Richie’s Real American Diner

I had the Tri-​tip dinner a week ago, I must say it was delicious, I really tasted the smokey flavor. It was so good that I came back the following week o have the same. But for some reason it was not the same, maybe a different chef, trip tip was not even as close in flavor as the first time. Disappointing.

No better place if you want steak and eggs. Service is great and the prices are reasonable.

This is the second time I have been to this location. I will have to say I was disappointed again. From the outside this place looks like a cool diner, but the food here sucks!!! If you enjoy eating cafeteria food then this is the place for you. They can’t even cook fries correctly! The fries on our dinners were soggy and disgusting. Don’t come here it’s such a waste a money!!!

Me and my family love this place. I have never had anything there that was bad. Burgers bbq fish breakfast never been disappointed. Always get a table right away.

Me and my husband have been coming here a lot and we really like how it’s oldies type of feel and really enjoy the food here no complaints except that the strawberry lemonades are a lil pricy and the waitresses are bland & mediocre however if it wasn’t for the food this place wouldn’t be special, i give it 3 stars only for the food — the service is mediocre the waitress only comes by like 3x to place order/​give food /​return check — tip to the waitresses if u wana get a nice tip u gotta come back more often to see how your guests are doing lol…

Came in here for the first time the other day, i dont remember our servers name but she wasnt too friendly didn’t smile once hardly came around to check on us etc. I had got the veggie patty burger while my husband got the chili burger he enjoyed his but I didn’t care too much for mine. It was pretty dry. After we were done eating we hungout for a little he wanted to get desert. My stomach became upset and I felt like I was on fire. I’m not sure if it was from the burger but by the time we got home I threw up for 2 hours. Couldn’t even sleep because of the way I was feeling and I had work at 10am. I had felt miserable. Probably won’t be returning to this location again.

This is a cute little restaurant. It’s all done up like a 50s diner. I say little but actually it’s pretty roomie inside. Food is good a little pricey but the ambiance is great and worth the extra pennies on the food. Fun times good food nice staff a great recommend. Oh ya and try the cinnamon roll it’s ginormous and so ooey gooey good!

Normally this is my breakfast stop but today it’s an early dinner. Yolanda is one of the best workers here (they all are great hostesses but we knew her at Spire’s). The food is good, service consistently good but can get crowded during breakfast.

Good food, good service. We ordered omelettes and the porterhouse steak. The cinnamon roll was huge! A little dry on the inside, but good anyway. The porterhouse steak was perfectly cooked! The food could’ve been a little faster coming out, but other than that it was a good experience.

Ordered thanksgiving dinner from here for 5 people, they literally give u a tiny little cup of cranberry sauce probably a spoonful size which is outrageous for a big meal. The stuffing wasn’t good it was ehh. Really disappointed in the meal that was $ 50 not too bad of a price but I probably would have got my money’s worth somewhere else.

The diner is located just south of Victoria Gardens. Its lit with great colors on the building simulating neon.
Going in, it almost gives a feeling of a gift shop more than a restaurant which throws you off a little.
The place was pretty busy but got seated in 5 minutes.
The menu looks great. Even the smell inside smells great.
We ordered a classic cheese burger meal and a steak and shrimp.
We ordered a mango iced tee. All teas are unsweetened. We also got the strawberry lemonade. The tea was good as well as the strawberry lemonade. They were served in stainless steel cups that they use for milkshakes. The strawberry lemonade was topped with real Strawberry’s.
The Bamberger was good. The meat was nice and thick. The unseasoned fries were good.
The steak was a smaller 1″ thick steak. It was unseasoned and flavorless which required A1 sauce to pick it up. A little salt, pepper and garlic powder during cooking could have made this steak go a long way. It was fairly tender… just a little nerves and a little grit. But it wasn’t bad. The fries were unseasoned and good with ketchup. The fries are ½″ thick. Pretty good size.
Service was nice. She was always checking on us.
Over all, the food was pretty standard. Nothing that made it pop from the rest. But its still a cool place to come back to on another day.
4 stars. If the food was seasoned a little, it would brought up the score.

Place sucks how can you get an a simple breakfast order wrong richies can. Waitress never came back too even say sorry someone else who was not our waitress said they were fixing it. Told her don’t bother you wasted 45 min of my time. I walked out left my combo platter and left the waitress with a bill for Christmas is won’t go back this place has lost my business for good.
Here is a tip if you don’t hear what the customer asked for ask again jerk…

What a disappointment the place has been. Service here has REALLY gone down hill. The place was no busier than usual, but it took awhile before we were seated & for our server to get to us. Both my kids orders were wrong and when they brought salads out for my wife and I both forks and my plate had left over «something» for the previous customers. Get it together people! After tonight’s experience my family and I won’t be back to that location.

