Athena's Diner — Restaurant in Lansing

The first time months ago waited over an hour for our food. When food was brought to the table the first time, it was someone else's order, not ours. Fast forward to today. Came in and sat at a table that hadn't been bussed yet. No big deal, they were busier than I've ever seen them. Once the table was cleaned up, our waitress( same as last time) took a few to ask what we wanted to drink and get us menus. No big deal, as I said, extremely busy. After we ordered the restaurant, they were so busy they were turning people away for an hour. We sat, talked, and endured the wait cause we understand how hectic food service can be. During our wait, we watched groups of people come in, get served, and leave. Also, watching others who were tired of waiting, leaving the restaurant. After an hour and a half, the waitress comes over, and I ask where our food was. After checking, she replies that our slip had fallen behind something in the kitchen(same excuse used the last time we were here). Now, the side of the restaurant that we were on had at the most 3 people to a table. The opposite side of the restaurant had groups of 5 and 6 people and were still placing orders and receiving their food prior to anyone on our side of the restaurant. When the waitress brought what she thought was our food out, it was for the folks behind us. She said it had been sitting up there the whole time. Normally, I wouldn't point to blame, but both visits she would run around as if to be very busy but not actually be doing anything to improve the service. I was in direct line of sight to the storage room in the back of the kitchen and watched her disappear back there several times during our wait. I'm assuming to step out the back door for a quick smoke instead of checking with the kitchen on people's orders. We don't know if it's an issue between the cooks and our server in general or what. The other servers were steadily bringing out people's orders. Needless to say, we got up and left to not come back. That is why I didn't rate the food or the service because neither of...

Not sure what happened to this place. 6 o'clock on a Friday and it's dead which had me confused (at first). A couple of years ago they had my favorite gyro in town that I used to brag about to everyone. Now tonight was the 1st time back in since we moved away. Lackluster meal. My gyro was dry (not enough tzatziki), the pita bread tasted old, I barely ate any of my greek salad because it was a very small bowl heaped mostly with brown wilted lettuce, mushy tomatoes, and a couple of canned beets, 5 garbanzo beans sprinkled with a little feta & a pepperoncini. That was it for my "combo." Now the kicker after a lackluster meal is we also found out that a "COMBO" does not include drinks like the menu made me believe. On the menu it cites coffee and bottled beverages being excluded from the combo, but fails to mention all drinks, including fountain, are excluded. Their idea of a combo & mine are totally different. Anyway, we walked out of there $35 down and disappointed in both of our "combo" meals. We really should've went to that little gem Myanmar Burmese restaurant down the road and paid half the amount for a more enjoyable meal. Next time we make a special trip to the area it sure won't be to Athena's. 2 star for the nice waitress and decent fries....

This was our first visit to Athena's, and the word that comes to mind to describe it is "fine."

The place was clean and orderly. Our server was very friendly and knowledgeable about the menu – which was extensive and included breakfast, lunch and dinner options. And our food was hot and brought out promptly.

That's basically where the pluses stopped for me.

My biggest complaint is about pricing vis-a-vis product. Athena's is a very run-of-the-mill greasy spoon kinda joint... Nothing wrong with that! But a breakfast plate can run up to $11+. My burger (which was –again– "fine") was $7 and another $3 for a side item.

Beverages also are sold at two different prices, one that includes refills at a higher price. The only problem is, we weren't offered a refill until we had completed our meals (no server check back... Just dropped the food and left). Why charge a higher price for a refillable beverage if you don't plan to offer a refill?

Like I said, this place was fine. But I can't say I would choose it over any other coney...