Plaza Diner Restaurant — Restaurant in Shelton

FUZZY WHITE MOLD on TWO separate "fresh fruit" plates attempted to be served to our 5-year-old!

On March 17th, 2018, on our way home, directly following the late morning funeral of my Greek husband's beloved great-uncle, we stopped in at the Plaza Diner for lunch to honor his memory, since great-uncle John had loved dining at this place when he was alive.

We were seated and given menus by an older waitress within about 5 to 7 minutes. With two little kids in tow, and it being quite busy, that was really great!

We ordered for our family of four, one set of items being a "fresh fruit plate" and a side of bacon for our 5-year-old son, who must stay gluten-free for a number of ongoing health reasons (one of which is a genetic mutation which will not allow him to digest folic acid, which is found in wheat products).

The "fresh fruit" plate, upon closer inspection had fuzzy white mold growing on some of the fruit, so we kindly sent it back. I watched the manager unwrap the cellophane off another plate from the display case and bring it to us. Well, after a brief moment, we noticed that one had a light film of fuzzy white mold growing on some of the fruits, too! So... naturally, my husband got up with it to track down the waitress, and sent it back, as well.

Sometime after that, our waitress came from the kitchen to hand us our other 3.5 orders, which all seemed pretty fresh (2x omelettes w/ home fries, 1x grilled chicken cob salad, and our 5yo's side of bacon).

Still no fresh fruit plate.

And still no drinks, since being seated. My husband asked for water for our table. The waitress brought some, but we received NO ice in the glasses and NO straws. Fine, whatever. But, mainly, STILL no fresh fruit plate for our hungry 5yo son. And no checkup on our table from the waitress... ever. Not even once.

So, to avoid any further upset, I simply decided to give our 5yo the bell peppers and cucumber slices from my own salad to go with his side of bacon.

A few moments later, I overheard the diner owner/manager (who was all of about maybe eight feet away from us, lounging at the bar with his back toward our table, which was right beside the entryway) ask the waitress if she had given us another fresh fruit plate. She turned to him and said, loud enough for me to hear clearly, with a half-sneer on her face, "They already sent back two... so I didn't bother." He then gestured for her to lean down, so he could whisper something to her.

Oh, my. I am so very sorry my hungry family with a special-food-needs child came into your restaurant after our family member's funeral and "bothered" you. But our son was momentarily happy enough to eat just your bacon and some of Mommy's salad, even though you also tried to charge us on the bill for at least one of his plates of decaying fruit.

When we were ready to pay, I glanced up to see the older waitress notice my husband looking around... and she-- not being very busy at this time, since most of the lunch crowd had already cleared out-- immediately sent a different waitress over to our table to deliver that incorrect bill.

Shame on you, Plaza Diner.

I can't believe that you didn't have any "actually fresh" fruit stocked somewhere in your food-service establishment's kitchen that you might have been able to offer our hungry little 5yo boy. And I can't believe that you didn't even try at all to make amends in any way or attempt to rectify any of your own wrongs, on your own. And I can't believe that you would talk that way about your customers, loud enough for us to hear your rudeness.

This type of disgraceful behavior made me feel very uncomfortable, sad, and humiliated.

Unfortunately, if this is the clear, uncaring manner in which your employees treat your guests who want nothing more than to pay you good money for FRESH food for themselves and their children, then, perhaps, you truly don't deserve discerning customers. This was not our first time dining at the Plaza Diner, but it was, most definitely, our last.

And, seriously, where's Gordon Ramsay when you...

Reading some other positive reviews I’m questioning if they’re eating at a different place. I was going to leave at least a three star review considering the food is fairly decent BUT after todays encounter I wish I could leave a half. This isn’t the first time receiving subpar service from them but it was annoying enough to have to write a review. What to expect when you walk in? A staff fully loaded with no personality and a sour attitude, a group totally jaded and unwilling to even provide a decent “hello, I’m good how are you?” When greeted by customers walking in when asking how the hostess/worker is doing. Our actual waitress was alright, nothing annoying enough to complain about seriously.

Fast forward to us receiving our check. We get the check at the table and my friend takes her card out and I take out my cash as normal as normal and we finish chatting and get up to go pay.

