Penny's Diner — Restaurant in Belen

It pains me to give this place a 2 star review. The worker there was definitely working hard but there could definitely be better food handling practices and just overall improvement.

We went in at about 11pm and to our surprise there was only one gal working completely alone. She got a little busy and the one thing I kept noticing was she kept taking orders instead of slowing down to make sure the food was prepared to a quality standard. There was a burger on the grill when we walked in and it stayed on the same side, burning for over 8 minutes. The worker put some cheese on it and let it sit some more on the grill—I can imagine whoever got that burger noticed it was burnt.

I would prefer waiting a little longer so food can be prepared better.

I also noticed the worker rang someone up and handled cash, didn’t wash her hands after and threw on some gloves to assemble another burger. Her first priority should have been to wash her hands before anything else after handling money, then handling food again.

I ordered pancakes and bacon and although I asked for my bacon a little crispy—I ended up getting burnt bacon. I was grossed out because the worker cracked an egg and went over to the top of the grill to pour it onto an order for a breakfast burrito and got raw egg on my “cooked” bacon. I was also thrown off by the fact that the same spatula was used to make eggs, cook green chili, flip burgers and flip my pancakes.

When a rush of people come in, my advice to this place would be to slow down. Acknowledge guests but get orders out instead of immediately taking their order.

I feel bad because this worker was handling everything alone…management needs to consider having 2 people at minimum working on orders together. It was very chaotic watching the employee scramble around to get...

The food is consistent and good however, the service left much to be desired on my last visit. I called to place my order and there was no answer so I waited and tried again... again no answer. Knowing that they are open and certain times can be quite busy I stopped by and found they had 5 employees staffed and 4 of them were basically just standing around while one lady made all the food. My order was simple, two grilled cheese sandwiches with tots making it the 5th ticket in line and I was informed it would be 15 minutes. Another gentleman showed up and asked for a single item and was told it would be a half an hour!!! So only a few minutes later the cook puts my sandwiches in boxes and smiles at me and places them for one of the others to bag and send me on my way but by this time one employee left and the other two were just chatting and oblivious to what was going on and had zero interest in tryingto help. The cook said my order was up so I just asked for the boxes with no bag so I could get my food home to my wife and child. As a chef I understand what it is to be busy and that making food that is good and doesn't seem rushed can take time but on this same evening with a crew of the same amount of people we sent out around 60+ entrées and pizzas and did a catering for 40 people and not one order took over 20 minutes. This diner is owned by a hotel franchise, they have the money to hire food help so I find this to be inexcusable! Truth be told, I will return as they are often the only game in town most times and after a day of cooking sometimes it's nice to not have to cook again when I get home but I sure hope upper management takes notice and gets...

Looked like a cool place. We walked in and sat at a booth, and were given menus. Ordered two Pepsis…it took 20 minutes for our order to be taken. About 15 minutes after that, our Pepsis arrived. The waitress apologized…she was trying to handle all of the customers, the phone, the cooking-everything. Looking behind the counter…food all over the floor, soiled cutting boards-I could hear Jon Taffer just screaming if he came in. One waitress that worked there spent almost 30 minutes in the bathroom. She was of no help…she was complaining out loud about getting in trouble at work. She paid far more attention to her facial piercings. We saw a third employee walk out from the back multiple times. He never helped a customer or did much of anything. He filled his own Dr. Pepper twice and returned to the back. At one point, our waitress called in back to him to ask him to bring out some more bacon. He did…and the only way that guy could move slower is if time froze. This could be a cool, profitable and well-paying establishment. Obviously not run well at all. One girl trying to work, the other two just ripping the place off. If it were managed, clean, and they engaged a customer and took care of them, they would have a monopoly going. Really sad to see…worst business of any kind I have encountered in decades. Hoping we don’t get sick from the food-we should have left when we saw the floor and how soiled the counters, Walls, ceiling, and cutting...