Thomas' Diner

Since this weekend is Fathers Day weekend, my sister and I came out to Long Island to stay at our dad's house.  I alway love coming to Long Island because in addition to seeing my family that is out here, I get to go to a lot of the food places that I grew up with.  One of my all time favorite places is Thomas' Diner in Carle Place, which is a small diner that is near Roosevelt Field Mall.

It is a pretty small and understated place, and from the outside looking in it looks like a typical diner.  However, it is much more than that.  There is always a long wait there because the food is just that good.  The owners and workers there really make an effort to get to know everyone, and the owner knows me and my family by name whenever we go.  Since I live in the city now, it has sadly been about a year since I have been back and I have been waiting for the opportunity to go.  Upon reaching my new weight loss goal and knowing that I was going to be on Long Island for the whole weekend, I decided that going to Thomas' was going to be my reward.

Everything there is so delicious, and you really can't go wrong with anything.  My favorite thing is obviously the pancakes, and you can custom order them to whatever you want.  Once, I even got three different pancakes in one order (one chocolate chip, one plain, one banana chocolate chip), and they made it for me without even hesitating!  This time, I went a bite more traditional and got the banana chocolate chip, which is my favorite combo (I figured that if I was going to have these pancakes as my reward, I was going to go all out), and my dad got whole wheat blueberry pecan pancakes.  They also have a really great selection of waffles (the chocolate almond chip ones are amazing), french toast (nutella stuffed, banana stuffed, etc.), and eggs.  They do have an extensive lunch menu as well, but I can't imagine coming here and not getting breakfast food.

Today we arrived at about 1145 and got a table right away, which pretty much never happens.  Right after the owner, Thomas, sat us, he asked me and my sister how school was, what we have been up to, etc., which really shows that he makes the effort to get to know his customers.  The fact that we hadn't been back in over a year and he remembered us is really a testament to how friendly it is there.

We were all pretty hungry, so after we sat down we ordered right away.  Between the four of us at our table, we had one order of banana chocolate chip pancakes, one order of whole wheat blueberry pecan pancakes, scrambled eggs with toast, hash browns, and extra crispy bacon, and an egg white omelet with toast and hash browns.  I don't like eggs, but I always like when my family orders them because I get to steal a bite of bacon, hash browns, and toast.

When the pancakes came to the table, they were huge and fluffy, and had a lot of chocolate chips and sliced bananas in them, so I could not wait to dig in.  After taking my first bite, I remembered why I love going there so much.  The pancakes are just so delicious, and you really can't go wrong with the banana chocolate chip combo.  They are very large and I do admit I got full after eating just one, but I powered through and ate a second because I could not let two pancakes go to waste!  The last one got devoured by others at the table, so luckily it was not wasted.  The hash browns and bacon were also delicious, and according to my sources the eggs and whole wheat pancakes were just as good.  The eggs come out on their own hot skillet, which also adds a nice touch.

(The pictures show the progression of the stack of pancakes.  They come to the table with the bottom side up so that you can see all of the toppings, and they are sprinkled with powdered sugar.  I then spread all three pancakes out to cover the plate so I can choose which ones look the best, and then I dip them in maple syrup instead of pouring it on top so that I can control how much goes on each bite.  As you can see in the last picture, after I gave away the last pancake I just left a few bites of the outside of the pancake over and ate the middle, which is the best part.)

Of course, a visit to Thomas' is never complete until you leave with a muffin, so my sister and I both bought one for tomorrow morning.  They have a really nice assortment that are homemade, like Blueberry Banana, Cinnamon Coffeecake, Lemon Poppy, Apple Cinnamon, Chocolate Cheesecake, and many others.  I opted for the cinnamon coffee cake because it is my all time favorite (it has a nice layer of crumbs on top and a few chocolate chips on top as well), and my sister got the lemon poppyseed.

Even though I left Thomas' feeling super stuffed, I was also very satisfied and happy that I finally got to fulfill my pancake craving from my favorite place!  My house on Long Island is about 30 minutes from Thomas' but we never hesitate to make the drive there, so if you are in the vicinity I HIGHLY recommend that you go and you won't be disappointed.  I do caution you, however, to be prepared to wait, because when we left there was a herd of people standing in the doorway waiting for a table.