Livingston's — Restaurant in Wichita

Just a meh place. My wife and I were driving by while trying to decide where to have breakfast and I saw the sign for Livingston's Diner and suggested we try it. It's a nice, clean place and located in a newer strip mall. One of the first things I noticed was the prominently displayed claim that the restaurant was established in 1910. It didn't seem to fit with a place I'd never heard or noticed before that was located in a new strip mall so as we were waiting for our food, I checked out their website. There, they claim to be following the tradition of Bob Livingston's ancestors (since 1910) by serving the freshest and best foods available. Ok, whatever. Our waitress was nice and plenty attentive to our needs in a very timely manner. No complaints there. Meal prices were in line with most other places around Wichita.

I ordered one of the daily specials (chorizo omelet) and my wife ordered a vegetable omelet without onions. Our food came out fairly quickly. My omelet was pretty decent but I was disappointed to find that the cheese was Velveeta or something similar. Not exactly a "fresh and best" food. The eggs were a little on the rubbery side but they tasted ok. The hash browns were fine but the toast was surprisingly rubbery like it had been sitting under a heating lamp for a while or something. It was over "buttered" with something that I doubt was real butter. The coffee was typical diner fare...nothing great there.

My wife's omelet arrived as scrambled eggs with vegetables and despite her request to omit the onions, they were there in force. She didn't want to wait for a replacement so we didn't bring it to the server's attention. In another disappointment with the fresh and best food claim, the mushrooms on her eggs were of the canned variety and far from fresh. Her meal included an English muffin but she didn't eat it. It looked better than my toast.

All in all, it was just an average experience and I probably won't go back. There are much better places out there to get a good breakfast. High marks for decent location and apparent cleanliness but low marks for food quality and false...

We’ve been Livingston‘s diner patrons for about 13 years. The service and the food have always been wonderful. The new location on 21st and web is nice and spacious and some good changes have been made.

However I am sad to say since the move, the quality of the food (breakfast mainly) has declined. Bob’s skillet was the most wonderful dish for breakfast that was ever offered on this menu. It was so good I asked them how they made it years ago and I was told they first boil the potatoes the day before and peel them and then refrigerate them overnight. So as the skillets were ordered They just cut up the boiled potatoes and fried them in a pan with nice size chunks of onions and green peppers. When they were finished they topped it with the meat you chose ( eggs,bacon) and cheese. It was the most flavor filled skillet – in town. Flavor of the potatoes and green peppers was just like you would remember your grandmother making. I’m sorry to say they need to take Bob’s name off of bobs skillet because it is no longer bobs skillet.

The frozen bag of potatoes used now, when cooked are hard and crunchy.. no longer fried and have absolutely no flavor. The green peppers and onions are cut up so small you barely know they are there, so there again no flavor. Extremely disappointed.

My husbands Western omelette also used to be very tasty but now is flat and dull. No flavor.

The BLTS still good. The pies...

No all that great wouldn't drive out of my way to come back

It's a seat yourself Diner so they don't really know when new people arrive ( I was there on a Sunday morning before the church crowd arrived and it was about 3/4 full but appeared to have plenty of staff) it took longer then expected to have my waitress come to my table and when she did she dropped a menu and a glass of water and was gone not a hello, welcome, good morning or anything. The food was okay but nothing special i had the Livingston Special (2 eggs 2 pancakes 1 sausage 1 bacon) the bacon and sausage was smaller then what you get at most fast food restaurants. I ordered my eggs over medium one came out almost over hard the other one came out over easy but what could I expect the back of the wait staff shirts says "order what you want eat what you get" and they mean it. It seems they cater to an older crowd not that that's a problem just an observation (kind of noisy all those people with hearing aids trying to talk over each other) The price was great with a $2.00 tip less then $10 (I only had water to drink) Over all wait staff not that friendly... food not that great...Price great And if you are going to say you was established in 1910 don't be located in a strip mall it...