Soup Friday: Denny’s - Chicken Noodle
The twenty-four-hour diner was once an essential piece of Americana. Americans would flock to them in the late hours of the night to recover after spending their evenings drinking, dancing and solving murder mysteries on a CW show. No matter if they ordered a short stack of pancakes, a burger and fries, or just a shake, customers would find solace in their 3 AM meal. The food was brought out to them by a waitress, who was most likely high on an upper, that referred to her customers as “Hon” or “Sweety.” Now, it’s difficult to locate a diner open after 8 PM. It was 8:02 PM, I had a hankering for diner soup and I was running out of options for Soup Friday. A thought popped into my head. Go to Denny’s, the most well-known twenty-four-hour diner remaining.
I arrived at Denny’s shortly after. My dining experience quickly got off to an inauspicious start. I first noticed that the y in the Denny’s sign was out and probably has been for months. Then, I became caught off guard by the what I saw on the door. Disappointingly, Denn’s reduced their hours on the weekdays and is only open twenty-four hours on the weekend. They close at midnight every other day of the week. The host guided me to a booth. As I sat down, it felt like I was going through a sinkhole as my bottom was not greeted by a cushion but by a sturdy wooden bench with vinyl stitched on top of it. I like to imagine it was just one single person with a certified Denny’s Dumper that caused this to happen. I slid down to the other half of the same booth side because that had an appropriate amount of cushion that I expect in my diner booths. All of these bad omens summoned a chilling fear over what I was about to consume.
Even though Denny’s coffee typically tastes like a burnt asshole, I ordered one because it’s a staple of my Denny’s experiences. With it getting closer to 9 PM, I opted for a decaf. The decaf tasted better than other coffees I have been previously served at Denny’s, but that’s not saying much. My last few trips to Denny’s have also included poor service. Despite there being only two other tables in the whole restaurant with customers at them, it took ten minutes for me to receive a glass of water. I could have excused this if my waitress had an evident issue with stimulants, but she was suffering from something far worse: acid reflux. On the rare occasion that she would check on me, she would also burp after asking how I was doing. Instead of taking my order, she hung out in the vacant corner of the restaurant behind me to play on her phone. I had a front row seat to a FaceTime conversation that could have been a text and a throat getting cleared multiple times. Many would rightfully be disgusted and leave. I considered it, but my Soup Friday mission was not yet completed and few other restaurants were still open. Eventually when the waitress returned, I placed an order for an Original Slam and a cup of the chicken noodle soup.
Soup Over My Slammy
Expecting the soup to come out by itself first, I was vexed but not surprised to see it come out with my pancakes and all the other Slam fixins’. I didn’t want the soup rating to be affected by the taste of bacon or syrup and I also wanted to avoid my breakfast for dinner meal from getting cold, so I knew I would have to consume the soup with haste. Even for chicken noodle standards, it was a pretty one-dimensional soup, so not much detail was lost in this brief examination. I usually steer clear of chicken noodle for a few reasons, but this was impossible due to it being the lone soup item on the menu. You may be wondering, “Why does Ev Dog avoid ordering chicken noodle whenever possible?” I enjoy trying different soups each Soup Season that challenge me to get out of my soup comfort zone and chicken noodle fails to achieve that for me. Furthermore, it lacks a degree of difficulty. If a restaurant screws up chicken noodle soup, they need to be shut down by local authorities. Finally, chicken noodle has to be the least exotic soup there is. You could argue tomato, but in my opinion, chicken noodle’s ubiquity across restaurant menus makes it always feel like the most basic soup choice. In light of these reasons, I have to hold any chicken noodle soup I try to a higher standard and grade it on an adjusted scale.
With chicken noodle being the soup served on the weekends at Denny’s, I anticipated the soup to be average at best. Another spot-on soup forecast predicted by my expertise! To this Denny’s franchise’s credit, the soup at least tasted like it was heated up with love. The stars of the show, the chicken and the noodles, were both fine, but their chemistry wasn’t exceptional enough to make this soup memorable. The pair was successful in helping to mitigate the flavor of the saltier-than-usual broth. While the five specks of green and orange made the soup slightly more visually appealing, they represented the only presence of vegetables in the soup. To be fair, not including vegetables is fitting for a Denny’s menu item. On the bright side, a 2025-2026 Soup Season record was set as Denny’s included four packs of saltine crackers on the saucer plate!
I don’t see myself ever going back to Denny’s for soup. I certainly hope I never find myself alone at a soulless place like a Denny’s on a Friday night ever again. Hopefully, my next trip to a Denny’s will take place in Pittsburgh when I go out there to visit my friend Andrew. There, I’ll get to witness his daughter become the next generation of Catullos to carry on the tradition of ordering cheesy eggs for breakfast. But for now, I need to head home and take an antacid before I end up like my waitress.