There’s allegedly two hostesses, the first one who greeted us it at the end of the counter overlooking the hostess who is checking us out. We ask the second hostess to have the check split and my friend hands her the receipt and her debit card (important for later in the story) and I put my cash on the counter to wait. It’s a $15 order literally two meals and two waters. The hostess sighs and starts messing around on the screen, my friend forgetting she gave her the debit card because it’s been a while is looking in her wallet confused about where her card is and now worried it was misplaced.

I offer to pay for mine first since it was taking a while and she rudely snapped no then asks the other hostess how to split a check. In the meantime we decided I’ll pay for the meal since she doesn’t seem to have her card and I let the hostess know she then rolls her eyes back in the most over dramatic-and comedic way possible and sighs, with the hostess behind her snickering. We’re totally taken a back.

We walk out totally feeling like an inconvenience for choosing their establishment, once again. So I call to get the name of the hostess so I can voice a complaint. A man picks up and when recounting the events interrupts and tells us her debit card is there. Mind you we checked the floor at our feet and in the booth and I went back to the table twice to check, and to put a tip down for the waitress and the table was cleared so the card was no where in sight. The man also tells me to come in and talk to him about why we were upset.

Upon entering the hostess very clearly was being over the top nice—whatever she’s trying I guess? She tells us the card was at our feet—which doesn’t make sense as we looked and looked. Then we put two and two together with what happened with my friend handing her the receipt with her card. In her rage of splitting checks she must’ve forgot about my friends form of payment totally throwing my friend off thinking she lost her debit card.

Then the man I was speaking too was behind the counter as well. So he’s just staring at us so I ask if he’s the person I was speaking too and I would like to talk to him. Remember he asked me to talk when we came in.

In the middle of telling him what happened and trying to emphasize with also working in customer service and having “bad days” but not excusing attitudes like that he interrupts us and then is “saved” by the other man working. The thing is neither myself or my friend were being rude, we were simply explaining why we were upset and what had happened. We also were just saying that his staff makes people feel like they’re an inconvenience for coming in but he basically blows us off and I just say, “okay, it’s your business not mine.” Meaning if you’re okay with customers feeling like a bother and wait staff that makes customers feel like they’re sh*t that’s your priority I guess.

Additional overheard conversation snippets between employees included talking trash about other employees within earshot of customers.

In conclusion expect subpar service in a semi-hostile environment with fairly...

Found myself at Plaza Diner today for lunch. First impression, its pretty cute, wheelchair accessible, outdoor dining, spacious parking lot. Walked in and was seated immediately. This is where everything stared go wrong. They sat me right by the employees cleaning station, so I was able to see EVERYTHING they were doing to the food. An older woman came over and took my order. I had a plain 3 egg omelet with spinach, broccoli, sausage and American cheese with an iced tea. Now here's what I don't understand, she ASKED me if I wanted sweet tea or unsweetened tea. I said sweet, she asked if I wanted raspberry or peach. I said peach. 1 minute later she brought over a CUP OF WATER with what tasted like a squirt of peach concentrate. UNBELIEVEABLE. The food came out pretty fast, and honestly it wasn't that bad besides the broccoli tasting oldish. But I couldn't even enjoy the food because of the placement I was sitting. I actually saw a waitress clear an empty table, DRINK out of an half empty cup of soda and then empty the rest out. DISGUSTING. I was able to see they didn't have an ice dispenser, just a cooler filled with ice under the fountain drinks. I saw EVERYONE putting their HANDS in the cooler to fill cups and at one point one waitress opened the cooler, popped some ice in her mouth and kept going. SO UNSANITARY. After that I couldn't take anymore and was just ready to go. I looked around for TEN MINUTES for the older woman that was serving me to get the check. Finally spot her at the bar, sitting on a booth, shooting the breeze with another costumer. SO UPSETTING. Finally get her attention to get the check, by the way they charged me an unsweetened iced tea. Go to the cashier, she is completely disregarding me, talking with her friend as I'm paying. SO UNPROFESSIONAL.

Take it from RHYS, spend your...