Grandma's Diner — Restaurant in Charles Town

This was not an ideal experience, partly our fault, partly not. We were in town for a wedding and chose this spot for breakfast. Two girls were serving us. The menu is tiny and unfortunately inaccurate. We chose scrambled eggs with bacon and a waffle. Except they ‘dont have waffles’, one of the few options on the menu, so a dissappointing start. We also got the french toast. The two servers while fine, were underwhelming. The primary server seemed to be training another girl who no offense, seemed to move in slow motion and when the original server delegated the secondary server tasks, it actually seemed to cause more delays. We blatantly avoided all potato on the menu, right in front of the server/staff, and tho we should have informed the staff my husband has a potato allergy, its not a cross contamination type of allergy so we were not worried about pancakes, french toast, scrambled eggs, bacon, or sausage having potato. But as we went to check out, noticed their rack of potato bread. This is far from the standard for french toast (usually on texas white, brioche, or the like, but not potato bread) and we highly suggest notating it as most places do list what bread is used. I asked the server, who had blatantly no clue what was used in their limited food options.

Overall, price was good, but the servers were lacking and we will now be dealing with an allergic reaction mid-wedding!

Comments: update your menu to take off what you dont sell, since we came for the waffles to begin with, and also protect patrons and staff by notating oddities on the menu. Train staff to speak loudly enough to be heard, and teach them to ask if there are allergies which is standard.

While we are big lovers of small town and family owned places, and have never left a 3star review before, this experience was rough, and hopefully an outlier. We wish this place the best but felt we should share this experience. Our 3 star review is based on the servers and the atmosphere, not the allergy situation- tho that is in important thing that every server should be trained to ask, as well as be able to answer basic...

We went there for lunch today while in Charlestown to do a little shopping. It was our first time and we had gone on the recommendation of a local business owner. It's a great little place with a long lunch counter and tables/booths which is very reminiscent of the diners and greasy spoons I ate at growing up in Charleston, WV. The menu covers the Appalachian region diner staples, with the breakfast menu (served all day!) being varied and plentiful and the lunch and dinner dishes being filling and generally good.

Where Grandma's stands out versus the rest, however, is their Latin offerings. With fresh, in-house made tamales stuffed with shredded meat and topped with their home-made green hot sauce (flavorful up front with a fiery kick on the back end) quesadillas, enchiladas, and lomo saltado (fajita style steak and vegetables over crispy fries), they really do a great job of expanding their offerings beyond the typical.

I really enjoyed my tamales which hit all the right flavor notes, and they could make a fortune bottling that hot sauce. It's not going to blow you away versus a fancy big-city Latin restaurant, but you really can't beat the home-made flavor that you get at Grandma's especially for the price. We'll...

UPDATE: I learned that the owner of this establishment pays their staff a better wage but collects all tips. This explains why waitstaff barely does the job of waiting on my table. If I arrive for breakfast and have to wait 10-15 mins to get a menu but then have to get up and ask for a drink refill, and my check at the counter I have done the job of the wait staff, but they are still getting paid so there is no incentive for the waitstaff to actually do their job! So they sit on their phone and talk to each other instead. This is a TERRIBLE business model. Dropping down to one star and we aren’t coming here anymore.

Great food. Great menu. Appalling service.

We were seated and ignored for almost 15 minutes before we were brought a menu. The whole meal went this way. Second time we experienced this too.

Breakfast waitstaff usually wants to turn tables around to get tips, but not at Grandmas! Instead they talk to each other and are on their phones! We had to get up to ask at the counter for tea/coffee refills and our check. It was like we didn’t have a waitress. All the while she was talking to the other waitstaff and on her phone. Wish I was making it up, but...