One of the best things about a US road trip is experiencing a wide variety of restaurants along the route, and there’s no style of eatery that more perfectly embodies Americana than the diner. From classic spots that whisk you back to the jukebox and milkshake fuelled 1950s to eateries that stretch themes right to the limit, we’ve picked the most unusual roadside diner in every state. Due to COVID-19, it’s best to check state travel advisories and individual restaurant websites before visiting.

This 1950s-style diner is a short stroll from the white beaches of Gulf Shores, and it’s beautifully suited to its surroundings. Sunliner Diner, which has another location in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, opened in May 2018 though the bold red and turquoise decor suggests it’s been around for decades. Eat classic all-day breakfast dishes and more modern favourites, like an avocado eggs Benedict, in fun retro surroundings that include a car-shaped booth.

If you’re not freaked out by being overlooked by a menagerie of taxidermy animals glaring at you while you dig into your meal, then Wasilla’s Roadside Inn is the place to go. The quaint restaurant looks like it belongs in another era and exudes Alaskan charm with picturesque paintings of the diverse terrain on the walls. It’s a diner experience you’d only get in Alaska.

This historic roadside stop on the former Route 66 in Seligman is a must-visit. Built from scrap lumber in 1953, Delgadillo’s Snow Cap Drive-In is an example of flamboyant roadside architecture and a great rest spot. Out front is a roofless 1936 Chevrolet hardtop, decorated with horns, automotive emblems and an artificial Christmas tree. The diner’s unusual style extends inside, where you’ll find all kinds of a colourful decor and a menu of diner classics.

While driving through Redfield, halfway between Little Rock and Pine Bluff, you’ll find Mammoth Orange Cafe, which has been a roadside pit-stop since 1966. You can’t miss it: just as the name suggests, it’s a big orange-shaped diner that features some of the best hamburgers, hot dogs and chilli dogs around. Inspired by a restaurant in California built in the 1950s, Mammoth Orange Cafe is renowned as an interesting place to grab a bite to eat while travelling along Highway 365.

Off the Pacific Coast Highway in Santa Monica you’ll spot a shamrock-green roadhouse with leprechauns and a dinosaur on the roof. It isn’t a mirage; established in 1973, Patrick’s Roadhouse is known for its atmospheric 1940s feel, great burgers and friendly staff. Arnold Schwarzenegger has eaten there and has his own custom-made iron chair with a plaque inscribed: ‘For The Man of Iron: The Terminator’. The diner also serves a dish based on a recipe created by Schwarzenegger’s mother, as well as a 17-egg omelette.

Airplane food doesn’t have the best reputation but this restaurant in Colorado Springs challenges perceptions by serving great food in a historic Boeing KC-97 tanker. Built in 1953, the airplane refuelled aircraft throughout the world before being transformed into the The Airplane Restaurant in 2002. The diner is rich in aviation history with pictures, memorabilia and rare artefacts.

For all the bookworms out there, this roadside diner gives customers free books with their food. Serving classic American dishes, Traveler Restaurant also has a store downstairs where customers can buy books. The best part about eating here is that instead of waiting impatiently for your food to be prepared, you can peruse the bookshelves, decide which free book you’d like and start reading.

It may not look like much from the outside but diners at Helen’s Famous Sausage House are greeted by a life-size mannequin of Elvis Presley and countless pictures of the King. Located on North Dupont Highway, the modest diner attracts hordes of people wanting a savoury breakfast sandwich, like the double sausage served on a warm, buttered hot dog bun, in a space that’s effectively a shrine to the legendary singer.

This Sunshine State gem in Sarasota serves mango with just about everything, from waffles and mimosas to the famous butter spread on freshly cooked biscuits. Don’t worry if you’re not a mango fan, though – Toasted Mango Café, which has two locations in the city, does have options without the tropical fruit.

Marietta Diner, a neon palace viewers may have spotted on Guy Fieri's Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, looks fabulous inside and out and is open 24 hours. The menu is broad and varied, with timeless breakfast favourites, sandwiches, burgers and, reflecting the owner’s heritage, a variety of Greek meals. Sweet-toothed customers can’t resist the eye-catching cake display – the baklava cheesecake is particularly divine.

Rock Island Café pays homage to the 1950s with joyful abandon, from its menu and music to the memorabilia on display. Walls are adorned photos and posters and dishes are named after iconic characters, movies, TV shows, songs and celebrities, from King Kong to the King, Elvis Presley. Beef hot dogs, burgers and milkshakes fill the menu – which, because this is Honolulu, is displayed on a surfboard. There’s also a shop selling collectibles.

