Southern Diner — Restaurant in Burien

I hate leaving bad reviews for family businesses, but this was my first time there, and the chef was very nice; however the waitress didn't have the best attitude despite finding a bug and hair in my food.

I ordered the steak and eggs with a biscuit and my partner got egg benedict. Food was good, until I was about to take my first bite of biscuit, and found an ant in there. Pretty gross, but I know things like that happen, so I started breaking the biscuit apart to see if there were more and then I found a piece of hair in there as well. I stopped looking at that point and then told the waitress what happened.

She wasn't very apologetic. They removed my steak and eggs off my bill, but honestly she really didn't seem to care. It felt like she was looking at me like I was trying to get a free meal. THERE WAS AN ANT AND HAIR IN MY BISCUIT! I don't understand how this isn't egregious. She wasn't apologetic at all, and honestly I only left a tip because the cook was so nice, and I know it's family owned business, so margins are thin and I felt bad for the owners that they didn't charge me for my steak. However, I was tempted to leave a $0 tip because of the waitress's poor attitude.

Advice: You're in the service industry. When you mess up, put yourself in your customers shoes. How would you have felt if you found a piece of hair AND an ant in one piece of food. You would probably be wondering what else was in my other food that I didn't notice. How many ants hairs did I just eat? These were the thoughts going through my head.

Thank god I happened to break my biscuit apart the way I did, because if I just sliced it in half and didn't bother to look, I would have never noticed. Saddest part is that biscuit looked really good

Food overall was good, service was poor. The cook was really kind which is why I bumped it to 2 stars.

Maybe the waitress was having a bad day, but she really was rude. Even more than the ant and hair, her poor attitude is the main reason I'm never coming back. I don't think she walked away from this thinking "maybe we should have better quality standards". I doubt anything will change as a result of this experience.

If you do eat here, I would suggest looking through your food first to make sure they're not bugs...

We tried out the new Southern Diner on 1st Ave last night, and it was an amazing experience. The diner occupies half of the building that used to be the Dragon Pearl. The interior is now bright and clean and inviting. The hostess/server, Andrea, was incredibly warm and friendly. Most importantly, the food was the best Southern cooking I have had on the west coast in the past 20 years.

We had fried green tomatoes, a brisket sandwich, catfish with mashed potatoes and fried okra and a thick slice of cornbread. The cornmeal crust on the tomatoes and catfish was perfectly cooked: evenly coated, crunchy and not too salty. The okra was made from fresh, cut thick and perfectly cooked in a light crispy batter. The mashed potatoes were simply the best I've ever been served in any restaurant, anywhere, and the white cream gravy was perfection. The brisket was tender and the sandwich itself was enormous. Even the cornbread was incredible, dense and sweet and practically melting in your mouth.

Southern Diner has only recently opened and has limited hours for now: 5 to 10 pm, Thursday through Monday, closed Tuesday and Wednesday. Although they're only open during dinner hours for now, they serve breakfast as well, and I can't wait to go back and try it!Curiously, when we arrived, the parking lot was almost full. We almost drove away, worried about dining in a crowded space, but decided to hop out and check to see if it felt safe or not. It turns out that the restaurant was empty, we were the first patrons of the evening. I'm so glad we decided to give it a try. Please, Burien, give this place a try...I don't want it...

Excellent in every category!

Food was great and the photos don’t do justice to the portion sizes, they are massive!

The biscuit was bigger than my fist!

And for the first time in a very long time, my eggs were properly cooked to order. I’ve been to places like 13 Coins and other higher end breakfast places that only seem to know how to cook eggs over easy.

I ordered over medium and they were actually OVER MEDIUM.

I honestly don’t care much how my eggs are cooked, but I always order over medium just to see if they’ll come out right and this place did it RIGHT, so that was a breath of fresh air.

Customer service was beyond compare, they frequently checked on me to make sure all was well and always offered to refill my orange juice (which they didn’t charge me for btw!)

The menu doesn’t say free refills, but I got them without asking and that was also amazing.

I was unsure about the pricing at first glance of the menu, but after coming here the prices are MORE than fair!

I had the Chicken Fried Steak with Hash browns and a biscuit. I couldn’t finish most of it due to the portion size.

All in all, excellent experience!

Highly...