Tony’s Diner

An okay breakfast place. I was there last Friday. The service was okay and the food the same. I had a breakfast sandwich it was the special and the food was fine but kind of felt like something I could just make at home. Overall, decent food for an okay price. Clean and a nice amount of room for seating inside.

Love this place so much! Sirloin steak is my go-​to dish. It comes with salad. Fish and chip is also good.

WOW, I’m dumbstruck at how bad the biscuits and gravy are here. Absolutely horrible gravy, i hesitate to call it that because I almost think they poured paper mache paste on my biscuit by mistake. It tasted like sugary flour & water. I’m generally pretty forgiving when it comes to food tastes however this was so horribly awful I can’t extend any forgiveness for this abomination. Sugary flour water. I’ve always wondered why people in Minnesota haven’t caught on to southern breakfast foods like biscuits & gravy but after eating this I’m starting to understand better why, because if this were my introduction to biscuits & gravy I wouldn’t touch it again either. The eggs and hash browns that came with the plate weren’t notable either, very bland very generic, no seasoning/​spices of any sort. The eggs I ordered over medium and they cooked them extra runny as you would a lite over easy. .And that gravy, dear god it was horrible, they should be ashamed of themselves for presenting that as edible. All this for $ 11, sound like a deal?

Honestly the greasiest most disgusting omelette and hashbrowns my husband and I have ever eaten. I don’t know if it was the cook on staff that day but there was a pool of oil inside the omelette. And the bacon was all white clear fat. No meat. I have pictures. The hashbrowns were super mushy and greasy. I had to blot each piece I ate. Everything on that plate was swimming in oil. The pancakes were good though. But never should an omelette seep oil out of it when pressing your fork on top. The last pictures I posted were what we left on the plate. Picked through the innards of the omelette and ate the toast. Everything else stayed. I don’t recommend it. Best thing was seeing my rock idol walk in the door for the concert we were seeing that night. And he was gracious enough to take a picture with me. Love Blue October. Check them out if you don’t know the pure genius of their band and music.
I really wanted to love the food. It looked really old but man oh man puddles of oil no thank you. Felt sick during the concert for sure :(

We stopped in for breakfast while visiting our son at UMN. We’ve been to Al’s — which we love — but wanted to try something different. This fit the bill with a diner-​type ambience and 50s music playing in the background. The cinnamon french toast was amazing. Highly recommended if you visit. My husband had an omelette, which was good, but he said the french toast was better. It’s a Vikings home game today so we enjoyed people watching too as fans strolled by or came in for a bite to eat. Would probably give this a 3 compared to Al’s but the french toast pushed it up to a 4.

Located in Dinkytown. Near the UMN campus. Good place for breakfast. Opens early. We were visiting our student and needed to get on the road. It was busy at 8:15a. I had an omelette. My wife had French toast on cinnamon bread. Mine was good. Hers was the winner. Next time for me.

Fries were okay but everything else was not. Cheeseburger was tasteless, veggie burger was burnt, etc. Would avoid if possible.

Meh is all I can say. I’ve eaten here before and the past experiences have been fine, however today changed my mind about the place. I went in with my sister for a late lunch and the cashier at the counter was semi-​helpful when ordering. I ordered scrambled egg whites and toast with jelly. The toast and jelly came out very fast but it was slathered with butter. i guess that’s normal for a diner however for someone who’s main order is egg whites, I probably don’t want all that butter. My sister got her burger and fries quickly which was nice, however 20 minutes passed without my eggs. I finally got up and asked and the cashier had completely forgotten to ring them up, and made me pay full price for my meal when she had made the mistake. Nice. She also overcharged me. It’s an easy meal for college students, however I don’t think I’ll be back.

I came in on Labor Day with a couple of friends around 9:30AM. It was a nice bustling atmosphere and wasn’t overly crowded or packed. It was convenient for us as we walked through Dinkytown looking for a place to eat breakfast and decided on Tony’s Diner! Nice location that corners 4^th St and 14^th Ave.
This menu is fairly well equipped, lots of options on the breakfast and non breakfast sides. I ordered the #11 which had steak, eggs (made to your preference), hash browns, and buttered toast. Utensils, you grab on your own at the register when ordering, a station that my party had missed.
On the food, I had a fairly standard experience. Nothing blew me away and everything was satisfying! I was served with three eggs sunny side up on the colder side and my rare steak was more along the lines of medium rare to medium. The steak wasn’t too juicy but had an amount of oil on it to compensate. We had two pieces of toast cut in half to make it 4 pieces, but the jelly provided was hard to portion out among those 4 pieces unless covered in a thin layer — just had to ask for more without a problem.
Customer service was very kind and accommodating to questions we had. I’ll probably come back for a go to breakfast diner!