The Rusty Lantern looks more like a farmhouse than a diner. It’s made with reclaimed wood, decorated with colourful flowers out the front and full of old farming tools and random items inside. There are old tractors out the back and a collection of bird houses too. Menu items to try are the different and unusual soups, including taco, pizza and ham and bean.

This historic roadhouse on Route 66 has a volleyball court and softball field. So if you need to let off some steam after being cooped up in the car for hours, you may as well stop by and fill up on some diner grub and play a game or two. DeCamp Station used to be known as DeCamp Junction and sits on the original 1926-32 alignment of Route 66. The diner is the only remaining building from a small coal mining settlement.

Oasis Diner makes its own sodas, which is just one of the things that sets this cute and colourful spot apart from the competition. Another is its obsession with lunch. Not just serving it, but honouring a part of its history with a display of vintage lunch boxes filling the shelves and bearing illustrations from E.T. to Pac-Man. Throw in wonderfully comforting and classic diner food and a TV playing old sitcoms and it’s pretty much guaranteed to brighten your day.

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Iowa 80 was built in 1964 by Standard Oil and is now the world’s largest truck stop, serving typical diner plates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Another draw is the trucker showroom and store, which carries more than 50,000 items. There’s also the Truckers Jamboree, where cars in the shape of boots and hot dogs are displayed.

In the heart of Hays’ thriving entertainment and arts district, bustling Gella’s Diner comes complete with its own microbrewery. The once-forgotten building in downtown Hays is packed daily with locals and visitors eager to try the award-winning craft beers along with the diner dishes made with seasonal ingredients.

The attitude in this small Cajun-style diner is ‘if it goes on the wall, it never comes down’, and the result is a mixture of license plates and mardi gras beads covering pretty much every inch. Travellers can even leave their mark on US and world maps on the walls by placing push pins to indicate places they’ve visited. Outside, the diner is covered in white porcelain tiles due to the wartime rationing of steel.

As the name suggests, Dodson Roadside Cafe and Creamery serves ice cream alongside the regular diner favourites. What makes this dining experience particularly unusual is the way that they combine the two, offering hot beef sundaes and other unique takes on traditional diner food. The diner's all-wooden exterior means you can't miss it.

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Diner menus are often as long as your arm and as thick as a book, but not at the tiny Palace Diner in Biddeford. Unusually the 15-seat diner in a trolley car only has eight dishes on the breakfast menu and four sandwiches at lunch. It was built by the Pollard Company in 1927 and is one of two surviving Pollard diners in the country. It has a sleek interior with no paraphernalia, unlike many of the other diners on this list.

Broadway Diner steps outside the realm of serving traditional American food and offers a Greek twist on its menu. The shiny silver restaurant serves authentic Greek dishes like gyros, souvlaki and bifteki, which is ground beef and lamb patties served with Greek salad, rice and pitta bread.

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There’s nothing unusual about a diner serving milkshakes but the flavours at Johnny's Roadside Diner are definitely worth a pit stop. Options range from orange creamsicle to one made with Oreos (pictured), along with a range of adult milkshakes laced with booze. The retro treats continue with a range of floats, lavish sundaes and classic burgers and sandwiches.

With two locations in Michigan, Fleetwood Diner has become an institution. Come for their signature breakfast dish, the hippie hash: hash browns tossed with grilled tomato, green pepper, onion, mushroom, broccoli and feta cheese. The decor is charming too, with walls covered floor-to-ceiling in stickers.

What’s unusual about this Dinkytown diner is that it’s the narrowest in Minneapolis, with a width of just 10 feet. Al's Breakfast has served big breakfasts in that small space since 1950. It’s so popular that there’s a constant line leading out the door, and those waiting inside have to stand up against the brick wall closely behind seated customers.

The pink petticoats of Mammy’s Cupboard are a beloved mainstay along Highway 61 in Natchez. The 28-feet (8.5m) tall, painted brick sculpture houses a charmingly old-school diner serving Southern classics like chicken pot pie, red beans and rice and blueberry lemonade. The figure was depicted as an African American woman when the diner opened in 1940 but was repainted during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s due to racist connotations.

