Village Inn — Restaurant in Florida

This was our first visit but it will remain a favorite spot to return to when we visit St. Augustine in the future. The resturant is located right next to Ripley's Believe It or Not and there is ample parking available.

First things first, the Village Inn is actually a chain resturant that specializes in casual family dining. However, do not let that dissuade you from giving it a try. The place was packed and as I've said before that is usually a good sign for a resturant.The Village Inn was no exception to that rule. We had about a 15 minute wait, but this place knows how to work through a crowd quickly which means you are dealing with both a seasoned wait staff and kitchen. Afterall, the resturant chain has, as the signage indicated, been operating since 1958. So one could probably guess they know exactly what they are doing.

The building exterior and interior are a bit dated from the rebranding which I'm guessing was around 2010 or so, but that is very much part of the charm of the place. The interior of the structure could use a bit of TLC to spruce it up a bit, maybe new lighting and replace out a few worn cieling tiles, astetetics aside, the resturant was clean, comfortable, and family friendly.

The food. If you've never been to a true diner before you are in for a treat. You can pretty much get whatever you want all day long breakfast, lunch, or dinner. I had the reuben and tomato basil soup, both of which were fabulous. The rest of the group, including the finicky teen that won't eat anything, opted for the build your own breakfast. Everyone, aforementioned teen included, cleaned their plates. Not wanting to lose momentum on the caloric intake of a teen that only seems to eat once every full moon, we ordered pie. Now, if you don't know about 50s style diners, in general, the pies are the centerpiece of the resturant. You are greeted by a display case when you arrive that has all of the fresh made pies and cakes front and center, so you are pretty much obliged to have some just for walking in the place. We ended up settling on banna cream pie, coconut cream pie, and the caramel pecan silk supreme out of the roughly 20 different selections available from which to choose. All of the pies were excellent. I was seriously thinking the finicky eater was going to swallow the flatware, again totally uncharacteristic when we go out to a restaurant. It was no wonder why the resturant chain has won multiple awards from the American Pie Council (APC) over the years.

The Village Inn has an excellent website and delivery can be had by using Grubhub or Bite Squad (code: TASTE). This location also gives discounts to the Ripley's Red Train passengers. If you are in the area I would recommend giving the...

It’s sad I’ve been coming to VI for over 15 years now, this is by far the absolute worst, I will never come back and that’s sad, what was once a hidden crown jewel of St.Augustine has now become a rusted out wash board waiting to be replaced or completely gone. I’ve never had such horrible table side service from anyone who had worked there now or prior, the food was ok, everything looked and tasted like it was microwaved, the French toast was SOAKED in butter, the waitress was just stand-offish, the other waitress had no care in the world, my son had spilt my glass of tea and I had to walk to someone just to get napkins, then had to wait even longer just for my food to get there an ask for a refill. Just all around a horrible experience, and I’ve never had that at the VI, the amount of repair needed the mold on the walls, the overall structure of the building I’m surprised it hasn’t been shut down already. If I could leave negative stars about this place I would. I will say the one redeeming thing was the hostess she was absolutely amazing she reminded me so much (rest her soul) of Ms. Barbara, but sadly at the end of the day I will not be coming back, while the outside looks nice, the inside is not great and the service is even worse and the food is now subpar with no love put in to it like it use to have. What once was a thriving, happy place where memories where made is now a place that will only serve as a memory for me...

Service: 10 stars 🌟 a shame I can't give more than 5 stars. The hostess was super sweet and told me she saved me some pancakes as she sat me; it was friggin adorable. They were short one waitress (I overheard) , but man did these girls hustle. Within a half hour all tables were full, but they jointly killed it. 3 ladies serving 12 table's or more. Their teamwork was awesome to watch. One took my order and a table's next to mine; another waitress brought that adjacent table's food, while their waitress followed with a check in. My waitress checked in 3 times to see if I needed anything. The hostess checked in once and even poured me additional coffee, which I didn't ask for and could have done myself. The 3rd waitress saw my plates empty and cleared them for me. All a concert of teamwork. They were super polite to me, and all the patrons in the restaurant. I was very impressed and wish I could take them all back to my home state to work 😆... quite honestly I usually go to ihop, but that's going to change. The Rio Grande skillet I had was steaming hot, the pancakes were a knock out and their coffee was pretty dang delicious. The cooks kept all the girls running with hot food, too. I'm very happy with this little Village Inn and when I visit St. Augustine again I will unquestionably return here for breakfast. I left a 50% tip on a $16.00 bill because I was so dang happy, and customers keep pouring in as I write this;...