Bell City Diner — Restaurant in Bristol

My husband and I have been coming to Bell City Diner since we first met 1 year and a half ago. We I'llalways loved that they were open late and the food is usually pretty good. We both have our favorite waitress, her name is Gina and a couple of other nice waitresses too.

But we both have noticed that the restaurant is getting worse 😕

This past winter, we experienced our first red flag. At the end of the night we both had to use the bathroom, after I finished first, I came out looking for my husband, who was my fiance at that time. Then this waitress came up to me and lied to my face and said that my husband was outside waiting for me. To my surprise, I didn't find him outside because he was still in the bathroom. We were both angry that night, that she lied to me and that she asked me to wait outside at almost 11:00 p.m. and she put my safety at risk, all because she wanted to mop the floor 😞 my husband was also very upset about the first incident as well. My husband complained to the manager that night, who did nothing to help us, and he did not reprimand the waitress, and she later next week was laughing and telling another waitress about us.

Right after that incident, we should have stopped coming there But we gave them another chance. Next couple of months, everything was normal but then recently, a few weeks ago, as I was in the middle of a meal my husband saw a big Roach on the wall. We told the waitress right away, she got her boss and he lied to our face, and told us it was a ladybug 🐞 No, ladybugs are cute, but this was a real black roach 🪳 on the wall. Then the manager took it away in a napkin.

After that, it's all been going downhill which leads us to tonight, which is May 20th, 2025.

First our waiter, kept walking around us and not refilling our drinks. My husband had asked him 3 times to refill his drink. Fourth time my husband couldn't take it anymore and had to scold him like a child.

Later this evening, it got even worse 😔 My husband had to use the bathroom, he left the bathroom around 11:30-11;35. To our dismay and shock, the manager said in a rude condescending way, it's Time to leave! And showed us the way out . That was shameful.

That was very rude especially after how often we have eaten there and we have spent a lot of $$ here too. We will never return especially since there is favoritism here as well 🙄

I clearly remember one waitress telling my husband and I, how sometimes they get a bus load of African American young people who come at 10;30 and leave around midnight or even later with no issues or complaints all because they tip good.

My husband and I always tip well. Even tonight we tipped the waiter decently even with his lack of refills. We believe in giving people grace 🙏

What we hated the most is how rude the manager was when we were leaving. That was very unprofessional and we will never be back. We will tell all our friends about our negative...

We visited Bell City Diner this past Sunday for the first time. We anticipated a wait because I called on the way there and the hostess was very friendly.When we arrived they said the wait would be 45 mins -1 hour. The hostess was super friendly everyone in the restaurant was laughing and having a great time. We waited 70 minutes( we didn’t mind at all) and we watched happy people come in and out. We even saw a couple WALK to the restaurant about 10 minutes after us and then wait outside for an hour in the cold to eat here, that was a huge indication it was going to be good. The exterior is welcoming and well lit with blue lights and a fountain. The milkshake sign in the vestibule is epic. When we finally got seated the menu sounded amazing and it was hard to decide. My husband got the chicken Alfredo and I got chicken Marsala. OMG first off the presentation was beautiful. Everything was fresh and made in house from the Italian salad dressing and bread to the mashed potatoes which were PIPED, not scooped onto the plate. There were huge fresh mushrooms and the sauce on mine was perfect! My husbands was also just right, the Alfredo sauce was the perfect consistency and the chicken was grilled to perfection. If I owned a restaurant I’d be trying to poach all their staff. Every single waiter and waitress was pleasant and helped each other out. We had the Buffalo chicken baked potato for an appetizer.. yummy! The potato was cooked perfectly and didn’t even require butter. A lot of times they over cook them and their crumbly dry messes.... not Bell City, nope theirs was moist and flavorful and tender. We got the special shake for dessert, the nutty buddy, which is a chocolate peanut butter cup shake topped with 4 nutty buddy sticks, a chocolate peanut butter petite treat with a brownie, whipped cream and cherry on top. There’s also fluff around the outside of the glass and mini peanut butter and chocolate chips are stuck to it and the same chips and a caramel sauce garnish the plate. It was all so so so good. We have never had a better meal out. Everything start to finish was delicious. We have absolutely no complaints. Even the bathroom was clean and well designed. There was hand sanitizer on every table. The music playing was a great mix of old and new and very enjoyable. I would wait 3 hours to eat here again. I cannot say enough about it. I’ve never gone to a restaurant and there not have been some sort of issue or something that could have been done better... until now. They hit the mark so go...

Worst experience of my life, if I could give 0 stars I would. I will never come back here, have tried to give it three chances now and each time is worse than the last. This latest experience, the front was busy and we waited more than 20 minutes for a buzzer, which we only received after I said something. Three other groups had walked in after us, and until the third group nobody was acknowledged. At which point, I stated everyone else standing here had been waiting to be acknowledged and they said they thought we all already had buzzers. I have bright green hair, I’m pretty hard to mistake for someone else. We waited, the girl at the front seemed new, and we tried to brush it off. Finally, we got seated. The table and booth had not been wiped off, we wiped crumbs off our seat before sitting down. There were flies all over the place. We got a bar drink, a soda, and put in our food order. We were waiting almost an hour, and never saw any food. Once, our waitress told us they were plating our food and that it’d be right out. Ten minutes later? No food. We watched multiple tables around us fill up and then leave, and we still did not get our orders. The entire time, we got attitude from all of the staff members. They had been standing around our table, giving us dirty looks, and when we would say something to each other (for example about the food taking so long), that’s when someone would come up to us. We knew they had been listening to us. We were sat in front of a mirrored mosaic and could literally see them without turning our heads. Finally, fed up after being at this restaurant for an hour and a half - mind you we ordered French toast and pancakes - we went to the front and asked to speak to a manager as we were no longer interested in waiting on this food, and wanted to pay for our drinks and leave. We got more attitude at the front, from multiple servers, the manager then comped our drinks (around $15), and we left. We kept being told that they were quite busy as their excuse for the service and attitude- meanwhile many tables sat empty. The ONLY reason this place is still in business is because they got internet famous over some milkshakes. Don’t waste your time and money, there are way better spots...