Village Diner — Restaurant in Hillsborough

Located at the north foot of Occoneechee Mountain lies the town of Hillsborough, the fifth oldest town in North Carolina. There you can find some interesting history as well as the Village Diner and a truly outstanding breakfast.

If you pulled up to this building and there were no cars there, you would fully believe that the place was abandoned—the outside is that stark. Furthermore, it is located in a section of West Hillsborough that is very run down. Indeed, as I drove through the neighborhood to get to it, I had almost convinced myself that there was some error and there would be no restaurant in this neighborhood. But there it was. Two of Orange County’s finest were inside...so at least I will be safe.

The inside was completely different from the outside—it is beautifully (if simply) decorated with a wood theme undertone.

My server was outstanding—polite, friendly, accommodating, and cheerful—one of those who truly understands the food service industry and strives to do well. In fact, the entire staff was nice, with one other server greeting me, and the owner or manager giving a heartfelt goodbye and thank you as I left.

I ordered an array of items:

Eggs: I ordered them over easy, but they came medium. If you have read my reviews, you know how picky I am about my eggs. Nevertheless, I am going to forgive this one transgression because everything else was so positively outstanding.

Sausage patties: wonderfully seasoned, excellent flavor. The pork comes from local farmers and is seasoned and pattied in house. This is some of the best sausage I ever et. Freshness matters!

Bacon: excellent smoky taste and cooked perfectly.

Grits: stone ground in Albemarle, they were creamy and delicious. Again, outstanding.

Gravy: a bit non traditional in both color (darker rather than whiter) and flavor—I detected the distinct but not overwhelming taste of...wait for it...oregano. Who woulda thunk it? But trust me— it works! The gravy was delicious!

Biscuit: this also deviates slightly from what would be considered a traditional southern biscuit, but it was excellent and is one of the best biscuits I’ve ever had.

Coffee: ranks in the top few restaurant coffees I’ve ever had—rich and flavorful—being beaten only by Smith Street Diner in Greensboro.

The price is higher than most breakfasts, but I would cheerfully pay it again. Food this good is worth paying for.

While you are in the area, I would highly recommend visiting the Occoneechee Mountain State Natural Area. An easy hike to the 867 foot peak and overlook is well worth it. The view from this vantage point—overlooking the Eno River and Hillsborough—is like none other in this part...

Our group was 5 adults and 2 toddlers so we understand we are a larger party so we aimed for our arrival to be after the brunch rush. When we arrived they said they needed to get a table ready for us. Understandable. We stood outside for 20 minutes with waitstaff coming in and out the entire time. A group of 5 walked in and was immediately sat so we decided to ask for an update on our table. The staff said our table had been ready, but no one decided to tell us? They saw us standing at the door. We get sat and a literal 11 year old (we asked) started taking our order. Nothing against his age but it was very obvious he didn’t know what he was doing. He took our drink orders and by the time he came back we were ready to order our food. He said he needed to go take someone else’s drink order who was just sat. So I waved down a different wait staff, told her we were ready to order, she just said “okay” and walked away. Eventually, the 11 year old came back and took our order. I explained that the 2 toddlers would need their food as soon as it was ready as they were hungry and tired of waiting. He said he understood. He takes all of our orders and sends it to the kitchen. 20 minutes go by, I asked for an update on the toddler’s meals and the waitstaff said it’ll be right out. Eventually they bring out ALL of our food. Not a huge deal but the toddlers were doing their absolute best to be patient. When the food is brought to our table every single order was cold. And my husband’s food was never even made. No one came by to ask if everything came out correctly or if we needed anything. We had to keep flagging waitstaff down to tell them we were missing food and that we needed refills on all of our drinks. The food was average, especially for the price. This entire experience was a huge miss on every level. When they first reopened they used to be so good. No clue what happened but definitely not planning on going back...

I honestly hate leaving a bad review but our experience was that bad! I am hoping an honest review might help see that they have to do something different. Five of us went in looking forward to a late breakfast not knowing it would be after lunch time before we got anything. It was literally 1 hour, 25 minutes, before we got our food, well before we started getting our food… one plate at a time. Two had French toast and side of eggs and sausage. After asking if we would get any food soon they brought the toast and eggs out completely cold, but being so hungry they ate anyway. After they finished theirs, they brought some of the other plates out. When we were just finishing ours they brought the sausage to the guys that had the cold French toast! After waiting over 40 minutes we went and asked our waitress who was standing at the counter if we could please get our drinks. Sure she said, but it was at least 20 minutes before she brought them to our table 10 feet away. Many people walked out after seeing what was going on. When we asked the little waitress she said we are just really busy, but the part that was hard to understand was what they were busy with! There were several waitresses, none of whom ever bothered to bring our drinks, never once asked if we would like more coffee or anything. And we were right by the door from the kitchen but practically no food was coming out. The vast majority of the tables were people with no food. I 100% have NEVER had an experience quite like it!!! I don’t know what has happened here since we used to go and it was nothing like this…. Good food and good service but it was far, far from that today. I will say they charged plenty for this unique...