Richie's Real American Diner — Restaurant in Murrieta

Saw the great reviews and was expecting a great, old school diner experience. We were very disappointed.

The atmosphere was great and while we did have to wait a little bit on a Sunday morning, the wait wasn't very long and the host cheerfully seated us.

The waitress was attentive and took our orders promptly. My wife customarily orders chicken fried steak when it's available at a breakfast spot, and the menu offered "made from scratch" corned beef hash, which when done well is one of my favorites. We placed our order and waited excitedly.

The food came out rather quickly, which was pleasant, considering the crowd in the diner. But our excitement ebbed immediately when we saw what was on our plate.

First for the chicken fried steak. On the center of the plate was a small, rectangular mound smothered in a whiter-than-it-should-be gravy. The gravy did appear to be well peppered. My wife cut into her steak and found that it was very thinly battered, and that batter was soaked in grease. It didn't cling to the steak at all and sloughed off with every stab of the fork. There was no crunch to the batter, and the steak and breading were extremely bland. The only flavor came from the taste of the grease. Even the peppered gravy had no flavor. My wife was very disappointed in this dish.

I had really anticipated a good, made from scratch, corned beef hash. What appeared on my plate was not that. I was presented with a red-purple disk of what can only be described as flavored mashed potatoes. It was as if someone had taken a minute amount of corned beef and blended it (literally, in a blender) with some potatoes and formed it into a pâté on the plate. It was more the consistency of a dried out baby food. Rather than hash, it was corned beef mash.

I can only speak to our couple of breakfast items, but we were severely disappointed after anticipating a great old school diner meal. I will say that the atmosphere was appropriate, and the service was very good, but we can not...

I've been going to Richie's for years. People obviously like coming here as it's always popular. I've noticed some things that are hit and miss. The hits: the staff is always great. These workers must like their jobs. Many have been with the company for years. They are always attentive and pleasant. The updated kids menu, I think it's wonderful that they have an expanded menu that is more than kids boring choices of hot dogs, chicken strips, pasta, grilled cheese, and pizza. Like BJ's they offer older kids fair such as steak strips and ribs. The owners actually walk around greetings people from time to time giving this a lovely mom and pop feel. The cons: have you ever had a deep dish cherry pie that was luke warm and the crust smelled like freezer burn? I'm sad that I have. It was only once, but I'm sort of leery now. Other times I've had it scalding hot or like Goldielock's it was just right. They sell out of their specials. That's a good thing right? Well not if that's about the only reason you dragged your family 5 miles to get that wonderful pan fried Chicken that they ONLY serve 1 day a week. It's happened to me 3 or 4 times now. I'm happy for them but bummed that they keep selling out. Last con, today I was served gross soda. Ok ok, sounds funny. Here's the thing. The drinks are served in those milk shake metal cups. Well now that the state has mostly banned straws, we the consumer drink from those cups. Well my soda was not only flat, it tasted like tin. Seeing how this was the first time I have run across this I'm mostly going to ignore it. But maybe others have now encountered this? Truthfully, I used to go here quite a bit but I'm starting to run into more negatives...

Was visiting Temecula for a wedding this past weekend and we were pleasantly surprised to see that Richie‘s Diner was close by and it sounded like a great breakfast option and I can confirm that it definitely is. I am from Los Angeles so it’s great to see a retro, traditional diner in other cities that is very popular back home. They have a giant parking lot with tons of free parking and the inside is actually very large. They can host a lot of different size groups. They also sell many different types of candy in the front where the register is and our waitress and the entire staff was extremely friendly.

They have an extremely large menu, larger than most other diners. Everything is also very fairly priced and what shocked me was how large portion sizes were. You will definitely not leave hungry and honestly, it has great value for what you get in return. Being our first time visiting we decided to try some of their classic items. I started with a Giant Cinnamon Roll to start that we shared and loved every bite of. For my meal, I chose the Country Fried Steak with a biscuit and jam on the side and both were fantastic. The steak was a large size portion, the biscuit was a true buttermilk biscuit, and the homemade jam with it really made the dish.

Overall, we had a great breakfast and I would definitely recommend to anyone in the area and I would stop in again next time...