Kathleen’s Sky Diner

So sad it closed down :(

Came here for brunch on Saturday and must say that finding parking along the shops at Lovers Lane can be quite the nightmare (didn’t help that this was during one of Dallas’ rare thunderstorms)… Once inside, we were kindly greeted by Kathleen’s husband Robert who sat us at a table near the window, right adjacent to the entrance to Kathleen’s Bakery (or ‘Takery”). While waiting for our food to arrive, we popped into the art bakery and sampled their DELICIOUS cakes (birthday cake, red velvet cake, carrot cake), sweet rolls, and rugelach.
Ordered the ‘Rigos’ especial’ (poached eggs with jalapeño hollandaise served over chorizo patty on toasted english muffin). The chorizo was a bit salty, but otherwise the dish was a unique blend of flavors — we were also served a cinnamon roll and blueberry muffin as an appetizer of some sorts which were sub-​par to the pastries we had sampled at the takery. This may be obvious to most everyone else, but the ‘sky diner’ concept was lost on me until I looked at their menu which is arranged as a ‘flight itinerary’ serving international destinations (i.e. different types of cuisine ranging from European to Asian to South American).

The food is touted as so great but when I’ve been for lunch it’s been «meh.» Have had better experiences with breakfast.
Definitely overpriced for that kind of feeling walking away from it. Décor and atmosphere would reflect a lower tier as well.
Warning: They have a Scoutmob out that they do not honor (per experience with the owner). I will absolutely not go back after seeing dishonesty like that. There are so many wonderful places to eat in Dallas that don’t treat their customers poorly.
I eat out a ton and would rather give my $ to a place I can feel good about. Perhaps you would, too.

I’ve been here several times for brunch and for dinner, and had a wonderful meal each time. It’s a pretty snazzy little place. The menu is quirky offering a variety of different kinds of flavors that make it hard to pin it down to a certain «type» of restaurant.
If you’re eating dinner here I absolutely recommend the «crack fries.» As soon as you take a bite, you’ll understand.

There was a party of about 12 of us here on a Wednesday afternoon for an early lunch /​brunch. Many people ordered lunch options and some had breakfast. The food was excellent and the cheddar grits were to die for! It was a casual atmosphere is such cute part of Dallas on Lovers Lane. Kathleen’s Sky Diner has a great vibe. I think this is a great place to visit for a casual meal or to take friends and family to that may be visiting from out of town. Some great southern options on the menu.
Highly recommend Kathleen’s Sky Diner.

Kathleen’s Sky Diner has been around way longer than I can remember, but I finally made my way in to peruse through their baked good selection. I normally wouldn’t order just sweets at a place with the word «diner» in it – I am a sucker for anything along the lines of chicken ‘n dumplins and meatloaf.
Alas, we just wanted to drop by for a bite of their famous sticky date toffee pudding cake. We figured if we were already due for a sugar crash shortly afterward, we might as well go all out and go for another sugar-​laden item that will surely inflict Diabetic-​like symptoms on your cells.
At first glance, $ 7 seems like a boatload to pay for a slice o’ cake, but then you see that they heap on 3 large scoops of vanilla ice cream right next to your cake, aptly drizzled with some sweet, sticky sauce. Couldn’t tell you what was in it… my sweets radar is a bit off. The cake itself was moist, not too sweet, and just really unctuous. Our server put it best: «If I had to bring one thing to a party, it would be this cake.»
We also went with a coconut raspberry bar. AND our server graciously threw in an incredibly large slice of the Belgian chocolate brownie (?), with much coconut on top. The aforementioned sweet was not too sweet or sticky, possessed just the right touch of buttery flavor. The latter was rich, dense, and sweet. Pick your poison; you are going to kill yourself anyway.
As you can see, I won’t be able to inform you about the savory items here, but I guess you can gather that information from the many other reviews about this Lovers Ln. institution. The price point is high, and the layout of the eatery is not too conducive to quick service, but all things considered, I might have a meal here at some point.

