Olde Town Restaurant — Restaurant in Mount Airy

So normally I would give this place the full five stars. But it has some very obvious problems that warrant the deduction of one star.

First the good stuff, honestly this place has amazing food, for that alone it would worth a visit. The ten or so times I have been the food has been out of this world amazing, especially the all day breakfast. The pancakes are fluffy and warm, not too chewy, and much more generous in size than those of the local IHOP. The burger was so big I couldn't even finish it, and at seven dollars plus toppings you really can't beat it. I have also had the Flat Iron steak and the Chicken and Waffles and both were excellent. But let's get to the breakfast, OMG, this place has amazing breakfast food. The first time I even went I ordered the Country Chicken Sandwich which is a fried boneless chicken breast with eggs, cheese and sausage gravy. I ordered it not knowing what to expect and what I got was not only delicious, but enormous. I expected it to be a part of a chicken breast, nope, whole boneless breast. I expected it to slightly dry, nope, juicy and delicious. I expected maybe enough gravy to coat the breast, nope, the entire plate was full of gravy. I expected a little cheese, nope, lots of cheese. I'm certain had I been able to finish it that my heart would immediately surrender in defeat.

Now a place with food this good I would normally immediately give five stars. But not in this case, here's why. First off, the restaurant is very crowded, I know the mgmt want to maximize profit, but since the tables are so close you really get jostled around a lot, so I deducted a bit for that. Secondly, the service is not so good, they have a number of young ladies on an almost constant rotation there, so much so that you cannot get to know any of them particularly well and they are not the best waitresses around. Honestly I've had better service at a Chik-Fil-A. Also, I mentioned being jostled around a lot, the waitresses are the ones doing most of it. Another problem is that the restaurant is just one big room with tables in the middle and one long booth down one side which tables are against, there is no partitioning or anything, you can be mere inches from diners at a different table and you can inadvertantly become very familiar with chatty patrons as you can clearly hear all conversation happening around you. If you have a bigger party you can get lucky and get seated in the window booth which is the most private an out of the way table, but good luck getting it. And the decor? Straight out of 1940. This restaurant has changed hands while I have lived in Mt. Airy and it looks like they changed nothing about the decor.

So there you have it. A good place to eat, but if comfort, service, decor, and ambiance mean anything to you you might not...

Original review (2023): Dined here a couple times, and walked by many more times. I thought for awhile about how to review this place. On one hand, I like to support small business. On the other hand, this business really needs to make some changes.

The food: 3 stars? nothing really wrong here. Although my husband detests mayo and specifically asked for no mayo on his burger and they brought him a burger with lots of mayo on it. Besides that, no major complaints. The food is not delicious or incredible, but it is totally fine. & The price is very fair for what you get.

Service: is mediocre, not good but not bad.

Atmosphere: absolutely awful. Crowded and noisy (also echo-y).

The worst: wait time. There is nowhere to wait - the place is too small. People will be waiting on the sidewalk blocking flow of others walking. Once my husband and I were walking through town exploring and we saw people waiting outside in the rain to get in - it was like a school cafeteria inside, noisy and crowded. There was a group waiting for a table right inside the door and a second group on the sidewalk outside. When we were coming back from our walk, a half hour later, the exact same people were still in line. Who knows how long they waited for a table? The thing is, the food isn’t excellent, the prices aren’t incredible - just totally average. So it’s really not worth a wait like that. I’d wait 5 minutes tops to eat here.

EDIT August 2024: we decided to try this place one more time since it was a rainy weekday morning, we figured it would not be too busy. There were several vacant tables so we were optimistic upon arrival. We were seated promptly and brought water but then were left with menus for over 10 minutes. Just as we were getting up to leave, after waiting around 15 min, someone finally came to take our order. We stayed, but I wish we hadn’t. Our food was not good this time at all. My husband ordered the ham steak and he said it tasted like how he’d guess a shoe sole would taste. It was very thin, tough, leathery and overly salty (ham is usually salty, this was apparently excessive). My food was alright but not good, I didn’t finish it. It was just lacking flavor. It’s just not worth it! There are better...

One morning my husband and I were trying to figure out where we were going to go for breakfast. We live in Olney (Montgomery county) where we have plenty of options but they all start to feel the same. I decided to expand our search area when I found this place on Google. What the heck, it’s 25 min away but we had nothing else going on the day, so why not.

Almost two years later…we have made that 25 minute drive, just about every single Saturday morning. It doesn’t matter if it’s raining, snowing, sleeting or if gas is $6 a gallon. Why? Because this is our happy place.

The ambiance: Yes the place is small and you may have to wait to be seated, but that’s part of the charm. Once you are seated, you feel like family. Tracey will bring you a drink while Courtney or Taylor work their way around the room tending to each tables needs. (I have to tell you, anyone who says the gen z’ers don’t work hard, have never met these girls.) The place is filled with regulars the reason being that the staff makes a concerted effort to make you feel like an old friend.

The food: The food is outstanding. Whether you order something simple like scrambled eggs or one of the more exciting, carbalicious items, everything is fresh and made really well. Even the bacon is somehow better than other restaurants. It’s cooked perfectly; not too crispy, not too chewy, just perfect!!! The coffee is good and they have Coke fountain drinks. Don’t you just hate when you find a great place to eat but they serve Pepsi?

There is a nearby free public parking lot for those that don’t want to park on the street. There are some cute shops nearby, as well as a Walmart so go check them out and run some errands, but maybe go on Sunday so that we don’t have to wait longer...