Hwy 441 Diner — Restaurant in Tavares

On our way back home from a trip to Leesburg, we stopped in at Checkers across the street for dinner and they said their dining room was closed. We then went to Hardee’s and their dining room was flooded. They said just go thru the drive through but I don’t eat in my car. We decided to get back on Hwy 441 and stop somewhere in Eustis. As we started to pull out of the parking lot I saw the sign for Hwy 441 Diner in the plaza next to Joann Fabric. My grandson and I were hungry so we decided to give it a try. A hand written sign on the door read, Cash Only, ATM inside. We walked in not knowing what to expect. We opened the door and the dining room was filled with 50/60s memorabilia and retro boots and tables. There was a sign, wait to be seated, so we waited. About 5 mins later our waitress came up and said sit anywhere over there pointing to the right side of the dining room. We took a boot and sat down. The boots, table, and chairs were all in good condition and clean. The floor was black and white tile and it was clean and grease free. The music was 50s, 60s, and some early 70s genre and not to loud. Our server came by and asked us if we were drinking soda. It seamed to be a fair wait as their were 3 servers on the floor and about 9 tables occupied. We asked if they served anything else and she said tea, coffee and juice. We enquirer about the sweet tea and she said it was sweet and just brewed. We took two. She returned with our tea and asked if we were ready to order. We were and placed our order for a starter of onion rings, I ordered the Mushroom and Swiss Burger minus the bacon and it came with French fries. I was also interested in the Ruben but went with the burger instead. My grandson wanted the meatball sub but she could not tell us if their was pork in the meatballs. She went to the kitchen and returned about ten minutes later. She said there was no pork in the meatballs and my grandson ordered it. She put in our order and a few minutes later was back with a large plate of steaming onion rings. They were streaming and served with an onion ring sauce. The onion rings were some of the best I have ever had. The oil they were cooked in was fresh and had no aftertaste. They were piping hot and had a light batter with baking soda and fine yellow corn meal. My grandson hates any kind of onion raw or cooked and loved the onion rings too. We finished about half of them when our entrees arrived. I finished all the onion rings before moving onto the lightly seasoned fries. The fries were still hot and crispy on the outside and tender inside. They were also very good for French fries. The Mushroom and Swiss was wonderful. The bun looked like it came out of a magazine and my grandson, 8 yrs, even said it was a good looking bun. It was light and fluffy on the inside and had a slightly sweet flavor. It was firm and did not crumble. The beef patty was lightly cooked in the exterior and slightly pink on the interior. It was flavorful and juicy. The Swiss was an ample amount and was melted and gooey. It had a light Smokey flavor. The mushroom slices were browned and placed on the patty with grilled onions. A mushroom sauce would have been a nice addition. The burger came with mayonnaise, lettuce, and tomato. The lettuce was green and fairly crisp. The tomato was cut thick, firm, but not juicy or sweet. I loved the burger. Also one of the best I have had. My grandson ate most of his meatball sub and half of his fries. He said the sub was great but he would have liked more cheese on it. He said the sauce was thick and not sweet. Overall this is one of the better dining experiences I have had in Central Florida. I highly recommend this diner and look forward to...

I was super excited to check this diner out, as we had heard good things about it. I'm now wondering why anyone would set foot in here. We walk in on Memorial Day and wait to be seated. There's 5 tables with folks at them, mostly two toppers, and they're all in the finishing up/leaving stages. The rather gruff lady said "give me a minute !" and it really seemed it was difficult for her to figure out where to seat us!!!! The place is not really clean, had to wipe the seat of the booth before I sat down. We ordered and waited. While we were waiting, folks walked out and proceeded to start smoking outside, right in front of the door. Nobody can go in or out, without walking through a cloud of cigarette smoke.....disgusting!!!!!!!!! When our food did finally arrive, it was super bland. Husband ordered an omelet and the cheese inside was cold!! I ordered blueberry pancakes and they were thick!! I'm not sure how you can cook them so the blueberries are burnt and yet still falling out of the pancakes instead of them being warm juicy little bursts of blueberry! Oh my bacon....I almost forgot....the waitress seemed proud of herself that she realized she forgot to punch in my order for crispy bacon, she just grabbed some the cook had back there (it was cold and stringy...gross!) and did we need anything else? We even told the grumpy hostess/server lady it was our first time here......apparently she didn't want us to come back again. We definitely won't be back, ...

Place is good when you go into it and sit down to dine. But for the love of all it is whoever you pray to, do not order delivery from here. Ordered food for my family tonight and we were told it would be 45 minutes. It was well over an hour before we got our food. And when we called about it we were told “ there was a 30 top then a 10 top that came in” that’s not my problem. We were told a time frame that’s the time frame you need to stick to. Order finally showed up and the wings my wife ordered were supposed to be tossed in medium sauce.......they were not. They were in a garlic sauce. Not what she ordered. We called to let the manager know and we got nothing but an attitude. Refused to take accountability for what was going on during his shift. Told him we wanted the wings remade and he said our order was the last order of wings they had in the store. Kept arguing with me about they were medium. Obviously they have lost the spirit of customer service. You would get better responses from the road kill on he side of 441. This is not the first time we have had issues with their delivery process. Bottom line if they can’t handle big parties and deliveries in the time frame, maybe shut down and try discovering a hobby that doesn’t include dealing...