Ze's Diner Mendota Heights — Restaurant in Mendota Heights

I get they're going for the classic diner feel here, but everything is 2 to 3 times too big. The space itself is three times too large, turning what would otherwise be the quaint background murmur of conversation and utensils on plates into a cacophony of noise bouncing around the cavernous space between the floor and the 20 foot ceilings.

The other big miss here is a simple a la carte breakfast menu. The monstrous platters offered are more food than two people need. Nothing comes without hashbrowns. Sure there's a sides menu if you want more meat, more sauce, or more starch, but if you want to curate your own breakfast it appears your are SOL. So I settled for just coffee and an English muffin. I just wanted to kill some time and didn't need or want a 2400 calorie plate. It was about what you would expect, english muffins being what they are, but even this fell down in execution. It arrived pre buttered, but clearly a pat had just been placed in the middle and allowed to melt completely into the center of the bottom half. Along with it came a dubious bottle of unknown berry puree syrup that was mostly just sweet and artificial tasting.

All of this might be your thing and if so, that's great. But if you're looking for a real authentic old times diner feel, you're not going to...

Wish this place actually cared about food and great customer service. Gave this place 3 tries in one month. Unfortunately, this is also another place that the servers and the food just miss the mark on care and quality. Dinner: we were there 7pm. The place was only half full, i had to flag down our waiter every single time i wanted something. When she said she'd be back with something, she forgot and i had to ask another person. Breakfast at 9am: asked for a straw, but waitress forgot, again i had to ask in order to get anything. again, the place was only half full. Ordered food, waitress got my order wrong, had to wait for the correct item, then my eggs were overcooked, but i had no time to wait so i ate my eggs anyway, i shouldn't have to experience this. Shouldn't a place care about all the details and help everyone leave happy? When a restaurant doesn't care about little things, think about the big things they won't care to do well. Because we will go elsewhere. My suggestion is to...

Update: We went back this morning for breakfast and have to say, the service was amazing, the food was great and the atmosphere this time so different. Glad we tried it out again and come back for sure. Thank you to the owner who reached out after our first review, this really showed us he cared about his customers.

We went this morning with friends. Been here couple weeks ago and really were impressed with the food and the service.

Today the breakfast food was delicious but unfortunately the service was not great at all. We all felt that the waitress was ignoring us as soon as we had our meal served. Tried to get her attention for more coffee without success. It seemed like she was always looking in a different direction. After we paid and finally got a refill on our coffee she approached us and told us, we have to leave since she needed the table and people were waiting … to that time right behind us were two tables empty. This never happened to us! Sad, since the place has a great...