A Missouri legend, Broadway Diner serves homemade classics like biscuits smothered with lashings of creamy gravy in an atmosphere that’s both fun and comforting. Signature breakfasts include the ‘The Stretch', piled high with scrambled eggs, chilli, onions, cheese and hash browns. The interior is cute and colourful in the best diner traditions, with red booths, candy floss pink and sky-blue formica tabletops and a long counter with leather-cushioned stools.

There are few roadside diners that also have a view of a beautiful lake. In this case, Betty’s Diner off US Highway 93 backs onto Flathead Lake, with water views and outdoor seating to make the most of it. You can’t miss the building from the road – it's painted bright pink.

Pull into Jay Bros Truck Stop for a refuel and you’ll find that your choice of foods is a bit out of the ordinary. No greasy spoon with stale coffee and fried eggs, this family-run roadside eatery dishes up hearty curries, flavoursome biryanis and buttery naans to truckers and travellers along the remote stretch of I-80. Round off the meal with a mango lassi and a tank of diesel and you’ll be ready to hit the road again.

If you don’t eat what’s on your plate at Heart Attack Grill then you may be publicly spanked. After failing to eat all your food, you can be paraded in front of other customers, bent over and spanked with a paddle by a waitress. If that wasn’t strange enough, the diner is hospital themed and all staff are dressed in nurse or doctor outfits, while diners weighing more than 350lbs (159kg) get to eat for free. Menu items include the infamous (and extremely calorific) quadruple bypass burger.

The Common Man diner has a lot of unusual things to offer customers. The inside of the centre is made to feel as though it's outside, with a roof painted like the sky, a wooden bridge and a display of rocks with fake animals. There are also locations in Manchester and Plymouth.

There’s no shortage of diners in New Jersey, but Tops Diner on Passaic Avenue in Harrison is seen as one of the best. It’s been here since 1942 and reopened in a new structure at the same location in late 2021, while the interior is a timeless combination of dark wood panelling and striking tiled floors. Menu staples include meatloaf, chicken and waffles, fresh seafood platters and lobster mac ‘n’ cheese.

Tacos, enchiladas and burritos are the order of the day at Frontier, which has been serving up locally renowned Tex-Mex food since 1971. Customers also have plenty to look at as they tuck into delicious tostadas and house-made tortillas: the interior is jam-packed with unique paintings by local and national artists, while weavings and colourful lampshades decorate the ceiling. John Wayne features heavily, as the owners are big fans of the movie star.

In New York City, diners are woven into the fabric of daily life (and often feature in films and TV shows). Ellen’s Stardust stands out thanks to its singing waiting staff and rainbow-coloured bagels. The Broadway diner came close to turning off its neon forever after being hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and facing eviction, and was saved by a crowdfunding campaign.

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The Roadside diner has a big outdoor area where events are held, even weddings. You get into the area by walking through a big wooden arch made with empty bottles, while the owners have recycled others into a triangular tree-shaped sculpture. There are plenty of other attractions too, including a professional hula-hooper and a diverse menu offering everything from fish tacos to crab cakes.

Usually diners are known for their burgers but not Kroll’s. With locations in Fargo, Bismarck, Mandan and Minot, this diner franchise is known for knoephia, a German soup. You could also try the unique German dish fleischkuechle: ground beef wrapped inside pastry and deep-fried served with soup, salad, fries or cottage cheese.

You don’t need a ticket to hop aboard the Buckeye Express, where you’ll find a menu of homely classics and hearty burgers. The family-owned restaurant is housed in a vintage steam engine diner car, towed from Virginia in 2008. Adding to the quirkiness, the diner is decorated with Ohio State Buckeyes memorabilia and there’s an impressive play area outside to keep youngsters amused.

What’s better than a burger in a classic, 1950s-style diner? A burger that’s served in a tiny pink Cadillac, that’s what. This charming alternative to plates is one of the things that sets Sherri’s Diner apart from the competition. There’s also the fun interior, decked out with neon lights, vintage signage and a vintage jukebox that plays 1950s tunes. And the pancakes, made to a secret recipe and served pillowy and piled high with toppings, are another draw.

Cornbread Cafe’s dishes look pretty to similar to food you’d find in any classic diner, yet the burgers, burritos and biscuits and gravy are all vegan and made with organic ingredients. Try the French dip sandwich, chik’n and waffles – made with seitan – and even a plant-based take on a Reuben. It started as a food cart and now has permanent residence in a bright, colourful dining space.

