Old Chickahominy House — Restaurant in Williamsburg

Pros: Homey Feel, Great Service, Average Breakfast, Great Background Story Cons: Biscuits, Small, Overly Great Service

Ah, Williamsburg, known for the rich history and the surrounding areas. It’s also known for it’s steak houses and breakfast places. One thing my wife and I love is breakfast. Breakfast is a simple meal, it’s hard to screw up eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes, biscuits…etc. The Old Chickahominy House is no exception, although it does a different approach to biscuits. Overall a great place to visit, I will say there are better places for breakfast. I will also say I haven’t tried lunch or dinner, maybe they make up for the biscuits during those meals.

We decided to try Old Chickahominy House after trying all the other places for breakfast we wanted to try. Old Chickahominy seems like a home turned into a random trinkets shop and restaurant. They started out in the 1950s as an old building near the Chickahominy River as a tea room serving ham biscuits and homemade pie as well as selling antiques, gas, and cigarettes. After a robbery, they found the current property on Jamestown Road. The building was ready in 1960s and was constructed of new materials and architectural salvage from the area.

The place is as big as the menu, which isn’t all that big. Expect to wait in for a table at peak hours during breakfast and dinner. We waited about 10 - 15 on a Sunday morning around 10:00am. The place is divided between the shop and restaurant and gives it a homey type of feel.

The place does not have my vote for great coffee, plan to go to another coffee house after this place. My wife and I ordered the Plantation Breakfast (Old Virginia Ham, Country Bacon, Sausage with two Eggs, Grits, Hot Biscuits, Coffee or Hot Tea), a good mix of the classic breakfast items. Overall the breakfast was good, nothing really shouted excellent, the biscuits were not what I expected. Imagine a toaster strudel…only a biscuit. Yeah, the biscuits were not all they were hyped up to be, I was kind of disappointed. I also was told I couldn’t get gravy, which might have salvaged and covered up the disappointed image of biscuits.

The service is almost too good. I say that because we had three people checking on us constantly, it was almost too much and to the point of being annoying, although I say better more than not enough, they kept my coffee full the whole time.

Overall a great place to visit for a good “home cooked meal”, however, there are better places for breakfast in Williamsburg. I think it’s worth another try in the future once we go through all the...

I really don't know how this place always wins the "Best Breakfast Place in Williamsburg" every single year. Its even more surprising considering how many breakfast places there are in Williamsburg and how many of them are infinitely better than this place. I love breakfast food but I'm not picky so I am usually very forgiving. I only have a few standards: clean/welcoming environment, good value for cost, and real food (no fake eggs, or frozen potatoes). Given how easy and cheep a good American breakfast is, I don't feel like any of these are unreasonable. Old Chickahamony fails on all accounts though which makes there success even more puzzling.

Although it is clean inside, it is not welcoming. The decor (or lack thereof) made me feel like I was just eating in someones old house that gad simply had all the furniture removed and replaced with a few weirdly distributed tables. The table I sat at with my fiancee was right next to the door to a kitchen or side-station. Her chair was almost in the path of the servers entering and exiting. It was loud and echo inside, not cozy or comfortable. There was also a cat that was just roaming around. They must hide that cat when the health inspectors come by. Our server also was rude. My fiancee didn't eat all her food and the server just bluntly asked her why she wasn't eating.

For what we got it was massively overpriced. It cost us over 20$ for two plates of eggs, a little bacon, and potatoes. I can pay half that and get more anywhere else in Williamsburg. The food tasted ok but it wasn't worth what we paid at all. The potatoes were completely boring with almost no taste at all. The eggs, although real, were greasy and cold.

Overall this place isn't worth going to even once. I think its only popular because its been around for a while and has a strong fan base among the retirement community here in Williamsburg. If you want a better breakfast for half the cost, go to National Pancake house, Southern Pancake & Waffle, Smokey Griddle, or Five Forks Cafe. Even Cracker Barrel is a better option. At least there are no cats wandering around...

Living in eastern NC, we frequently make our way up to the "big city", (the Hampton Roads metro district), in order to do shopping, visit friends and family and eat at our favorite restaurants. The Old Chickahominy House ranks in our top 3. So much so, that my lady and I go to eat there every New Years Eve morning to partake in their excellent southern-style comfort food. Ham biscuits, Brunswick Stew, Chicken and dumplings, a the club sandwich that features slices of actual turkey breast and to top it all off, their exquisite Buttermilk Pie, (or...lemon custard for all of you folks thrown off by "buttermilk"). The pie is so good, that every year we pre-order one to take home, along with a couple of extra orders of the ham biscuits. In all honesty, there is nothing on their menu that we've tried that wasn't less than excellent. The servers are always friendly, (but we absolutely love Paula), and the owners, Dan and Carla have always ensured we, (and I'd imagine, all of their customers), are well taken care of. A more pleasant bunch of folks are hard to come by in this day and age. The hours are limited, so don't expect dinner. This is a breakfast/lunch establishment and it's well worth adhering to their 2:30 p.m. serving cutoff schedule. That said, they have a few rooms with a very cool selection of antiques, bric-a-brac, souvenirs and other items to purchase while you wait to be seated. So...if you're in Williamsburg, seek it out. By the way, it's not one of these corporate-style, "build them all the same" places. This is a really old house, with wooden floors that creak when you walk on them. It has personality and the feel of...