Londa's Diner — Restaurant in Town of Cheektowaga

Would recommend. I'm a local, but if you're in from out-of-town, please go somewhere other than your hotel's "breakfast" or Dennys. This is a super close Uber trip from the airport hotels, and it's worth the quick trip.

As an eastern suburb diner you can put it nicely in your rotation with Altons, Hillview, etc. It's much higher on the "charm level" compared to those establishments, more like a diner you'd see in a movie, despite its plaza location.

I do plan to invite my sister to dine with me again there tomorrow, if that's a good enough indicator of quality. More details below.

It was quite packed on a late-July Saturday around 10a. The tables were full for nearly the entirety of my visit, so I elected for the counter. No-back stools with a single TV, which happened to be airing the penultimate leg of the Tour de France. It was never too busy to the point where people were waiting, but one group of 4 did eventually join me at the counter.

Ordered 4 foods, 3 of which I think were much better than the above mentioned locations. I elected for the Texas French Toast, which was cooked perfect in its "sponginess" to hold syrup. The bacon was the typical thin variety, but was fried better than most I've had, very crispy but still ample fatty bits. Sausage links were more akin to true mini-sausages rather than the typical grocery store processed type. Finally, home fries with onion were good. I randomly stopped in intending to order hash browns with sausage, with hash browns on my mind (hey, we all get our urges, don't judge the randomness) but hash browns weren't offered, so I may be overly critical here.

As for service, I'm a tough customer. I typically have one earbud in listening to podcasts, and social anxiety means I keep to myself. But, the staff was great with very frequent offers for more coffee. At least 3 different people checked on me. Very friendly, with one fun server apologizing for my "wait" in cashing out up front that she "wasn't trusted with the money" (obviously just not trained on it), and the wait was about 15 seconds so that was just a nice bit of banter.

Did not use bathroom to remark on cleanliness, but the dining area was very clean.

To recap, good food, good service, good atmosphere, check it...

We LOVE this diner. Our family has been going at least once a month for the last 8 or so years (usually on the weekends). Our son graduated from pre-k a couple weeks ago, and when we asked him where he’d like to go after to celebrate (a week day), he insisted on Londa’s. We had a table of 5 with myself, my husband, my in laws, and of course our little guy.

There were maybe only 3 other tables in the restaurant, so it wasn’t super busy. We sat down, and a blonde waitress that I’ve only seen once before came over and aggressively asked our drink order. Drinks came, we didn’t see her for another 15 minutes. When she came back to take our food order, it was the same aggressive approach; so much so we thought we did something wrong. Food finally comes about 30 minutes later, and she drops it all down and marches away without a word; only my plate wasn’t there. She walked away so quickly, I couldn’t flag her down to ask about my meal or my son’s missing pickle. A couple minutes later, we see my meal sitting at the “window”, and sitting, and sitting, while the waitress is chatting with someone at the bar. I ended up just grabbing it myself after it sat there another 5 minutes.

The food is always great here, so we never have any complaints. Although, she never came back to ask how things were or ask if we needed anything. We finish, and after sitting there with all our dirty plates in front of us, I insist the family head out and I will take care of the check when it came. She sees us leaving, and plops the check on the table. I then walk up to the counter and wait to pay. She makes her way over, and again, without a SINGLE word, takes my card. Literally the only words spoken to me were “do you want a receipt”.

We’re crushed. Our family loves this restaurant. We have sent so many friends and family over at our recommendation. This was such an important occasion for my son who specifically chose Londa’s out of any other restaurant, and because one person was clearly having a bad day (or just isn’t meant for the service industry), a happy memory was overtaken by this negative experience. Sadly, we...

My husband and I were excited to finally go out to breakfast today for the first time post Covid. We walked in and even though the table I was going to was 5 feet from the door and no one was around me, I was immediately told I needed a mask on. I put mine on and proceeded to the table. Once seated, I removed the mask. The waitress almost immediately came over and took our drink order and brought our coffee. However, more than 20 minutes passed before the waitress, "Robin" came back to take our order. Trying to get a coffee refill was next to impossible.

While we waited for our waitress to take our order, several tables of customers came in. One specifically seemed to be a "friend" of Robin's, who was not wearing a mask and was not told he needed one like I was. Another customer who came in with a baby and was wearing a mask took her mask off when she sat down, but didn't put it back on when she left the table with our waitress to exchange a high chair for a regular chair. She was not told she needed a mask like I was told. I guess there are 2 sets of rules - one for friends and one for all others.

All while this was happening, the 3 waitresses occasionally congrated at the count discuss their menu and compared it to The Campfire Grill, one of their nearest competitors regarding price and menu items. Maybe that's why it took so long to get our food. One of them actually went to the Campfire Grill to get a menu from them!

We have patronized this restaurant for over 15 years, but this was probably our last visit there, even though the food is good and is always hot and made correctly. There definitely is a lack of customer care. The owner needs to be more in touch with what goes on a day...