The Great American Diner & Bar — Restaurant in Seattle

So glad to find a place that serves baked potato EVERY NIGHT!

Had some delicious prime rib, served with au jus, horseradish and grilled veggies. YUM. My wife had a plate of nachos so big that she could not even eat half! They were so crispy they reminded me of corn flakes.

Our server Dorian was pleasant and not too present, just right.

Called first and Glenn directed us to convenient, inexpensive parking

across the street. Actually I believe that on the north end of that block, on the west side, the downtown merchants association provides a big, free parking lot. It's worth Googling for that.

The Great American Diner has party rooms, if you have a big party. They had plenty of servers working, which was great. It is kid-friendly for sure.

We will go back for sure. I want to try their breakfast menu, crab Benedict.

---We've been back several times since and it just gets better. The servers are really on it and the food always shows care and expertise. JOY!

We arrived at noon on a rainy. Sunday. We got 2 hours of parking across the street for a little over $5. The place was really packed but we were fortunate to get a window table with a view of Puget sound. A lot of staff members were working and they kept tables turning fast.

Our server was a face due to us, a very friendly middle-aged lady. She was ready to take our order promptly but we needed a little more time. When she came back my wife tried the country fried steak with eggs, country fried potatoes and wheat toast. I ordered Joe's specia.l When the food arrived. It was not exactly hot off the grill, but it was good.

The owner manager brought the food to our table. We recognize each other and that makes for a pleasant experience. He's really good at what he does hospitality. The server returned promptly with two cups of hot coffee. The servings are really generous, in fact my life took half of hers home. The coffee is good. The tab was a little over $30, a pleasant surprise these days.

There were some real extroverts behind us who were talking and laughing at the tops of their voices. This is no bad reflection on the restaurant, people having fun. But it made the second half of my meal Difficult to enjoy, stressful. It reminded me of another time at the Great American diner when a lady at an adjacent table had to speak in a cheerleader voice, like she was calling out cheers for people to follow. Well we know what to expect. They can also be really loud with the sound of young families. The Great American diner is a place for everyone. Still great...

My first time coming here and based off the reviews, I was hoping for a really good OG diner with some yummy classic pancakes and the kind of thing you’d expect from a diner.

First thing I noticed was the maple syrup in a bottle on the table and the whole thing was dirty and oily. It was very gross, especially as someone who’s a clean freak when it comes to restaurants. The handle was oily and to be honest, the syrup tasted like nothing. I think they should serve the syrup in a small container with each plate to keep things fresh and clean.

I got the pancake combo and I was so excited for these because who can mess up pancakes?! Just wait … I have never had nasty pancakes given to me at a restaurant, that was never even a thought that crossed my mind.

As soon as I dressed up my pancakes with maple syrup and took a bite out of the pancake, it was like biting a hard sponge that was SOUR. It tasted horrible and I was honestly shocked. I thought it was the syrup at first but I tasted just the syrup and again, didn’t even taste like maple syrup first of all. Second, it tasted like nothing at all (ew).

I tried the pancakes again and had my partner try them and we confirmed it was indeed the pancakes. I honestly didn’t even feel like telling them to replace it because I was nervous they would mess up again or just have nasty batter batches in the back for anything to do with pancakes or waffles. (I felt like having a sweet breakfast, can you blame me?)

The hashbrowns, eggs, and bacon were good-ish but to be quite frank; just those few bites of the pancakes put me off the whole time so it was hard to enjoy anything. It also upset my stomach the whole day. I had to drink loads of ginger tea and water to cleanse myself and feel better.

I was really hoping for some good pancakes at a cool diner but we will never be coming back here unfortunately. That alone is just a red flag.

My partner also got a BLT which she thought it was good because you can’t really mess up something with literally 3 ingredients (luckily🙄). They asked if she wanted ranch and she said yes. We got charged for the ranch but was never brought the ranch in the first place. We realized too late.

As of 2/6/25, this place...

My friends and I ordered through a delivery service. I can only imagine that the positive reviews of this place stem from hanging out at the actual diner with friends/fam, chatting with service folks, because the actual food is terrible. For example, here's a description of an item we ordered: "Stuffed Belgium Waffle: Crispy Belgium waffle topped with fresh strawberries and whipped cream" I entered, "crispy waffle please!" in the instructions. I was told by the delivery guy that the restaurant informed him the waffles "cannot be made crispy the way it is made" - I had hoped to get it extra crispy but apparently any version of "crispy" is a physical impossibility for this menu item. They might need to revise the item description. They also neglected to include the whipped cream, though they managed to include the strawberries. That was just simple oversight, though. Prior to tonight, I honestly did not know a grilled cheese sandwich could be terrible. It seemed like a safe thing to order - who could possibly ruin grilled cheese? I now know the answer! Super dry, not nearly enough butter on each side. Kind of more like 2 pieces of toast with 2 slices of american cheese slightly melted onto them and pushed together. There's a visible line of separation between the 2 slices of cheese, so they never really melted, or perhaps are exceptionally plastic american cheese. Never again. Updating review on 5/28: Adding a star because owner responded so immediately, which says they genuinely care and I appreciate that! I'm not fishing for anything like a refund, just giving feedback - you may want to consider removing the waffle from your delivery menu if it cannot possibly be delivered with the quality you expect; if that's not possible, perhaps cancel the item from the order with an explanation and see if the order can be amended (difficult in busy times, I realize). The missing whipped cream probably contributed to the overall disappointment, but again, that was a simple mistake. I do think it would have helped the product meet the...