The hotcakes sell like hotcakes at P&G's Pamela's Diner, which has several locations in Pittsburgh. They come crêpe-style with perfectly crisped edges and with a choice of toppings like bananas, chocolate chips, walnuts and whipped cream. You can’t really go wrong with anything on the menu, from omelettes to specials like the chorizo hash. Barack and Michelle Obama have been several times for breakfast – and if it’s good enough for the former President and First Lady…

Haven Brothers Diner is the oldest diner on wheels in America and has been in service since 1893. It’s based near City Hall but often pops up in other locations locations, so the best way to make sure you find them – and get hold of one of the delicious burgers – is by following them on Twitter. The diner started life as a horse-drawn lunch cart run by a widow, Anne Philomena Haven.

Hannibal’s Kitchen (which has nothing to do with a certain Mr Lecter) isn’t the fanciest of restaurants, but customers agree it serves some of the tastiest food you’ll find anywhere. What the diner lacks in decor, however, it makes up for with its comforting soul food, with a menu that draws from local Geechee and Gullah cuisine. Southern seafood dishes like crab and shrimp rice are particular specialities.

Often it’s the element of surprise that makes certain diners remarkable, and Sugar Shack definitely falls into that category. It looks more like a regular gas station than a place to find fabulous food, though the no-frills spot happens to serve some of the best burgers in the Black Hills (or anywhere, really). The roadside diner is a popular spot with bikers and anyone who appreciates great food and service in a beautiful setting.

The Arcade Restaurant is Memphis’ oldest café, opened in 1919 by Speros Zepatos, who had moved to the city from Greece. It was revamped by his son Harry in 1954 and has barely been touched since, which is what makes it such a must-visit. That, and the fact that Elvis Presley used to eat here (prepare to wait if you want to sit in his booth).

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There’s no way you can miss this loud and proud diner in Amarillo: The Big Texan is painted in bright yellow and blue and there are several massive billboards and statues alerting passers-by to its location. The huge cowboy, cowboy boot and cow have become synonymous with the diner. It’s also become known for its 72-ounce steak, which is free to anyone who can eat the entire meal within an hour.

At Prairie Schooner, you can dine in a covered wagon next to an open fire under the stars, just like the Mormon pioneers who settled here years ago. Those who’ve tried it love the ambience and feeling of privacy when seated in one of the wagons, while it’s also described as beautifully designed with a fun atmosphere. It’s an unusual experience and one that’s unique to the Beehive State.

If you need to stop and smell the roses when passing through Vermont, be sure to visit Chelsea Royal Diner. The West Brattleboro diner has a garden, farm and art studio, and offers some unusual specials like grilled chicken and papaya on a croissant. Once you’ve filled up on food and had a look around, you can visit the studio of local artist Janet Picard, just behind the restaurant.

What may at first look like Barbie’s dream house is in fact The Pink Cadillac Diner, which reopened in 2022 after being sold to new owners. It’s painted bright pink to match the antique Cadillac outside and, as if that didn’t make it distinctive enough, there’s a giant King Kong statue clutching an airplane outside. There’s even a life-sized Elvis Presley statue at the door, and if you’re lucky an impersonator of the King will make your dining experience even more memorable.

Twede’s Café doesn’t look like much from the outside but fans of David Lynch’s surreal 1990s TV drama Twin Peaks might recognise it as one of the most memorable locations from the show, the Double R Diner. People come for a slice of the 'Twin Peaks' cherry pie, famously loved by Agent Cooper in the show, and (of course) a 'damn fine cup of coffee'. The diner takes its role seriously, even selling Double R branded merchandise like this mug, pictured.

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Hillbilly Hot Dogs is strewn with themed decor, which is often given to the owners by customers who have travelled near and far to bite into some of the biggest hot dogs around. There’s a massive hot dog out the front and two old school buses on the property too. The diner even offers customers the chance togged married or renew their vows on site in the makeshift chapel.

Blue is most certainly the colour at Monty’s Blue Plate Diner, which regularly wins local awards for its fantastic breakfasts. The wonderful selection of delicious vegetarian dishes is also worth taking a detour for, with choices like the tofu scramble and vegan banana and walnut pancakes marking a delicious departure from standard diner fodder, although the decor still has a classic 1950s feel. People also love that pies, cakes and cookies are made daily from scratch.

Walking through the doors of Johnny J’s Diner is like stepping back the 1950s, thanks to its retro décor, soda fountain counter and mid-century furniture. Located in Casper, Johnny’s serves all-American classics including waffles, cherry-topped milkshakes and their signature cheese burger.

Now discover the most charming roadside diner in every state