Rock & Roll Diner — Restaurant in California

FOOD SAFETY HAZARD!!! We were excited to eat here but unfortunately had to walk out before even seeing our food because the glass of ice water had MOLD in it. I have never drank a sip of water with mold in my life so it was actually kind of scary having the flavor of mold sit in my mouth. We got up immediately after tasting the mold in our waters to let them know we wanted to cancel the order we had just made as we didn't feel comfortable eating there (we tried to cancel the order probably 1 minute after, so the food wasn't being made yet). When we went over to management, we were genuinely worried for the other customers at the establishment and were expecting them to take our information seriously. Instead, they escalated the situation by threatening to call the cops if we did not pay for all of the items we ordered (even though we had not had a single item at our table yet) which was odd considering we were quite calm and not at all angry. We offered to stay if they did call the cops, we had nowhere to be but we were quite shocked at the response by management as this wasn't a customer service thing but a legitimate food safety issue. They eventually told us to just leave as the manager told the waitress he didn't want to call the cops. It was quite awkward watching them get so defensive and start to argue while we just stood there. I will say, their only response to the actual water issue was that they had been running the business for 26 years and when he pointed to where the water and ice comes from, it looked so dirty. I'm worried and wanted to give anyone a heads up as ice machines and water sources in establishments are known to be a main source of mold at lots of places, seems like they weren't aware or didn't care. Overall shocking, the first time and probably only time I've ever had to walk out of somewhere. I TRULY hope they are mindful of proper food handling etiquette after this experience, I am truly hopefully no one gets sick (although after reading the reviews someone...

After driving by this place for years and wondering if it was any good, I decided to give it a try.

The decor is a mashup of old rock & roll and movie ephemera with a typical class-reduction feature --- there are thousands of business cards attached to the ceiling --- and the interior is brightly lit. One of the two cars has booths; the other car has tables with chairs. It appears that the booths are kept as full as possible and the tables are left unoccupied unless needed. Some booths, but not the one I was seated at, have remotes for the jukebox, which seems to be well loaded with 1950s hits and near-hits.

I ordered a french dip sandwich and a Sprite, opting for the extra-cost curly fries. The generously-heaped fries were pretty good, giving a hint of crunch without being rock-hard, and they had a satisfactory flavour. However, the majority of them were small pieces, so I ate most of them with a fork. That did allow easily dipping them in the au jus that had a typical from-a-can taste, but it was much better than the drastically over-salted stuff I've had at some places. The meat was fairly dry but not bad otherwise, and there was almost enough of it to seem about right for the size of the roll, but the whole thing could have easily been 25% to 30% larger without seeming too big. (In other words, it was on the small side.) The soda was of decent size and included a refill.

The service was very good, prompt, friendly, and courteous.

Overall, I give this operation a positive rating, if not an emphatic one.

The big question is "Would I go back?" Well, I probably would, but I wouldn't be likely to feel a very strong pull in...

The atmosphere was cool being on a real train but as soon as you meet the waitress the experience is ruined with her “get in and get out” attitude. I had seen reviews about their health code but we try to give businesses the benefit of the doubt. That said I’m pregnant, which I told her, and had requested the turkey sandwich and if they could just cook the meat on the grill a little bit and she said “maybe, we don’t really serve lunch right now so we’ll see if they can even do that”. Odd and rude response to me, I would have accepted if she just said we don’t serve lunch right now. But I’m not going to risk a food-borne illness for a “maybe”. I said I’d need more time then, she proceeded to take everyone’s orders and came back to me which I still wasn’t ready, I felt rushed so I just ordered the sausage breakfast burrito with home fries.

Orange juice was warm, my potatoes were cold like they’d been sitting in a cold pan on the side. My husbands biscuits and gravy were barely warm, and there was black grime on the outside of my water cup, like burnt grease or something. Hospitality was sorely lacking, just dropping things off and only coming back to grab your plate and give you the check. Again it just felt like they wanted you to order and get out. Definitely won’t be...