Starling Diner

A lucky find! My friend literally ran across this place on one of his runs in the area and remembered it when we were trying to decide where to eat. :) I love benefiting from other’s workouts.
Such a cute brunch spot — but with any quaint place there is a wait so make sure you aren’t expecting to be seated immediately and try to get there a little later in the day. The hostess is funny and great! She’ll make the wait fun.
We waited about 20 minutes before being seated at the counter. The place was busy but you did not feel cramped or like you were yelling over the noise level. Overall a great ambiance.
The food was super yummy! He got the Rost Beef Hash which was super yummy and I got the blue crab Benedict which was also good. If you like Blue crab it’s lovely with the scrambled eggs and aioli sauce!
The only thing I wasn’t a fan of was the use of baguettes for the stuffed french toast. I love a good soggy stuffed loaf but the baguette was too hard and a bit difficult to consume. It had delicious flavors with the brandy butter caramelized apples — so it would still be a dish I would maybe order again to share though.
Overall this is a delightful and homey place to hang out with great friends for brunch. Lovely neighborhood spot!

Searched Unilocal*for a place to have Sunday brunch in LBC. Starling popped up with almost 1200 reviews and four stars so thought we’d give a shot. Diner vibe and décor. Scones with fresh outa da oven-can’t ask for more than that! Eggs Benjamin were fantastic! Coffee was extra good. Service-​very attentive constantly filling water and coffee. At 12:30 pm on a Sunday we were told it would be a 45 minute wait and it was almost exactly that. No complaints. Will return.

From the picky wife’s review, this place gets five stars. She doesn’t give those out lightly, whereas I’m far more easy to please. However, I don’t review every place we go to, but this place deserves my high praise and much more. We had the smoked salmon & capers crostini starter. It was light, fresh, and flavorful. For our main course we shared the peach French toast and the eggs Benjamin. I’m not a big French toast fan, but this was hands down the best I ever had. It was amazing in every way. French baguette stuffed with mascarpone dipped in magic sauce, topped with a heaping cloud of whipped cream… Just finished eating and I am drooling again. The Eggs Benjamin were a delicious and different twist to ur tradition eggs Benedict. No traditional hollandaise sauce, instead a light «lemon emulsion» to top a perfectly poached egg, served on a bed of spinach And smoked salmon. Very good. Not the best Benedict’s I’ve had, but still a great dish.
As you can tell by my rambling, I highly recommend you check this place out. Sorry, no pictures, we were way to hungry to stop and take a pic.

I had the goat cheese, mushroom, and spinach scramble. It comes with roasted potatoes & a fresh baguette bread. It was delicious! The coffee is a little too strong but it’s good coffee. The service was great; very friendly & attentive. They kept the coffee coming.

This is a decent neighborhood café.
Food is good and plated with some attention to presentation.
Service is a bit slow so, plan ahead.
Indoor and out door dining (on the sidewalk).

This place is AMAZING im a breakfast addict so i felt like i was in heaven here. Food is beautiful and delicious. Servers were extremely kind, even chased after us when we left our card behind. Restaurant does not accept discover card btw. Try the san fran french toast! Super hipster vibes if you’re into that.

The hubby and I came here for breakfast after seeing it on Diners, Drive-​ins and Dives. I had really high hopes for this place; on TV the service seemed sweet and personable and the food looked amazing.
We got there around 2, and their scones were all sold out. That’s understandable, since we got there a little late in the day. My husband saw a salted caramel bacon French toast in the pics on Unilocal,but they no longer serve that. They don’t even serve what was focused on Diners, Drive-​ins and Dives. That’s fine, I got the open faced pot roast sandwich, my husband got the pork sandwich with chimichurri, and we split the cherry French toast.
The French toast is absolutely 5 stars. Crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, absolutely delicious. Def recommend if you choose to come here.
My open faced sandwich was 4 stars, delicious! But the salad as a side, fell flat. No flavors, just a side of greens thrown together.
The pork sandwich also fell short for me. The chimichurri was borderline gross. I do not recommend it at all.
Now where they lost stars was the service. We were greeted nicely, but throughout our dining experience, the servers were talking to each other across the room. I don’t know who they were talking about, but they said things like «I’ll break her fucking neck» and «she’s the reason this place is going down» it was definitely uncomfortable and very unprofessional. There were 3 guys that worked there, our main server being the one with the thick black framed glasses. He did most of the work while the other two just sat at the counter. The blonde one did bring us our food and seemed polite but he was one of the ones shouting across the room. The employees were the loudest ones there. My husband and I were in disbelief.
Overall, we won’t be back. I will miss you French toast, but you don’t outshine the bad experience

Have eaten here twice. My first experience was in the middle of the week extremely busy and the service and food were exemplary. I had the French toast and was blown away. I was being served by Oscar and a blond young man. Amazing service.
My second experience was so bad that I’m considering not returning. The food was very bad, the scone I received this time was cold half he size of my first scone I had on my previous visit. And the butter was literally frozen.
I decided to try another breakfast based on reviews I got the Mushroom, goat cheese and spinach scramble. First off, the size was very small. When I looked across the way at another patrons meal who has the same dish. She had twice the amount of potatoes and a third more of an egg serving. The food had way to much salt. I understand that goat cheese will be a little salty but it was almost nonexistent.
Michelle my waitress, was quite slow and a bit lazy. Oscar topped me off near the end of my meal. She never asked me how my meal was. I tempted to give her less than 10% because she never really earned her tip. Lastly, keep in mind when I came this time the restaurant wasn’t even half full.
I am curious to hear back from the owners.

