Red's Cafe — Restaurant in Salem Township

Wait staff was nice. Young and not well trained, but very attentive and the owner was nice.

Cook was making one plate at a time. Slamming things around and clearly frustrated for some reason. The place had a larger group of about 8 people, plus some other tables with 2.

Took 30 minutes to get our food and we ordered two items. Others seated after us were served first. Food did come hot, but waitress had her finger stuck in my gravy from my biscuits... I scooped that off and just ate around it trying to get out of there as it was so loud and cramped. Plus, I didn't want to wait longer to have it remade. How to handle plates and cups would be a good training for the staff. Touching the food with your fingers or even the lip of the cups and plates goes against health codes.

EVERYTHING was dirty. Menus, salt and pepper shakers, coffee creamers that were sitting in a bowl with dead flies and food scraps in them. Syrup or coffee stains on the creamer packets. Blinds that haven't been dusted since 1984. Carpets filthy, doors grimey, tables sticky, and fans circulating air were clogged with grease and cobwebs. Simple bucket and sponge to clean up most of that, so had us wondering how clean the kitchen habits are.

Little to no seating and customers were turned away, so be prepared for a wait or be prepared for no service. The place could seat about 4-5 families if you squeeze in tight. Maybe seats 25-30 people if you put 4 in each of the three booths, 4 at each of the three tables and 2 off to the side.

Food was average. Biscuits and gravy were decent but the biscuits were dry even with gravy. Nothing to really write home about. Not sure if we missed something, but...

A standard breakfast joint. With lunch items as well.

We had breakfast, biscuits and gravy, sausage plate, and the corn beef hash plate.

The sausage was similar to a calabasa sausage instead of your normal sausage patty or links. Eggs were cooked perfectly, and the hashbrowns were done perfectly as well.

The corn beef hash was good. Had a sweet taste to it. Not super sweet or anything like that, just a slight sweet in the background.

Biscuits were good, and the gravy seemed like it might have the corn beef hash mixed in. Wasn't a 100% sure.

Service was quick, and she was friendly! The door says cash only, but she did accept our credit card.

Menu showed they had been on diners dine in and drives!

Will come back for...

A friend told me about this diner so I made a bike trip from Wichita this morning at sunrise so. It’s a diner with its own unique small town feeling. Nothing fancy but quaint…which I like. Corned beef hash and eggs were great. Eggs cooked perfectly sunny side up and the hash was flavorful but could have been from a package. I make my own hash so I’m just more in tune. Maybe the owner can tell me. I like my hash more chunkier. Hash browns perfectly seasoned. Pancakes were fluffy and just the right amount of sweetness. I’ll be back for sure for lunch and chicken fried steak. I was there for the food but the owner needs to do a major deep cleaning around the baseboards for grease and mold and fix the sink leaking...