Diner’s Delight

My wife and I. Stop by the Best steak house the line was out the door. Went to Sweetie Pie’s the lines was out the door. We decided to count our losses, and just go home. So on the way home we saw Diners Delight and decided to give them a shoot … My God the food the people !!! Just can beat it !!! We’ll be going on a regular bases. The bake pork chops are to die for !!!

My fiancé brought home smothered chicken, sweet potatoes and green beans. I really enjoyed the sweet potatoes but the green beans were just alright. The smothered chicken was extremely salty but I’d be willing to try other food options. FYI — they’re closed on Saturday’s.

Excellent service and delicious food! Very pleased and full. Large portions and full of favor. Sweetie Pies has nothing on them period went there yesterday and was disappointed hands down this place is better

Was looking for a quick and soulful lunch after Church, so my honey suggested this little spot. We pulled up at 11:50am and there were people already gathering to make a line outside the door (sign says opens@12)Needless to say 12:00 came and the doors still didn’t open! Finally, 12:05 we heard the locks and the line moved in. While waiting for my order to be taken (4^th in line) I did notice the food had already been dug in and packaged up in bags for??? But none the less I decided on smothered pork chops, dressing, mac n cheese and a side of string beans. My honey went with Beef ribs and gravy, mashed potatoes and maç n cheese. I couldn’t wait to sit down and get my eat on! Sadly, I was disappointed at the first bite. The (1)pork chop was thin, had NO taste (not even the taste of onion which it was covered in) and the gravy was watererd down. The mac n cheese was also watery! The dressing was OK and the green beans were the only thing that had flavor! My honey felt the same way about his meal.
For $ 40 we could have went elsewhere! I will say they were friendly, clean and was fast to service you once you made it in. But I like my food seasoned, so I won’t be back… sorry!

Decent food, but subpar service. My sister and I were pretty much ignored until she spoke up and then she was still ignored by the two workers in front of us, but one just happened to leave the kitchen and helped us. We weren’t even greeted with a hello. There was no menu posted and when I asked for one the cashier had to go in the back to get it (though not before he finished his conversation with another employee). Again, the food is consistent and decent, but wasn’t impressed with the service.

This is the best soul food/​comfort food in town. If you want a healthy vegan meal then stay away :-) Diner’s delight will give you a good variety of options, great home cooked food, and a lot of food for your money!

Great soul food! I have not found many soul food restaurants who do not put pork in their vegetables! Friendly staff! Family owned business.

The service was good. The catfish steak was seasoned well. The potato salad & sweet tea were very good. The greens were not good. The unsweetened cornbread is made like a pancake.

Went in… no one working the front… Food smell good guy was back in the back making an order no one still came to the front to take my order in and I heard the girl that was watching him make her order ask him to if he could not put that Brenda her box cause he just saw him touch is no limit text to Brett he didn’t have on gloves so at that point he went and washed his hands never put on gloves and still preparing the food and she was not pleased with that I wasn’t pleased with it so I turned around and walked out of there… very sad cause I feel like it was good but I was an interesting there when the workers who are handling food do not have one glass that doesn’t make sense

Tasty and satisfying soul food. Huge portions for low prices.
We ordered baked chicken, turkey, mac n cheese, spinach, stuffing, and cornbread. Chicken, stuffing, and cornbread were particularly good. The only thing that wasn’t great was the mac n cheese, which was a little watery. But it was still flavorful, and we ate it.
Tripe is apparently a specialty here. Several people walked in, asked for the tripe, and left when told they were out.

Diners Delight is one of my favorite spots to eat in St. Louis, period. I went for my birthday and fell in love with the baked turkey wings. Tender, juicy, and seasoned to perfection! The sides are all just how your Mother makes ‘em and the cornbread is shaped like a pancake… how can you not love this place?!

The service was good. Nothing looked good, but I tried it anyway. Mac & cheese was runny & flavorless. The dressing was flavorless, and the fried chicken was dry, overcooked and cold.

Let me start by saying that Diner’s Delight has some of the best fried chicken I’ve ever tasted!
I make it a point to go here at least once a week to get the fried chicken wing box with yams and cabbage. The food is always hot and fresh and the owners are so friendly… it feels like you’re eating at someone’s home. Definitely comfort food.

