One of the Best!
My family are regulars at the Classic Diner. It is one of the best breakfast places in Chester County. Great service, especially if you are a regular.    [05 Feb 2001 08:43:56]

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Recommended Dishes: Creamed Chip Beef

     ­Bob Madonna   mado at erols dot com

Classic Diner is TOPS
My husband and I have been eating at The Classic Diner for over three years now.

Beyond their outstanding breakfast, try their grilled salmon with greens, it's better than the top spots in Center City and for a fraction of the price!

My husband loves the steak with provolone. Everything is delicious.    [27 Jan 2003 14:39:46]

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     ­Anonymous   

Awesome Food and Service!
I stumbled onto the Classic by accident and now I go there every chance I get. Try the tuna melt, the roast beef sandwich or the crab meat omelet - YUM!!!    [10 Jun 2003 21:50:16]

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Recommended Dishes: tuna melt, the roast beef sandwich or the crab meat omelet

     ­Anonymous   

Discrimination Comes in Many Forms....
At first I thought to myself, wow, what a cool place. It had a great looking menu too. I sat down at the counter, but then the bad started.

1. I was pushed a cup of coffee that had been poured who knows how long ago that had been sitting on the counter.

2. I ordered Eggs over hard w/ American cheese and sausage well done. After a short wile, two plates were placed on the counter in front of me, and my waitress said "Here you go, enjoy." One plate was my meal; the other was a bagel with cream cheese. I thought to myself, "Huh, I don't remember my meal coming with this, but whatever." After I had finished a quarter of the bagel with my meal, another waitress came up to me and said in a very snide tone, "Did you order that bagel?" I replied, "No, but when it was put in front of me with my meal, I assumed it just came with the meal." She snapped back, "Well it doesn't!" Then, my waitress said snidely to the other waitress just a few feet from me, "I put a cup of coffee on the counter, did he take that too?!" To top it all off, I was charged for the bagel!!!!! A bagel I didn't even order!!!!! I didn't say anything, paid my bill and left. I wasn't about to complain, because I didn't feel it right to bother others who were enjoying their quiet breakfasts.

3. I was never offered more coffee!

The food was great, except the stale coffee.

Another point, there were several flies buzzing around.

Note what Bob Madonna said in his review, "Great service, especially if you are a regular." More like if you're not a regular or with one, don't expect to be treated like a human being.

If anyone has the owner's name or address, please send it to me. I want to make him aware of this situation. I don’t appreciate being discriminated against. He should know that this is going on, so that he can take care of it before it gets any worse.

I want this to be a good place to go, because I appreciated the style of food. But I will not return unless things change.    [02 Sep 2003 13:06:35]

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     ­Zach Jennings   zjennings at comcast dot net

Great food. Service poor and rude
I went recently and also sent two
friends who had the same experience.
If the staff do not know you ,
you are ignored. Want a refill on your
coffee ? Forget about it. Food is
good if you willing to be treated
as an outsider.    [29 Nov 2003 14:58:12]

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Recommended Dishes: pepper and egg sandwich

     ­Rob   

Too fast, too expensive, too many people crammed in, too loud
My wife and I thought we would go out for breakfast and chose the Classic Diner. Seating was quick because it was early. We were seated in a side room at a tiny table with a speaker blasting overhead. The volume of the music causes everyone to TALK LOUDLY. No acoustics at all. You are so close to the next table when someone sits down they conviently swing their butt over your table.

The service was quick.
The tomato juice, served right away, was thick enough to be used for ketchup. This was rapidly followed by our breakfast that was cooked in one minute. The scrapple was cooked to a crisp. You could snap pieces off. The potatoes were huge and took up a generous portion of the plate, sliced way too thick and much too large of a portion. Both which had been pre-prepared and sat too long or were overcooked to begin with. The eggs were cooked correctly but were the smallest in town (small or pullet eggs).

The price for two breakfasts with juice no coffee and tip $27.00. Way too much. Glad I left the kids home.    [21 Mar 2004 11:18:14]

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     ­Anonymous   

The best breakfast in town!
The Classic Diner is a real find. This is no ordinary diner. The decor is absolutely charming. The food is outstanding, and everyone within a 20 mile radius seems to know it because there are lines out the door every weekend! My husband and I are real “foodies” and we love the classic dinner. The food is fantastic. The presentation is always outstanding. Many of the dishes are inventive and the service is generally great. The Classic Diner tends to be very crowded so you must take into consideration what the staff is dealing with as they serve hundreds of people during one morning shift. One downside, as another diner mentioned below, you will see flies in the diner during the summer. I find this unacceptable and wish they would eliminate this issue. It is unsanitary (which defies how incredible clean the diner is otherwise) and it is extremely annoying. Other than that, we have never been disappointed at the Classic Diner and would highly recommend it, as we have many, many times. Enjoy!    [22 Jul 2004 08:33:52]

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Recommended Dishes: Pear French toast with orange honey sauce!

