Hildebrandt's — Restaurant in Town of North Hempstead

I was really hoping that I didn’t have to write a terrible review about this place. And i’m one to never ever write a review about place whether it be good experience or bad. I give all places the benefit of the doubt running a business isn’t easy and sometimes there are bad days just like there are for people. Been here once before and it wasn’t bad. But today was like no other experience and a phone call of complaints to the so called “owner” hoping to ease and be understood would have totally avoided this. Instead we got a cook/ice cream employee who didn’t take our complaints serious along with us as customer. Now i’ll have to share everything from taste to experience and treatment. We called the day off to ask when the establishment closes. We were told 7pm, we get there by 6pm and told that they are short staffed and have sat the last table. I made a comment about driving and calling before hand and if this was mentioned we would have made the travel regarding being seated and the man was courteous to give me a seat since i said i was also having food. (Not before telling us to grab ice cream for free and that they were closing but this is besides the point) We sat down and wanted to have a fun experience for the kids. Instead we waited about 15 mins for glasses to pour our waters. They had one waitress who was busy and trying her best to do her job. Still no complaints made we understood being short staffed would cause issues. We ordered 2 bacon cheese burgers there version of fries (among other things) with lettuce tomatoes and we were supposed to get cold slaw and pickles with the order. The food comes missing tomato’s lettuce and my plate had 2 small pickles the pieces that are usually what is thrown in the garbage when you cut the picketed and get to the end. The bacon weren’t even full pieces almost what ever small pieces they had left to split with the 2 orders that came in (pictures below)…The so called fries had no crisp and were soft to touch, not to mention the cook literally was using his hand with no gloves. (the moment i saw that i knew it was going to only get worst) The burger went from grill to his bare hand to our plates. After touching papers and ice cream scoops moving dirty plates and so on. The Soda float had not even a full ice cream scoop in it but all of that still wasn’t a problem we gave them the benefit of the doubt because they are “short staffed”. The problem was realized when my wife asked for some pickles and the waitress asked the cook/ice cream man and his response was “for them? no we are all out” but another man was sat at closing time “because they felt bad” and got all the special treatment that wasn’t given to us. Burger with lettuce tomato pickles. Even asked for more pickles and the man cut some up after we were told they didn’t have any. We should of equally been treated the same. The same attention to the guy that came in after should of been to us. No excuse to serving the butt part of the pickle or a bacon cheese burger with a piece of bacon. This does more harm then good i rather they had not sat us and let us leave upset about the change of times and inconsistency. At least i probably would of gave the place another chance. Instead we called in after this experience to explain because it caused a huge fight in our drive back home and the “owner” said your mad over pickles and tomatoes totally missing the whole point and insisted he did us a favor and would refund us the total money back. And it’s like hey man we aren’t caring about the money we even left the poor young waitress a tip (it isn’t her fault no supervision) he did us a favor by sitting us down no your doing us a favor to never come back and instead of being understanding over the phone so i wouldn’t feel the need to make a review you made light of the situation saying how much of a nice person you are to give a discount and let us sit when it was at a time that was before you closed. not sure how this works in the business world but ok, and what’s the excuse for any food to leave the...

I rarely leave reviews on things whether good or bad, but I was so befuddled by my new experience I needed to share.

If this review could have a title, I would title it "The Magic is Gone."

TLDR: USED TO be a great diner. Now serves subpar food at a much higher price with slower and less experienced staff. Save yourself the trouble and either stay home or go to a classic NY diner.

I moved to the area 8 years ago and Hildebrandt's was my absolute favorite place to eat. It had the best burger, fries, and ice cream I ever had. However, today that reality was unfortunately crushed. What was once a great little dive straight out of the 1950s is now a stranger wearing the skin of what used to be Hildebrandt's.

Upon entering, I noticed that the place had gotten a bit of a face lift since the last time I had been there a few months prior. Not inherently a bad thing. I also noticed that everyone except for one person working in there was very young, most likely high schoolers. That's not an issue in and of itself, however it was obvious that the new staff was much less experienced and was not efficient with handling a busy restaurant.

It took about 80 minutes for myself and my plus one to have a burger and fries and a milkshake and sundae for dessert. It took about 25-30 minutes for the burgers and fries to come out. Albeit, the restaurant was busy, however I have been to this restaurant countless times in years past while it was packed to the brim while never waiting more than 10-15 minutes for food.

We were starkly disappointed at the quality of the burgers once they arrived. They tasted like nothing and I'm convinced they have since switched over to frozen burgers. The most tasteful thing on the burger was the ketchup.

The slab fries are still pretty much the same concept-wise, however I noticed that only about 3 of french fries were cooked correctly. The rest were either undercooked to the point of being inedible or overcooked so it was like eating potato chips.

When we asked for cokes, they brought us old-fashioned diner cokes. Awesome. However, when we finished them and asked for refills, they brought us canned coke. Canned coke in a "classic soda shop."

We waited another 10-15 minutes for a waitress to come back while we had obviously finished eating, with our plates on the edge of the table. Even when they came back to take our order for ice cream (which took way longer than it should have), they still left the dirty plates on the table until they brought us the ice cream another 10-15 minutes after that.

The restaurant claims that its ice cream is still homemade, which I'm not denying, but the ice cream in the sundae tasted old and freezer burnt.

"Today, [the current owner] proudly carries the torch, infusing the restaurant with his passion for preserving its nostalgic charm," a quote from the 'Story' tab of the Hildebrandt's website reads. I question the reality of this statement. They filmed The Irishman here just a few years ago because it was truly a nostalgic gem, but now it is covered in TVs and pictures of horse racing and...

TLDR: This previously well respected historically accurate establishment has begun to gut the historic features and homemade food/ice cream that justified its higher prices, while hiking prices and replacing experienced staff.

As a long time customer of Hildebrandt’s I am extremely disappointed by the recent changes to the interior. My family and I like to go every few months, and while it is slightly pricey the atmosphere makes it well worth the meal. Tonight we intended to have dinner and dessert as usual, but were shocked to see the glass display cases were gutted and the classic telephone booth were removed and replaced by a modern freezer and a miniature desk. Once sat we were greeted by an entirely new modern menu missing whole sections of the old one (like all their pasta dishes!!) and some pretty extreme price increases. The new staff were extremely inattentive, and from the time we were greeted it took almost a half hour for us to order (although half the restaurant was empty), and we were not provided any waters until we asked. In the ample time we had to look around, we observed a majority of the decorations were removed, and the classic cups, napkin dispensers, and other accoutrements were replaced with cheap modern Coke branded items. The TV’s were all set to foreign political stations, and the usual counter staff was not there. While some changes in previous months were productive and appreciated, such as new more comfortable seating that still maintained the old American atmosphere, this more modern and cheap look is concerning for an establishment that begged locals to sign petitions to preserve its historic heritage just two years ago. Will it still be eligible as a historic landmark if key aspects of the interior are modified? Our ice cream did not taste fresh, the cheque was provided to us with a QR code, and the atmosphere was dismal. I truly hope that the owner brings back the key elements that made Hildebrandt’s special, and that the staff we have been served by for years has not...