Highway 30 DIner — Restaurant in Cedar Rapids

Came in this morning for breakfast with my wife and ordered 2 meals on the menu. We waited and waited for our food, but nothing arrived. We tried to ask about our food as tables that were seated quite a bit after us had their meals. The waitress didn't even stop, just said "they come out in the order they go in" and walked by. So we waited longer. About an hour after we placed our order a different staff member stopped by to tell us that they didn't have an order for us. This was frustrating. We asked what was going on, we even asked about our meals a WHILE ago. We received an attitude and an unapologetic "Mistakes happen" with a shrug. We had an appointment that we could not be late for and I was telling her that I was not sure we had enough time to wait for food and she walked away as I was talking to her.

My wife tells her that we have been waiting and that there is no need for an attitude, and we get the "I'm not having an attitude" attitude from across the restaurant. We told them to cancel our order entirely. As we were leaving, we could hear the waitresses gossiping about us from the register to the front door, so every table in the restaurant could hear. We called them out on it and were told to leave.

We are usually pretty reasonable guests, but this situation was handled poorly. I am not sure where things broke down, but finding that they did not have our order should not have taken nearly an hour, especially after we asked about it.

Customer service is key in a restaurant and this entire issue could have been resolved with an ounce of empathy, and an apology.

Highway 30 Diner has been iffy on our list for a while due to takeout order issues (incorrect) and Grubhub order issues (not their fault), but we do like their food. This was our first time dining in. I love their chicken fried steak, and their omelets are decent as well.

With this experience, we will not be back. The rudeness and attitude that we received were not far after their failures. I don't know if it was the stress of the Sunday rush, but this was unacceptable.

If you want a great Breakfast/Lunch, go to Oscars. The food is better, and the staff...

Today I breakfasted at the Hwy 30 diner, and made a new friend! I love diner food, and I especially love a diner breakfast, but on this occasion the cuisine took a backseat to the incredibly friendly waitstaff. One gets used to the cheerful staff in a small, local diner, but the welcome I received, and the level of chummy familiarity I instantly felt with the staff, surprised me. There were three people working in the dining room, and all three came over and asked how I liked the food, not just my server. Not only did they make the usual inquiries about food and drink, but were genuinely friendly, entering into conversation once they sensed my willingness to chat. All three of them, individually and in pairs, talked with me like neighbors, like friends. I had a particularly interesting conversation with Barb, who seemed to me to be an experienced member of the service industry, yet she informed me that she was essentially brand new to the job, this having been her first go at the waitstaff gig. Having worked in an office environment for 25 years, she was now loving the diner life, enjoying the opportunity to meet and talk with new people everyday. How wonderful is that? The experience provided me with a lot of energy, really jump started my day with positivity. And then there was the food, which was delicious. The menu is what I would describe as Diner Essential, build-your-own shipwreck, omlette, and croissant sandwich, pancakes and waffles, and the classic hash, biscuits & gravy, and steak & eggs. I chose, as I often do, a shipwreck. Mine had skillet potatoes (named highway fries), sausage, onions, jalapenos, and cheese with the eggs scrambled. Although I have had this combination many, many times, this time it struck me as absolutely scrumptious. Every bite was cheesy and savory, possessing the kind of flavor and mouth-feel that made me want to take another. The food was great, making a new friend? Better. They have been at their new location, 1519 6th St SW, for a month and a half. Check them out for breakfast, lunch or dinner, and tell them Ricki sent...

I was really hoping they were just having an off, suddenly overwhelmed morning, but heard from someone else that visited in the evening on a different day, that the experience was the same. First of all, getting 19 tickets behind is a little crazy to me, but I don't know what the situation in the kitchen was. We soon learned that the 15 minute wait turned into over an hour, but we had already taken seats at the bar. Our order was taken fairly soon, but during the next hour we weren't given any updates or offered apologies to the delay. The food ended up being okay, hash browns lacked a lot of the brown I was hoping for, but it was made up for on my toast, which was overdone. Unlike a few of the other servers that were working their butt's off, ours lacked the attentiveness, personality, and overall likeability that makes a patron give good tips. There were several servers(workers) that stood and didn't do much, while the other ones couldn't seem to keep up with the situation. That is until the guy I'm assuming is the owner, or manager, showed up to help in the kitchen. Our server didn't check on how our food was until we were almost done, and didn't check on us much at all, even though she spent most of her time standing 5 feet away. Word of advice, don't rely on your looks for good tips, but I really hope you're not that kind of person. Advice for the kitchen, which I feel sorry for you for the rush of orders, don't sacrifice quality just to get the food out quicker. I would gladly wait for well prepared, tasty food then get less than what I'm sure you're capable of. I would be willing to visit again, since I'm hoping it just wasn't a good day for them. Until this first visit, I had heard...