Helen's Kitchen — Restaurant in Town of Clarence

I have mixed feelings about Helen's. I've been a handful of times over the past several years. Why only a handful? Because I forget they exist! I suppose that's because they are just "okay" for me. The last two visits were because my mom had to have labs drawn at Quest a few doors down from Helen's. It was convenient and hard to miss because the sign is right there. But ask me where I want to go to breakfast and I am willing to bet you a thousand million and eleven dollars that I will never suggest Helen's. Not because they aren't an okay place to eat, but because they've never stood out enough to me to have them be top of mind.

As other reviewers have stated, they are cash only. It really says something in this day and age if you can make a business survive on cash only. People must like you enough to keep showing up with cash in hand. Of course, they also have an ATM on premises if you forgot to stop on the way.

The bathroom is clean. The menu is varied (I'm not a fan of their hash browns, but I forget that I'm not and seem to order them every time I go and then remember too late, "Oh yeah, I don't like their hash browns here." Or maybe it's home fries. Whatever their potato thing is. Now that I think about it, I think it's home fries. They over-season them. Paprika, maybe? Not sure. But they are kind of dry and don't "taste right" to me.)

If you want the diner experience with a really friendly staff and an okay meal, definitely bookmark Helen's for your next breakfast or lunch. If you're looking for stand-out food, this probably shouldn't be your first choice. But heck, this is just my opinion. Yours may be different. I mean, you could still give them a try and add...

I don’t like giving poor reviews but this was my first time here and I will not be coming back. They were busy when we first showed up and I’m okay with waiting didn’t bother me. Waitress cleaned a booth up when she could and we sat down. Then waited 10 mins for menus. Which again at the time it didn’t bother me because they were busy. But people left and we were still ignored. Finally she took our order no refills on coffee didn’t check on us nothing. I watched the other waitress take the pot of coffees to the back section and offer coffee but then didn’t come to the booths at all. I figured it wasn’t her section. Then our waitress went into the back a second after her and went to each table asking if everything was good and ignored the booth section. I figured since people raved about the food that would be the saving Grace. Coffee wasn’t good but diner coffee is hit and miss even at my favorite diners so I wasn’t going to hold that against them but my mother’s pancakes were over done and crumbly and mine were a mixture of over done crumbly and raw by the blue berries, which were frozen not fresh as stated on the menu something that normally wouldn’t bother me but kind of just piled on with everything. The syrup was thin, I don’t know if it’s cheap syrup or like a simple syrup mixed with maple for the coloring but it wasn’t normal syrup. Maybe they were short handed? Or the cook was new? But there seems to be similar complaints. I say...

A bit of a health concern 😬 let me start off by saying the food was SUPER good. 5 stars. However….

Our server had a cold and continuously kept rubbing her runny nose all over her hands 😩 and then touched things! THEN i saw the younger cook with brown hair picking his nose and cooking with no gloves and no hand washing. That was after we had already eaten, otherwise i think i would’ve just left.

The menus were completely sticky/greasy and covered in food. The whole place just had a dirty feel to it which is so sad because the food really is so damn good.

I’m a big fan of hole in the wall diners, but this one ain’t it. Please please please don’t put sick servers to work and maybe talk to the cooks about proper/basic sanitation and food...