The Dining Car — Restaurant in Philadelphia

My family has been going to the Dining Car for approximately 40 years. We have many fond memories. Good food and service. However, yesterday changed all of that. We went to get into our car after finishing our lunch and found that my daughter's car was scratched on the driver side. This scratch was not there when we parked the car to go into the restaurant. This is a brand new car. Luckily, it was minor, but it should not have happened at all. Mistakes happen, but just own up to what you did and things can get worked out. I went back inside the diner to ask to see the manager. A lady came out with a pen and pad and I explained how the car was scratched when we came back out to go home. We had been in the restaurant for about an hour. She really did not seem so concerned and was more interested in downplaying our damage, which should have been no damage at all. I asked if she had security cameras so we could see if the current pickup truck parked next to us did the damage or the driver that was parked there when we first arrived. The pick up driver did a horrible job of parking and his truck was all scratched up with white scratches and my daughter's car is white. She took down the license plate number and I asked her to make an announcement for the driver to come to the desk. She said she could not do that and decided to go table to table to find out who the driver was. She finally sent an elderly man that could barely walk out to talk me and said he was the driver of the gray pickup and he seemed a little out of it came out finally came outside to look at my daughter's vehicle and said he did not do the damage and just walked away to go back into the restaurant. Of course, we have no proof who did it and she said her cameras could not get access to that part of the parking lot. Well, that does not do anyone any good. There was a police officer that had been dining there and had left and I asked her to get him to come back. He was accompanied by another male officer. We explained our situation to them, but there was nothing they could without proof, so we did not file a report. The one officer even said he would prefer not to do a report if he did not have to. Well, that just puts my faith in police officers. That is a whole different story. I asked the owner if she might want to look into cameras that can see the whole parking lot. There was not direct answer. Truly just felt like what happened to us did not matter. The owner seemed more interested in not letting her other customers know that an incident had taken place and worried about her reputation. Well, I am done with them now. Besides all of this, the food is not quite as good as it was years ago and the prices have skyrocketed. I know we are having issues with a pandemic, but still no reason for a restaurant to charge $5.00 for a hotdog. So just want future customers to know how things go on behind the scenes and you can make your own decision whether or not...

I never write reviews ... because, honestly I just don't care enough to do so ... But, I went there today with my mom and found a piece of plastic in my cole slaw and felt so disrespected by the owner that I felt I had to write a review.

Found a big piece of plastic in my cole slaw and almost swallowed it. The waitress was very kind and was frustrated and annoyed on our behalf. She went and got the owner for us, and the owner came over and simply explained that the cabbage is wrapped in plastic and when they cut it open, a piece of plastic just ended up getting into the coleslaw. She didn't even apologize! She didn't offer to take the cole slaw off the bill. She just said "I can get you something else..." To which I replied, "OK, can I have some cole slaw without plastic in it?" She brought me new cole slaw.

Then we get the check and she didn't even take off the cole slaw, so my mom complained. The owner came back over and said to me, "Well I didn't think anything was wrong because you wanted more cole slaw!" She ended up taking 5 bucks off the bill AFTER we complained.

My family goes there SO OFTEN and we have spent SO MUCH money at her establishment, and that is how she treats her customers when her establishment makes a mistake.

If she would have come over and just said "oh my god, I am so sorry about that! I'll make sure it's taken off the bill," that would have been a perfectly acceptable response. Instead she came over and explained to me how the plastic got into the coleslaw and offered no apology. I don't care how the plastic got into the cole slaw!!!! It still ended up in my mouth!!!!

Side note: I happen to know that they treat their employees like absolute garbage. We won't be coming back and we've been going here for YEARS. I'd rather spend my money somewhere that treats their employees and customers with respect and kindness. And if the owner continues to act in such a disrespectful manner, she is going to push away many patrons that have been enjoying the dining car for decades. Oh well ......

I’ve been to the dining car many of times and this was probably my worst experience. Came in around 9:20 with a friend, as soon as we walk in we are greeted with annoyed/dirty looks from the servers/hosts. We came in 40 minutes before they close, it wasn’t like we came in 2 minutes before they closed expecting a seat. The host then sits us completely across the restaurant from the other 7 tables that were all seated together. I thought pretty weird but whatever, we’re probably their last table so I’ll live. Was a mistaken, 4 other tables walk in from the time we came in til we left and all were sat on the other side of the restaurant with the rest of the other tables besides a party of 5 loud guys who were sat directly next to us when our whole side of the restaurant is empty. I suck it up because my friend loves their french onion and I don’t want to walk out on the ONLY nice server there. Honestly, I should have walked out because when my friends french onion soup came the cheese looked like it had been sitting on top of the soup for a good hour or so. Not melted! They are known for their french onion so to get a poor one like this is just not acceptable. Comes time for the bill and we are paying the check up front and we ask the Cashier if she can please give the tip to our server since we had to pay up front. She response with a horrible attitude “The tip goes on the table”. I’ve been a server for THREE years and have hosted and if a table ever asked me to pass the tip along because they paid up front, I’d happily do it. In customer service positions you are supposed to make the customer happy, guess she didn’t get the memo.

I don’t know what’s happen to the dining car over the years but it is not what it used to be and my friend and I won’t be returning...