Go for the giant menu of favorite dishes but save room for arguably the largest slices of cake you'll ever enjoy.
Chattanooga is one of my most favorite places to visit. You can see seven states above Lookout Mountain's "See Rock City" with its trails through fun rock formations, stand in awe at the majesty of Ruby Falls in an underground cave, admire art in the Bluff District and tour the impressive Tennessee Aquarium — and so much more!
So when my friend Pam Wattenbarger, a cookbook author, blogger and travel writer who pens the Simply Southern Mom website, offered to introduce me to a lunch spot that served up giant slices of cake in an old-fashioned-looking diner, I was so there.
City Cafe Diner was originally attached to the Days Inn Hotel in downtown Chattanooga and a bit out of the way with another location on Lee Highway in Chattanooga. The eatery now has a main location on Broad Street in the center of town with lots more space, a cool jukebox spewing out classics, and yes, those cakes! We'll get to those in a minute.
There's a giant menu offering dishes that range from Mediterranean fare to American favorites such as burgers, fries and shakes. There are lunch specials, chimichangas, chicken pot pie, broiled scallops, salmon Monte Carlo and great breakfast items. To say the menu runs the gamut is an understatement.
When I visited years ago with Pam I chose the tuna melt with fries, a huge helping of tuna salad on toasted wheat bread with a layer of sliced American cheese, the latter the kind you peel off the plastic wrap but which combined with the tuna tasted delish. On a recent visit to City Cafe Diner, I went for breakfast, enjoying the garden omelet with a side of creamy grits and sourdough toast. My husband devoured the classic breakfast of eggs, sausage which he raved about, toast and two pancakes.
Whatever you choose for the main meal, save room for cake.
These cakes are enormous! Did I mention they were big? So large that you pause on the way to your table and your chin falls open and your eyes bug out.
Here are but a few of the many offerings:
Red Velvet
Butterfinger Cake
Coca Cola Cake
Death by Chocolate
Milky Way Cake
Italian Cream Cake
Mint Chocolate Chip Cake
I could go on and on.
During my first visit, I chose the cannoli cake with the little cannolis on top and Pam went for the peanut butter. We asked for take-out boxes because the slices were so huge but we delved right in and had a hard time stopping. We did bring home parts of our desserts, but we managed to enjoy much of our slices first, stumbling out of this diner like drunks at 2 a.m., our full bellies and blood sugar off the charts.
City Cafe Diner's been rated Best of the Best by the Chattanooga Times Free Press and won the Certificate of Excellence and Hall of Fame nods from Trip Advisor. It's easy to see why.
Weird, Wacky & Wild South is written by travel writer Cheré Dastugue Coen who brakes for a unique and delicious dessert.
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