Metro Diner — Restaurant in Gainesville

I stumbled upon this Diner when I was visiting UF at Gainsville, and what a find it is. Located on the end of a small strip mall on SW 34th Street just south of Hull Road, it would be easy to pass it by. Don't pass it by if you are an inkling of hungry. It so impressed me that after I ate breakfast there, I picked up my wife from her appointment, and I took her back to eat. You are greeted at the door, seated quickly, and if you're lucky, Kyle will be your waiter. I'm sure they're all great, but he was professional, and added insights to our order that only would come from someone who truly cares about their guest. Now the menu: I ordered one of their specialty's, Corn Beef Hash with Poached eggs, toast, and one pancake on the side. I've been eating corn beef hash all of my life, from a can no less, and this is the first time I've had it made from scratch. It was fantastic. With it laid two perfectly cooked poached eggs which ended up on top of my corn beef hash. It was complemented by wheat toast and a GREAT, though very large, pancake. Oh, the coffee is of a medium, yet robust blend, just to my liking. I thoroughly enjoyed that meal. My wife had a breakfast special, which included Eggs Benedict over sliced avocado and tomato, on an English Muffin. Complementing this was home fries with onion and colorful bell peppers, which were fresh and very good. You can usually get a feel for a place when you walk in the door, and this is one of those places. It complements the college town that surrounds it, the food is good, and the people are happy; my kind of place. Oh, my wife had a swipe at the Eggs Benedict before I could get a picture, so the picture reflects what this place is about....good food...

Update Review: 4 Stars Following the original poor experience, the owner kindly provided me with a coupon to give Metro Diner a second try. I visited for an early lunch, ordered a Southwest style chicken wrap with coffee, and was genuinely surprised at the difference in quality. The wrap was hearty, well-made, not soggy, and a large portion size. I'd be happy to visit again for lunch or dinner now.

Original Review: 2 Stars This was my first visit, but Metro Diner seems quite popular and there was a 30 minute wait for a table. It was thus surprising when the meal was honestly the worst breakfast I've ever been served in my life, and I'm not a picky eater.

The dish was on their breakfast favorites menu, described as breakfast pie with layers of egg, onion, green peppers, cheese, and potato. In reality it was appeared like an open-face breakfast burrito that had been topped with an enormous handful of pre-shredded cheese and microwaved. The scrambled eggs were off-color and soggy. The green peppers were grey-green mush. Potatoes and onions were also overdone. The only good ingredient was mushroom. Besides looking unappealing, the dish had no redeeming flavors, far too much cheese, and was SO WATERY! The only reason I know of for a breakfast dish to be that soggy is if it was frozen and reheated, probably by microwave.

Serving a dish like this is an embarrassment and I hope they figure out what is going on in the kitchen. If a simple breakfast dish can't be made fresh it shouldn't be served and charged to customers.

Breakdown: +1 star for pleasant service +1 star for decent coffee, especially while waiting for a table 3 stars for the worst breakfast dish I've...

Where do I start?

This place is hands down the best. Yes, it really is - and for so many different reasons.

We were there about 11:30-11:45 on a Monday. There was no wait for us even though it was busy.

Our waiter was really great. #Garrett made sure we were taken care of, nothing but politeness and manners. This dude deserves a raise or some praise! Maybe both? he keeps an eye so you never even have to say "excuse me?" for anything. We never felt forgotten or rushed. That's huge nowadays. Mahalo Garrett!

For the food! Dear lord, I'm a BIG girl and I couldn't even handle the Metro Diner Challenge. Lol no! It's not a challenge but the food portions are big. Hey, none of us are complaining though. It means we don't have to cook later. 😁

My husband had the fish & chips - it came out FAST, HOT and tasted so so good. Yes, i sampled. Lol I had ordered the chicken plate that came with veggies and mash potatoes for $15 something. What I didn't realize...was it was not one, not two but FOUR pieces of chicken. Yep, you heard me right. Which again was hot, fresh and moist on the inside. The potatoes were awesome (red potatoes? Are we right?) And the gravy as well. Biscuit was obviously made fresh and I'm not usually a biscuit kinda girl. (Sorry!! From Hawaii! Lol) We ended up taking home leftovers for dinner with us. Happily.

Would we go back again? Long as we aren't broke next time! Lol it was just such a great place & atmosphere. Clean too. My husband has social anxiety and he was completely fine here and looks forward to the next time.

Do...