Dreamland Diner — Restaurant in Winnipeg

Arrived shortly around 520pm. Place was hopping, great but due to sign placment customers couldn't tell if they should stand in the long line if they were taking out, ordering ice cream, or dining in. It took a while for the group crowding the door to figure out all their places. We waited roughly 15 minutes for a table. They seated us and took our order within about ten minutes, drinks (water and an apple juice) came about 5 min later. The food however... Took until 6:40pm to arrive! When the food orders came mine was the only one not present, when it did come out it was incorrect as I specifically asked for the upcharge curly fries with my chicken fingers. After nearly 10 min of busy waitresses buzzing about I got ones attention to address the wrong order and request water refills. She said that she would talk to my waitress to see about fixing it. Unfortunately no one fixed the order, no one checked in to see how we were doing and I left irritated and quite frankly hungry off my $18.95 meal because I really didn't want shoe string fries. We asked for a box to take home said fries and our kid meal left overs. The head waitress got the box but didn't question our meal, our satisfaction, she was very busy but it was disappointing considering she brought me my missing order of "chicken fingers and curly fries" she knew what she was grabbing but didn't question why the request didn't match the food. 3 different waitresses to tend to our table this evening,no attention to detail, pure chaos. They were scaring people off at the door with lengthy wait times for tables when it was the food that was the astronomical wait. Honestly felt bad for a family of four that came in (two littles in tow). The waitress told them it would be a 45 min wait but then 5 minutes later they cleared the dirty tables and sat 3 families! Probably for the better as they were almost sold out of kid friendly choices for hard ice cream.

sigh. I love the atmosphere this restaurant has, the music, the concept... the food IS good if you get what you ordered and it's actually hot. But if they keep going like this; (some examples of other observations) Running out of cash and short changing customers, running out of product like kid friendly ice cream flavours, serving to go orders by handing the ice cream first and making the older gentleman watch his ice cream melt on the counter while he waits 15min for a go to poutine. It just doesn't make for good business and its sadly not going to last. We've been here 3 times now. First time chaos aside - the Desserts were great but now no more cakes, second time went for lunch (wasn't busy and it was enjoyable), third time tonight and I can honestly say I won't be back for a long while. It was really really disappointing and far to lengthy of a stay.

I hope things get smoother for you...

I have been to Dreamland twice. The first time around I was excited to try the place out because I hadn’t been to a 1950s-esque diner. I don’t know if red booths and some black and white artwork really encapsulates 1950’s diner, but I digress. The atmosphere wasn’t the issue. I ordered the foot-long hotdog and fries with a cream soda. My friend ordered the perogies (which I think have since been removed from the menu upon the second visit). Much like the other reviews here, the service was excruciatingly slow. We didn’t order milkshakes this time around either. Pan frying some frozen perogies and grilling a hotdog and fries should not be taking 30+ minutes. My meal was mediocre at best. I can say I’ve experienced better quality from fast food places in the past. Needless to say, I wasn’t totally unimpressed and figured I’d try it again in the future but it would take a lot to change my negative opinion.

Second time around, it appeared as though the menu was reduced in size. I ordered a burger with some sort of Coca-Cola BBQ sauce (I can’t remember the name). Family ordered a buffalo chicken burger and the other a Fat-Boy burger. Each of us also ordered milkshakes this time. 15-20 minutes after ordering, the waiter returns and retakes our order since I guess it was misplaced. I’d say another 10-15 minutes after that we finally get a milkshake. During that time, we saw total chaos amongst the staff. They seemed so incredibly disorganized, several dishes being returned, other staff members bringing us the order belonging to someone else. We received our meal shortly after (probably about 40 minutes after being seated). It wasn’t very busy. My burger wasn’t anything to rave about but wasn’t a total disaster. The fries were basically inedible. The temperature of our meals were room temperature. It seemed like our meals had been sitting on a window without a heater for several minutes, providing further evidence of poor organization here. An $80 visit for three people for food that was half-inedible… mega pass. Maybe come for ice cream, but do yourselves a favour and stay away from any dining experience here. You have...

We're new to the area, and have been seeing ads for this for the past year. We finally decided to try the food out, so we ordered for pickup.

We didn't have to wait for long, but the staff appeared to very young and nervous. They didn't greet me or smile, I initiated that.

It was odd when I went to go pick up the food especially once stafd told me they could only hand me the food if I had a bag with me. (That in and of itself was weird). I told them I wasn't sure if I had one, but I'd go check. The staff seemed even more nervous at my response. I wrote it off thinking they were just having a day, or were shy. (I wasn't mean in any way. I know what it's like to be young and work in a customer-service job. Some customers can be nasty!)

I was luckily able to find a bag. I came back only to find they bagged my order anyway in a paper bag, and stapled it shut. It was so weird to be told I can only receive my food I had a bag, only for them to provide one anyway. I took my order regardless, and thanked them. I should've checked the recipt, but unfortunately didn't. We were just so hungry.

My husband and I get back home, and not only were the portions small, but we were also missing fries. I checked my DoorDash order (see attached images), and saw I did indeed order fries. I made a complaint via DoorDash, and luckily got a refund.

The food itself honestly wasn't much better. My husband got the honey dill chicken burger, of which he said didn't have much honey dill. I got the chicken fingers. For four chicken fingers at nearly $13, you'd expect them to be big. Instead, they were about 3 inches long each, and they weren't flavourful at all. Even a little bit of salt would've made all the difference. The milkshakes were passable, but not great. It makes me believe the fries wouldn't have saved the meal even if it wasn't forgotten.

We're not coming back, for takeout or dine-in. For nearly $60 (or $55 if you take the DoorDash refund into account), the food wasn't worth it. We were so disappointed. I was especially disappointed as as I was looking forward to it. There's better local restaurants in...