Pauli's Diner

Pauli's Diner is a location in Batman: Arkham Knight and the site of Scarecrow and Arkham Knight's initial attack on Gotham City. It is located on Miagani island, on Grand Avenue.

The only time it it's featured in the story is in the very start of the game, where the player is put in the shoes of Officer Owens, about to break his diet. However, before Owens got his order, a man walked up to him, and asked him to talk to a man who was smoking in the corner booth of the restaurant. Owens reluctantly walked to the booth and talked to the man, only to see a demonic creature attack him. Owens falls, and as he gets up, he saw that the whole diner was attacked by said creatures, and either shoots them/won't shoot them (Player's choice). However, either option has the same outcome, with the officer being knocked out by another creature.

Later, Scarecrow showed the residents of Gotham City footage of the customers attacking each other, while he admitted that he was behind the attack. This caused the GCPD to organize a mass evacuation, which left only the criminals and several brave police officers behind.

One Riddler Trophy was later inserted inside the destroyed diner.

Trivia[]

• The name of the diner was a reference to Paul Dini, who wrote both Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City, Batman: Arkham City (comic) as well as several other, non-video game stories.
• Depending on whether the player shoots the demons, several pieces of dialogue would change later on in the game.
  • If the player wishes, they can also empty the gun by shooting at the walls or shoot all the demons before being stopped.
    • The cops will say it's amazing Owens didn't kill anyone if no one is killed.
    • Owens will be horrified if he killed anyone, and there will be talk of having his badge taken.
• The diner's sign could be seen very briefly on the opening cutscene of Batman: Arkham Asylum. The different surroundings, however, suggested that this was a sister location.
• The only confirmed survivor of the attack on the diner was Officer Owens, as both the bearded man and Sharon Jones are confirmed dead by the Shadow War DLC mission. The fates of the unnamed customers are not revealed.
• The game's novelization reveals that the diner was first opened in the 1950's.
• The events that take place in the diner in Arkham Knight could very likely be an allusion to the DC comic Sandman: 24 Hours in which an escaped Arkham Asylum inmate named Dr. John Dee AKA Doctor Destiny uses his dream-manipulating powers to terrorize a family diner in Gotham City by manipulating the minds of it's customers into killing each other before unleashing his powers on the rest of the world. The appearance of the fear-toxin creature also resembles Doctor Destiny.
• The diner can be found in Lego DC Supervillains, though it has no significance to the story.