24 Diner — Restaurant in Austin

West of the soul crushing I-35 and just across from the Whole Foods no one wanted, lies Austin’s least kept secret: 24 Diner. As big believers in the idea that it’s hard to mess up diner food, we were glad that 24 Diner was a step above what the average diner should be.

The good: the food was pretty hit or miss, but it hit large when good and missed small when bad. The standout of the review was a French toast with citrus creme that just pulled all the flavors together into a fun and delicious breakfast dish. The biscuit on the side was flaky and buttery as well. The breakfast platter was solid (not a huge fan of cubed breakfast potato instead of traditional hash browns). The bacon lies on the softer side but isn’t necessarily soggy. Lastly, the side of mac and cheese we ordered with the fried chicken sandwich (we’ll get to that later) was absolutely phenomenal. The perfect amount of cheesy and crust from bread crumbs, just flat out delicious.

The bad: when we say the food misses small we mean it. The chicken sandwich is extremely similar in taste to a Popeyes spicy chicken sandwich. While we do like the Popeyes chicken sandwich, it just feels unfortunate to eat something that aesthetically looks like an amazing sandwich but tastes like something I could get in a drive thru for half the price. The only other non good thing to be said about the food was that the sausage in the breakfast platter was a tad too salty, but to be fair to them that can come about from so many different things that we don’t necessarily hold it against them.

Additionally, the service was rocky. We called ahead to ask about the wait time for a party of 4 and were informed that it would be at least 30 minutes. We showed up 3 minutes later and were immediately seated. Call it a mistake or our inflated, aristocratic Yelper egos but we didn’t appreciate that at all; to us it felt like they didn’t want any extra people to come in. Also equally plausible that it was just misreading the occupancy, but I digress. When we were seated they rushed to get our table ready and forgot to include silverware, something they never noticed until we asked them to bring us some after our food had arrived. We understand that the workers are more than likely UT students trying to make a buck while being at school and we respect and don’t necessarily blame them, we are just sharing how our experience was. It is also important to note that our food came out quickly and the waiter and others were friendly.

The verdict: 24 Diner is a great diner that could use a bit of polishing on the service, but more than makes up for it with great food and a fun atmosphere. If you’re ever around North Lamar be...

During a recent weekend trip to Austin, my family of six decided to stop at this diner for breakfast on our way back to Houston, based on its positive reviews. Upon arriving, my son placed us on the waiting list and was told there would be a 20-minute wait. After about 15 minutes, we returned to check on our table, only to find that we were not on the waitlist. Fortunately, the hostess promptly seated us.

Once seated, it took approximately 10 - 15 minutes before our waitress came by to bring waters and take our orders. She did not introduce herself, appeared unwelcoming, and seemed slightly irritated when we asked questions about the menu. I was particularly surprised when, upon asking if they served grits, she responded that while they did, she wouldn’t recommend them because they were “too thick and dry.” When I asked what other sides were available, she placed the menu back in front of me and pointed to the options without offering further explanation.

We ordered two large Chicken & Waffles, two Waffle Breakfasts, regular French Toast, and a Chopped Salad with ranch dressing. When the food arrived, the waffles were slightly soggy, likely due to the butter melting on them before being served, the eggs were not cooked as requested, and the ranch dressing was overly salty, making the salad unappetizing. Despite these issues, we chose not to voice our concerns and simply ate our meal before requesting the check.

Upon receiving the bill, we noticed a 20% automatic gratuity had been added, totaling $30. While I was initially fine with this, assuming it was standard policy, I later checked their website and found that automatic gratuity is only applied to parties of 8 or more. When I raised this with our server, she did not apologize but instead insisted that 20% was the industry standard. After some back and forth, she spoke with the manager, who eventually came over. The manager apologized for the confusion, citing outdated menus, but the menus in the restaurant stated the same policy as the website. He did remove the gratuity from our bill, but the overall experience was disappointing.

Given the service issues, food quality, and the mishandling of the bill, I left feeling dissatisfied and will not be returning to this...

My experience was very disappointing. I took my husband and mom to this diner, and we quickly realized why this place has lots of 1star reviews. We went Saturday evening, and my husband asked politely to the man who was seating us if we could be seated outside. He quickly shot down his request stating “no servers are serving outside at the moment”. Okay that’s fine I understand, however not even 10 minutes later and after we order our food. Another party enters and asked to sit outside and they were allowed to sit outside. I was taken back because we were told there were no servers to SERVE outside. Once our server comes back I asked her, “why couldn’t we sit outside?” And she looked confused and asked “did you wants to sit outside? I would’ve sat yall outside if I would’ve known”…. And she asked who denied me and I pointed at him and it was the MANAGER. I was very unhappy by this time and asked for to go boxes and the check. Once the manager saw us upset and leaving abruptly he asks, “how was everything” and I bring up how I found it very unprofessional that he allowed them to sit outside, but denied when my husband asked him. He stated “they said they were cold”… however he stated NO SERVERS are serving out there. I told him my server said she wouldn’t have minded at all serving us outside, and all he did was argue roll his eyes and walked off. Truly the WORST manager I’ve ever encountered, honestly if he would’ve come up to us as a courtesy and explain why they got to go outside I would’ve been less upset. However all he did was have an ugly unapologetic attitude. If this is the type of person y'all want running your restaurant, you will loose lots of business. We definitely won’t be coming back because of the bad management. Whoever the server and chef were amazing! All that being said that doesn't mean much if the manager is very rude. Sorry for the long review, I have never felt compelled to do a bad review until I went here. The manager treated us less then. If they would’ve had a corporate number trust me, I would’ve called personally then to have wrote this. But they don’t have a corporate number, so this had to be done...