Diner’s Delight has amazing fried chicken and I love fried chicken.
They give you a huge portion of mashed potatoes, which are good, but not the best I’ve ever eaten. However, let’s talk about the fried chicken again. You have to go for the Fried Chicken!
They also have Ox Tail Tuesdays. The beef is extremely tender from the ox tails. The gravy with the ox tail is also mouth-​watering good.
Just try every poultry and meat at Diner’s Delight and you will be very satisfied! Excellent Soul Food overall!

When I don’t feel like cooking… this is where you’ll find me!
There baked chicken, smothered pork chops, smothered chicken and cornbread pancakes are good. The star of the line is the fried chicken have them put some gravy on it and you’ve got yourself a «Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner!»

FREE Wi-​Fi is available at Diner’s Delight and that is the most positive point about this diner. With the majority of the reviews on Unilocal being 5 Stars, I was expecting to be blown away with some down home cooking. Instead, I was served food that made me wish I was bulimic. All the food was overcooked and flavorless. Yet it left a horrible aftertaste in my mouth. I couldn’t get home fast enough to brush my teeth to rid myself of the terrible taste in my mouth.
We had two Chicken Dinners with two sides, two ice teas and 1 Peach Cobbler with Ice Cream. Total cost of lunch $ 27 with tip. No alcohol, poor service and bad food. I think I’ve been robbed. I would not recommend this place to a homeless person.

If my mom, grandma, and a host of my Mississippi cousins opened a restaurant, it would be Diner’s Delight. Seriously… it’s a taste of home, in South City. I generally hit them up for dinner on Sundays, right before the after church rush starts. They stock all that stuff that you can’t get at other so-​called down home restaurants-​oxtails, chicken & dumplings, neckbones, dressing everyday-​love it. Teddy & the rest of the staff make it a point to make sure you enjoy your visit, AND don’t leave hungry. Great atmosphere, friendly clientele (me included!), and soul food at a reasonable price… my go-​to spot, since Delmonico’s closed their doors.

After reading Tracey’s rave review for this place, I had to stop by last night to give it a try. It’s been on my to-​go list for a while now and last night I was feeling kinda «blah» so I decided soul food might be the answer to my problems… food therapy, mmmm the best kind of therapy (cheaper than paying a shrink too, if you’re eating at Diner’s Delight.)
It was about 7:30pm or so by the time we got there and some of the food was already sold out. Thankfully they still had fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and mac n cheese. Those were the three things I really, really wanted to try. Oh yeah, and gravy/​cornbread as well! They have a menu that changes every day but the one common item on the menu for every day is fried chicken, and thank god for that. I love their fried chicken.
More specifically, the fried chicken had a really crispy breading which was seasoned with some type of spice blend. I have no idea what was in it, but it was magical. Sweet, salty, and a hint of something else??? The chicken inside (I had white meat breast with the wing… the dark meat with the leg is slightly cheaper, FYI) was really juicy and not dried out at all. It had a great flavor. Because we ended up stopping by another place on our way home, my food wasn’t really hot or even warm anymore by the time I ate it… but like Tracey W. mentioned, it didn’t matter! I could have taken the time to heat it up but I was so starved that I didn’t care. And it didn’t even matter. STILL GOOD even cold!
The mac n cheese was kind of a disappointment for me but maybe that’s because I prefer my noodles a bit more… firm? It tasted «OK» but wasn’t earth-​shatteringly good but it somehow still «went» with the rest of the food I got if that makes any sense at all… As in, it wasn’t too rich and it wasn’t too heavy/​sickening to eat (like the Shaved Duck’s…still good though) but that was probably a good thing because the mashed potatoes were very heavy. Not sure if I would get the mac n cheese again right off the bat simply because there are still other side I want to try like the mashed yams/​sweet potatoes.
The potatoes had a nice creaminess about them without screaming «we were made with only heavy cream and lots of butter!» (But maybe they were?! Gasp!) They were smooth and had some other flavor to them which I cannot describe… as if they were cooked in the same vessel which cooked meat or a vegetable. Or maybe it was just seasoning? Who knows. Either way these were some of the best mashed potatoes I’ve ever eaten in my life and I liked that I didn’t feel ultra ill after eating them. I could only finish about ½ of the serving they gave me though, btw. SO FILLING!
The gravy was SO freaking amazing. It had a rich, savory, hearty,…meatyyyy flavor to it. It went perfectly with the mashed potatoes and chicken. There was a chunk of meat in the gravy so I suspect it came from the porkchops that were also available that night. (Sooo on my list of what to try next from D.D.)
The corn bread was like a little pancake! Such an unusual way of making cornbread but I really liked it! Makes it easier to eat in the car on the ride home, that’s for sure. It was a tiny bit dry but not sure if that’s standard or if it had been dry from sitting out all day.
Service was great too, btw. The guy helping me out was younger and really nice. He accidentally under-​charged me for the white meat I got and I told him I’d pay the correct amount but he said no worries since he already punched it in the register. He handed both Sean and I pens, business cards, and menus and told us to not be strangers. My entire meal was less than $ 8 which was an incredible price considering I could have only eaten that whole thing for my only meal in one day and not been hungry at all for anything else because it was so filling!
Oh man, Diner’s Delight… y u so good?! I am already plotting (yes, plotting) my next trip to this place because I can’t stop thinking about it. That’s how good it was. I am scared to imagine how many calories I ate last night but now I know that one meal from this place is so filling (and cheap!) that I could eat here once a day and not have to ever eat again for the entire rest of the day. It’s like a one-​stop calorie intake/​feeling of fullness for me, lol! Oh yeeeah!