Fantastic American style breakfast !
The cheddar cheese omlette was one of the best omlettes I ever had in days ! The entire breakfast palate of the omlette, wheat bread and hash browns was very filling — a perfect brunch ! Ambience and service is good as well. Mostly college undergrads.

They had no idea what their fries were cooked in and burnt my veggie burger to a crisp. Don’t bother coming here. Seating is awkwardly close to other tables, and my brother said his burger was the worst burger he’d ever had. Only reason why I’m giving two stars is because the fries were decent and the people working werent too bad.

I have to admit, I came to this place because Al’s around the corner was packed, and I needed to eat breakfast quickly. I was in the mood for pancakes, and Tony’s definitely satisfied my craving. I was a bit disappointed that they didn’t have real maple syrup, but rather bottles of Mrs. Butterworth’s on the tables. Other than that, the place is a solid diner for quick eats. The coffee left a lot to be desired, but it is all you can drink, so you can’t expect too much. There’s plenty of space and free wifi, which was cool.

Had a great experience and food tasted good :) has a really vintage feel to it and came early in the morning so my friend and I were the only one (9:30 am for breakfast).

Pleasantly surprised by this little diner. Wasn’t expecting much but the Greek salad was awesome with fresh not grilled chicken, my son had amazing French Toast. We will be back!

Super fast service & great breakfast food. Wish they had a non-​dairy creamer option, so I could enjoy coffee with my breakfast, but in the grand scheme of things not a big deal.
If you need a good, quick breakfast, go to Tony’s.

I had my heart set on Al’s for breakfast but my dad was hangry and impatient so around the corner to Tony’s we went. There wasn’t anything special about the omelet I ordered. But maybe I feel that way because I’m still holding a grudge about Al’s. Hard to say either way.
The place was packed, probably because Al’s was also, and there aren’t a lot of breakfast joints in dinkytown.
I used to come here back in the day in college when it was called Steak Knife and the night spot for us under 21 year olds to party and/​or watch a band. I think I only ever ate here once for lunch and don’t really remember much about it.
They rebranded after I left so not sure if it’s still the night spot it was back in the day.

If you have a hangover, you should go here. It’s absolutely amazing for greasy breakfast food. Also, everything is under $ 10 so you won’t break the bank on it (hopefully).
The inside is very gopher themed, and there is always a bunch of sporting events on tv. The is also pretty spacious so it should be easy to get a seat.

Stopped in for breakfast on a Friday morning. I ordered the English Muffin sandwich ($ 5) and my sister got Tony’s Basic Breakfast ($ 9). Both were good but nothing I couldn’t make at home for much cheaper (and less greasy.) It was pretty pricey for such basic breakfast items. We were in and out within twenty minutes.
Food was good, service was good, atmosphere is good– it was all good, but nothing special in my opinion. I would skip Tony’s for breakfast but would be interested in trying their regular menu. Especially their late night menu.

They have a good steak and eggs meal and season their shoe string fries pretty well. Was pretty disappointed by their Philly cheese steak… the meat is cut pretty thick and the bread was kind of stale (at least the few times I tried it). They have fresh rotisserie chicken at a decent price as well.

The general vibe of this place was very strange. It’s ostensibly a diner, but you pay at the counter and then your food is brought to your table. That’s a fine concept; it works at Noodles & Co. and so many other places, but it feels weird here, probably because the staff was curt and unfriendly. Diners are meant to be homey and comforting and the service certainly didn’t add up to that. The décor looked pieced together. In general, I don’t think the concept was fully realized.
I got a Denver omelette, which came with hash browns and toast. Kind of pricey for what it was, plus my omelette was rather crispy. If you’re going to call yourself a diner you really ought to make sure your omelette game is on point. Hash browns were fine. Toast, obviously fine.
Overall, I didn’t get what I was looking for here. Friendly neighborhood diner? Certainly not. Cheap place to have brunch? Nooot really, considering the quality. I can’t speak to their nighttime offerings but I’ve had much better breakfast experiences at Perkins, sadly enough. Wouldn’t recommend for breakfast or brunch.