Starling diner was my favorite grub hub in Long Beach because the staff was friendly, the food so delicious and fresh, and most importantly their Bloody Mary was the bomb-​dot-​com. Just went back recently, and I was a little sad. Although the food is still delicious, the Bloody Mary’s were not the same (I ordered two thinking maybe the first was not done right) and staff was not really as friendly. Also, if the issue of the long wait is the wait for food, I’d happily sit and wait for the food so long as I can order drinks… after all, the food is worth the wait. Please Starling, get back to being the gem I know and love.
Lastly, if the business hours have changed, could you please change it on Unilocal too so I don’t travel through traffic just to arrive to a closed restaurant. Thanks a bunch!

I go here all the time and I’m still not over over this place. Starling is located in the nice area of Long Beach, which means parking!
Came here for my sister’s birthday and we ended up spending over $ 100 for three people. We started off with the scones, which were AMAZING. Next, we ordered Bloody Marys, Salmon Crostini, Stuffed Apple French Toast, Hash with Potatoes, and the Crab Cakes.
The Bloody Mary is made very well. The tomoato juice is thick with a spicy kick. It also comes with a crab claw and some greens on top.
For appetizers, we got the scones and Salmon Crostini. The crostini comes with cream cheese, capers and a hefty amount of Salmon. The scones are so heavenly. They are light, fluffy, and buttery. The infused butter and curd are amazing with the scones too.
Next we ordered the Stuffed French Toast. I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, but it is very good. My sister’s boyfriend ate 80% of it. After we got the Crab Cakes and the Hash. Mmmmmm. The crab cake were so yummmmy. My favorite thing on the menu (besides the scones). It’s creamy and buttery and the over easy egg made it taste even better. I think that will be my go to dish from now on. By the time we got the Hash, I was so full, I could hardly breathe. I tried the hash and it was perfectly seasoned. You can taste the herbs and most of all, the rosemary! The potatoes were also good. Crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside.
Make sure to check this place out if you’re ever in LB. Definitely worth the wait!

I know that good ingredients SHOULD be flavor enough, but sometimes, well, you just need a pinch — just a pinch! — of salt. Or some spice.
I was so confused by my meal here because it looked SO pretty, but tasted like very little. And I got something that should have been a nice blend: Eggs Benjamin, listed as follows — «Sauteed spinach topped with smoked salmon, poached eggs, and a California lemon emulsion.»
First of all, I guess I should have taken the menu at its literal word, but I did expect there to be an English muffin in there somewhere; after all, it is a Benedict. But okay, they never promised one.
The eggs were poached perfectly, with the yolk running everywhere when poked, but just somehow didn’t taste like anything. Neither did the lemon emulsion, which tasted like mayo, or maybe, generously, slightly lemon-​scented aioli, but anyway, something very heavily mayo-​based. There were also no discernible spices in the spinach. The sole flavor in this dish came from the lox and from the garnishes of curly herbs scattered on top.
Nearly everyone else in the restaurant was enthusiastically digging into what looked like diabetes-​inducing whipped-​cream-​topped piles of stuffed French toast, and we had the appetizer scones heavily marketed to us, so it’s possible this place is just great a sweet breakfasts (my partner’s tofu scramble was no great shakes either). But I really can’t stomach sugar in the morning, so I’ll have to pass on Starling in future.

Parking: Street parking in the neighborhood. Parking was no problem when I went. Friday — 1pm
Wait: No wait thank goodness! I went on a Friday afternoon around 1pm.
Food!
San Fran French Toast: SOOO GOOD! We got it with the berries. The custard inside the french toast was perfect. Since it was made out of a baguette I thought it was going to be really hard, but surprisingly it wasn’t. The toast was really soft on the inside. Wish it came with a side of eggs, sausage, or potatoes. At least some type of protein.
Corned beef hash scramble: I loved it! The corned beef is in a patty form which looked odd to me ad first, but when I broke it down it started making more sense. I loved how it was crispy on the outside. It came with toast and potatoes. The potatoes were good as well. Wish they were crispier. I am a fan of crispy food, can you tell?
Water: is mint infused
I wish I tried the drunken chai): maybe next time!
Since it wasn’t busy, our food came out so fast I was amazed. Service was great, server checked up on us from time to time to see how we were doing.
Definitely try this place out if you’re ever in the LBC! I recommend coming when it’s not crowded because you don’t have to deal with parking and waiting.

Muchísimas personas ! Me recuerda cuando en mi país los lugares tradicionales aunque esperes largo tiempo igual no importa ! Muy rico el desayuno con huevos revueltos jamón y swiss cheese, pero lo mejor las tostadas francesas triple berry! Todo muy delicioso !!