Hampton St Diner

I had an issue with this restaurant recently and they were very quick to make it right. My second lunch from them was a great burger with amazingly tasty fries.

12/13/2017
Today was my first trip to the Hampton St. Diner. It's only a couple of blocks away from work and only opened a few weeks ago. There were hiccups which can be expected of a new restaurant. The staff clearly cared and corrected immediately. I had the daily special and my friend had the Philly cheesesteak. He said the fries were awesome. I particularly enjoyed my collard greens and mac&cheese.

A bright and cheerful spot with big windows looking out on the historic Waverly neighbourhood. Solid diner fare with some twists on classics (gouda, mushroom grilled cheese, yes please!) Very family friendly but also a quiet spot to sip coffee, munch on a cookie, and get some work done. Great looking dessert case. I'm looking at you, lemon pound cake. We've been several times and the service and quality just keeps improving. Generous discounts for state employees, military, and the social media savvy.

This has become our go to Saturday breakfast spot. The decor is cute, the food is good, and there is never a wait. Service is a little slow, but we're never in a hurry on a Saturday morning.

Well, after waiting over 20 minute for a cup of black coffee to go, I gave up (there was exactly one other customer there, and he complained as he left about having to hear the hate-lecture of the manager on duty towards the staff, all at full volume and in the dining area, not in back). The last straw was their not having change for a 20, and apparently the concept of "let's comp this coffee, given how long this guy has waited," was not going to spring into anyone's minds. After waiting 5 minutes for a clown show of how to get change for a 20, I just said, you know what? Keep it. I left the coffee as well, since it'd never been handed to me.

At this point, having listened to some supervisor berate the counter help to the point of tears, and then have the help go on about her mom for reasons I couldn't fathom, I just couldn't handle another word from anyone there. You might have expected someone to say, "You know what, we apologize. Here's your 20 back......"

The food isn't terrible and the service is alright, but there's nothing about it that really stands out. The couple of times I've been there, it felt a little pricey for run-of-the-mill food and average service.

We ordered the club sandwich and a chicken sandwich. The food was okay. Atmosphere is nice with a 1950's vibe and large glass windows. We had high hopes but the heating was out, they were short staffed and out of a lot of items, like ice. It took 30-40 minutes to get food. Not one customer in the restaurant was happy, people were openly complaining and trying to cancel their orders because it was freezing and taking so long. We did not have a great experience.

I walked in at 10:30 (which is the start of lunch) and ordered a breakfast burger and fries to go. There were only a few people in there occupying 2 tables and space at the counter top bar. In other words...it was not busy at all. The cashier (person who took my order) was very sweet and extremely friendly. I waited patiently for my meal and at 11:08 it was finally brought out to me. ??? I opened the food container to make sure my order was correct (which it was, however...) but the fries were luke warm and there wasn't very many of them. Arrived at my destination and upon further examination of my burger, it had loads of hash browns on it (to the diner's credit) but had 1 strip of grocery store pre-cooked bacon on it cut in half. It had maybe a few grilled onions. I cut the burger in half and the insides of the eggs spewed everyone someone spoiling most of the burger (now, maybe I should have told them how I want the egg, but...). The burger patty was also luke warm and the taste was very underwhelming. Tasted exactly like a frozen burger patty. So $10 later, I wish I had gone to Waffle House!

Was the worst dining experience I have had in a long time, maybe ever. Doesn't even deserve the 1 star. Wanted to try it out since it was featured today by WLTX Food Friday and will not go back. Food took over an hour to arrive, everyone's hamburgers were burnt, bacon was undercooked not to mention everyone's order was incorrect. Their website falsely advertises pictures of homemade hamburgers, an interior that doesn't exist and mentions state employee discounts that they "no longer give." What you get from Wendy's has more meat than the hamburgers we got and prices are very steep especially since everything is a la carte. The most appalling thing we saw was another table that waited over an hour like us and still didn't get their food were required to pay for their drinks since they waited so long and had to leave, I do not believe I have ever witnessed that in a restaurant that before! The young lady who was our waitress asked how our food was and after sharing our grievances didn't care a bit, which wasn't surprising. Had high hopes for this place, but will not be wasting any more time or money with Hampton Street Diner - I advise you to save your time and money and go to the Wendy's drive thru instead.