mary's gourmet diner

horrible. i had the same thing happen with that nasty manager on mother's day as lilybriscoe. i will not be returning.

unfortunately i have to echo the negative sentiments of the previous reviewers. the service was unbelievably bad and it completely overshadowed the food. we went for brunch, and by the time our food arrived (appx 1 hr 20 min after being seated) we were so ravenous it was hard to enjoy anything. i was particularly disappointed in the lack of explanation or apology from our server. we were scoping out a good brunch spot for some out-of-town friends, and this is definitely no longer a contender. because the food is good, i'll give it another chance at some point, but boc badly needs to address the service issues. at least offer some bread, crackers or something if customers are going to have such an exorbitant wait for food.

terrible service; horrible manager. my family visited breakfast of course as part of a mothers' day celebration. after waiting for someone to take our order for 30 minutes, my husband finally had to ask who our waiter was. we were among the first group seated. we ordered and after 45 minutes when we still had not received our food, my husband asked to speak to the manager. the woman who came over, who we gathered is mary's daughter and who we noticed had been yelling at the servers, was belligerent, loud and obnoxious. she shouted at us that the restaurant was not a fast food joint and that everything was cooked to order. she continued saying that today was their first day serving brunch. i found that excuse interesting since the place does, after all, purport to be a breakfast restaurant and has been in business for quite a while. what is the difference between serving breakfast and brunch? after all that commotion, when other diners were staring at her and having the same kind of wait, the food we got wasn't good. we could have lived with the poor food. we could even have lived with the interminable wait. what we can't live with is a manager who is unspeakably rude. we will never go back again and will tell others about our horrible experience.

5 stars for moody eclecticism. three meals there this week alone. most recently i took my whole huge family with me, and boc pulled off the impossible and made everyone happy. vegans, pescitarians, carnivores alike. we had steak, tempeh, breakfast, dinner, appetizers and desserts, and no one left disappointed in the service or the food. i know that now and then everybody has a bad day, and god knows somebody at boc is likely to tell me if my new haircut looks funny or if i have a bad attitude. that's exactly what i love about it. it's just like going home. they hug you and love you no matter how goofy you look, and i'm about as proud of being called a regular at boc as i am of any other professional relationship i have in this town. why? because i used to just be a customer, and now i'm a friend. that's how they roll at boc.

had a chance to eat at boc saturday night and i must say i was very well takn care of and food was great...another spot to hang out now.

whenever i'm in nc, i travel "all the way" to winston from greensboro just to visit mary's. it's such a treat getting to enjoy such traditional southern breakfasts as a vegetarian. the cornmeal cakes are my favourite, but everything is good. expect a long wait on the weekends though, as the restaurant fills up (for good reason).

my family and i visited mary's to celebrate my nephew's graduation and i was completely taken back by the appalling behavior of a waitress who wasn't even serving my table. when my nephew kindly said "excuse me" so he could get by as well as to let the waitress know he was about to pass by her, she turns around and loudly yells "i'm working! there's plenty of space for you to go!" i'm working right now!". i explained to her that he was simply saying "excuse me" and that she was very rude. she replied "some people have to talk to other people like that". shocked, i repeated her statement "other people?!" so she could explain what she meant but she simply said she was working and walked away. my family owns a series of restaurants in winston-salem so i think i know what good service is and what its not. i am disgusted by this grown woman's lack of professionalism and poor choice of words. i will absolutely no be returning to this establishment. mary is a good friend of my sister who owns la botana on hanes mall boulevard, so i'm sorry that this waitress (whom i am told is mary's daughter) has caused such a revolting experience on what should have been a happy day.

awful. the food is bland. i'm not paying high prices for food that's just "ok". also, for the prices they charge, i would never think they were going to buckle and dime extra syrup and other condiments.

after learning about this restaurant from the national news when the diner had to stop giving a 15% discount to praying customers due to a lawsuit threat, i put this diner on my must try restaurant list. being new to the area, we are always on the hunt for appetizing restaurants to try. months later, we finally got around to visiting last saturday. they are only open from 8 am to 2 pm everyday but saturday when they are open until 3 pm. they offer breakfast and brunch and are located in downtown winston salem on trade street. free parking is available in their parking lot located behind their building or parallel parking is available on the street. read the rest on my blog, link below

food is ok. prices are high. we order gazpacho, they served beet soup with too much cumin. we sent it back. as we were finishing our breakfast mary, the owner, delivered the "gazpacho" in a brown to-go bag telling us to take it home or give it to friends, despite our dislike for it. the beet soup was on the bill and when we questioned it mary appeared pointing to the bag on the table. we reminder her that we didn't care for it and wouldn't be leaving with it. she shrugged her shoulders and retreated to the kitchen. we paid our bill ($43.00 for a half of the food we ate). after 20 years in winston salem and can only say this about mary's.
i will never, and i mean never, go back there again.

great breakfast. had bacon, feta and spinach omelette, cheese grits and biscuit with apple butter.

love, love, love the food. a little pricey for breakfast, but so worth the freshness.

don't bother better spots in the area. his place looked promising, but i was mistaken.

our server, dena, was the only highlight of this visit. she's terrific.

first, it lists themselves on happy cow as being veg friendly, which was a plus. but upon arriving, we learned differently, and yes we will be notifying happy cow regarding their listing.

total bill 32.19 for lunch for two! a bad lunch to boot.
here's the breakdown.
sparkling water $2. - perfect
one buckwheat pancake $5.00 - asked for no powdered sugar, got it anyway. this was by far the worst buckwheat pancake, hard, crunchy with only the part with blueberries moist and edible.
blueberries - $2.50
blt 0 $8.50 0- but wait~! i asked for no bacon! a side of bacon is $3.00 - so they could resell that bacon, but #1, someone put bacon on it and took it off - for those of you who are veg you know when you can get a whiff of hardwood smoke bacon that's been on the bread. so i asked for avocado instead of bacon.
side of avacado $2.15 added to my bill - unripe avacado, like 2 little slices.
rueben - $10.00 - asked for no cheese, got cheese anyway.
these people #1 can not follow directions when you order.
#2 i asked about the upcharge for the raw unripe avacado, since i did not get bacon, the owner of the place was rude and foolish in her response of "you should have read the front of the menu". really, i just paid $10.65 for a horrible sandwich and this is your rude response?

you know, a place that has great customer service and mediocre food can pass, but this place had horrible food, and a rude owner who did not see the value in return customers, nor one who writes for several online blogs and reviews for newspapers, can't wait to write up this one folks. save your money, there are far better places to eat in the area, lots of better places.

food was fine but a $2.50 up charge for 2 small slices of gluten free bread is ludicrous. especially when bread comes with the meal in the first place.

they got me once and it won't happen again. buyer beware! ask about their up charges.

underwhelming. that simple. fruit was basking in a bed of water, potatoe fries had little to no flavor and the prices were quite high for the small quantity of food you get. the high points are a nice atmosphere and good biscuits.