sandwich, along with a beautiful Black Walnut cake — you know I had to take home a piece — I decided on the fried fish, penne muenster mac and cheese, and potato salad.
Something you guys can probably relate to:
At the time of this review, I had been staring at a screen for eight hours, and finally had time to eat. Seeing their potato salad for the first time almost made me cry tears of joy. Potato salad is difficult to mess up; often times simplicity reigns supreme. 9th Street Diner’s potato salad has red bell pepper in it though, adding a welcome crunch to the dish. Additionally, the flavor of the pepper matched quite well with rest of the salad. I was sad after it was gone.
Concerning the penne muenster mac and cheese, lots of flavor going on: butter, garlic, smoky muenster cheese; it’s a top contender for the best mac and cheese in Huntington. Every spoonful just melted in my mouth. If there were a dinner portion, I’d be ordering it all the time.
I had been hearing nothing but positives about their fried fish for weeks. It looked appetizing as soon as I opened the box, the breading nice and crispy. There was only one piece though, and I am a big strapping man as my mom used to say, so I wondered if the portion was big enough for me “Will it be satisfying enough?”
It turned out to be a nice piece of cod on its own without any tartar sauce; the batter was rich, and I could tell it was made from scratch. The tartar sauce only enhanced the flavor. In my opinion though, the consistency of the tartar was more like ranch.
In the end, it was indeed “satisfying enough.”
I didn’t get a name or much of a description for the ingredients that went into the cake, but I recognized black walnuts immediately.
I’m won’t lie to you guys, I sat there and ate the whole piece of cake. The icing wasn’t too sweet and the cake itself was soft and moist.
…Then I went back to the muenster mac and cheese, couldn’t help myself.
Overall, my experience at 9th Street Diner was overwhelmingly positive. They seem like such kind hearted people, and their food lived up to the hype in every possible way.
I don’t give numerical ratings anymore, just honest, unbiased opinions of my Huntington/Tri State dining experiences.
What I will say is that The Hungry Appalachian highly recommends 9th Street Diner.
They are located at 534 9th St, Huntington, WV 25701, open Monday-Thursday 11-2pm, Friday 8-3pm, Saturday 9-3pm.
