Moonlight Diner & Grille — Restaurant in Williamstown

I came away with mixed feelings. The atmosphere is comfy - what you expect from a diner. My waitress was friendly and welcoming, well-suited for her job and efficient. Ordered a bacon Swiss burger w/ iced tea, a safe choice and generally a pretty good indicator of a restaurant's kitchen. The burger came juicy and medium, as ordered. Crisp, hot fries, as requested. But when I bit into my burger, it reminded me of the Olive Garden syndrome: when you buy cheap ingredients, even earnest efforts by cooking professionals come up short. The beef tasted "flat," old though not gamey. Low-end bacon, salty with no pork flavor. Swiss (?) cheese also flat, lacking in flavor. Fries tasted like cardboard, not potato. Ketchup not the gold standard (Heinz), a low-end substitute with too much corn syrup taste...served in red squeeze bottles (so no label). At this price ($9.25 for the burger), in this genre, you should expect better quality ingredients. More often these days, you come across pricey, fancy-pants menus short on culinary skills to pull it off. Not here, I suspect. They just don't have the goods...

We stopped here on the way home from a 5 day hiking trip in southern Vermont. We thought of burgers the entire time so just wanted to make that dream come true. I looked on here and found this diner. Plenty of parking and easy to find. Upon entering we were greeted immediately and by a friendly waitress. She got us some beers and was very welcoming. In fact looking around every waitress seemed to be doing the same remarkable job at making everyone comfortable. A laid back and comfortable vibe going on here. We both ordered burgers and fries. Mine curly and his regular. Beer selection was small, but we didn’t even expect beer, so no complaints there. Order came out pretty quickly and tasted amazing. We both agreed it was an outstanding burger and both fry types were great as well. More beers. I used the bathroom. It is old and roughed up a bit. In fact the building itself could use some work. The decor was nice and gave off cool diner vibes though. I’m not taking any stars off for an older building because the food and staff nailed all five stars. I will definitely come back next time I...

from the moment we walked it it was awkward and uncomfortable. I had the hostess just stand there and stare at us and finally I initiated conversation and she just replied just 3 of you? our waitress was friendly but can tell she is not trained or was having a rough day. I am all about giving people grace but she forgot our drinks and I watched her and numerous employees step over a dirty napkin the entire time we were there that was in the middle of the floor. the food was terrible to the point my 5 year old wouldn't eat his lunch. when I got up to go pay I had 5 people all staring from behind the opposite counter asking "who do these people belong to?" training and some team work might make a difference in this place. we got sat in a corner and the window was dirty and dead flies and even a dirty sock in the...