Ze's Diner Prior Lake — Restaurant in Prior Lake

Walking in to the place lifted your spirits. Definitely the "Happy Days" 50ish vibe. Loved the decor. We were really looking forward to our breakfast. I gave the diner at least 3 chances...sadly I (as well as the rest of us) just was not impressed with our meals. For the most part the food was typical (rather bland), nothing special. The service was good, however the food portions were sadly lacking. We honestly had high hopes for this place...

The first time there my brother ordered the Lamb Shank ($19.00). He commented on the size of it, it was quite small. However, he said it was tender, nicely cooked that had some roasted veggies of carrots, onions and some mashed potatoes. But no "sides" were offered. He was still hungry! So of course the rest of us shared.

Our Mom had the Eggs Benedict ($14.00)...it of course consisted of the basics; the english muffin, ordered her eggs cooked over medium on ham. The hollandaise sauce was nothing to write home about as well as the side of hash browns. She said it was good, but wouldn't order it again.

My sister-in-law had the Veggie Omelet ($13.75) that had sauteed onions, green peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes & cheddar cheese. She said it was perfectly cooked, palatable but it lacked seasoning.

I wasn't that hungry that morning so I ordered the Tater Tot Nachos ($9.25). My mistake...There was a lot to be had with nicely cooked bacon bits, melted cheese with some diced tomatoes topped off with sour cream. It was quite good with some nice seasoning.

They boast about being the "best home cooked food..." So I thought I'd give it another try. The second time I ordered their Rueben Sandwich ($13.65) in celebration of upcoming St. Patrick's Day. I will say that the flavors were really good...However, the corned beef looked like it was minced, it came in small bits held together by the dressing. Now I don't know about how the public feels about this, but I'm used to slices of corned beef in my Rueben, if I wanted hash I would have ordered it. That and there was more rye bread to corned beef ratio. The coleslaw was drowned out by the mayonnaise dressing which overpowered the slaw making it soggy. I actually prefer the crisp vinaigrette dressing which unfortunately they don't offer. Once again I was disappointed with the meal.

Third and last time... I ordered take out...

I ordered the Cajun Breakfast ($14.00). It had a good mixture of bell peppers, onions, mushrooms and melted cheese topped off with lots of Hollandaise sauce and the eggs were cooked to order... However, it severely lacked in the delicious spicy Cajun seasoning that I was looking forward to. If they're trying to compete with the truly "home town" cafe in Shakopee they are coming up short.

My other item was the Veggie Falafel... Unfortunately they were dry and over cooked. I've have falafel before which were great. But, like I said...these were bone dry and over fried.

I wish I had better things to say however I don't. I don't plan...

If you haven't been to ''Ze's Diner'', you are seriously missing out on life!

This is such a fun place, and the food is superb, like A+++++ Superb! But there's something magically extraordinary about ''Ze's''. It's like a Time Machine that takes you back in time. This place is like no other, it is nostalgia personified. Scientific Research shows, that if you surround yourself with things from the best decade of your life, you'll start feeling that age again.

So, if you're 70-something, and you go to ''Ze's'' for a delicious meal, cooked and served like it used to be in the 1950s-60s-70s, you'll throw away your canes and walkers, you'll forget your aches and pains, and feeling like you're 20 again, you'll start dancing and gyrating like Elvis used to in his song ''Hound Dog''. And Ladies, fetch your petticoats out of your closets, dust them off, because you'll be jiving, swinging, and rock n rolling like you used to in the 1950's!

And all of you guys in your 40's and up (not too up, mind you), you, who used to watch ''Saved by the Bell'', and dreamt of being fit like Zach Morris aka, Mario Lopez, or pretty like Kelli Kapowski aka, Tiffani Thiessen, in that diner where they used to meet, here's a chance for you to eat the food they used to eat on that TV series, and have those scrumptious Burgers, and drink delicious Milk Shakes, that they used to drink. Don't miss out: walk, run, bike to ''Ze's Diner'' today, because as they say: '' Life is not made of the amount of breaths we take, but of the moments that take our breath away'', go make some new memories...

It's sad to see locally owned restaurants going downhill. The once great service has gone away along with food quality, maybe because of the absence of the management that we always saw there but wasn't tonight. And today was the worst. There was one server dealing with a fairly busy restaurant. My boyfriend ordered a meal that came with veggies, was told they were out of veggies and could substitute, which was fine, but we saw order after order placed before and after us come out with veggies. No idea why we were told they were out. We ordered a malt with m&m's, waitress was so busy it wasn't until after getting our food and asking about the status that she made it... there was no malted in it until he got to the bottom of the metal cup where there was a very small clump. M&m's were almost non existent and it tasted like bland ice cream, very unlike previous visits. Food itself was poor quality with only a small flat thin layer of meat in a massive amount of breading for country fried steak. There was more meat in the gravy than the entree itself. Not faulting the server for slow speed and food quality, she was overwhelmed, but the odd comment about the veggies was strange and the way she made the malt left much to be desired.

Much prefer local places to large chains but our go-to here at Ze's is becoming less...