Kroll's Diner — Restaurant in Fargo

So we’re here in Fargo for a wrestling tournament, wanted to try a local place. Seen Kroll’s diner and they offer cottage cheese as a meal side. Being diabetic this is AMAZING! our server was so sweet. She did forget to ever refill our drinks but the cook put her in such an awkward position (which I’ll explain later) so I totally get that she was frazzled. I ordered the club wrap and the cottage cheese as my side. Hubby ordered the cabbage rolls with mashed potatoes and they came with corn as well. He said his meal was good but the salad he got as his extra side had browning lettuce so he didn’t finish it as it just was not appetizing. We also ordered an appetizer of poppers, yes some breading but I wasn’t going to eat too many- these ended up being good. My meal (the wrap with cottage cheese) after it was ordered I was later informed they are out of cottage cheese. The only options were soups I cannot eat and all potatoe sides I cannot eat, then of course the salad with browning lettuce (I definitely was going to order that). I told her it was ok and let’s just cancel the wrap meal and I’ll just eat a few poppers. She asked if I was sure and I said yes it’s fine don’t worry. I was really ok with this option. I mean I have a good salad leftover from lunch at the hotel anyways I could go back and eat after we left anyways so I really didn’t mind. She went back and told the cook I was cancelling the wrap meal. You could hear him verbalize the distaste for my decision and in front of all the waitresses pushed her to find out a reason why from me. She very hesitantly came over to find out why. I explained to her I’m diabetic and cannot have all the potato sides they offer and also the salad was not appealing with the brown lettuce my husband had on his so I didn’t want that option. Again reiterating it’s totally ok. I mean seriously it happens and not need to make a big deal out of it. When she went back and explained to the cook why I cancelled the wrap he made a big deal out of it and made sure to gossip to the other waitresses about it. I was completely humiliated and it took everything I had to sit there and not cry while the husband ate his meal and the waitress kept looking over at me and laughing- not our waitress, again, she was super sweet and you could tell she was fairly new because she did have to keep running back to the kitchen to ask questions when customers were ordering. We also noticed the filthy shake machines which is why the husband did not order a shake- normally anyways where go that offers shakes he gets a large chocolate shake from. The whole time we were there 1 shake was ordered and it was disgusting watching them make someone’s food in the filthy machines.

Pros: super sweet waitresss- young lady with reddish hair. Stuffed cabbage was excellent dish meal portions are excellent for the price

Cons: rude and unprofessional cook Browning lettuce in the salad disgustingly filthy and unsanitary shake machines (like at least properly wipe them down after each use) the place was not even halfway full and y’all were not very busy, did lots of standing around talking when could have been wiping down the machines. I can’t believe a customer even ordered one- guess they couldn’t see the machines from their seats. Waitresses staff (other than our waitress) laughing at customers and making them feel humiliated. We can hear you ladies and the cook talking about me. That’s just downright wrong...

One of my worst experiences when eating out. Usually when my family and I go out to krolls we have a wonderful time. But this time started off very poorly, our server was an older lady. She was clearly dismissing anything that we say. When we would order we would say it a whole and she would still ask us questions for every single item like if we wanted fries for example, even though we clarified that’s what we wanted. She had horrible hospitality. She smacked my 8 month old baby with the menu on top of his head not once but twice. I’ve worked in the server industry and there is no reason to be doing that even if it was in a joking or playful way. I had also ordered a Pepsi, I never received it and at that point did not want it. I tried to even flag down another waitress but she ignored me. Trust me I was plenty loud. Our sever came with our food, she took food out of my babies hand and proceeded to put hot plates in his reach. After I had told her I did not want the Pepsi anymore and to take it off my bill. She proceeded to print off our bill and asked us if we wanted boxes. Clearly no hospitality or common sense. She had another table behind us and she was a whole lot nicer to them than us and even checked up on them multiple times. While she only came once and said it in a rude manner. It was clear that she wanted us to just leave because she was pushing for us to get boxes the whole time. As we were leaving she handed me a Pepsi for to go, thinking that would make it all better?? I wish I could explain better how incompetent this woman sounded or acted. When my husband went to ask for a manager she gave us a half ass apology and not acknowledging how poorly this woman’s service was. No disciplinary action for hitting my child. And even the way she talked sounded like she was blaming us. She had also just let the server stand next to her while my husband complained. Not very professional! Krolls is too good to have terrible management! Maybe work on hospitality and getting a new supervisor. We decided to complain afterwards because we wanted to give her the benefit of a doubt and also we did not want to continue eating there after...

What can I say about Fargo? What a special place this town is in "flyover country", and what a special restaurant Kroll's Diner is.

From the moment I sat down inside the front of the house, the retro look made me swear I was in Kingman, AZ enjoying a short stack before merging back onto Route 66 and cruising top-down to Barstow. It's THAT nostalgic.

My server, Jennifer, was so darned pleasant that I hung around for an hour and a half, even with places to be and things to see. In fact, I could tell everyone working at Kroll's was a long-time employee, and that says a lot of good things about the place, particularly in the service industry.

The decor is chrome and gasoline... a wonderful tribute to a time when America was a one-of-a-kind place to grow up.

The food was mostly standard diner and breakfast fair, but that's never a bad thing, and it definitely did NOT disappoint! Regional dishes transplanted from Germany are available, too... the sausage was seasoned and griddled to absolute umami perfection.

I rounded out my smorgasbord experience with Jennifer's recommendation, a totally-unnecessary-but-amazing slice of peach pie.

If you're from Fargo, you probably already know about Kroll's. If you're not from Fargo, and you end up in this town like I did on a mission to plant your flag during a 50-state tour, you'd be doing yourself a big favor by stopping in and enjoying the food and the scenery. Kroll's Diner is decidedly Middle America...