Phillips Avenue Diner

I bounced back and forth between giving this place 1-or-2 stars and decided 2 would be appropriate given the following aspects of my 9:15AM weekday dining experience.

For being the only person sitting at the bar initially, it took an unexpectedly long amount of time for me to even get greeted or asked what I wanted to drink. (Truthfully, the server didn't even ask what I wanted to drink--just if I was ready to order.)

I ordered the "Classic Diner Breakfast", which at the time of this review was just over $13...a tad overpriced for the Midwest and given the quality of what was presented. The bacon was overcooked while my "extra crispy" hashbrowns were essentially a charred, mushy blanket of blandness. The scrambled eggs also looked like a half-forgotten-about omelet--not great. The sourdough toast was standard and buttered as expected. I appreciate that they are served with a side dish of grape and strawberry jam.

What I found LEAST appetizing though, is that none of the kitchen staff appeared to be wearing hairnets even if their short hair extended longer than an inch. (I'm not sure what South Dakota's laws are around food safety but I found that relatively unappetizing.)

The saving grace for this place was the pleasant conversation I had with a younger guy working up at the food bay, Mike. He was pretty quiet initially but ending up being very nice and essentially the only staff member that genuinely made an effort to ensure a positive dining experience.

Aside from that, the decor was definitely old-timey and cutesy--what you would expect from an old school diner. The interior is well-lit and not too loud. There's music playing in the background as well, which is a nice touch. (It would have been much too quiet if not.)

Overall, I don't think I'd bother with visiting this breakfast joint again. The food was priced for quality that was ultimately not delivered, and the service was as cold as the January temps. If you are starving or in a time crunch, Phillips Avenue Diner will at least hold you over until you have time to find a nicer dine-in experience.

What a cute diner inside and out! When you walk in, you're greeted with a smile, and the ambiance takes you a step back in time! Our server, Kelly, was really good! Every worker we saw was smiling wow, you don't see that very often! The place looked clean, too.

My son and I ate here for brunch. He got the Sunrise Waffle ($12.00), one pancake ($3.00), and "The All Day The Vanilla Chilla" ($6.00), I got the Corn Beef Hash & Eggs ($14.00). The food was served with a smile, hot, and fresh.

We would eat here again when back in Sioux Falls.

The food was pretty great, but the wait time is brutal during lunch time!

The inside of the store has an old-timey diner atmosphere that reminds me of the Five and Diners in Phoenix. I kept things simple with a BLT and fries plus my first experience with cheese curds. I was quite impressed! They taste much better than they sound - sort of like tiny cheese sticks.

My hubby chose a pancake breakfast with sausage. He wasn't too fond of the sausage. I didn't taste them so I can't really comment on them myself. I'm not much of a sausage fan.

Service was not too bad considering how busy it was, but we did have to wait on drink refills, and it took a bit to get things from the kitchen.

We'll be back to try some other dishes, but we'll make sure not to come during lunch again! Way too popular at that time!

This is a nice clean diner and the staff is always friendly. Ive been here a handful of times and always like it.

Today I had to try their chicken & waffle, but while waiting we ordered some cheese curds. Their cheese curds were really good! The batter is really thin, crisp and has a nice seasoning on them. I recommend the cheese curds. They are addicting.

So i figured with the batter of the cheese curds so tasty the chicken waffle meal would be just as good. I was correct. They use chicken tenders on the waffle, but they were not small little pieces, so I was ok with that. The tenders had a little thicker breading but with the same delicious taste as the curds. The waffle was crisp and delicious. The item is served with a pecan soft butter and vanilla infused maple syrup. This was a tasty dish that I will order again. Dont pass on the chicken & waffles.

So then I had to try the Elvis shake because I am a fan of banana ice cream. This shake i believe is vanilla ice cream with fresh bananas thrown in the blender to get mixed in. Then there is peanut butter and some honey too. This was a tasty shake that i will definitely order again.

This was a good place to stop after a long day of driving. There's a great interior with plenty to keep you entertained and occupied. The food was good! We had the Frisco Melt and a chicken dish. Both were good and we left happy. The only downer was our server, who acted like he had plenty of better things to do. We had to wait awhile for water, and he did not check up on us after food was served. Hopefully it was just an off night for him, because it seemed like everyone else was feeling good!

I I'll never eat here, EVER. Rude management. walked in at 1:50pm and was told by the manager "I'm sorry we're closed at 2:00." I told him all we want is desert.
No I'm sorry we're closed. Great food but terrible service. Be forewarned.

One of my favorite places to eat at are Diners. So while in the downtown, I stopped by this Diner. Old school feel to it. We sat down and ordered the Poutine appetizer, the Prime Rib sandwich and the Chicken Fried steak. All the food was really good. Gravy was made from scratch. Sweet potatoe fries were good. The appetizers are maybe overpriced but I will definitely come back if I'm in the area.

Once again Yelp did not lead us wrong. We arrived at Phillips around 9:30 on a beautiful Saturday morning. Free street parking since it was the weekend. Short wait for a table for 2 maybe 20 minutes max. The hostess was friendly as was our waiter Kelly. We ordered coffee, chocolate milk and the two,two,two. Which is a combination of 2 Eggs, 2 pancakes and 2 of your choice bacon or sausage. Delivered to our table hot in about 10 minutes. The diner was full so the kitchen must have been running smoothly. Everything was good and I give Phillips extra points for the cleanliness, service and nostalgia. If you like good food served by friendly people go here! Oh and the prices are very reasonable!

Really good old school American diner food.

They had so many amazing things on the menu it was hard to pick what I wanted.

For starters I wanted to go with old school fish and chips along with some other deep fried sides.

I settled on the more traditional Cobb salad it was absolutely amazing.

I also had a bowl of their tomato bisque soup. I absolutely love a good tomato soup and theirs was to die for. My only suggestion was slightly larger portion and maybe serve it with a piece of bread instead of crackers.

The shakes were made by hand and very large most of them took up two cups topped with whipped cream and a cherry what's not to love.

They have free parking in the background and the staff was absolutely there to help with anything you needed.

We had a group of 12 and they don't take reservations but they were able to quickly serve us and see our whole table the people ranging from 65 to 5 years old.

Good place to check out for a group meeting business group or family dinner when you're in South Dakota.

There's nothing anyone can love more than coming to a small town even though I would argue Sioux Falls is far from a small town but compared to my home city of Los Angeles... I think you get the point I love driving around the city but the first place I found to have breakfast was this diner I thought everybody incredibly polite both my waiters for the nicest people ever met in your life and the music that they played was absolutely hilarious I felt like jumping up and singing like that dude from risky business... Oh yeah his name is Tom Cruise only I would've worn pants.

The breakfast menu and the ceiling is incredible I found myself very comfortable in ordering the farmers scramble I got it in less than six minutes and it was delicious but the portions are much larger so I had to take it home and I enjoyed it two hours later and it tasted just as good...

I can't recommend this place enough I want to go back tomorrow before I leave and see what their pies are like.