If you find yourself in Indy, check out the Fountain Square Diner. I like to take the kiddo and go get grilled cheese and fries and chocolate shakes. It’s a real throwback and a very cool place.
See, I just go to the Massapequa Diner on Sunrise, get a cheeseburger or veggiebuger & fries, & I’m a happy camper.
Dammit. Now you have me thinking about the IHOP along that route.
Yeah, the veggie burger and fries is my usual choice as well. I only find myself at the IHOP when the Communist insists we eat there for some occasion.
Instead of “on a main drag,” I should have said that these diners are all on the SAME drag (Sunrise Highway).
If you visit Toronto, check out Fran’s on COllege street just west of Yonge. And there’s The Goof way east on Qyeen Street.
Thank You, danceswithcats! Next time I get home, which ought to be next month I’ll see if I can sneak off for a Mayfair fix. I lived almost around the corner from there for a year or so when I was 18 and first on my own, I loved that place. Of course, my mother will want to know why her homemade breakfast isn’t good enough! The good thing is that I can have that breakfast at midnight, and my kids are old enough now to do it with me! 
Duncan, OK. There’s this great place right next to the Heritage Motel that has a ham steak bigger than my face and REAL MASHED POTATOES.
That’s a “travel plaza”. A truckstop is an entirely different thing.
That sounds a lot like the I-80 in Iowa. At least, I think it’s in Iowa.
i don’t eat in restaurants shaped like rail cars.
:o
May I submit Harry’s Coffee Shop, in La Jolla, of all places. It’s the real deal. Although the halibut salad slightly exceeds your price limit, I think you’ll find the rest of the menu acceptable. The waitresses are quite authentic, as is the decor.
And why not?
Then you’re missing out. Carney’s on Sunset Blvd. Is a great place for chiliburgers or chilidogs. (Okay, so that’s pretty much the whole menu. And it only looks like a rail car because it is a rail car.)
You sound like my SO, refusing to eat in a place that looked liked it used to be someone’s house. She wouldn’t go into this place in rural West Virginia on Route 7, until I pointed out some of the best food comes out of places that looked like they used to be somone’s house and the fact that there didn’t seem to be any other places around.
I’d like to express my deep and abiding appreciation for a 2-location, northern Virginia diner called Amphora’s Diner Deluxe (I go to the one in Herndon). It’s untraditional in some respects (huge Greek-Italian-American menu; outstanding and extensive bakery; etc.), but the service and food have always been outstanding and the value can’t be beat. All of the diner “classics” are available – this place will even give you gravy and cheese on your fries. (Mmmm, gravy fries…)
There is a Silver Diner (bleh) closer to me, but I always go the extra miles to Amphora’s. And now I’m hungry…if I didn’t already have plans to go to an awesome Greek place for lunch tomorrow (followed by a visit to the best bread store in the world), I’d be seriously considering going to Amphora’s. YUM! 
The Communist?
The Colony Diner’s not bad - and it’s on the Turnpike!
One of my brothers.