Stax Diner

Great experience! I was there for a late lunch and there was clear social distancing based on where everyone was seated. Chris was an excellent server! Very friendly, helpful and welcoming. Price was decent for the meal, since it is the West End. The cheesy chips were tasty and they aren't stingy with the cheese.

So I've been to Stax Diner before, a few years ago, and enjoyed it then. This time, I happened upon it (always get confused looking for Kingly Court) and thought it'd be great to revisit. This is the second day of second lockdown ending so my friend and I spent the evening shopping and were famished by the time we were done. We entered Stax and were greeted by a friendly staff member who reminded us we needed to wear the mask whilst waiting for a table. We joked about that because there were tables available and no queue, so we were shown to our seat. Stax is a tiny diner - pre-COVID days, I'm sure I've seen them squeeze in about 25-30 patrons but now they've put out tables mostly for couples or small groups of 4. Because of Covid (or possibly because it was 9pm and they were due to close kitchen at 10pm), we were given a reduced menu with 2-3 choices for meat or chicken burgers and a couple of sides and starter options. The meat and chicken is all halal and they have vegan/vegetarian options too. We had nachos to start with, 2 for £8 on drinks so we had a virgin strawberry mojito and the elderbubble and for mains, I went for the chicken burger with cajun fries and my friend had the stax burger with regular fries. Everything came within 15mins which was great as we were starving and we demolished the meal. The nachos were delightful for a starter - I do really enjoy nachos and was pleased to see that it came with fresh guacamole, salsa, cheese sauce (none of that melted cheddar rubbish) as well as fried beans and sour cream and garnished with chillis and spring onion. Thoroughly enjoyed that and saved some of the cheesier nachos to put into my burger. My buttermilk chicken burger was okay - only had some mayo and some lettuce and they stacked 2 huge bits of crispy chicken between a brioche bun. I really felt that some sort of sauce would have taken it to another level so I added more mayo and some of the guac and cheese from the nachos. Cajun fries were crispy and veryyyy well seasoned, right down to the last chip. Got a bit salty towards the end but, by then, I was already full and just didn't want good fries to go to waste. My elderbubble mocktail was fantastically tart, refreshing and just how I like it. The waitress we had was friendly and was happy to accommodate us and the premises were in line with government guidelines so they had screens between tables and social distancing even in the small place that it is. Defo a good spot to hit when in the locality as its in the middle of a vibrant area.