Metro Diner — Restaurant in Lakeland

We stopped in to check out the "hype" was about. A lot of people locally were raving about it, well I'm here to say, not much hype or anything to rave about. Some people said it was just as good as a diner in the NY/NJ area..lol, not even close. We had breakfast on a weekday late morning and it was busy there. Hostess was friendly and accommodating but we still waited at least 20 minutes.

Finally got a table but took another 15 for someone to come over then another 10+ for them to return to take our orders. A larger party came in 20 minutes AFTER us and they were served food 10 minutes before us. Apparently bigger parties, get better service. Menu is average nothing exciting here, there were nothing that we saw that had the " wow we have to try that" sentiment. Other issue is a lot is a la cart. The breakfast bowls don't come with any sides not even toast, which was $5 for 2 pieces of it. Coffee was also $5. We chose neither, not paying $5 for a coffee. A diner in NY area is $3 unlimited refills.

Food was ok, not bad but nothing exciting, portions were decent. Again as I've said on other reviews of restaurants in Florida, local people have no clue what good food is.

Service was friendly but slow and it wasn't extremely busy. It's a bit of typical diner atmosphere but not as cozy as a traditional NY diner. Seating was average on comfort. When we went to diners back in NY, you felt like you were home being served and were comfortable to where you could sit for hours. This place doesn't have that vibe.

Overall I would rate it a 6 out of 10, food was ok but no wow factor like so many "food " experts claim. It's a diner chain, so I guess you can't expect anything out of the ordinary. It's safe food but a...

Unfortunately I can’t rate the food because we never had a server 12-15 minutes after being seated, so we left. We were very interested in checking out the diner but came away very unimpressed. It was Sunday morning and they were busy, the hostess told us it would be about 20 minutes for a table, but we could be seated immediately at the counter, which was empty. We chose the counter and the hostess seated us. During the duration of sitting at the counter it was obnoxiously loud, particularly the person we assumed to be the manager. He was a bald gentleman with glasses who non stop was yelling back to the kitchen staff about orders. While he was busy yelling at one of the cooks to “hurry up” an order of strawberry pancakes (not sure how the cook is supposed to make the grill cook them faster, but that’s just my opinion), we watched another cook use his hands to scoop scrambled eggs out of the pan directly onto a plate to be served. He was wearing blue gloves, but had also touched several containers and grabbed a filthy towel to wipe down his prep counter with the same gloves on prior to touching the eggs. After about 12-15 minutes as the only customers at the counter, another couple was seated at the counter next to us and within 30 seconds a waitress came to them to get their drink order, as she started to walk away we got her attention and let her know we had been there for a long period of time with no service, she responded, sorry your not in my section and walked away. All of this occurring within 3 feet of the manager, still there barking at the kitchen non stop. Food may be fantastic, but we didn’t stay to find out and...

My husband and I have been waiting with great anticipation to try this new diner, and tonight they were FINALLY open for dinner (we don't have time to go for lunch or breakfast most days). I ordered the loaded burger bowl and my husband ordered the classic cheeseburger. We both really liked our food. The burgers were cooked how we wanted them and the flavor was good. The fries were not quite crispy enough, but I think that's more of a preference on my end- they weren't soggy, there just wasn't any bite to them. It could also be because they are part of a bowl and not on the side. I will say that I ordered pick up and got there a bit early and they brought my food to me promptly. I was out by the time I was promised my order; however, there was a lady in line a head of me who had evidently not had my luck and she said she'd been waiting over 20 minutes for her food and still hadn't gotten it. I hope that's not a normal experience. Also, I asked for my burger sauce to be on the side in case I didn't like it, but they still put it on the burger bowl. Thankfully I liked their burger sauce, so no harm no foul. I could tell there was some disorder in the kitchen and there were employees bunching up in the same area looking lost and like they didn't know what to do- not a good look when there is a customer who appears to be having issues getting her order. Over all, we enjoyed our food and we plan to be back to try more items. It's nice to have a...