Mel's Diner - Bonita Springs — Restaurant in Bonita Springs

July 2023 I want to update my review..the last few times I've eat here which includes yesterday..was such a change from last year.. the meal yesterday which our server Lisa was awesome, delicious,fast service, hot and tasty food and it's definitely worth the time to go online and be on the dine & earn list, this includes perks for birthdays, $10 off every 100 spent and email newsletter monthly with the special's..I think what was the nicest change was out server Lisa, she had a great welcoming personality, fast service, and it's such a change from a year ago with the service, I wanted to do a updated review after my last times dining and taking out.. I'm sure that everything won't and isn't the best but I've discovered my favorites and there always delicious.. being off season is the best and easiest time to enjoy Mel's..( as I did go a couple times in season and it's not the best time, crowded, inpatient & slower service,) but off season is fantastic and highly recommend you checking them out .. thank you for a affordable and delicious meal with great service.* July 2022 The all you can eat fish should be passed..it tasted frozen and was overcooked... The fries were hot and tasty..the turkey with stuffing and mashed potatoes/gravy was like grandma's at Thanksgiving.. great.. but the star was surprisingly to me..the shrimp corn chowder..thick hot and tasted awesome and no there wasn't loads of shrimp.. but the flavor was there and I loved it.. dessert was the mini creme brulee..just enough after dinner to not be to much..the custard was good but the sugar topping was mostly burnt and almost took out a tooth. So if burnt looking ' word of advise chew softly''... the waitress Mrs.Greta was nice but really busy..and we didn't receive the best service... Not for lack of experience I'm certain but because she was overloaded with to many customers to give us the customer service we should of had ... The cocktail sauce was forgotten though requested several times,and when brought out it was a few minutes before being done dining...the requested water was completely forgotten, cocktails came out slowly and had to request several times to even the hostess to get the Bloody Mary( which by the way was delicious) and finally upon requesting more fish ( from the all you can eat fish dinner order) They brought out on a sauser 1 small overcooked piece of fish and put it on my companions plate.. I guess living on the Outer Banks of NC my entire life I'm used to fresh fish or if frozen still taste good. I definitely recommend you not order the all you can eat fish' yes it's affordable but do you want it to taste good as well .this was also had a very fishy taste..not in a good way' perhaps that was why it was overcooked and upon cooling so hard it wasn't edible..but it's ok this is how you discover what's good and not' trial and error' ..the atmosphere though the servers are in a frenzy.. is still a cool & eclectic place to chill relax and if not in a hurry ..you'll enjoy ...they were playing all my favorite 50s tunes.. the restaurant was not to busy but again it was still to busy for our server..but everyone is entitled to have there "off night"... She was still friendly and that goes a long way.. I will say after reading all the 4 & 5 star ratings...I was a bit disappointed..but it does seem more a place for those a bit older and families..I do think that breakfast would be a better time to go and eat.. and I look forward to updating my review after doing that...this restaurant was fun for sure for those with kids.... And the rootbeer floats and shakes going by looked yummy.. prices again are definitely affordable and I think it's just a matter of getting what's made the best and this is why I like to check out the reviews to help me know just that. Look forward to updating after breakfast for I've heard it's the best...

