Clinton Station Diner — Restaurant in Union

On Sunday Jan 12, approx 12:30pm my family looked forward to visiting your establishment. My husband is a trucker and often stops in to partake of your delicious cuisine, so he says. What a disaster this visit was. Sorry to say but everything went wrong. I truly don’t blame the restaurant, it was def the fault of our waiter. He was a young Spanish fella that had a really hard time understanding us. That being said, here’s our story. We were seated promptly and the busboy brought water to the table. After a few minutes our waiter showed up and took our order. My husband selected from the Sunday dinner specials. He asked for a double cut of prime rib which he gets from you quite often, so delicious. (We pay double the price but well worth it.) Our waiter had no clue as to what we meant. Completely puzzled and while we tried to explain, it was futile. My husband chose the salad bar, mashed potatoes and creamed cauliflower. I chose the salad bar, pot roast, potato pancake and cauliflower also. My sister had the salad bar, roast chicken, cauliflower and broccoli. What we ordered and what we received were two different things. Salad bar was def the best part of this disastrous meal. My husbands “meat” came out in medallions size pieces. No prime rib, no bone, no double cut anything. Looked like sliced London broil, well done, dried out and horrendous. No mashed potatoes as ordered, no cauliflower. He got a baked potatoe and nothing else. I got pot roast, dried out with a overly fried hard potato pancake, and cauliflower. My sister got her roast chicken, with no gravy, very dry, and broccoli, no cauliflower. My husband, who had been anticipating a good piece of beef was beyond disappointed and we questioned “what kind of meat” was brought to him. The waiter was clueless and couldn’t answer. He blamed the kitchen and when asked where the prime RIB bone was, he said “no bone.” We asked to please take this back and just bring the prime rib dinner special on the menu. My sister and I ate our disappointing meals and were not happy. After 40 MINUTES, yes 40 MINUTES of waiting for his dinner to come back out, my husband received his piece of prime rib. By now, his baked potatoe was cold but he was so hungry at this point, he ate it rather than return it to the kitchen. By the way, I should say we sat in the section right in back of the dessert case. The restaurant was surprisingly not overcrowded. The waiter never brought the dinner rolls or bread we requested, never refilled our water glasses, never checked on us. Never removed our dinner plates when we finished. He came by with the check and handed it to us. We told him we’d like coffee and dessert. He took our order, which was for apple pie, cherry pie and strawberry shortcake. Three coffees. He bought the coffees with the pies and a piece of strawberry cheesecake, not shortcake. I cannot eat cheesecake, so I told him shortcake please. He did not understand. I had to physically get up and point it out to him. Unbelievable. I guess our glory days of enjoying a Sunday dinner with the family st the Clinton diner are over. He apologized and said for his mistakes he did not charge us for three coffees. The bill came to $107, for one of the worst dining experiences we had in a very long time. Sorry to say, we won’t be coming back and can’t recommend your establishment to friends and family. We wouldn’t want them to experience such a disastrous dining experience. *Note to Manager: You may want to introduce and inform your staff about your fabulous desserts and their identities. Was pretty unnerving when the waiter did not know the difference between strawberry shortcake and...

My sister and I stopped for lunch on 3/23/24 with our girls after a morning of shopping. This was one of the worst experiences ever. I sent the following email that day, but have not gotten a response, which is extremely unprofessional. Go spend your hard earned money elsewhere. $87 for burgers, soup, and salad,…not worth it.

Hello,

We were just at your establishment for lunch. We have always heard fantastic things about your diner, so we decided to stop.

Much to our surprise, this was one of the worst experiences we have had while eating out in a very long time.

We arrived around 1:30p and just left at 3p. Not the pace typically expected at a diner. Yes, we needed some time to order, but our food took the better part of 45 min to come out. And it was just soup, salad, and burgers.

We had ordered the blooming onion as an appetizer. It was undercooked in the middle, so that was taken off the bill.

The Caesar Salad was served in a tortilla bowl, which we thought was weird and the bottom part of the lettuce stalk was in it.

We had ordered two bacon cheeseburgers, but only received bacon on one, both medium, but one was well done.

The fries were burnt on the outside and raw on the inside.

Our server was very nice, but not very attentive. We had a dirty placemat when we sat down and never got additional silverware (we had to grab it ourselves).

Perhaps the most disturbing was the gross overcharges on our bill. According to the menu, the prices should have been as followed:

Cheeseburger: $10.89 add bacon $1.99 Charged: $16.87

Caesar Salad: $14.29 Charged: $17.68

Cheeseburger: $10.89 Charged: $14.88

The menu does not read well, where it seems fries are included and you only pay to upgrade to sweet potato or waffle fries. We also did not ask for the “deluxe” with lettuce and tomato, which we received.

The best I can determine was we were charged for two deluxe burgers, one plus bacon, and a tortilla bowl we didn’t order.

I can’t imagine the amount of money that is being scalped from customers that don’t look at their bill or question the pricing. We asked the girl at the register and she just told us the “to go” menus didn’t have the correct pricing and didn’t even bother to grab a menu to check.

The entire experience was appalling and I cannot see us returning. I have worked in food service for a good chunk of my life, and I hate even having to write this email, but we left with such a bad taste in our mouths from start to finish, I had to share it.

Thank you, Tina Walton

PS- I have attached a picture of our original receipt...

My family just ate at Clinton Station Diner for the first time tonight (Mother's Day). I've read about and seen this diner numerous times and was really excited about the experience.

Atmosphere: Being able to eat in the train cart was somewhat underwhelming. It was a cool opportunity but the interior of the cart wasn't well kept - there were clear signs of dust, neglect on the walls, etc. I wasn't expecting it to be luxurious but the diner didn't seem to take any added steps to make it feel special, especially on a holiday.

Food: Overall, my main criticism was that the "special menu" for Mother's Day was significantly more limited (from their close to a dozen-page menu to one page, back and front) and higher priced. Our child had the french toast, which was good - fluffy and a decent portion size. The kids' menu we were given said that it included a meat side but the bacon we got was charged as an additional $7.79, which feels disproportionately overpriced. Also, one of the butter packets we opened up was clearly past its date as it was a distinctly different shade of color from the other packets and was more of a glob than what refrigerated butter packets should look like.

I had the hamburger deluxe, which was large but under-seasoned. I can taste that the beef patty wasn't garnished with any seasoning whatsoever - I couldn't even taste the usual grill grease that would come with some added flavor.

My partner ordered a bowl of the chicken rice soup. It was a large portion but, similar to my dish, was under-seasoned and lacked any flavor.

Service: The staff was kind and friendly. They did the best they could - we were greeted immediately by the hostess and they sat us in the train car upon request. Our server was attentive and took the time to explain why the menu was different than what was advertised online, which didn't make sense but I place the onus of that on the owner/manager(s). No criticism on our end about the service and wait staff.

For an average diner experience, I would expect prices to be $15-$25 but tonight's menu was easily $20-$40 (fried calamari going for $19, chicken Caesar salad for $23...) for average food. I wouldn't consider CSD, even with the novelty of being in a train car, if the prices kept at these levels and the quality of the food...