The Blue Star was the most authentic diner I've ever been in. As far as I could tell, it hadn't been refurbished since it was built (late 50's or early 60's), and it had the smallest diner menu I've ever seen. Being a vegetarian in Dixieland is not without its frustrations, but I can usually find a veggieburger or spaghetti with marinara sauce to fall back on wherever I stop to eat. Not surprisingly, the Blue Star's vegetarian options were pretty limited; in this case, to grilled cheese sandwiches, salad and vegetables. So, I ordered french fries, coleslaw, and peas and carrots (great, huh?). The fries were decent, the coleslaw was homemade and pretty good, but the peas and carrots literally disintegrated on my tongue. I'm surprised they made the trip from the bowl to my mouth. That was kind of disgusting, I have to say. Nothing was salted, including the rolls, so most of it was rather tasteless. Or rather, I think I lost my ability to taste anything because of the cigarette haze hanging over all of us. Ironically, there were "No smoking" signs on our half of the diner, but considering the diner was at most 30 feet long, we were smoking whether we wanted to or not. But they did play good music.

-Claudine 1

After passing through downtown New Port News, I spotted a large blue metal sign advertising the Blue Star Diner. The sign also informed me that I would find “good food” and air-conditioning at this restaurant. As I grabbed the front door handle, I noticed the pane of glass had been cracked several times, perhaps a decade earlier. What an authentic place I thought to myself! After my three dining companions and I seated ourselves comfortably into a corner booth the young, unpretentious waitress brought us disintegrating menus held together by scotch tape. Unlike the menus at the other dinners I have been to, this menu did not include breakfast items. Fortunately the accommodating waitress brought me a breakfast menu offering a stack of pancakes and other early morning platters that diners tend to serve all day long. While we waited for our food to be prepared we checked out the booth’s juke box selections. By the time the food arrived I was famished. I found my stack of three steaming hot pancakes quite tasty. Unlike the pancakes served in college dining halls and fast food restaurants, these pancakes were fluffy with a light crispiness around the edges. As I ate my pancakes, I took some time to appreciate the diner atmosphere. The speckled turquoise laminated covering the walls and various other surfaces reminded me of my great grandmother’s kitchen. My biggest disappointment in the diner is that they only offered margarine to put on my pancakes instead of butter. My two dollar bill made up for the lack of all natural ingredients.

-Claudine 2