Highland Park Diner — Restaurant in City of Rochester

Consistency!!! I used to come here when I was a kid and now that I live away from home, this is by far my favorite place to stop when I'm in town. It's a classic, and when I say classic, I mean CLASSICCCC. From the retro, train car exterior to the old school bar and booth seating, this place gives off only the best vibes. It's tight in there. From the bar to the booths is probably an arm's length. Seating is also super limited so expect to wait if you're going during peak hours. However, the wait has never been more than 15min in my experience and I'll be honest when I say this is really the only place I'll go out of my way to wait for.

Back to consistency. I've been coming here for at least 10 years and the food never disappoints. I navigate between a top 3 selection. You'll never go wrong with any breakfast food here. Ever. Pancakes? Fire. French toast? Fire. Gluten free french toast??? Man.. where else can you get GF french toast and have it turn out absolutely FIRE?!

So if I'm going there for lunch, I'll get a wrap. Can you guess what my thoughts are on it? Always amazing. Always the right amount of everything. Fries? Always crispy.

But listen. When I tell you their milkshakes are literally a show stopper, I mean it. If you're a fan of Nutella, get the Nutella milkshake. Not only will you NOT be disappointed, but you'll want to take one with you. If you're feeling extra lucky, just pick something from their magical milkshake board. No answer is the wrong answer here.

The prices are so reasonable. Like my wife and I go there and DINE. Like I always have to get the works. And we never walk out with a bill over $30. We're talking food, milkshakes, coffee, maybe juice? and still the bill is under $30.

The service? So friendly. I always feel so taken care of here. It gets busy in there. Like really busy. I've never not seen the place packed. And still, when the servers come up to us, I feel like we're the only ones who exist. They always make sure our food is right (GF, Dairy Free, and Garlic Free (rip)), and we've never had any mistakes.

All in all, if I could visit only one place in Rochester for the rest of my life, there's honestly no question for me. It's the Highland Diner, fam. If you've been looking for a great diner to start going to with your friends for Sunday brunch, this is your sign. Treating yourself on a Tuesday afternoon, this is your sign.

I could go on and on, but I wont. Just know you won't be...

I've had better food at other Diner. Imo I think even Denny's is better than here. This restaurant was way too hyped up for subpar food. Service from our server is excellent so we have no complaints on that.

Now, if you're wondering about the food. It was ok not much flavors. The bread was good. My bf got biscuits and instead of toasting it they microwave it like wow we totally want soggy biscuits. The orange juice they charged us for $3.99 was poured directly out of a Wegmans orange juice bottle. Ridiculous! We thought it was their own made OJ.

Idk what people like about the vibes here but it was awfully loud. The kitchen was small and the employees kept dropping things cause the kitchen was way too cramped. It was hard to eat in peace as it felt like the whole experience was rushed. The server didn't rush us though. One of the main chef got into a mini spat with our server and it was very hard to eat while the main Asian chef pretty much mistreated our server and calling her slow even though she's trying her best already. Parking was a bit difficult and wait time was ok like 10 minutes if you go there on weekends afternoon.

I couldn't finish the food because it was just not in my favor and our moods was already ruined half through the dining process. 10 minute before we left the place an ant crawled up on our table and we just couldn't finish the rest of the food. The whole experience was just too much for us so we left...

This diner has taken a long, steep , nosedive in quality , atmosphere, and overall performance. Extremely noisy ( sound levels were over 85 decibels- hazardous to hearing ) for most of our attempt at a breakfast. The waitress dumped all our napkins and utensils in a pile before stalking off , clearly showing that she considered customers trespassers and a personal burden . Crowded , cramped feel , truly awful food ( the French toast was some industrial bread that compares badly to a used sponge in taste and texture , the breakfast sandwich used some sort of cheese paste, the bread was again something salvaged from a reclamation plant somewhere, and even the coffee was worse than a usual diner coffee. The atmosphere was chaotic , the cooks seemed to go out of their way to crash all the plates around as loudly as possible and the entire experience was one of the worst and most expensive ( especially for the quality of the food ) breakfast I have ever experienced and that is saying a lot ! People should read the RECENT reviews - Many of us loved the Highland Park for years - and the reviews reflect the past - not the present sorry state...