The Original Mels Diner — Restaurant in Antioch

I came to Mel’s Diner on a Friday evening with my wife and two-year-old daughter, hoping for a relaxing meal and a bit of nostalgia. Instead, the experience left us feeling uncomfortable and unsettled.

As we walked in, a homeless individual followed us into the restaurant. He had already approached us outside, asking for money, which was awkward — but what surprised me more was what happened next. He entered the restaurant behind us, asked the staff for a menu, and was eventually seated. Throughout our meal, he came in and out of the restaurant, spoke to other diners, and at one point started asking tables around him for money to pay his bill.

What made this situation worse was that the staff didn’t intervene or set boundaries. In fact, they seemed overly accommodating, which, while well-intentioned, created a disruptive and uncomfortable environment for paying guests — especially families with small children.

I understand the importance of compassion, but there needs to be a balance. I strongly recommend the ownership reevaluate how they handle situations like this. A diner should feel safe, welcoming, and respectful of all patrons — and this experience fell short...

Disappointing. Pricing is equivalent to similar diner-style restaurants; portions are noticeably smaller, food ranges from underwhelming to outright flavorless.

Next time we'll go to the Denny's next door, which promises less & delivers more.

The food: My husband described his burger as "meh", even after receiving the buffalo sauce that was missing, and he described the chili fries as "bland" with the worst chili he's had in a long time.

My so-called omelet consisted of a pile of undercooked onions & peppers & obviously pre-cooked mushrooms sitting on a child-sized plate with a disc of cooked egg plopped on top. Very odd. The accompanying home fries were perfectly cooked, brown & crisp - and almost flavorless. A light sprinkle of salt & granulated garlic would have made a world of difference.

The service: initially good, if apologetic over the errors in preparation, but when our waitress went on break we were deserted. Eventually the bill arrived, but no offers to refill our empty drinks.

I was hoping for a new restaurant to go to in Antioch, but I don't think we're going to...

This location is going down hill! Our server had an attitude to begin with. Not sure why because the restaurant was pretty much empty (we were table #4). She took our drink order and then never came back (another person delivered our drinks). The drinks arrived wrong. We had to flag her down numerous time to come to us but gave us the hand gesture of "wait a minute" because she was busy talking with her friend at the other side of the restaurant😡. Then she finally came over to take our order. After that we asked a different employee to speak to a manager. Well, a guy came out if the back looking like he just woke up. What he was wearing did NOT suggest he was a manager or even an employee. We explained our issues and he apologized for her with the reason that she wasn't feeling good. (Hum🤔 She was laughing with her friend for 10 minutes so I'm confused!) When our food arrived, it was cold. At this point we were done! The manager gave us a discount and said he did that so we will come back. Well - NOPE!!! We will never return to...