7 College Park: Plato's Diner

We planned another adventure outside of the District, this time to College Park to see Gesel Mason's amazing dance performance “Women, Sex, and Desire: Sometimes You Feel Like a Ho, Sometimes You Don’t” at UMD’s Kogod Theatre. The decision to go was last moment, so I didn't have time to do my research on good eats in the area. But a couple of UMD kids (including JR) suggested Plato's Diner so Plato's Diner it was!


As I was taking pictures of the banner outside, a guy came up to me and said that what I was doing was inappropriate since I haven't gotten any permission from the restaurant to take pictures. We later saw him inside the diner and he voluntarily added that if this were his house he would've shoot both us. There was a short silence after which he started laughing and said that we can take all the pictures we wanted. He then walked into the back kitchen of the diner. What a welcoming. We then pursued our way into the diner, passing some fake, tacky Greek columns and frescos. I know that a diner is not a place to expect high-end taste, but the potentially cute and funky concept of a ‘Greek Diner’ went the wrong way… for me at least.


I didn't feel like getting something heavy so I settled for the Greek Salad with the Greek Sausage. The salad greens were nothing special. The dressing that came on the side had pieces of salmon in them, which looked out of place and suspicious, so I decided not to add it on the salad. The sausage was the only ingredient that could've redeemed the salad but a plastic-y taste overwhelmed my taste buds as I took the first bite. I didn't want to give up but the second and third bites had that same awful taste of plastic :(


JR got the Baked Hellenic Moussaka (stuffed eggplant) with a side of salad (normal… actually, better than my salad) and soup (fine). The eggplant was actually good. I appreciated the rice and meat stuffing - it made the dish substantial. I gave up eating my salad so JR was kind enough to share his dish with me. I think that I might have actually eaten most of it :)


I believe in an ideal that all restaurants are good at the end of the day. Even though what we've ordered were mediocre and didn't make me want to come back to Plato's, I give the diner kudos for their complementary bread. They were really good! The soft and fluffy rolls were amazing with butter.

So in conclusion, we left College Park with two good things; a great dance performance and good bread. Sorry about the generally negative review… but to quote Gesel: Sometimes you feel like a ho, sometimes you don't.