I’m in the middle of the road on this one. First off, I don’t know if they’re trying to be a fine dining place, a breakfast café, or a casual dining place.
Now… the prices are too much for what it is. The décor is a little confused, and the servers really don’t give a crap. But it’s whatever. I came here for the food.
We came for «brunch» and had some pretty decent food. I had the crab cakes, which I was told were fresh. They tasted frozen. Pre-​packaged at least. The poached eggs were not done properly, and the sauce was just coating everything. Way too much sauce. The roasted potatoes were good.
The string french fries were good. Different than what you usually get in the area. Good seasoning, and crispy. I like ‘em. The tuna melt was ok… nothing to write home about for sure. Just your basic tuna melt.
All in all, this place has a lot of hype behind it, but it’s nothing super awesome. I give them 3 stars because they like to talk about how great they are, when really, they’re just average. I’d give them 4 stars if they weren’t so stuck up. Give it a shot once at least.

Kathleen’s has a unique feel, a little preppy, a little artsy; a little trendy and a little indie. It has the type of feel that I wish more Dallas area restaurants had.
They have pretty good food and some really good desserts. It is also a good place to get a cake or stop in for a cup of coffee. I feel like breakfast there can be a little hit or miss.

The service was spectacular!!!
The food, honestly, was kind of bland. The fried chicken needed seasoning. They tried to hide that fact by putting gravy on it but you could tell it needed salt and pepper. And it was way overcooked! Very dry. The cheese grits were the star but they couldn’t save the dish. Top it off with an overcooked fried egg and you’ve got an average place.
I might come back to give it another shot though. Their menu is quite diverse. (but that may be their issue, jack of all trades, master of none… we shall see)

This place is a brunch staple for sure. I’m not sure I’ve ever been there at a different time — but the brunch is solid.
Service is always good, prompt and on-​point. A brunch favorite is the «Eggs from Hell,» which falls into that «great hangover food» category. It’s a chicken/​egg/​pepper burrito smothered in saucy goodness. be prepared to get a box to take it home — the portion is HUGE.
Everyone I’ve ever taken here has enjoyed it — from our teenage daughter to my 60-​something father. If you haven’t checked it out, you should.

Great Wiener Schnitzel! This is a great little restaurant/​bakery. The food is always good and the deserts are phenomenal. I always enjoy my visits here and look forward to the next visit. The only downfall about the place is the parking situation. If it’s a busy time it can be difficult to find a parking spot.

So since my name is Cathleen, I thought it’ll be cute to go eat at a restaurant with the same name… only spelled with a K!
An experience I thought would be cute turned out to be horrible!!! Everybody there was rude to us except our waitress, Karol.
I met up with an old friend of mine from high school for brunch today and I decided to come here for brunch because I havent been here before and I bought a $ 10 giftcard from
so thought I’d kill two birds with one stone. We were first greeted by a rude bartender/​hostess when we walked in. I dont know what her name is but she looked like a Paula so I will refer to her as Paula in my review. Paula greeted us with no smile, which I could care less but she gave us a tiny table in a corner when there were other tables available. Eventually i asked our waitress if we could move to a different table. Anyway, I had a mimosa and Paula brought it out so I asked for straws. She rolled her eyes and threw them down on the table. okay RUDE!!! no need to throw stuff! and I couldnt understand why she was being rude because we didnt say or do anything to her!
Another thing that got to me was that we never got our bread till like 20 minutes later. There were only two muffins in there and one of them was frozen!!! It was hard enough to give Paula a concussion if I threw it at her. We ordered our food and didnt get it till 50 minutes later… We noticed it after 35 minutes so we asked our waitress and she said they lost the ticket… that’s another thing I dont understand but whatever!
I ordered the sky crab cakes with two poached eggs and potatoes! that was very good! and their mimosas are strong. Everything here is overpriced and not so great service.
we ended up getting desserts for free but that doesnt help the service!
management needs to step up a little bit!

