Paradise Diner — Restaurant in Virginia

Update 6/12/25 Went for late lunch. Only 1 other person inside.

Wife and I both got a salad with our meal. We had to pick thru it and get the brown end pieces out before dressing and eating it. Our two dinner rolls came out fully burnt on top. I questioned the waitress and she said "yes, their burnt". I asked why you would even bring that to the table? Just a stare. I gave her one had told her to toss it back at the cook. She took it and went to the kitchen. No replacements?? The wife's manicotti was excellent. Her side of corn was seasoned with some weird spices and inedible. My oyster dinner was horrible. The weird looking coleslaw was tasteless. The oysters were encased in some type of concrete batter and the oysters themselves were spoiled and inedible. I had that removed from the bill.

We haven't been in here in many years. The ramp type entrance and building exterior are very dated. The Christmas lights woven into the entrance are a little weird. It appears only the front 1/3 of the building is utilized for the restaurant. The rear has another entrance with a strange looking statue next to it. What's that for??

The desert case is just as you enter. The inside is clean and the staff attentive. The menu is extensive even for a diner. Our late morning visit was for breakfast fare. Wife's SOS came with seasoned home fried potatoes/peppers/onions and it was very good. My pancake/French toast/eggs/bacon was also very good. We would stop in again if in the area.

*Note this review was completed without using ridiculous undiscriptive terms like out-of-bounds, OMG, on point, awesome, the bomb, yummy, delish, to die for, do your self a favor, trust me, or kids emojis etc.. Describe the food, service (or lack of) and provide details on the cost/copy of check and include pictures! Is the place clean? No disrespect to the employees but no one cares about the waiter/waitress/clerk names, or if they look like they fell face first into a tackle box. They get changed like underwear and you don't get to pick one. No we don't care about your allergies or the need for gluten free food.

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We have been to this place multiple times and loved the wide selection, food quality, and service. We have other breakfast options near us but are willing to drive the 30+ minutes to this place because it was so good. Unfortunately, we will not be back, The last two times we went were awful and it was quite disappointing. First of all, the service was incredibly slow. You could tell that they are short staffed due to COVID, and that's understandable but when it takes over 40 minutes to get your check, that's a problem. Especially when there were only a few other patrons. We ordered the Country Fried Steak and an Eggs Benedict. Once the food came back, the waitress sat the check down on the table and said "I have other tables up front so I'm gonna set this here", basically stating that she had no time to come back and check on us. Well, she didn't. The country fried steak came out with a chipped beef gravy (which we have ordered before and has always come out with sausage gravy) and the waitress sat it down on the table and said "I hope you like chipped beef gravy. I was too busy to come back and ask which gravy you wanted." We smiled and agreed and although unhappy with it, we reluctantly ate it. Then the benedict came out. After taking a few bites, we realized she ordered us the one with the crab cake (ew). Since she never came back to ask us how it was, we had to flag another waitress down to let her know the benedict was incorrect. Instead of correcting the mistake, they offered to take $3 off the bill. THREE DOLLARS. Which was the difference of the crab cake. Not even taking into consideration that our country fried steak was wrong too. The waitress knew we were upset, came over to the table unprofessionally and asked if we were mad at her, then stood by the table and waited for us to leave. It was very awkward. As we were cashing out, they asked us how the food was, and we made a comment about the $3. Nothing was done about it. Not to mention we were at this establishment for almost 2 hours due to how slow the...

Update 3/2/2018: I had to come back and update my review; we had just a great experience the first time, I took my hard to please parents back for dinner Friday night and I'm not sure if it was a off night or we just got lucky the 1st time we went. We were sat and not greeted for over 10 minutes and that greeting was I'll be with you when I can. Finally when the server came to take our drink order, we had waited so long we gave him the entire order to make it easier on him. By the time he came back with our drinks, he told us the food would be out, but the funny part is he never brought the salads, break or appetizers we ordered. Food came out, he kept promising our salads and bread, we ate our food and he kept promising our salad and breads. Needless to say my parents were upset, not only because it took so long, they ordered the hot turkey dinner, which they said came out cold, but they didn't receive their salads until after their meals. You have numerous servers in the building, why aren't they helping each other, or why don't you have a runner or where are the mangers/owners? I might give them one more try because the first time was good and 2nd time bad just to give them a fair assessment. The server knew it was bad and offered us Jell-O or Rice Pudding at the end; but by that point the damage had been done. It would have been nice if a manager or owner came by. These types of experiences can really make or break a family owned place and I am hoping they will make it.

Honest we had one of the best meals and best dining experience at Paradise Diner. From the good to the service everything was great. Eddie our server was top notch and knew the menu like the back of his hand. We had a party of 10 and everything came out perfect. We had lamb shank, lamb chops, snapper, stuff peppers, kabobs to name a few things and everything was perfect and everyone loved the food. Paradise will definitely be on the top of my...