I wish I could give zero stars! I ordered the grilled cheese sandwich but it was burnt to a crisp when they brought it out! I asked for a new one. The new one was barely cooked, it was still mushy from all the butter and not being cooked. The new one also only had white cheese and not the two other cheeses listed on their menu. I sent that sandwich back as well. It was completely inedible mush. The manager then came over and rudely asked what was wrong with that one. I told him what was wrong and that I didn’t want another one since my family was already done eating at this point. He said «fine» and walked away. Great manager! And then they didn’t even offer to comp anything off our bill for all the ridiculousness! I didn’t get to eat dinner because of their awful service and piss poor cooks and they had the nerve to give us attitude! Never again will I come here!!!

It hurts my heart to do this, but a negative review is a coming!
I’ve been eating here for a few years now, always come here with my girlfriend and her family. Unfortunately the last 3 – 4 visits have been terrible. Not sure if it’s the restaurant going downhill or we’ve just been very unlucky. We have run into the same problems these last few visits:
1) Food takes 30 – 40 mins to get to the table
2) Food arrives cold
3) Customer service hasn’t been the best
We continued to give this restaurant a chance because we have been eating here for so long. To top it off, my tummy is pretty upset at the moment. I ate maybe half of my food and didn’t have the energy to complain about our visit. We will not be coming back. And lastly, I was wearing my UCLA sweater, and they sat me next to 3 tables that were wearing USC gear. I think the Richie’s crew had a quick meeting when they saw me pulling up in the parking lot. The topic of that meeting: how can we make this guys experience the worst he’s ever had?
I know that last part is a little over the top… just trying to have some fun with this negative review.

Camilo and the team at Richie’s have created such a fun and quality environment. I primarily come here for breakfast and I almost always get the Richie’s Sampler which is a sample of their fresh smoked meats and it’s amazing. My favorite server is Francisco and he makes it fun to come in every time.
You’ve got to check it out and make sure to leave a review too, this is 5 star breakfast in my opinion.

Came in for breakfast at lunchtime.
Service: Our waiter was pleasant and smart, he quickly took our order and made sure there was plenty of cream and sugar for the coffee.
I ordered the biscuits with sausage gravy, hashbrowns and two eggs. It’s $ 8.75 here, $ 4. Dennys. Not ONE tiny piece of sausage, it should have been called biscuits with sausage flavored gravy. Cold eggs over easy…
My husband ordered the chicken with fries. Looked good when it came but the DRIEST chicken ever. They couldn’t boil it to add moisture, was like sawdust!
The coffee was good and the iced tea refreshing.
OVERALL:go to Dennys

I’m sorry to see fellow Unilocalers having a myriad of bad experiences, but aside from the occasional under-​trained/​new server, we’ve had pretty good luck at Richie’s and really should keep it on our radar more often.
This past Saturday we stopped in for lunch after tooling around Victoria Gardens, wanting a bigger variety to choose from and not just falling back on fast food. I went with their bowl of chili, for some reason it stood out to me, and I was so blown away by how good it was! It was delicious, hearty and slightly spicy with great fresh onions and melted cheese on top. It even comes with a free refill, but I was so stuffed after the Parmesan Texas toast that comes with the chili and the house salad I started with.
For our son there were good options and we were able to get steamed veggies instead of fries with his grilled cheese.
The only negative I have is that they don’t have any allergy information collected for you to look at. It would probably be a worthwhile project for the management to have someone go through the menu/​recipes and build the list of ingredients to make it available. It doesn’t matter if it’s just a huge binder with a sheet for every item like The Spaghetti Factory has, as long as I can go through it and not have to ask my server to ask the kitchen about the 5 different items i have questions on.
Solid four stars, and I think now it’s going to be hard to venture beyond the chili when we come back! Three days later and I’m still thinking about how great it was!

We stopped in for lunch on our way to San Diego. The restaurant is set up in a fun oldies atmosphere. It’s a large dining area split in half from the entrance.
I ordered the Tri Tip Philly with fries. The roll it’s served on is soft and warm. Unfortunately the roll kind of overtakes the little bit of filling inside. I wish they would have filled it more so it didn’t seem like it was mainly bread. The fries were plentiful and crispy.
Service was good. Our waitress was perfectly nice and professional. I wouldn’t make it a point to stop here when traveling through. It was fine for a quick stop.

1÷16÷15 (Friday)visit for breakfast with my co-​workers. We arrived around 7:15a and were happily greeted by our server Yolanda.
We placed our order around 7:30a after the rest of our party arrived. At first Yolanda was friendly & professional. But then after 7:30a she changed.
We had to interrupt her conversation w/​a fellow employee so that our order can be placed and she didn’t seem happy about that.
Someone else brought our order when ready, it looked delicious. When Yolanda came over, one of my co-​workers questioned her order and Yolanda gave her an attitude. We were not demanding and never asked for anything extra.
She checked on us one last time before bringing the bill and when we told her everything was okay she just rolled her eyes and walked away.
Now to our check-​$ 109.47 was the total, my manager gave her $ 120.00. She then rudely asked if change was needed, my manager said «yes please» then Yolanda rolled her eyes and walked away.
A tip was left, not much based on the service from Yolanda. If I come back it will be during the evening for dessert.