silver diner

i’ve eaten at a few of these diners over the years and the food is typically pretty good. they use local farms and have a limited seasonal menu along with the normal menu. i had the cajun surf and turf. the shrimp and corn/andouille maque choux was really good. the tenderloins on the other hand were chewy and tough. i’m giving them a four because of goodserviceand historically better food.

i love this place everytime i come. i have been here for every meal and the food has never disappointed. theservicein the morning is amazing and all the food coming from local farms makes it even better.

disappointing--and i so wanted to love this place. i so wanted to like this place, but i have to say i was sorely disappointed. i'd never been to this place before, but had my parents visiting in town, and we were going to meet two of my aunts as well. we showed up around 8:30 on saturday morning, and got a table for 5 without delay. that was good. the server was either extremely busy, inexperienced, or both, however. she had to come back 3 times to bring enough glasses of water (for 5 people, it really shouldn't take more then one visit to get right), and the same with the coffees. trying to track her down to get a refill of coffee was a challenge as well--cup was totally done and cold by the time she returned to refill.

two members of our group got pancakes, i got banana french toast, and the other two got regular french toast. not a single dish was brought out hot. the pancakes were fully cold for both diners, and the french toasts were as well. not like "slightly cooled from the griddle", but totally cold, not at all hot anymore. you'd have thought it impossible to screw up pancakes, but they did. the server seemed...unconcerned, when notified of this. just sort of blank stare and a "oh, uh....well, i guess i can take them back if you want?", which would have taken even more time (this was already a long wait). the manager on duty did come around about 10 minutes later, to apologize and offer vouchers for two free entrees in the future, but i should have just pushed to get the meals comped or discounted that day--i doubt very much i'll be back to use the vouchers ever.

all in all, the food was disappointing (would have been pretty good i think if any of it was hot), theservicewas akin or worse to denny's, and the experience with out of town guests was just mortifying. i expected a good, reasonably priced diner-style breakfast before the guests left, and instead was left with what ended up being a pretty overpriced, very disappointing and embarrassing experience. don't know if we just had an unusually bad experience, but i cannot fathom how this place is as busy as it was if this is the norm. i'd definitely suggest looking elsewhere for breakfast--or honestly, just go to an ihop, where they generally manage to get pancakes to the table while still hot.

i've never eaten at a better diner. the food tasted fresh and the quality was much higher than you'd expect.servicewasn't terribly fast, but the food made up for it. i wish we had these diners near me!

truly awful. not the food. the food is good, sometimes even great, but i have had multiple horrible experiences with theservicein both the reston and the fairfax locations of this chain. if you go, be prepared to wait in a long line to get a table, then a long time to get noticed, longer to get served and then to send it back because its wrong, only to have the waitstaff argue with you about it. in their defense the manager in fairfax did once give my meal for free... after his waitress was done being generally horrible.

i've grown up with silver diner, so i have a natural liking for it no matter what. the food is pretty good, but being honest, theserviceisn't always. some waiters/waitresses are great, some aren't. but i still think it's worth the food, but then again, i might not be the best one to judge.