     ­Wendi   

Don’t listen to the nay Sayers - this place rocks!
Almost 8 years ago I stumbled into this place and I have been a regular ever since. I travel frequently and with a sizable expense account can afford to try the best cuisine each city has to offer. I never expected that this little out of the way and when I found it 8 years ago, run down dinner (Its had considerable renovations since them and is now quite chic) would constantly serve me not only the best breakfast I‘ve ever had but a delightful and diverse combination of unique gourmet delights.

This place is something new, something that belongs into a category all its own. I am not sure what the food critics would call it, maybe “gourmet comfort food”, but there is no doubt that this place is something very special. Benedict better than the Four Seasons, the best French fries in the world, home made soups that Mom can’t match and so much more. My favorite new addition is the parmigiana encrusted chicken with saffron risotto and balsamic reduction. The shocking thing isn’t that a diner is serving this sort of thing (though that’s surprising as well) but that they are doing it as well as any of the fu fu celebrity chef places in Philly, NYC or LA and for half the price.

As to the service and the obviously over the top comments about it above, these people (Zach in particular), who almost all loved the food, sound to me like the type that simply can’t be pleased. Although I am a regular and probably do get better treatment because of it, I am also there a lot and watch how others are treated. The service is quite simply stellar! The entire wait staff is friendly, outgoing and attentive. They are very busy, especially on the weekends, but they are on top of the refills (Rob you must be the only one in there with an empty glass) and “jump to” like you were at Le Bec Fin rather than a small suburban diner. The comments about the place being overcrowded and load are legitimate. This is a tiny little diner that far too many people have figured out are serving the best food in town, so its always filled to the brim. That makes it loud and crowded, but you know there is plenty of elbowroom and silence at Dennys.

I know I am going on a bit of a tirade here, but I just stumbled on this site and saw that it had one of my favorite places listed, and then I read Zach’s review and really felt it deserved a level headed response. Don’t get me wrong, I am biased, I love this place. But you know Zach, discrimination is one hell of a serious accusation to be made over having to pay for a bagel, especially when even your description makes it sound like it could have been a simple mistake or miscommunication. Quite frankly, you remind me of Uncle Leo on the Sienfield show claming the chef was an anti-Semite for overcooking his burger. Jerry’s response that the chef didn’t even know he was a Jew is probably true of your waitress as well. She probably didn’t even notice that you were what ever you think she was discriminating against. In other words, after eating regularly at the Classic Diner, I find it very hard to believe that anyone discriminated against you and find it much easier to believe that you are an uptight, neurotic guy who throws around words like discriminate far to easily. Maybe your waitress screwed up. Even at the best places mistakes can be made, but discrimination? Common on now, maybe that coffee and bagel wasn’t meant for you.

This whole review was written in response to you Zach- hope you like it. To any others reading this, I suggest you check out the Classic yourself and see what you think. I bet you’ll agree with me, Zach has problems and the Classic has great food and service.    [17 Sep 2004 20:54:42]

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Recommended Dishes: All the breakfest stuff and soups

     ­Stephen   sendspcstuff at hotmail dot com

I have been going to the Classic Diner for about six years now. I would consider my family and myself regulars because we have come to know and love the staff. The waitresses work together as a family (half of them are sisters) and seem to have the best time at work. We have watched them grow up, have babies and get married. Every one of them gets along so well with the other - we feel like we are a part of their family. We see them talk with the other customers and believe me MANY of us are "regulars" because they made us their family. Weekends are hectic I won't lie but going there is well worth the trip. We love the sisters, Chris, Lisa and Alehandra and all of the other friends we have made at our kitchen away from home. We have seen many changes at the classic but one thing stays the same: the food is ecellent, the service is wonderful, and the restaurant itself is so "Classic"    [21 Sep 2004 19:19:07]

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     ­Anonymous   

Classic diner - Martha Stewart looks and attitude
Well, of course it looks great, the food is very tasty, gross over-sized "yes America is a wasteful" place sized servings and consistent (5 yr patron now). Regarding the service..it all depends on who the waitress's are- never seen a male waiter there, only girls who appear to want to be Gap/Limited catalog models but didn’t quite make it past the Barbazone school of Modeling but they did keep the attitudes. I have to admit as a long time visitor of the place that the service is not even good if you are a regular (who usually tips very well). There are a few regular long time servers who do take care of the customers no matter who you are but there are many more servers there who seem to be too busy standing around behind the cash register talking about who cares what and NOT keeping the coffee fresh and hot.

As for the decor- yes it’s nice and it does help make up for the bad service. Bad thing about the decor is that they use very hard uncomfortable seats to try to get you in and out ASAP and these types of issues will always hurt them from growing (hence the failed dinner menu thing they tried in summer of 03) - Who would want to get bad service and sit on a bench or very un-butt shaped hard chair for dinner?
Bah--after all the bad service I find myself back...maybe its just because the other diners in the area are fairly gross and they let people smoke in them where as there is no smoking at this one.    [31 Oct 2004 11:43:43]

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Recommended Dishes: eggs and bacon, turkey rueben for lunch

     ­unk