Ok so I have a lot of I guess U can say mixed reviews about this place. 1st I guess I should say moving here in 2015 we nvr went 2 any of the other locations even tho 1 was right by our old house, we heard good things, just nvr interested. So when we moved here 2 BS, we decided 2 give Mel's a try. At the time Stephen was manager, FOOD QUALITY & TASTE WAS AMAZING! But then covid hit & slowly things changed here @ this Mel's 1st we started 2 notice the diner itself changed (of course covid hit, but we were free FL, most restaurants here were doing ok!) Staff was different INCLUDING STEPHAN who @ 1st was really cool, he seemed really stressed, staff began 2 change as well! THEN THE QUALITY OF FOOD CHANGED I asked Stephan he told me they weren't sourcing locally from their FL vendors that they were using cheaper whoever they could afford bcuz they were losing $$. Well this snowballed diner,staff being rude(one gave me staph after telling me she had staph & was working?!) & the food quality started to make me sick(personal story). So we quit coming until Feb. Of 2024 our Pastors came & really wanted 2 come here, & it was a vast improvement. Then we came on Sun I think,& well idk what 2 tell U! Our waitress was HORRIBLE @ 1st we thought she was gonna B nice but NOPE! She brought me out my Ceasar salad, & I'm like somethings wrong. I realize there isn't any parm cheese, normally U get these really big slices on UR salad so I asked her for some & she says "I gave you a handful". I took a pic after having to dig 4 it. Which, leads me 2 Darlene WHO IS AWESOME, who saw me digging 4 SAID HANDFUL OF CHEESE, & she said let me get you some. She brought me out a big ramekin of cheese! My hubby & I both ordered the 17 seasonings NY STRIP steak w/mushrooms I ordered mines med rare, his med 2 med well. Mines was cooked more med. AND THERE WAS NO 17 SEASONINGS MY STEAK WAS BLAND BUT HERE'S THE KICKER, it didn't matter if there were 17 seasonings, they put it on flame that was on so long that all I could taste was the fire flame if this makes sense? I grew up eating USDA GRADE A BEEF I know my meat, this was horrible! I had to use A1, I had to dose the steak in salt & pepper, & the worse of it all!! The mushrooms were seasoned amazingly, GO FIGURE! However something that Darlene did that helped make up for this when we left was she gave me a nice size rami of aujus(if I wanna make sammys)! Oh also Mel's used 2 have a ricin chicken soup, well I went to go eat what I thought was some dark meat NO IT WAS FATTY SKIN! Not cool! So while I didn't get sick from food as the quality has improved, since covid! Idk some things in still up in air about ALTHO DARLENE REALLY MADE WHAT WAS A NOT SO GOOD LUNCH EXPERIENCE N2 A PLEASENT LITTLE BLESSING IN DISGUISE! Oh also forgot to add we had 2 ask 4 our biscuits that when brought out WERE AWEFUL, but then idk like 20 min later Darlene brought out these AHHHHMAZING cooked warm biscuits! U can C in ceaser salad pic that handful of parm...

Unfortunately, we had a very disappointing visit to this location this evening. When we arrived, we informed our server, Shawnie, of our son’s dairy allergy. She checked with the cooks on what would be a dairy free option for my son to eat and we settled on a kids hot dog. I asked to see the ingredients of the bun which did not contain dairy so we confirmed we were a-go for the kids hot dog with a bun. Fast forward 15 minutes, my husband and I’s food comes out and the server informs us that the hot dog was dropped and they were making a new one. No problem! 10 minutes go by and the new hot dog comes out. The bun the hot dog was sitting in is covered in butter. I mentioned it to our server and she went back to the cooks to get a fix for us. I hear her yelling to the cooks that the kid had a dairy allergy and she “only just found out” which was an annoying lie but whatever- I get it’s hard to accept responsibility sometimes and easier to blame the customers with the cooks. Fast forward 5 minutes or so, she came back with a new bun for the butter-saturated hot dog that was sitting on the butter-Saturated bun in front of us… I informed her that the hot dog is unsafe for him too thinking that was common sense) and she stormed away angrily and yelled to the chefs that “now she says the hot dog has butter on it so you need to make a new one.” Really lol? How do any of these people work in the food industry and treat an allergy this way? She then comes back in a tizzy to snap at us that they’re making a new hot dog for him and then abandons our table for the next 15 minutes until the manager brings out a new hot dog (who also didn’t apologize or say anything other than a good ole “here ya go”). We needed refills the entire time and never got them.

As an allergy mom, I completely understand mistakes and have a lot of patience with restaurants (check my other reviews) but to be so ridiculously rude to us and not even apologize for what happened and blame us like we were burdens is unacceptable. We spent $55 on this food and our poor 2 year old had to sit there waiting for his food for over 25 minutes after the first hot dog fell and our food got cold in front of us.

TLDR; DO NOT go here if you have food allergies unless you want to be put at risk, wrongfully blamed, and treated...