Thank you Tracey W. I had to stop in after your tremendous review. I met a friend downtown and on the way back we stopped in here for a quick lunch.
I told the guy behind the counter that it was my first time in and asked what he recommended. Turns out every Friday in fish day. Yuck… I hate fish.
He walked me over to the chicken which is what I chose. Mash potatoes and corn with pancake cornbread. My friend ordered the same thing. A bit under salted but excellent. While we were eating the man came over to us and gave us each a key chain, a menu and a pen with their advertisement on it. So sweet.
The entire lunch came to $ 6 something. I will def be back.

I am absolutely blown away by this restaurant. One of the best and most surprising dining experiences since moving to Saint Louis.
First of all, Compton Ave. as a whole is a new discovery to me. When I discovered it after moving to Tower Grove during the Grand bridge closure, I thought I had found some secret shortcut to downtown. Well, apparently other people know about Compton, too. Anyway, I’ve driven by Diner’s Delight at least ten times without realizing there was a restaurant there. The sign does not stand out, and it’s in a location where I wouldn’t expect a restaurant.
Anyway, once I discovered it was a soul food place, I was dying to try it. It seemed like a sit down or cafeteria place, so I’ve put it off for a long time. Don’t get me wrong– I love being the fat chick eating alone in a restaurant as much as the next tubs– but yeah, usually I’m so beat down after work that I would just as soon weep into a pint of Ben & Jerry’s for dinner than actually walk into a restaurant.
After hearing they had takeout, I decided today was the day. They have a small parking lot, but I opted to park on the street. The building looks great and has recently been completely remodeled. Very clean.
You walk in and the scent just slams into you. I know a lot of places are like that, but seriously, this place is like that times ten. I mean literally, my mouth was watering. I feel sorry for their UPS guy. I bet leaving there without eating is the worst part of his day. Or else he eats there every day, and it’s the best part of his day.
There were no signs or menus that I saw, which was a little annoying, but whatever. You walk up to the counter and can see what they have. I told her I wanted it for takeout. You get to pick whatever you want. I chose a turkey wing, mac & cheese, and yams (I worked out for 15 minutes today, lay off me). Then she asked me if I wanted white, wheat, or corn bread. I said corn and she gave me a pancake that was made out of cornbread. I walked out of there with a Styrofoam container of food so heavy that I had to use both hands (but maybe I was still weak from my marathon session at the gym today…) for less than 9 bucks.
I thought the staff were super sweet. I’ve heard a few reports that the staff are icy, but you get back what you put out, and if you are friendly to them, they will be friendly to you.
Got home and tore into my food. It. Was. INCREDIBLE. My God. I am determined to either be adopted by these people or marry into that family, because holy shit, if your mom could cook like this, you would never leave home. A girlfriend called me right after I had taken my first bite, and the conversation lasted about 30 minutes. I was dying the whole time, watching my food get cold. But after the phone call when I dove back in, it STILL tasted perfect, even cold.
The turkey was out of this world. Super juicy and tender, with crispy skin. The macaroni and cheese was great. Not overwhelming in flavor, with just enough oomph. The yams were a little mushy and drowning in a very sweet brown sugar sauce. The cornbread was spectacular, with barely a hint of sweet, and I couldn’t stop eating it.
I am so full right now I am in pain. Come on, you guys know me, it takes a LOT to fill me up. Hands down the most satisfying lunch I’ve had in years.
I cannot recommend this place enough. I can’t wait to go back. I’m wondering if going there for dinner tonight would be too soon.