WHEN I was invited to try out the new Blackburn eatery Ed’s Easy Diner, I was genuinely excited.

The retro American vibe made me feel like I was sat in the Jack Rabbit Slim’s restaurant from Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, listening to classic rock and roll music, slurping thick milkshakes through a straw and munching on fries from the comfort of a red leather booth.

The only difference was my date - the Lancashire Telegraph’s digital editor Ryan Wood - wasn’t quite as cute as Uma Thurman.

We visited the restaurant, in The Mall, at around 12.45pm on Wednesday and despite the place being almost full, we were seated almost immediately.

First impressions were most certainly good. Our table was clean and the staff were friendly, well-presented and efficient.

Several tables even had miniature jukeboxes, although sadly ours didn’t so I’m not sure if they actually work or not.

We ordered the regular pulled pork burger, served in a barbecue sauce with a slice of cheddar cheese, on a plate with fries, onion rings, and coleslaw for £11.85, the regular Big Bubba’s bacon and cheese burger, with the same sides for £13.85, and two jugs of milkshake at £4.35 each.

Lancashire Telegraph:

The milkshakes were among the best I’ve ever tasted.

Granted, I’m not a milkshake connoisseur, but even so, it was so good we both finished before our meals had even arrived.

Deliciously thick and made with the restaurant’s own hand-scooped ice cream, we had Oreo and butterscotch flavours, before later ordering a chocolate and peanut butter flavour too… for review purposes only, I’m sure you’ll understand.

At more than £4 each, they’re not cheap, but they do come in a jug big enough to fill two or three tumbler glasses and they could easily be shared.

The food wasn’t quite as good, which is a shame, but there were still several real positives.

The burger was fresh, juicy, and well-cooked, and the fries were deliciously crisp.

The pulled pork was succulent, tender, and seriously tasty, as was the homemade coleslaw.

The only downsides were the onion rings, which I ended up dipping in tomato ketchup to give them a bit of extra flavour, and the thick, custardy cheese squirted all over the fries.

In Ed’s Diner’s defence, I asked for it as an extra, and I really shouldn’t have been surprised when the cheese turned out to be the liquidy American kind, but there’s nothing wrong with good old fashioned grated cheddar.

There seems to be a trend setting in the UK at the moment, with slightly-more-expensive-than-traditional-fast-food-but-still-appealing-to-the-masses restaurants like Ed’s Diner, Nando’s and Frankie and Benny’s proving popular even at a time when there’s less disposable income knocking about.

So while you could pop to McDonald’s and get a burger, fries and milkshake for around a fiver, you could also pop to some flash silver-spooned eatery and pay £500 for a steak burger cut from a cow raised on a diet of truffles and caviar.

The generous portion sizes and quality of food at Ed’s Diner do justify that mid-range price tag.

During our meal, we noticed numerous shoppers glance in the window and read the menu. If you are one of those people, you really should check it out, if only for the atmosphere, the music, and the heavenly milkshakes.

 

RATING

Food 7

Drink 9

Staff 8

Value for money 8

Atmosphere 7

OVERALL: 7.8/10