Barnside Diner — Restaurant in Virginia

I had to give this place a 1 star because otherwise you can't write a review. Let me start by telling you that I decided to give this place a second chance since the reviews give lots of credit to this place. We went there last night Saturday 26, 2019 around 10:00pm ( what a way to start the year) For starters when we got out from the car my nephew was taking his puppy in the restaurant carrying the little guy in his coat, immediately one of the employee that was smoking outside approached our party very aggressively and yelled:THE DOG CAN'T GO INSIDE!!!!!! So my my nephew decided not to go in the restaurant since it seemed like this restaurant was not pet friendly. By no means at any moment my nephew objected this guys denial for entrance, so he chose to wait for us in his car while we enjoy dinner ...or so we thought :/ . When we sat in our table the server introduced her self so fast that unfortunately we couldn't even catch her name. One thing that I must stress to you, just don't even try to make friendly conversation with her, by no means mention the word Bolivia, cause for whatever reason that we're unaware about it seems to offend her. That's where part 2 of this ordeal started. She's not costumer friendly, she abruptly and rudely put her hand up when my uncle was trying to give his order, I guess she meant slow down. She sounded very defensive about any little question regarding the menu or our options. By this moment it was just disastrous and embarrassing to even carry a conversation our table. My other nephew decided to prep him self before his meal arrived and made the horrific mistake to grab ketchup from one of the counters, please understand, now all we were trying to do at this point was just eat our meal, pay for it and leave with out any "Brave Heart" movie like confrontations. Part 3 of the ordeal; in the blink of an eye , the same guy who had confronted us at the entrance, out of nowhere came and grabed my nephew by his arm, turned him around, took the ketchup from our table and told him, " there's more ketchup bottles in the other tables! " By then we had enough, we decide to to leave, we didn't mind paying, but at this point we were afraid our food would be tampered. Water , one coffee and a sprite had been brought to our table and we asked the rude female server to create a ticket, we just wanted out. She didn't charge us, no apologies no questions about why we're leaving,nothing just nothing. Which made us think that we were not appreciated as clients. Please don't go there unless you're ready for a fight, that's the only way you get treated right. Dress code, look intimidating or like you just came from a party. I would not be surprised if this type of reviews are not addressed with the staff, moreover I would not get shocked if the manager happens to be that threatening, weird smell smoker who works there, he gets both physical and verbal abusive with his clients be...

“I will not serve you until you sit where I told you to sit.” Were the words uttered to me this morning while attempting to dine at Barnside Diner this morning. Why you ask? I’m not sure but it began like this... I had a few minutes to spare before getting my car serviced so I decided to stop in for a quick bite to eat. I had my work bag that had my computer as well as a few other important documents in it to reference so that I could get done what needed to be done. I entered the establishment and noticed two employees sitting to the right one seemed to be folding silverware or something like that and the other was sitting in the back. The one in the back acknowledged my presence and motioned for me to pick a seat. So I looked to the left and saw a table in the corner, close to the window, beside it was a smaller table however it was dirty so I opted to sit at the larger table knowing that I would be eating while multitasking on my computer. The server walked over after I had gotten settled on my laptop and said you can’t sit here it’s for parties of 4 or more. Mind you I’m the only paying customer in the restaurant at this time! I responded to the gentleman by saying sir, I would like to sit here as I have my laptop and will be working for a few minutes while waiting to eat and until my food gets here. He said well I need you to move to a smaller table, I pointed to the smaller table and said look that table is dirty and while we are going back and forth about where I should sit how about you take my order so I can eat and be on my way. He said I won’t take your order until you move. I asked for a manager, he then told me he was offended by me saying that I wouldn’t sit where he asked me to sit. I thought to myself, this guy has to be kidding me! There’s no one in the restaurant and he’s refusing to serve me, the paying customer, because I picked my own seat and now he has a problem with it. I felt discriminated against as a black man. I then advised he server that I would be reaching out to the manager, wiring a review on yelp and filing a complaint with the BBB and that this wasn’t the last time he would be hearing of this. He walked away and then quickly reappeared and said how would you like to have your Big B? I looked at him in utter disgrace, it wasn’t until I threatened to complain and escalate this issue were you willing to serve me the well able paying customer. I will never patronize this establishment and I urge you to think twice before you do.

-I can’t believe this...

Edit: I came back here again in the morning for a breakfast. Overall the experience was fine. The same food you would expect at any time of the day and the same crazy prices. However, what really bummed me out this time was that almost as soon as we had finished our meal, the waiter came by and told us that we needed to leave so that they could open up a table for people that were waiting. That's not a thing, especially as I had to essentially take out a loan from the bank in order to afford my meal. Haven't been back since.

To date, the best diner I've been to in Northern VA.

Barnside is in a pretty random place off of Little River Turnpike and, from the outside, feels like the kind of restaurant where you'd enter a healthy individual and leave with any number of parasitic diseases.

However, I braved this place one night and was absolutely blown away.

Now, of course, it's diner food, so you shouldn't expect anything that's going to knock you out of your seat. But, at the same time, if you enjoy good, fresh breakfast food at any time of the day, then this place is one of the best around.

When I went, around the dinner hour on a weeknight, I was one of only 2-3 other people in the whole restaurant. That being the case, I was seated immediately and had my drink with 3 minutes.

I ordered the pancake platter which came with 3 pancakes, 2 eggs and a couple slices of bacon. Typically, I'd expect to pay somewhere around $10 for this kind of meal, but it was only $8 at Barnside. A rarity in Northern VA.

The meal itself was phenomenal. Everything was cooked fresh and was absolutely delicious.

On top of that, the staff and service was great. Our waiter was so friendly and checked on us consistently throughout the meal to make sure that we had everything that we needed. I loved it.

Overall, this is my new go-to diner in Northern VA. It's quaint, it's unique, it's inexpensive, it's great for a family and...