Huddle House — Restaurant in Chesapeake

My partner and I was in the area on Father’s Day, Since I’ve never had Huddle House and it was so close, thought it would be a good time to stop by.

Probably the biggest mistake ever :(

Not because it was Father’s Day and it was busy, but because the kitchen nor the wait staff could get it together.

Came in around 10:30am and it wasn’t until 12:30pm when we finally got our food.

The staff decided that it was more important to take care of to-go orders and doordash orders vs the people who came to dine in. Especially for Father’s Day

At 10:30 upon our arrival we waited about 15 minutes to be seated. Which their line cook David (who should be the manager) came off the line to wipe our table and get us seated.

Around 10:45 am we were seated and our waitress, Casey, was kind enough to get our drinks and our starter. We took another 10-15 minutes to look over the menu and make a decision on what would like to order.

Around 11:00am after we placed our orders, we waited, waited, waited, and waited some more.

During that time we noticed that at least 5-8 people came in to pick their to go/ door dash orders up. While my partner and I, a man and his granddaughter, a single woman, and a party of 6 all waited for over an hour to receive our food. As someone who has served before, I can understand if there was many to-go orders and a packed restaurant. But that was NOT the case at all. Other than the groups mentioned prior, there was no one else in the restaurant waiting for their food. The staff was actually telling everyone who was walking in that it was a wait time of 45 minutes to an hour. All because they simply decided to prioritize to go orders before their dine in customers.

The man who was there with his granddaughter made a complaint to one of the servers and that’s when David (the line chef, who’s only been there for a week) came over to hear our concerns. Once we stated that we all had been waiting for over 45 minutes at that point. He did mention a few things: This particular location does not have manager at this point (which it’s very clear to see, because everyone was running around not knowing what was going on)

He also mentioned that he wasn’t aware that he had dine in customers that wasn’t served yet. As they were drowning in to go orders.

When he went back to the kitchen, the wait staff was scrambling trying to find our tickets. Which was then placed on the line to be cooked. Even that took over 15-20 minutes to receive.

The guy and his granddaughter ended up leaving.

The single woman across from us, had a simple breakfast of 2 sausage Patties, eggs, toast, seasonal fruit, and maybe grits.

We had the same thing, plus waffles and pancakes. All of which should have NEVER took more than 20 minutes to make.

Then to make matters worse, once we received the food, it was TERRIBLE.

The strawberry and whipped cream pancakes was on point. But everything else ………… 😡 You would think after waiting all this time, they would make sure the food would come out perfect and correct.

The eggs…COLD The bacon….BURNT AND THIN The grits….WATERY AND UNDERCOOKED The seasonal fruit…..DIDNT COME OUT WITH OUR MEAL My partner received waffles instead of pancakes.

This was a horrible first time experience at Huddle House. Which honestly I could have went to Waffle House, ate my food, and be out the door in half of that time, even on a holiday.

Oh not to mention when I first got there I had to use the restroom. One stall is out of service and the one that’s working had feces all over the toilet. I let the female severer know and she advised, she would take care of it. More than 30 minutes go by and it wasn’t take care of. Which my partner ended up finding some cleaning supplies and gloves under the cabinets to do it herself.

This specific location in Chesapeake is in need of manager, IMMEDIATELY ‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️ A lot of these issues could have and should have been avoided. I won’t rule out Huddle House all together, but this location on Kempsville in Chesapeake, VA will NEVER see...

Updated Review (12/23/2022) I have had two recent visits here and they were my first ones since before the lockdown.

My first return visit was in mid-October and early on a Monday morning, around 7:45am. The dining room was very clean and I was able to take a seat right away. I also had service immediately and ordered coffee and a Southwest Breakfast bowl with a biscuit on the side. About 10 minutes later breakfast arrived and it was incredible and looked as good as it tasted. I had an excellent visit. An easy 4 out of 5 stars in mid-October.

