Van Dorn Diner — Restaurant in Alexandria

Let me contrast my experience between the Van Dorn diner and the next restaurant that I went to after I left without eating at Van Dorn. I'm very thankful I left The Van Dorn diner because I had an awesome experience at the next restaurant I visited. At the next restaurant, I went in and spoke to the host who welcomed me with eye contact and walked me out to the patio and seated me. At the diner I walked up to the hostess who did not look up from counting money behind the desk and said to go ahead and seat my self anywhere. At the second restaurant, the waiter came by right away and gave me eye contact and smiled and welcomed me to the restaurant. At the Van Dorn diner a waitress came up to me and did not give me eye contact, placed my silverware down on the table and after I said hello she looked at me and responded with a quick greeting and left. At the next restaurant I was advised that their brunch was over but that they had a limited brunch offering which was entirely explained to me and I was asked what drink I would like. At the Van dorn diner I asked for a replacement item of soup with my meal and was told I could do so. The waitress then came back and said the only soups that were available out of four on the menu were two. I chose one other soup which she brought out to me. It was cold. It was supposed to be hot. At the other restaurant I went to, everything came out quickly, tasted excellent and the waiter even provided me without any prompting a little dessert and drink to go with it. At the Van dorn diner when I tried to get the attention of four people by waving to let them to let someone know about the soup they all looked at me (one was my waitress) without moving. Another waitress who saw me hailing came up instead. She was very polite, and accommodating, but by this point after getting cold soup, not the soup that I would like and being ignored by everyone else (in a near empty restaurant)I was not going to stay. I spoke to the manager to provide feedback and he was not responsive or apologetic at all. He actually responded that I was overreacting. Considering the circumstances everyone is under with covid, and that going out to restaurants is a choice customers make very deliberately, I think customer service should be on the forefront of a restaurant manager's mind. Ufortunately, customer service does not exist at the Van dorn diner. Normally I do not provide feedback but I feel other customers need to know what to...

Menu items listed are mediocre to deceptive at best. This is a clean little diner with so much more potential. Unfortunately, the basic comfort food on the menu is terrible. I have tried many different items on their menu over several months now. The basic food that you would expect from a diner like meatloaf and a tuna melt are disappointingly disgusting. The meatloaf “to go” consisted of generous slabs of mystery meat that could double as door stops and were so full of fillers and bread crumbs that it tasted more like compacted sawdust and nothing like ground beef or mom’s meatloaf. The accompanying mashed potatoes were below average in taste and the mixed vegetables were just as disappointing. Their burgers are pretty bad and fries are often soggy. The gyro was okay. The breakfast burrito is pretty good but there’s no way to see what is in it or to mod the order when trying to put an order online. The tuna melt is just a plain $15 lie (see picture). A scoop of tuna salad and LETTUCE between two slices of bread. A $15 tuna fish sandwich!! How is that a tuna melt?! The service from the front staff is hit or miss with attentiveness and friendliness. The dining room is clean and nicely decorated, but the diner experience ends their. The cooks just dont care about the food that they put out and they obviously dont understand the American history behind diners or how to follow simple basic American recipes. It’s obvious they’ve never seen or tasted authentic diner food nor do they care to. I’ve never seen the place even halfway full and it’s sad because the location alone has...

Note: I lived in NJ for a while and my experience wit diners there always exceeded my expectations. So I tend to have higher expectations from places who put "diner" in their name.

Overall: This diner is typical. It has its own cutesy and open feel to it. The food is also typical in a sense that it is neither good or bad. Read on....

Food Quality Van Dorn Diner offers the same fare as typical diners do. We ordered chicken tenders, burgers and omelet. As far as the food taste go, its neither horrible or spectacular. Its nothing to gush or rave about nor does it have anything bad to say about it either. Their mashed potatoes is heavily garnished which did make me wonder if they could make a simple mashed potatoes. Their gravy is the only thing that stood out in excellence.

Service This is when it got a little tricky which made the 3 starts instead of higher. We went in on a school snow day and though the place was not particularly hopping, it wasnt quiet either. Busy enough but only had 2 servers. Not quite sure if they were simply understaffed but either way, it was slow and hard to ask for simple things like ketchup and water.

The place itself is very nice and the ambience lends itself to a cute diner. The facilities have an open and welcoming feeling to it. Although they really should improve the...