Washington Street Diner — Restaurant in Athens

I visited for a meal about a week ago while in the area. This is a small, older diner located on the edges of downtown Athens. It's easy walking distance from the square and I enjoyed wandering a bit on my way over. Parking is street parking but I didn't find it too challenging, at least on a week day.

The inside is showing its age but was clean enough. The restaurant is a little narrow and cramped though. One of the waitresses spoke to me loudly from where she was seated at a table near the back of the restaurant and told me to sit where I liked. She brought me a menu shortly after.

The menu is somewhat limited, with basic breakfasts and lunches, to include omelets, biscuits, hamburgers, club sandwiches, etc. I like a simple menu done well.

It was a little early for lunch, so I wound up ordering two scrambled eggs, which comes with biscuits and gravy or toast with grits. Any other side is basically a la carte, which isn't necessarily my preference but ultimately the pricing comes out to about the same as if you'd had a more extensive meal combination, so I suppose it works out nicely for those who want smaller, simpler breakfasts. I don't care for biscuits and gravy so I ordered toast and grits, then added on bacon and an order of hash browns. Sweet tea to drink. My meal was ~$15 when all was said and done, which I think is acceptable.

The inside of the diner is kind of echo-y. Three other patrons were inside, all seated at different tables but all conversing with each other rather loudly (and seemingly not eating anything??) the entire time I was there. This isn't WSD's fault and I don't hold it against them, just want to make others aware of the atmosphere in case they're looking for an extra quiet location to eat.

Service was adequate; not super friendly and more reactive than proactive (eg, no one ever came to check if I liked my food okay or if I needed a refill; pretty much the only time I got any attention once my food was dropped off was when I stood up to walk to the register). But they weren't rude or anything and my food came out in a timely manner. I didn't need anything special so it worked out.

My food was okay. The toast was cooked well but wound up a little soggy somehow. I don't like grits much but I gave these a try; they weren't bad as far as grits go. The bacon was cooked fairly well. The hash browns were my favorite part and were actually quite crispy, which is how I like them. The eggs were the weak point and were fairly unevenly cooked, with some bits being thin and crispy and others so runny even I was a little skeptical (and I like my scrambled eggs on the softer side). The sweet tea was also a little watery. I'd give the food a 3.5/5 overall.

Decent place for a...

Absolutely abysmal. The staff was unfriendly, to the extent that we felt as though we were putting them out by spending our money there. Arrived at 1:15 (door and Google said they closed at 2). Disappointed that this "diner" didn't have soup on their limited menu, but after a quick glance at the menu ordered a simple cheeseburger and fried bologna & cheese sandwich. My GF asked if they could do grilled onions on her burger, and got a grunted "we could do that". The server then asked whether we'd like chips or hash browns with our sandwiches and we opted for chips. I added an iced tea. The food was dropped off (still not a smile or welcoming word spoken). The smallish burger was slightly larger than a McDonald's single burger and the bologna sandwich featured a single 1/8" slice of bologna and a single slice of Kraft American cheese. The burger was reportedly fine and my sandwich was something my 4 year old granddaughter could've prepared. It was explained that the chips were additional (we didn't ask for them, they were casually offered). Never implied that they were an add-on. The unhappy server spent the entire time which we were there (20 minutes total) with her jackets on and bag on the table, staring at us to finish this subpar, overpriced, lunch. I am not one to slam a small business (see my 200+ Yelp reviews). My recommendation would be to chose ANYWHERE ELSE to support in Athens. The attitude was poor, the food below average in quality and low on the value scale. Really a bad experience overall. These ungrateful folks don't deserve your...

This is a charming little diner in downtown Athens. They only serve breakfast, so make sure you're there by 11AM. My husband and I both ordered fried eggs over medium with bacon, biscuits and gravy, I got hash browns and he got French toast. Fried eggs over medium seem to be a difficult concept for most cooks, they either overcook the yolks or undercook the whites. This place got them absolutely perfect! The hash browns don't just have the typical oily flavor to them, they are cooked with butter. The biscuits and gravy were delicious. This will definitely be a restaurant that we are adding to our list of favorite...