My second visit was on a Saturday a couple of weeks ago. This visit was later in the morning than previously, like 10am'ish. Night and day difference from my mid-October visit. Half of the dining room was closed. The open half was a wreck. There were about 3 booths occupied and I took a table near the entrance. Empty tables and booths had not been cleared or cleaned. Two servers were working the floor, mine and one in the back who sat talking with a customer most of the visit.

I asked to have my table wiped and ordered coffee before grabbing a menu. On this visit, I ordered a homestyle breakfast bowl with sourdough toast on the side. While I waited something was going on with a customer not happy with her bill (also my server) and she asked for a manager. My server walked towards the kitchen and started shouting for the manager. Then she was in the kitchen shouting the manager's name again. I have a feeling my server and the manager were related. She was calling her “Auntie”. The manager eventually came out and the customer seemed to have a legit complaint. Their conversation was mostly loud enough to hear and IMOP “Auntie” could have solved this right away. She didn't. She diverted and made excuses, and it just didn't look good. In fact, it looked really unprofessional. It didn't seem like too big a deal, to begin with as the customer was just asking for her bill to be adjusted but the manager was escalating and acting as if it was a personal attack. I’m pretty sure they lost a customer that day.

Back to my meal, my food arrived. The order was partially wrong. I received a side of home fries instead of toast. I pointed out that potatoes were already in the meal and that I ordered sourdough toast on the side. I was told sourdough toast was extra. She didn't even acknowledge her mistake, and I then reiterated I had ordered toast, to begin with. So she says the kitchen made a mistake. To which I responded "I'm not placing blame. Can I just get some toast? Thank you." About 5 minutes later she brought some toast.

My meal was okay I guess. Kind of bland and overly wet which I guess was from the sausage gravy. It didn't have the kick that breakfast from my previous visit had. I finished, waved down my server, and eventually, she brought a card reader to my table so I could pay..

I don't know if the place has high staff turnover or what but it's just wild to me that a restaurant can go from good to bad so fast. It will be a while before I visit again.

Original Review (10/1/2016) Huddle House is a newish diner-style restaurant located on Kempsville Rd in Chesapeake.

Recently I've had a couple of really solid "Breakfast for Lunch" meals here. The dining area is actually quite large and there's plenty of seating whether you're by yourself or with a group of friends or co-workers.

On my first visit, I had their Garden Omelet for lunch. It was stuffed with green peppers, tomatoes, onions, and mushrooms and came with a side of hash browns and toast. This was an excellent no frills quick meal.

I went for a breakfast platter again on my second visit and this time I had everything including the kitchen sink. The dish was called the Southern Smothered Biscuit Platter. This started off with an open biscuit covered with several strips of bacon, then hash browns followed by a sausage gravy and cheese. Then add 2 eggs (to order) and crushed bacon bits. I got two words for ya. Food Coma! What a delicious...

Came here to treat the hubby for Father's Day today(his choice), and have walked away with a bad taste in my mouth from the service. We didnt mind the 30 minute wait to be seated because it was busy. What we did mind was that it took an hour for our food to come out. A couple tables with more people at them that came after we did all got their food before us. It was my husband, my child and my toddler. The other tables had at least 5 people at them who came after us and ordered after we already had drinks. To top that, the food was lukewarm as if it had been sitting somewhere waiting to be served. Who wants lukewarm waffles and pancakes. I had to ask for hot syrup to try to compensate for the barely warm food. We were starving by the time it came, so we ate it. The waitress was nice and apologetic. She explained that two tables with about 9 people had orders that went in the same as ours and thats what took so long. She tried to make up for what happened with good service, but its hard to overcome food that is not hot when youve been waiting an hour for it. I dont know why my husband likes huddlehouse at this point. Kudos to the waitress for being kind, but other than that, I dont have anything nice to say. I do wonder if the reason we were put on the back burner was because we are Black because everyone else who came after us but received prompter service definitely werent of a similar hue. Huddlehouse has got do better than this. I don't care if you took the order of 38 people at the same time as my family of 3, we dont deserve cold food. The funny part is the waitress asked me to check the plate to see if my daughter's food was too hot...