Ye 'Ole College Diner - Severely Disappointed

[LighthouseGolfer]

Hey all. We were in State College over the weekend with one of my daughters for the Happy Volley Volleyball Tournament. Fantastic tourney, by the way. Anyway, when we come into town for events like this we normally hit many of the old stomping grounds from when we were in school. Over the weekend we ate at the Corner Room, the Deli, Baby's, Happy Valley Brewing Co. (for the first time), and the Diner. I must say, the Diner was a freaking wreck. We were there for a late breakfast yesterday at about 11:00 AM after our match. The staff was ignorant, slow and quite frankly dirty looking. Much of the food came out burnt. When we were given the check and went to the register to pay, we stood their for over 15 minutes before anyone would come to the register to ring us out despite walking by us a minimum of 10 times. This is not consistant with my normal past experiences at the Diner. Has something changed at the Diner? If so, I won't be eating there again. I'll just stop by to pick up my box of stickies or will buy them at the Creamery.

The rest of the old haunts were as I remembered. Also, really enjoyed the Happy Volley Brewing Co.

 

[RobBliz]

.

Also, really enjoyed the Happy Volley Brewing Co.

No pun inteded...

 

[psuguy04]

Hey all. We were in State College over the weekend with one of my daughters for the Happy Volley Volleyball Tournament. Fantastic tourney, by the way. Anyway, when we come into town for events like this we normally hit many of the old stomping grounds from when we were in school. Over the weekend we ate at the Corner Room, the Deli, Baby's, Happy Valley Brewing Co. (for the first time), and the Diner. I must say, the Diner was a freaking wreck. We were there for a late breakfast yesterday at about 11:00 AM after our match. The staff was ignorant, slow and quite frankly dirty looking. Much of the food came out burnt. When we were given the check and went to the register to pay, we stood their for over 15 minutes before anyone would come to the register to ring us out despite walking by us a minimum of 10 times. This is not consistant with my normal past experiences at the Diner. Has something changed at the Diner? If so, I won't be eating there again. I'll just stop by to pick up my box of stickies or will buy them at the Creamery.

The rest of the old haunts were as I remembered. Also, really enjoyed the Happy Volley Brewing Co.

The Diner has been going downhill for at least 10 years. It's a shadow of its former self--the food is disgusting, and the place is usually dirty as hell too.

 

[Achowalogan]

We had a very similar experience in April...after waiting about a half hour for our - very easy to prepare breakfast meal - we simply left without even eating. Overheard a serve explaining to another unhappy customer that the management is focused on the "grilled sticky" business that ships out to various locations....the Diner is just a storefront to maintain the name. May very well be the worst dining experience in my life...share your disappointment.

 

[LighthouseGolfer]

By the way......happy to see that Emma is still going strong at the Corner Room. A State College icon. She's been there for what, over 50 years now (very early as a waitress and now as a hostess). Never tire of hearing her Joe Pa stories. If you've never meet Emma, you should.

 

[Cletus11]

Echos sentiments of others. Tried to eat dinner their with my family 2 winters ago. Place was only about 1/4 full and we sat there for 30 minutes waiting for our meal. The food that did come out was not exactly what we ordered. Place was dirty. Food actually was not too bad. Will not go back though.

 

[scottpsurules]

No pun inteded...

Hoppy Volley...would have worked as well.....

 

[kgilbert78]

Yeah, that was our experience the last time we tried to go there. Avoid. Not sure how it is still open.

 

[Evan Ceg]

The Diner may be the worst managed restaurant operation I've visited. Considering that Penn State has a well-regarded School of Hospitality Management, it's surprising that restaurants like the Diner and hotels like the Autoport are so poorly run given the expertise that is presumably available. Maybe the owners of the Diner just see profits regardless of quality and consequently don't give a damn.

 

[OldTiredLion]

There's no denying that The Diner has been getting progressively worse as time goes by. I used to eat a pre-game breakfast there with my football gang every home Saturday for many years. We finally changed venues to the Corner Room about five years ago due to many of the reasons listed above. Pretty sad.

 

[mbahses]

Skitter den.

 

[psuguy04]

I just hate seeing such historic places/businesses ran so poorly. The place has so much potential and was a staple for so many years in State College.

Now, it's genuinely one of the dirtiest restaurants I've ever seen. I've stopped buying the stickies because I can only imagine what the kitchen looks like.

Ownership has clearly lost their passion, and totally lost sight of what they really have going. Worse yet, they don't even seem to care because the food/establishment only gets worse.

 

[thecoolestfish]

Sounds like it's gotten even worse, but that place was marginal AT BEST when I was in school there 20 years ago -- And I didn't even have much in the way of standards for restaurants back then.

 

[tgar]

The diner at this point is a " we could care less if you are a customer or not " kind of place. I still buy the stickies at Giant and grill them myself with Creamery vanilla. It's become such an FU dump we no longer go.

 

[stf110]

The last two times we "tried" to go to the Diner we ended up leaving before even being sat or eating. One time it was just due to the service being super slow and "we will get to you when we want to"

The other time we stood at the hostess station waiting to be sat, just to have no one come to seat us in over 10 minutes.

 

[psuguy04]

The diner at this point is a " we could care less if you are a customer or not " kind of place. I still buy the stickies at Giant and grill them myself with Creamery vanilla. It's become such an FU dump we no longer go.

I'm curious as to how/why you still buy the stickies.

I used to do the same thing, but after seeing how dirty the place was during my last trip there, I stopped. The place is an absolute dump, and I have zero faith that the place where the stickies are made is remotely clean.

Hell, at one point several years ago, they were shut down for 5 days by the board of health. It takes A LOT for a restaurant to be shut down.

http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archives/article_9e08be2a-1540-5b22-b616-6e2194213810.html

Things in the restaurant are even more dirty now than back then.