Waffle House — Restaurant in Chesapeake

My husband and I visited the Waffle House this morning for the first time. Although I know the chain has been around for a long time, I'm not sure I've ever been to one. We arrived around 9am on a Sunday morning and the wait wasn't too long. As a party of two we did end up sitting at the counter instead of a booth, so we jumped ahead of a few other parties.

Now since I've never been there before, I don't know all the ins and outs of the place and thought it might be helpful to share a few things that were handled differently than I'm accustomed to, (for those of you who are new to this restaurant too).

First, a staff member greeted us at the door, which is GREAT! However, even though there was a wait, no one took our name for seating. Basically, there are about 8 chairs lined up against the window (facing the counter and the busy kitchen) and as guests come in, they wait there for the next table. This was fine and the waiting guests seemed to manage themselves. I'm not sure what they do if there are more than 8 or 10 people waiting, but for our situation it worked ok.

The restaurant is relatively small. I think I counted 7 booths and maybe 10 or 12 seats at a counter, which were mostly full while we were there.

After we found our seats at the counter, our server greeted us quickly and brought coffee and water, as requested. We asked for more time to look at the menu.

NOTE: We learned later that there are actually TWO DIFFERENT MENUS. Later when we saw a different menu nearby and asked the waiter about it, he explained that the one we were originally given was "Favorites" - the items that "most" people order. The other was the "Full" menu, that you don't see unless you specifically ask for it. Hmmm. Interesting. So in comparing the two, we noticed things like omelettes, pork chops with eggs, T-bone steak with eggs and a few other options on the full menu that were missing from the "Favorites" menu. Soo...since these items were generally more expensive (which would make more income for the place and the servers) I thought it odd that there's not just one menu with everything. I have two guesses on why that menu isn't offered to begin with.

1. Since it's a new restaurant, they want the cooks to only have to manage a more limited list of dishes until they're used to cooking the basic menu.

2. The items on the "full" menu tend to be things that take a little bit longer to make and/or more specialized cooking, so they don't offer that menu during the busier times. The kitchen is pretty small, so they may be limited in cooking space.

Next item I found interesting. For a restaurant called "Waffle House", their selection of waffles was limited: plain, peanut butter, pecan and chocolate chips. I would have expected some fruit topped items (especially in the summer when fruit is in season) and more, since it's in the name of the place. BTW, the waffle was more the consistency of a pancake, instead of the fluffy Belgian waffle that I'm used to, which made me wonder why they don't serve pancakes. Another possible item that takes up too much space to cook in the kitchen.

Oh, we ordered a pecan waffle with bacon, 2 eggs with hash browns, toast and a side of ham. Everything came out quickly, as breakfast always should. When taking the order, the server didn't ask what kind of toast we wanted or what kind of ham we wanted. The menu lists "city" and "country" ham. (basically, country ham is more salty and city ham is a tad bit sweet). We were brought white toast (not sure if they offer another option) and city ham, which was fine for the ham.

As far as the quality of food, the eggs and hash browns were a bit too buttery and it would have been helpful to have been asked for our preference on the items mentioned above. The waffle, ham, bacon, etc. were tasty.

All in all the food was serviceable and the price was great! How many places can you get 2 full breakfasts with coffee for under $20? We'll probably try it again and ask for the full menu next time. It is nice to get more places to eat in the...

2024 June. Young men did it again. 3 waffles and 2 orders of sausage ready in 5 minutes or less. Be advised, no customers in the restaurant at that time.

2024 February. Young men here are excellent! Walked in, placed order and food was ready less than 10 minutes as promised and requested!

AVOID THIS LOCATION when they are BUSY especially Sunday mornings!

2023 June, walked inside, most seats and tables were filled, people waiting for their food as well (to go orders and those seated at tables), fully staffed, seemed really busy Sunday morning, asked someone to take my order, one person told me to give him 2 minutes, I waited between 5 and 10 minutes and decided to get up and leave, more people walked in as I walked out. Drove to another waffle house location in Newport News and got service immediately and food less than 15 minutes.

5 months prior, my review was as follows: Called while drivimg home to place order but automated message said that they were not able to take orders over the phone due to staff shortage but can serve me and take my order if I choose to dine in. So, I stopped in around 3pm and it was not busy at all, only 2 young men eating their meal at a table. So I placed my order immediately after walking inside and I had my food less than 10 minutes later. I was able to pay via Google Pay and or Apple Pay. Got home, my wife warmed up the waffles in the oven and it was delicious because of the butter and syrup. The butter was very soft and tasted...

If you go in to order food to go.. you’re technically nonexistent they give a better customer service to the people dining in. Idk why because to go orders get charged more.. They wouldn’t answer the phone like that I can place my order over the phone. So, I had to drive and place my order in person. After waiting 15mins to place my order, I had to wait 30mins to receive my food. When I got my food it was cold. Not only that.. I was also missing an order of waffles, I tried going back in but I was invisible so I just left. Update: Decided to give them another chance. I walked in today 10/8th around 10am. When we walked in no one greeted us.. we were standing by the door for liike 10mins. I saw 4people sitting down so I figured the were waiting for to go orders. They had 4 empty dirty tables. I saw that the waiter was cleaning one table he looked me straight in the eyes and didn’t say anything so we just sat down once he was done cleaning the table. I was with my brother, son and carrying a newborn. He literally waited for us to sit down to come to the table and say that the people sitting down were waiting for the table. I just walked out and left to another restaurant to eat. He should have had communicated that from the get go instead of looking like a bulldog. SMH never again I’m done with this Waffle...