Doumar's Cones & Barbecue — Restaurant in Norfolk

Our happy, clueless faces BEFORE eating inside.

We love diners - old fashioned, Route 66 style, Woolworths counter type, classic pharmacy soda-fountain ones. The vibe can't be beat, especially if sitting on the stools watching all the action happen. We wait to see the decor in each one and enjoy a well done, tried and true "greasy spoon" experience. This is now a fourth-generation enterprise and have good reviews - you'd think they'd know what customer service is all about, but no - we feel they're resting on past laurels

We drive up *kitschy style sign - check! *car-hop waitresses where you can eat in your car after they wait on you (even though this time we want to eat inside) - bonus! *But then, upon entering, it all starts and continues to spiral constantly downward...

*The top manager (possibly even one of the owners?) was at the counter cash register and didn't smile or acknowledge us, let alone welcome us - ding! *When our food is delivered, it is wrapped in plastic and just plopped on the table - NO PLATE, no utensils (for our inedible coleslaw!!), just basically eating off the table!! - double ding!! * Our water was served in Styrofoam (first of all - wasteful!!) AND we could see the reusable plastic glasses on the counter - ding! *Then their ice cream sundaes were served in thinner plastic than the tall ice cream glass glasses that we could see behind the counter - ding!

If we wanted to eat off plastic wrap with no utensils (ice cream did have spoons) - we would've eaten in our car - BUT WE CAME INSIDE FOR THE DINER SERVICE. Last I knew, real diners used plates and glasses.

If they can't afford to wash plates for their customers who come inside to eat for a sit-down restaurant experience, then they need to seriously rethink their business model.

Soooo disappointed - we bypassed the cute eateries we could have walked to around our hotel to drive to Doumar's just for another historic diner meal to add to the others we have enjoyed immensely. They should not call themselves a "landmark diner" on their website - it insults true, traditional...

Very disappointed with this experience. We were in spot 21 at 6:32PM on 2/06/24. My grandparents have been not only coming to Doumar’s for over 40 years, but going to Doumar’s has been a highlighting event every time I’ve come to visit them for 25 years. It was the last item on my to-do list before I leave tomorrow morning, and upon arrival we were greeting by a very flat faced and unemotional server who seemed quick to get her service over with. I’ve worked in food service management for almost 10 years, so we tried to give her the benefit of the doubt at first. When she came back to take our order and I asked her about the Strawberry Willy, she listed off the ingredients quicker than I could comprehend them, and when my grandparents ordered their sundaes she was quick to snap that sundaes don’t come with nuts when asking for a sundae with no nuts. Well, we ordered a sundae WITH wet nuts, and got no wet nuts. My Strawberry Willy also had no strawberries, but I’m not even sure they were supposed to have them since I could barely understand her description of the product. We also didn’t get a tray for our car, our server claimed ice cream orders don’t get trays, but our last 40+ years experience says otherwise. Due to that fact, we had to get out of the vehicle to throw away our own trash when we were finished. We tipped her, though we really wish we didn’t and don’t think we received near the appropriate service to justify a 20% tip. If we wanted this type of service we’d have just gone to Sonic; the reason for coming to Doumar’s has always been for the experience, and we found none of that classic American drive-in experience tonight. We really hope to see better service from Doumar’s in the future, because this was certainly not the Doumar’s experience we’re used to. PS, if you’re missing menus, she never picked them up from...

My husband and I were shopping at MacArthur Center in Norfolk and we hadn’t eaten all day. We decided to look up Doumar‘s BBQ and saw that they were referenced by a Rachel Ray and Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives as being a great place to eat. Since we had never tried it before and after driving by it so many times and seeing how packed they were, we figured their food had to be great. Once we got there I called to see how we were supposed to do it and was told to park under the awning and a server would be out to give us the menu. The server came out gave us the menu and told us of course that we can keep the menu and was told once we are ready to order just put on our headlights. We both decided to get burgers and fries along with drinks. Our server wasn’t bad at all just all in the car like she was family, but she did come to our aid pretty quick. After receiving the order, the burgers were super thin and crispy, we didn’t know what type of meat that was, the fries were cold and burnt, the sweet tea tasted like water with sugar and my cherry soda was horrible like they used sprite soda and added cherry flavor, but was heavy handed on the cherry flavor. The server checked in on us and ask is everything OK, and I told her that the food was not great at all and asked her if we can get a refund for the drinks and she talk to the manager and they did do that, but we still paid $12 for those two small thin burgers, cold fries and coleslaw that I never received. We would never return to this place...If you want great BBQ, Pierce’s BBQ in Williamsburg is awesome...We have learned not to try new places and you should...