If you've heard of it, don't bother going

A phenomenon we've come to understand is that of the awesomeness of small diners where lovely waitresses (I'm not being sexist - we haven't been served by a man in a diner since we left New York) serve food 24 hours a day at ridiculously low prices. Whilst in Lafayette we tried all the 'recommended' eateries which make the guidebooks and people tell you you have to visit, and they ranged from the alright, but not as amazing as we had been told (Randolls, Prejeans) through mediocre at best and overpriced (the Blue Dog Cafe - I'm talking about you!) to the downright disappointing (Mulates). All the places names above had outstanding reviews as 'must eat' places, whether because of the unique barn dining experience with great music, great food and dancing all night long or the iconic artwork and legendary atmosphere and in fairness, Randols and Prejeans did both have ok food and music, but Mulates was a lame duck with music finishing at 9.30 and expensive, crappy food and the Blue Dog had one of the worst duos apparently in Louisiana and the iconic artwork turned out to be pictures featuring identical images of a Blue Dog which looked slightly scared and made me feel uncomfortable.

However, Mel's Diner, John's Family Restaurant and the Hub City diner had waitresses who openly laughed at our accents before declaring them 'amazing' (not that that swayed me, but you can't help but love the way Americans are so pleased to hear an English accent) but serve huge plates of delicious food which is about ten times more enjoyable and about a third of the price of the 'big names'. You simply cannot beat that kind of deal, and we have now resolved not to bother going anywhere that's a 'must' on the grounds that the likelihood of disappointment seem inordinately high, and stick to places with a choice of sitting in a booth or at the counter, have random assortments of decorative accoutrements on the wall which focus your attention when fighting off a hangover, waiting for lunch or just enjoying the 'Happy Days' style diner-ishness of it all, and everything comes with a choice of grits, hashbrowns or homefries whether you want them or not. I wish we had this kind of establishment in the UK - we'd never cook again. And probably die of heart disease before either of us saw 40.