Lakeside Diner — Restaurant in Ringwood

Lakeside Diner 16 Ringwood Ave, Ringwood, NJ 07456

Quality, Quantity, Price & Professionalism that Cannot Be Beat!!!

My wife and I have seen Lakeside Diner advertising on TV many times and have said we need to give it a try. We finally made it there last night, August 18, 2023. We were welcomed as soon as we entered and shown to our table where we were greeted by Roberto R. who was our server. We were given menus and the daily specials along with two glasses of ice water. Roberto gave us a few minutes to lookover the menus and asked if we had any questions regarding the menus and if we needed more time or knew what we wanted. My wife ordered chicken and rice soup and the daily special of fish tacos, I ordered Manhattan clam chowder, steamed clams and fish tacos. I got a diet Coke and my wife unsweetened tea. In a short time, our soups were brought to us, and we began to eat. My wife and I looked at each other and said how’s yours, we both commented how good our soups were. You could taste they were homemade and not from a can. There was plenty of chicken and vegetables in her soup and mine was loaded with clams, potatoes, and vegetables. I would put this clam chowder up against anyone’s. Next I was served the steamed clams. The broth they were steamed in was outstanding! There wasn’t a drop left in the bowls when I was done. It came with enough garlic bread to sop up all the broth. The clams super fresh and cooked to perfection. Growing up in Rhode Island I have eaten my fair share of clams every which way and I put these at the top of my list. Roberto now served each of us our fish tacos. There were three huge fish tacos with each order and served with white rice and black beans. The tacos were loaded with fresh cod superbly breaded and fried to perfection topped with cabbage, Pico de Gallo, cilantro and a big slice of super fresh avocado. I said to my wife you can taste the freshness of everything we are eating!!! During our dinner the owner visited each table and spoke to everyone. He asked us how everything was so far, if we needed anything and thanked us for having dinner there. Lakeside Diner is truly a Benchmark establishment for the restaurant industry. They understand if you give the consumer quality food and a fair quantity at a fair price along with outstanding service people will come and will continue to return time and time again. I highly recommend Lakeside Diner and believe everyone should make an effort to visit and find out how good...

This place is run by thieves, every other time I go there they "accidentally" overcharge me. I know in this economy we are all hard up but I work too hard for my money to be giving it away to dishonest resturaunt owners. I've been there a bunch and had this experience and I am done. I WILL NEVER EAT THERE AGAIN!

Responding to your response. My order last night was not for a wrap, nor was I the person calling. I ordered chicken tenders last night.

My co-worker who you are referring to ordered sour cream but did not recieve it. The charge to her card is still 23+ dollars today. She was not rude she was simply inquiring why her wrap cost 23.43 which is a normal question bc that's a lot of money for one sandwich.

Furthermore we ordered from you another time in which you had promised a refund to another one of my co-workers cards (bc she did not get what she ordered) but her card was never refunded. That is thievery in my opinion.

Yet another time when I came in to pick up a $15 order I was charged more than $30.

Thank you for reply but you will not change my mind. I am done ordering from your resturaunt, both bc our orders are often incorrect and bc I work hard for my money and don't appreciate being overcharged. Or watching my coworkers who also work very hard for their pennies be...

Was great, but has slowly been getting worse again service wise. Food is average. Typical diner food. Entrees and specials are pricey for what you receive, but the basics on the menu are priced on point. Service has always been slow, but the last time I was there was ridiculous. Waited 10 minutes for a server to come over then waited 45 minutes just to get our appetizer. The server ignored us the whole time and we had to eventually call a busboy over to get drink refills. Even more annoying was the table behind us (being served by the same server and clearly full of their friends) received very attentive service and ordered, got their food, ate, and left before we even received our appetizer (which came out at the same time as our entree). When we finally got our food both of our entrees were cold.

Edit: changed my review. Begrudgingly went back about a month after my original review and was surprised. Food was good and our server was very attentive. I've been back now 3 times since and the service is much improved and I haven't seen the server who gave us terrible...