Denny's — Restaurant in Santa Ana

Unfortunately this was not a great experience.

I will say our server was FANTASTIC. I can't remember his name, but I think it was Rafael, he was very nice, courteous, fast, and made our cookies and cream milkshake himself and it was the best tasting thing we had.

Unfortunately the rest of our food did not taste fresh or made with quality ingredients.

My girlfriend ordered the blueberry pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream. Everything tasted frozen instead of freshly made to order. The strawberries were definitely from a can or frozen and thawed. They were soggy and gross, instead of freshly cut, chilled and crisp. The pancakes themselves tasted like frozen pre-made pancakes with blueberries in them they just threw on the griddle. It came with a side of eggs, hash browns and bacon. I ate the bacon (she's vegetarian) and it tasted like bacon should. The eggs didn't taste fresh, tasted like pre-made from a carton and the hash browns tasted like they were from a frozen bag.

She also ordered a grilled cheese sandwich which came with crinkle cut fries. The grilled cheese tasted like they used cheap government cheese and cheep white bread. The fries tasted like frozen pre-cut fries. Not fresh.

I ordered the appetizer sampler with boneless buffalo bites, crispy chicken fingers, mozzarella sticks, and onion rings. Again everything here tasted like it was pre-made from the frozen section and just reheated. Some of the mozzarella sticks were burnt and inedible and some were not cooked enough and the cheese wasn't melted. The onion rings were some of the worst I've ever tasted. The Buffalo bites were whatever, hard to judge because they were covered in sauce and a bit soggy and I dipped them in ranch to finish them anyways. I will say the crispy chicken fingers were great and actually tasted like fresh chicken. They were juicy, crisp, and crunchy and tasted great but there were only 2 of them and they were tiny. I wish I would have just ordered those alone.

I also ordered some sort of cheese bacon stuffed hash brown appetizer that was just awful. Already having a hash brown filled with cheese and bacon is pretty heavy tasting and filling item on it's own, and they were drenched in some sort of gravy sauce they were sitting in and made them soggy and then topped with sour cream. I tried one but couldn't eat anymore.

I hope management can turn it around and hopefully if they are serving frozen pre-made food turn it around and start serving fresh to order food. I've worked in the service industry for 15+ years and this type of food may have gotten a pass back in the 90's and early 2000's, but you cannot serve frozen pre-made food at a restaurant now, especially for the price (it was not cheap).

That said again our server was fantastic. If he worked at a high volume busy restaurant with higher quality food and higher prices he could easily make $300+ a shift with his work ethic. He was on top of everything last night and we never had to ask him for anything. Take care of him and give him a raise if you don't want to lose him.

Sadly we will never eat at...

I normally work graveyards 16 to 36 hours hour shifts working on cars all that time so naturally you'll get dirty. I went in one night after working a 36 hours straight shift granted I was a little dirty a little sweaty I clean myself up a little bit in the bathroom sat down to eat and the manager the new night manager this was 3 weeks ago called me a dirty worthless bum and he's tired of all the homeless people like me who are all drugged out coming in and ordering food and not being able to pay for it. Consequently I just turned the food over on the table stuck at it out for the waitress because she was pleasant as though her service could have been better and walked out. Every since then working a hundred hours out of 168 hours each week I've had nothing but problems parking in and around this Denny's because his is a central location in Orange County and it only takes me 20 minutes to get anywhere. Now if you're a fan of Denny's that's fine but this particular Denny's needs to be shut down and management level needs to be reorganized. There are a few servers there that would be better off management than the management they have now!!! I saw servers eating on the food line which is illegal in the state of California and all the night manager did was laugh and I'm not going to eat food when people are putting food in your mouth and then touching the food they want me to eat and pay for it. So if you would like other people's germs from their hands and their mouth in your food then by all means go to this Denny's otherwise I would avoid it...

Having to drive all the way to Santa Ana is not my idea of a great time, but there was event there for my grandson so off we went. Of course, when he saw the sign for Denny's he wanted to stop. He is just sure one of them will sell his favorite spaghetti with meat balls. I tell him they don't carry it anymore, but he has to be shown. It was lunch time anyway.

Parking was easy in their lot and the place was not at all crowded. We were seated right away and a server was with us to get a drink order. My grandson asked about his pasta and no they don't have it. He settled for a Sprite while he had me read him the menu.

Our server was super nice. She took good care of us, refilled my coffee and our food was hot and as ordered.

The place is clean and the bathrooms are spotless.

We shared breakfast, pancakes and eggs with hash browns and a grilled turkey sandwich with fries. All of it was great. The pancakes were fluffy and the hash browns cooked perfectly. We loved the flavor of the turkey on the sandwich and it was grilled perfectly.

When we are in town again, we...