didn't expect much, and was disappointed. when a coney island is something more than mediocre you yell from the mountaintops, er, the tops of half-used parking structures around here. when you go to a coney you are expecting mediocre. when you get less than that it is a huge disappointment.
national is always a busy place, with a lot going on, especially at lunch time. on my visit the waitstaff was frantically trying to get food to the tables that filled half of the restaurant. the waitress was punctual getting to our table and taking our order, and everything was a disappointment from there.
first, the waitress never brought me my coffee, at one point she came to the table to remind me she would still bring it, but it never came. of course it ended up on my bill, which she remedied quickly. i did order decaf which isn't readily available, but still, it should have made it before i forgot about it.
when our food arrived, my friend commented on how please she was with the spring mix in her side salad, she said it was a nice change from the regular iceberg you get at places. i wish the rest of our food would have been nice. my friend ordered a smoked turkey sandwich, and he bread was sopping with the clarified butter/oil that is used on the line for grilling. she actually had yellow drippy oil on her fingers from it. my breakfast sausages also sat atop an oily yellow layer of grease on my plate, and every time i cut into one yellow grease oozed out. my eggs that i ordered over easy were so runny they didn't stay together with 2 dips of toast, i mixed them in with my oil soaked hash browns, and continued, because we hadn't ate in hours. for awhile i thought about returning my food, but then i just covered it in ketchup and trudged on. since our waitress didn't come back and check on us i didn't have the opportunity to mention it without raising a stink at the time, and interrupting other people's service.
my friend had ordered a to-go order for the end of our meal, the waitress forgot to put it in, my friend reminded her when we asked for our bill, and she said it would be done in a couple minutes. minutes passed by, and no to-go order. we gave up, and decided to leave. we went to pay at the counter which i guess they don't do anymore, but nobody was informed because there was a line of people in front of us. our waitress told us she forgot to place the to-go order completely. in her defense she did offer to give us back our tip, but when it comes down to it, we just simply won't be back. she wasn't the only problem at national.
don't let this review stop you from going to other national coney islands in the metro area. i've had good experiences at some. i just have never had anything more than mediocre bordering on bad from this one. this visit was terrible.