Olympia Diner — Restaurant in Newington

My husband and I took our two young daughters out to breakfast to celebrate our wedding anniversary. It was a frigid morning, and Olympia Diner is only a couple minutes from our house, so we thought we’d give it a shot. Breakfast was marginal (we all had French toast), and the restaurant was pretty empty for a holiday morning, but regardless, we were having a good time. That is, until I overheard our waitress Jessica make some comments to another employee about how “some men are just unable to produce sons.” That was not all I heard her say on the topic but was the clincher of it.

This is not the place for a complete moral evaluation of these comments, though I have plenty to say on that (we’re so grateful to have been blessed with two sweet daughters, and it’s absolutely evil that someone might think or act like they are worth less than a boy or like we might have—or should have—been disappointed with them). But at the bare minimum, this was unbelievably rude to be talking openly about this in the middle of the restaurant, where we are completely respectful paying customers. And yet, somewhat laughable, considering we’re a few months away from welcoming our first son.

If not for these comments, we just wouldn’t have gone back (refer to my brief mention of the food). But I want it to be known that this was completely unacceptable and offensive.

I looked for an email address to send this to on their website, but as I couldn’t find one, I’m...

I was hoping for a happy nostalgic experience at the Olympia and a great diner breakfast like I'd always had there years ago. Sad to say our visit was a disappointment. 😔

To be fair, our waitress explained they were having trouble with their griddle but not until my friend had completely eaten the eggs of her pancakes and eggs order. Not only was there a delay in the arrival of her pancakes but there was a LONG wait before our waitress called down to our booth to say she hadn't forgotten us and more waiting until they were finally delivered with an explanation of the issue.

Once we'd been told about the griddle problem, I completely understood why the bacon in my order was barely cooked, the corned beef hash had the consistency of warmed over cat food and my over-easy eggs were well passed over easy.

While the diner itself looks like it always did, the atmosphere was just "off". To be fair, our visit was on a weekday morning (about 9am) so I guess we shouldn't have been surprised at a lack of the bustling crowds of our memories. I'm sure that contributed to the sad atmosphere. As far as the food goes, I always used to say "you can't screw up breakfast" (it's such a simple meal, right?). I won't be saying that any more.

I hope our experience was just a one-off. Iconic diners like the Olympia are becoming rare in our area and I hate seeing them dissappear. Not sure I'll ever return to...

This diner was really good, bordering on fantastic. It was a true retro dining experience straight from the 1950s.

There is counter and booth seating in the main part of the diner, in addition to the dining room attached to the back.

I went in wanting a burger, but got sidetracked with a Ruben. I do not regret my decision. My only disappointment was that the milkshake didn't have any whipped cream on top. That would have been the bee's knees: just simply swell.

The Olymia is conveniently located on the Berlin Turnpike, if that's someplace that's convenient to where you are. If it isn't, than it isn't.

For dessert, I enjoyed the mud pie. I'm not sure how authentic it was, but it was pretty tasty.

I could wax poeticly on how eating here transported me through time to a time when the future was less chaotic, but that wouldn't be necessarily what you're looking for in a review. What I will say is that I enjoyed my meal despite how my lactose intolerance reacted to that delicious milkshake I enjoyed. Mind you, I knew I would suffer for having it, but as I came here to relive memories from over two decades prior, it was well worth the sacrifice to my...