Mel's Family Diner — Restaurant in Sanford

YUP‼️ This is a definite return! This was our first visit to the diner, and OH BOY, I'm happy we stopped in!! As we walked in, Adrianna greeted us warmly and let us know she was cleaning a table for us to be seated. The seating was less than a minute, and fresh coffee was on the table very soon after. Cameron or "Cam" as she likes to be called, with her high-spirited bubbly personality, was quick to help Adrianna with our table and took our order with great suggestions and answers to questions from the menu. I chose waffles, eggs, and bacon with a fresh fruit cup on the side. The waffles were light Ave fluffy and didn't even need syrup! The eggs were perfectly cooked to my liking, and the bacon was crisp and not dripping in grease, so it didn't kill the flavor of the bacon. My fruit cup was fresh strawberries, sliced bananas, and blueberries. The fruit was crisp and sweet, which made me pick my spoon up and scoop the cup as opposed to picking it up with the fork. Our other meal was the biscuits and gravy with eggs and ham. The biscuits were fluffy and not too flaky. Again, the eggs were cooked to perfection, and the ham was tender. We thought that maybe there could be an option for honey baked, but the meal was very good without it. The chef, as well as Patrick, who is the owner, stopped by our table to greet us and welcome us in. He shared some history of this restaurant and the other that he owns (that will be our next eatery) and thanked us again for choosing Mel's Diner. If you've never been for a visit, you are missing out on a gem! It's located in a good location and should now pick up the traffic from "The Patio Diner" which is about 2 miles away, since they are now closed. The restaurant was clean and smelled fresh, and the bathrooms were tidy and stocked with the necessary toiletries.

Mel's Diner, you get 5 🌟 's in my book!! We were...

What a horrible experience the 2nd time on a row. Please read before you ever go there. First visit was right after they re-opened...they were out of most of their items. I ordered soup...it was ice cold...the owner took it back and microwaved it for me. Warned me that is was hot. It was still cold. After questioning where my bosses food was, it had been over 25 minutes... They delivered my bosses food to the wrong table and the people there touched it. Another long wait... The owner told us that he was going to comp our meals. He lied, comped my boss not me. Well, decided to give them another try. Not sure why...it was my stupid idea... I order water and asked if they had lemons, they had none the last time we were there. She said yes. I was lucky because when she delivered it she told me that it was the last lemon. My boss and I both ordered cheese steaks. Well, they only had enough for 1. My boss said that I could have it and she ordered something else. The waitress said order whatever you want and we will charge you for the cheesesteak. She ordered a breakfast sandwich on an English muffin with a side of home fries. $9.99 for an egg, a piece of cheese and 2 pieces of bacon. $1.49 for the English muffin (no explanation)and $2.99 for horrible home fries. Look at her bill... look at the menu...shouldn't be extra for the bread for the sandwich. They offered her a voucher to make things right. She refused the voucher. No voucher needed ever.

We will never be back...they probably won't be opened much longer...

Visited Mel's on 11-25-2022 and was thoroughly disappointed. We were seated after ten minutes spent waiting on a slow Friday morning. We were greeted with dead flies in the windowsill of our booth Service was fairly quick, but our server didn't know the menu very well and asked me twice how I wanted the eggs cooked for my omelette. Girlfriend ordered a breakfast sandwich on a croissant and hash browns. The hash browns were blonde and almost looked like raw potato, despite tasting heavily of grease. The sausage on her sandwich was clearly precooked and frozen. My omelette bowl was fine, though everything was under seasoned, and the side order of grits that I ordered was clearly microwaved. Will note that my home fries were delightfully crispy, but that was definitely the high point of the meal. We finished eating and went to the counter to check out. While waiting for somebody to cash me out, I noticed that the griddle in the clearly visible kitchen looked as though it hadn't been cleaned properly in ages. To cap off our lovely visit, the waitress who checked us out eyed the tip that I left (25%) and made a nasty look at me as we left, as though we weren't being generous enough. This seems like the kind of place that once would've been the talk of the town, but now simply has faded into a disappointing grease bucket, helmed by people who don't care and owners that don't perform quality control. Will not be returning, and I'm sorry to have wasted my...