Starlite Diner Car — Restaurant in Town of Bowden

We visited the Starlite on a Saturday afternoon around 1:00pm. The diner was steady, but we were able to get a seat right away. The diner is super cute and retro. I had always wanted to visit here and heard good things, so I'm glad we came and experienced it, but wouldn't ever come back.

It did take a few minutes for our server to come over and take our drink orders. I asked him a couple of questions about the menu, and he seemed like he really didn't want to be there.

We ordered the grilled cheese sandwich with fries and a hot hamburger sandwich with onion rings. To drink, we just had a coke/pepsi and a water.

It took a good 20 mins to get our food (again, it was steady, but not crazy busy) and as soon as I saw my meal, I was disappointed.

The gravy on my burger was this dark brown, not appealing look or flavor to it. You could tell it was just a bad powder mix and it really did not taste good at all. The burger patty itself was fine. The bread that came with it, was just a white piece of bread and if it was toasted that would have made a bit of a difference. The one thing I did like about my meal were the onion rings. At least they were good.

My spouse's grilled cheese and fries were decent. Nothing special. Just a regular grilled cheese. That's kind of his go to when nothing else looks great on the menu (and we just had a good burger the night before).

While we were eating, I was watching the staff and the incoming clients. The diner's computer system went down, so they weren't able to put in orders or calculate a bill. They were telling clients that orders wouldn't be submitted for at least a half hour or 45 mins (and this was already 20-30 mins into the system being down). The system was definitely down at least 40 mins (while we ate and waited for our bill).

We asked for our bill, and our server said they wouldn't be able to give it to us for another half hour. I said, no, you should be able to calculate it manually. Especially that their debit card system was still able to process payments. So this wasn't payment issue where they couldn't accept anything. This also doesn't make sense that they couldn't take people's orders and just write it down to give it to the kitchen. I understand that an online system may calculate inventory and orders, but as a temporary solution, just give the kitchen a hand written order and then enter it into the system later. Like how did they do it before the system was installed?

We ended up paying cash and left.

A couple of things to note, I wish I would have ordered breakfast. The menu says it's only available until 11:30am, but another couple came in and ordered some breakfast items. I wish I would have asked if there was all day breakfast.

Overall, I'm glad we visited the diner, but we wouldn't go back. The food was not good at all and it was pretty disappointing.

(I don't give 1 or 2 stars very often, but this definitely was a 1...

If you're vegetarian, this is not the place for you. Only one meal (aside from salads) you'll be able to have, a grilled cheese sandwich. Surely keeping veggie burgers in the freezers isn't too difficult. Today's service was AWFUL. Although the server said she was new, she seemed annoyed with our questions and just being there in general.

Ordered a salad- when it came there was no salad dressing, so when we told her it was missing the dressing, she answered with a rude "hold on", then came over and asked what salad dressing we wanted. Surely it either comes with a dressing or when they take the order, they should ask you what dressing you want. They should not assume bc you didn't mention it at the time of order that you just didn't want dressing. After we finished our meal, she cleared out plates and told us to go pay at the til. We weren't asked if we wanted dessert or anything else. Furthermore, only 2 of the 4 of us were asked if we wanted refills on our beverages. We asked if all the pies were homemade, she said, "I think so", to which we asked, well can you find out for sure? She then came back to say, no they aren't all homemade. To which we asked, well then which ones are? She then rolled her eyes, it seems because we were asking her again for information about the pies. When she came back, she said in fact none of the pies were homemade. At this point we were too fed up with her attitude so decided just to leave.

While we understand everyone needs to learn while on the job, this particular server just seemed clueless, rude, and unwilling to help the customer out.

Won't be...

Two days ago, I visited Starlite Diner with my family, excited to try it for the first time. Unfortunately, our experience was disappointing due to the behavior of the server who greeted and served us.

When we arrived, we were briefly asked how many were in our party and directed to a table with a gesture that felt abrupt and dismissive. We initially gave the benefit of the doubt, assuming it may have been a misunderstanding in tone.

However, when the server returned to take our drink orders—two milkshakes, a coffee, and four waters—her response was surprisingly hostile. She reacted with visible frustration, questioning our choices in a condescending tone: “Well, what is it? Coffee? Milkshake? Water?” This exchange left us confused and uncomfortable. To be honest, I thought it was a prank-but it wasn't.

Rather than escalate the situation, we chose to leave without ordering anything further. As someone who has worked in the restaurant industry for over eight years, I deeply value the challenges of customer service and always approach staff with patience and understanding. That said, this was the most unwelcoming experiences I’ve had at a restaurant.

It’s disappointing to miss out on what we hoped would be a great meal and a new local favorite, but the level of rudeness we encountered made it impossible to stay. I hope the management can look into this kind of feedback seriously, as first impressions matter—especially for new customers.

For context, we didn’t catch her name, but the server appeared to be a younger woman with dark skin and had...