Lincoln Diner — Restaurant in Gettysburg

Let me start by saying the TLDR: I would NOT come back here. I dont understand the positive reviews, maybe those reviews are from a while back but my experience was radically different from many. First lets start with parking, its an extremely awkward lot that isnt easy to turn into. The only available parking spots on the rainy day we visited were on the side alleyway and we essentially had to block traffic to assist my grandmother to go up the ramp. When we first started walking up it there was a staff member smoking, I respect if people need a smoke but right by the entrance poses health issues for us asthmatics of the world and also just isnt a nice experience to walk through someones second hand smoke. The roof cut off just over the ramp so it still dripped water on us as we walked in. The doorway is not accessible and not automatic. Its a very narrow space coming inside, especially for my grandmother who uses a walker. For actual service we were first time customers so we werent aware we needed to seat ourselves and ended up standing in the way of the entrance for a couple of minutes since no one greeted us and there was no obvious signage for telling us to seat ourselves (if there was a sign, I did not see it and theres no way my nearly blind grandmother would find it on her own!) When we finally were told to seat our selves, there werent any open spaces in the intial dining room so again my grandmother with her walker had to walk down a very narrow space to get to the back dining room so we could sit. Yes it was raining out but even without the cloudy skies I believe this place would be depressing. The dining room was poorly lit and space just looked dingy. The table we sat at ended up being wobbly but there werent really any better options. This is our own fault to a certain extent but we sat by the kitchen which had its door open and there was a lot of yelling which I understand is just a part of restaurant service but this was loud enough that Im fairly sure you would hear it at any spot in the dining area. There was also a waitress (or maybe even the owner?) complaining loudly about wanting to go home while wrapping dinnerware. The customer bathroom was downstairs and not accessible to my grandmother. Service was slow. Waitress was friendly ish but did not come to our table often. The soda tasted off. The actual meals itself were mediocre. Stale buns, underseasoned, and overcooked meat. A tiny bag of chips on the side. These were not necessarily cheap meals either. I wouldnt say expensive but not inexpensive especially for what we got and the portion sizes. There were a lot of flies and overall things seemed grimy. Overall, I understand its a diner and theres some things you accept with a diner that you may not with a typical restaurant but Ive been to many diners and gotten much better meals with much friendlier service in a nicer and more aesthetically pleasing place for much cheaper. I would not come back here again and would not personally coming here for a meal on any day trip or visit...

Hanging out in Gettysburg for the day with the kids and we need some lunch. First we go to un named resturant. Its really expensive with a small menu and the kids can't find anything they want to eat on the menu, however this is not a review of that establishment hence the no mention of their name. I then mention to my wife that I know that there is a diner across town that I think everyone will like, however I had never been there before. The first two things that I noticed and liked about the diner was that it had that old school feel and the staff acknowledged our presence as soon as we walked though the door making me feel right at home. When we found where we were going to sit we all decided that we had to go to the bathroom which happened to be down stairs which was fine for us but would not be accessible if you were any kind of handicap but that being said with the way the rest of the diner was set up there really wasent a whole lot of space in certain parts of the diner either although not downing them for that it is what it is. The booth in the part of the diner that we sat in was quite roomy and they all had partitions between them which with all of the social distancing going on was nice. Our wattress "Beth" then came to the table and was very friendly and plesant, I told her I would mention that lol. She took our order, recomended some drinks that she could make for us "strawbery ice tea" and retuned to our table a short time latter with our food. The food was delicious "breakfast" all around. The kids were happy, my wife and I were happy and we had a good time. The price for the four of us was not very cheap but we got a lot of food for our money, ate good and were all full when we were done and that is saying a lot. Thanks to Lincoln Diner and "Beth" for a great time and good food we will be...

I don't know if/why this restaurant is intentionally understaffed, but the first detractor was the number of tables that hadn't been cleared when we walked in. ("Sit anywhere" we were told - we finally found a table way in the back where there weren't existing dishes and glasses that hadn't been cleared.)

We saw two couples come in to the restaurant, look around, and then leave, as there were no clean tables available. The couple that set next to us left and their table wasn't cleared for at least 15 minutes. Seems like this would prompt a manager to get to work if there weren't enough employees, but we never saw any improvement (we were there from 0900-1030).

It took 10 minutes before our waitress (very nice, apologetic about the delay) came to the table - she was working the entire back section (15+ tables?) by herself. She was overwhelmed - she forgot part of our order and rarely had time to check back on coffee or drink refills.

There's limited (free) parking on the side of the restaurant, so we put over an hour's worth of quarters in one of the meters nearby. THIS WAS NOT ENOUGH. I had to go out to the meter and add another 20 minutes to the meter as we weren't quite finished with our meal and were never sure when we were going to see our waitress again to get the check.

If management reads these reviews, I'd recommend (1) hiring a full-time bus(person) during the busiest hours, as well more waitstaff, and (2) having someone come through to constantly refill coffee/other drinks. While the locals may like a laid-back/no rush atmosphere, this is a tourist town. No one likes waiting 5-10 minutes for the waitress, or another 10 minutes to get the check. The restaurant should be turning tables more efficiently to ensure this is a more enjoyable experience...