Brandon's Diner — Restaurant in Riverside

I moved away from Riverside and have always loved this place s food from their taco Tuesday's to the carnitas burrito smothered with cheese with green sause and of course always i mean always weather in Mo Valley or Corona or down the street on Indiana with some complementary chips and salsa. I went from coming here at the least 3 times a week to this being the first in 11 months and when my party of 12 had already enjoyed our food and drinks like old times we remembered the chips and salsa and like always asked for some while we talked and waited for others to finish i felt bad because we barely got 1 or 2 chips and loved them but were too stuffed. But when i was paying i saw the charge of almost $4 i thought it was a mistake so i let the hostess know hey you made a mistake and told her my history of 100 ' s of times being here and never paying for them that she would take it off but no she said no they havent been free for 3 years sorry and I told her again my story and she could care less and asked cash or card? So you know this was Sunday at 345 when we showed and 7 of our 12 were kids. I wasnt trying to get our kids food for free even though it was almost 6 when we were leaving or a discount off the $300+ bill I just wasnt made aware they charged for something that was always free and when i expressed it they couldn't of cared less. I told her because of it they will be lucky if our family ever comes here again and she replied im sorry you feel like that and walked away. She must be related or just doesnt have a customer driven attitude but someone needs to train her about customer driven sales. Im going to miss the place . i dont pay for chips and salsa and wont eat anywhere that tries to...

The food and wait service here is excellent. However the staff seems a little disorganized. The hostez was frazzled and didn't know what seats were open. Zhe also forgot my drink order. They must have been short a busser because there were several tables in need of clearing and I eventually saw the waiter clear them. The tables, and really everything I saw, could definitely be cleaned a little more thoroughly.

Once I was seated and the waiter took my order everything went smoothly. The coffee hit the goldilocks spot of a mild flavored medium-dark roast. There were no issues customizing my omelette order and the results were delicious.

I highly recommend the banana nut pancakes and they were willing to delay their preparation so that I could eat my main course first. The syrup comes warmed in a flow restricting bottle making it easy to deliver the perfect amount of syrup without making a mess.

Unfortunately the outside seating has high ambient noise being close to the freeway and two busy streets. There is a stereo shop across the avenue and several times loud music was played which clashed with the music playing at the diner.

All told, the food is really good and worth suffering the pretty mild rough spots. I hope they iron out the organization and...

Update: well it seems something has gone south. After bragging and recommending Brandon’s for years it finally happened, the one time that makes one wonder “was I dreaming all this time?” Ordered a normally great breakfast to go of Belgian waffle and a blt with fires. Got the food, Belgian waffle that was really more like a flat tire and a helping of strawberries that seemed more sauce than berries, ranch instead of whipped cream, some powdered sugar and surprise! pancake syrup, which really doesn’t work well together. Putting the strawberries on turned the waffle into, what’s the word?...oh yeah, mush. The blt was just “there” with fries that paled in taste to their normal ones. All this for $30? Called them up to kindly let them know what happened, but couldn’t come back to let them make it right. Now I’m still longing for a breakfast. Bummed out. Anyway, I hate bad reviews and wish I could find a bright spot in the experience today. Don’t know when I’ll go back. I feel like I lost my friend. Oh Brandon! Why you do me this way?

(I’d still bet that dining in is still the same great Brandon’s as always though)

Previous to this was the following review:

Fantastic service, huge menu and delicious entrees makes this go to place to fill up. Family...