Shorty's Diner - Yorktown — Restaurant in Poquoson

Here’s my honest opinion, We’ve been to Shorty’s numerous times in the past few year since moving to the Williamsburg/Yorktown area. While usually busy, we’ve never had an issue with service or food. We decided to check out the new location today. We were a party of 5 (4 adults and a toddler). We were told the wait would be about 15 minutes. About 40 minutes later, we checked with the host to see how much longer it would be. She said there was a two top in front of us and then we’d be next. However, 5 minutes later the host told us that they “couldn’t sit us in the main dining room because there was no high chairs allowed” and that it would be Atleast another 15-20 minutes for one of the high top tables to become available. At this point, we were ready to leave, but asked if it was okay if we sat our child in our laps so that we could get a “normal table”. She assured us this would be fine. We were seated, got our drinks, and went to order. We already knew what we were getting because like I said, we’ve been to the diner frequently, even just had a visit about a month ago in Richmond. The other couple in our party ordered the sampler, I got a burger, and my partner ordered a tenderloin sandwich. When trying to order a kids breakfast for my 3year old, the waitress insisted that they don’t have a kids menu or a kids breakfast and that we would need to order something else. So we made a quick change, got them a pancake, 2eggs with cheese and a side of bacon. Simple right? We waited about 40 minutes to get our food. Sort of understandable since it was super busy and opening weekend (even though we watched numerous tables that were there after us get their food) I digress. We ate. Food was on par with what we’re used to with the other locations. Then it came time for the bill. We put it all on one check. It came to $80 and change. I thought, there’s no way that’s right. $80 for something that usually costs us 50-$60. Surely there had to be something wrong. Turns out, for our child’s same breakfast that she would normally get as a kids meal, a SINGLE pancake was$7.25, orange juice $3.79, a side of bacon $4.79 and two eggs with cheese was $4.25.(and yes I understand that we could have looked at the menu more Closely before ordering as to not be so surprised by the price- by that time we were all tired of waiting, our toddler was hungry and we just wanted to get some food out on the table) All in all we spent more for our 3year old to eat, than we did for a grown adults full meal. Very disappointed in that as well as not having the adequate seating for a family with a small child, even though the host knew we had a toddler when we arrived. We’ve always known Shorty’s to be a family establishment, but this time/location made it feel more like an inconvenience. I truly hope hey fix this...

Editing previous review: Please note that the photographs included with this review were from the first visit that we had where everything was cooked appropriately and tasted good. This is a new update to the review and unfortunately I cannot add pictures of the steak and the hash browns. We came to Shorty's in Yorktown on Labor Day. There was a short wait. We ordered some of our regular items including the chicken fried steak with gravy and the steak and eggs. The steak appeared to be boiled or microwaved. It was ordered well done but was inedible. Bluish gray in color and rubbery. there were absolutely no griddle or grill marks on it. For the chicken fried steak dish, there were maybe literally two small spoonfuls of gravy on top of a large piece of chicken fried steak. My companion ordered the hash browns well done and emphasized that he wanted them crispy all the way through. They came less cooked than they normally do. Our waitress was very busy and was unable to check in on us with any frequency and did not offer many solutions to our problem. My companion reordered the hash browns and we sat for 20 minutes and they never came. She delivered the check and we told her for the third time that they had not come. I really like this restaurant and what it represents, but unfortunately without consistency of product you are not going to keep many regulars. We had the opportunity to go anywhere we wanted for breakfast today and we chose to come here. It was a huge disappointment. Not sure we're going to risk it in the future. We are very sad about this.

Original Post: We really enjoy Williamsburg Shorty's and were excited to try the Yorktown location. The restaurant is much bigger and decorated with really fun kitchy decor. We came for breakfast about 8:00 and were seated right away. From our past experience we found our waitresses to be very friendly, but our waitress today wasn't as friendly. We ordered the Shorty's special and the steak and eggs with coffee and orange juice. My mother's bacon was very undercooked even though we asked for it to be well done, but the waitress quickly remedied the situation once we alerted her. Overall the food was good, just what we expected, and the coffee is very tasty. The orange juice tasted like it was fresh squeezed. We were happy with our experience and will definitely come back...

We arrived around 1:00 p.m. on a Saturday and were seated right away. The establishment is extremely loud but it wasn't terribly bothersome. I was surprised that they had gotten so much of the smoke smell out from the previous business but it is still noticeable near the exit. The service was excellent; our waitress and every other staff member we encountered were very friendly. Our drinks were served promptly, and they even have the good ice. Our food arrived in about 20 minutes, which was not bad at all. We ordered the barbecue sandwich with french fries, a bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit with hash browns and a side of hollandaise sauce, the Shorty's special pancakes, and a side of onion rings.

The barbecue sandwich was absolutely unappetizing; it looked and tasted like flavorless mush, with nothing southern or vinegar-based about it. The fries were pretty good, but I was glad to have salt and pepper available. The onion rings were also good, though I prefer beer-battered ones, and these were the more textured kind, which irritate my mouth, so I couldn't eat many. The ranch was really tasty! The biscuit was delicious; next time, I'll remember to order my egg over easy to make it perfect. The bacon on it was excellent. Unfortunately, the hollandaise sauce was very disappointing, and I'm glad I didn't order eggs Benedict as I had planned. The hash browns were fine, but they were very very crispy, almost overcooked. I was starving, so I just smothered them in ketchup and ate them that way. The pancakes were decent, definitely nothing special aside from being huge, but they were fine.

Overall it was a good experience and the biscuit alone will be...