Denny's — Restaurant in San Mateo

I would rate this particular Denny's location on Norfolk in San Mateo, California to be mid-rated for a Denny's location.

The service was warm, attentive, and excellent!

But like most other Denny's locations in the US, this particular Denny's could use some maintenance.

The food that was served was good. But there is a $0.50 per egg surcharge. When you are served bacon on the plate, what you will get is a half-strip instead of a full strip of bacon. Couple that bacon point with the fact that the bacon strips are already small to begin with and it becomes a value problem for ordering bacon. Pancakes were perfect and a decent size too.

One advantage this Denny's location has over some other Denny's locations in the San Francisco Bay area is the fact that everything on the plate comes cooked fresh. I don't mind waiting a bit longer when I get freshly prepared food.

Other table accessory food items were of good quality and well maintained.

Tables were clean if a bit worn.

Similar to other Denny's, this one long ago also had its counter space removed and extra tables installed long ago. But then, counter space has fallen out of favor a long time ago. So no surprise here.

Bathroom maintenance was average for this kind of Denny's. Although the sink was definitely defaced with scratched in graffiti and could use replacement.

One funny thing I did notice about this Denny's restroom arrangements was the sign on the women's door. Usually it's the guy's restroom which has a problem being maintained. But here to see an extra posted sign only on the women's door stating " NOTICE HELP KEEP THIS RESTROOM CLEAN' was humorous.

I don't necessarily like TVs inside of a Denny's. But if you're going to have a TV installed and turned on, at least make sure the service that you have attached to the TV is working instead of displaying some kind of message that shows that the connected device or service is broken in some way.

Parking at this Denny's location was easy. Getting here was also easy with access to a freeway and major streets surrounding the location.

If you're traveling in the area and also need gas, there is a gas station across the street. There are also other stores and services in the same strip mall as the Denny's is located.

An extra point of service I noticed. Another person arrived with her phone nearly dead. An offer was made to help the patron recharge their phone if they had a charger and a cord. Although electrical outlets around the restaurant are hard to come by, it's nice to know the staff are compassionate and will offer to let you charge your phone in one of their areas.

Total price for this meal which included coffee, and a Everyday Value Slam with pancakes, plus the $1.00 Eggs surcharge was $13.14 before tip.

Price for a meal at this San Mateo Denny's was average for a Bay area Denny's. Value for the monies paid I would say is subpar for a San Francisco Bay area Denny's. If you're going to come to this Denny's to eat, come with the expectations above for value purposes.

Not the worst place in the whole Bay area. Give The San Mateo Denny's restaurant a try if you're local to this...

On 12/15/2024 at approximately 7:00pm, my family and I had dinner at this location in Foster City near Hillsdale Exit. As we walked in the restaurant we were greeted by being asked how many we were and then given menus to find our own seats from which we proceeded to find our own seats and waited a while to be serviced. The restaurant was not busy and there were only so many people having dinner. We ordered everything right away as soon as the waiter by the name of Seema was ready to take our order. When we received our food, the coffee was not hot and was warm (we let that pass). The food my daughters received were some burnt buffalo wings. You could taste the old oil and burnt breading around the wings. My wife ordered a baked lasagna which was completely burnt on the outside and was not edible due to the harness of the pasta. My wife ended up eating only a little bit of the inside before it made her feel sick to her stomach. My daughters both went to the restroom because of how the food made them feel. I attempted to bring all of this to Seema's attention. My kids did not want to eat anymore after this. While checking out, I brought up the issues to Seema which she dismissed and made no attempt to take away those items that were not edible off the check. I gave her reasonable cause to do so and she said she would speak to the manager Emilia, but I did not see her talk to anyone and just went around the corner and came back with an employee discount. I specifically asked why we should not have been charged for the items that were not edible. I will be following up this review with a formal report with BBB and maybe an inspector. Someone or a lot of people there are not doing there job. Please...

I've always went there since I was a little kid and have always loved it. The staff there are friendly and welcoming and I never had problems with it. Up until recently. Lately it seems like some staff members would rather be anywhere but working (which is understandable, I know the feeling) but its been getting a bit... Sloppy? I was eating there the other day and both the salt and pepper shakers were completely empty, and the pepper shaker had molded food stuck to the top. There was no jam whatsoever, and our waitress, while kind and talkative, kinda forgot about us. She dropped our menus off, checked back in to see if we were ready to order, then disappeared for 10 minutes. And it was slow day. Barely anyone was there. I had to tell another server that our waitress hadn't showed up. Another problem that's been showing up is issues with the food. Whoever they have back there has been keeping the food on hot for way too long and not paying attention. I came in one day and I had meatballs so burnt that I couldn't cut it with a knife. And yesterday, I ordered the American slam, my hasbrowns came with burnt pieces of onion in it that were hidden at the bottom. While I love this place and the staff that I grew up with, its sad to see that the place where I've made good memories and have had made amazing friendships is slowly losing it shine and color. The kindness isn't really there anymore, and the feeling of family and welcoming is slowly diminishing. I hope that things change and...