I’m a big fan of restaurants with an Austin-​type feel to it and I could tell just from the website for Kathleen’s Sky Diner that it would be one of those restaurants. And seeing is truly believing: Kathleen’s Sky Diner is located on a stretch of Lovers Lane that looks like it was transplanted from Austin.
Now onto the food. I decided on the half sandwich + soup combo — mostly because of the soup of the day (Meatball soup). I opted for the Grilled Meatloaf Sandwich — which used to be the best sandwich in Dallas according to D Magazine in 2005 and 2007.
The soup I definitely could’ve lived without — it was salty, seemed to be composed mostly of oil, and tasted a bit like it may have been from a can. As for the sandwich, it was fine — I was really glad I only had half of the sandwich to finish. I don’t think I’d ever consider this sandwich to be the best in the DFW metroplex.
The meal’s saving grace? The dessert! Kathleen’s Sky Diner has an extensive dessert repetoire — cakes, pies, tortes. you name it! We decided on their chocolate peppermint cake and man, did it taste like peppermint bark in cake form… so delicious! Up until dessert, I’d been a bit underwhelmed with the food but man, that cake bumped them up from a 2.5 star rating to a 3 star rating. The cake was fluffy and moist and the frosting tasted like peppermint without being overwhelming. Their desserts run for $ 7 and they are worth every penny in quantity (the cake slices are HUGE. they seem to be part of a five-​layer cake) and quality!
I don’t know that I’ll be making any return trips to Kathleen’s Sky Diner any time soon but if I do, it will definitely be for their desserts!
P. S. They have
coupons available. one that can be applied for lunch and a few that are applicable for dinner. Check em out — the money you save with the coupon you can use towards your dessert. that’s what I did!

Deliciousness.
On Sunday nights they have half off most entrees.
Schnitzel is huge, filling, not greasy, tasty, and covered in pretty sauce.
Fish selections are incredible, huge and I hurt my head trying to choose between the pretzel crusted tipalia, salmon, sea bass, or fish of the day. Sauces are delish.
Sides:
roasted calliflower (crusty black perfection)
red cabbage (sweet, tangy, give me more)
spinach (hearty and not greasy just how it should be)
grits (thick and speckled with cheese, greatness)
Chicken salad … you are like pedicures… even men want you. Yes I always thought chicken salad was only devoured by lunching ladies, but I’m beginning to learn men can like you too.
Desserts…not easy to ward off you gorgeous evil empires.
Bar … fun and pleasant envirnoment to enjoy a good game and romance yourself.

The senior citizen factor, accompanied by their goodlooking, well-​dressed families, was amped up this Sunday brunch. But like the 90 year old man sipping a gibson as he picked at his cinnamon roll — these folks were keepin it real. This unassuming, extremely hang-​outable, and nice casual spot in wealthy Highland Park serves good food at a slightly higher pricepoint. The menu is designed to look like an airplane terminal flight board except the departure times, listed on the left, were prices. Most flights left after 11, including pancakes. Entrees left after 1500. If the prices were lower I would come here more often, but for breakfast with parents it works. Your Mom might think it’s so cute that maybe she’ll foot the bill. However a, perhaps, subtle 1950’s touch of an almost entirely minority staff to a 100% white clientle made me feel like an uncomfortable accomplice. With the large 70’s and up demographic I couldn’t help but think that the flight motif was somehow a euphemestic metaphor for traveling on to the next life. Hopefully their beautiful chipper grandchildren, dining happily with thought bubbles of fat inheritances, will use whatever power they have to create future positive social change.
Goddess bless us all.

I tried this place w/​TriciaO and AngelaG (on their recommendation) and was not let down. I had the tomato soup which was perfect on a snowy March evening and the «D Magazine Best» meatloaf sliders. The meatloaf was absolutely de-​lish but the buns (similar to the dinner rolls) were too dense and seemed a little stale. Sliders need to have warm squishy buns! I also tried some of AG’s spaghetti and the sauce was really tasty.
The BEST part was dessert! Sky Diner has an extensive dessert menu and all but one of the desserts comes w/​ice cream. The hazelnut torte a la mode was sublime. I would come back just to eat the torte.
Cons: Nasty gray vinyl tablecloths. Bread could be better.
Pros: Good service and awesome desserts. (worth an extra star)
I need to come back and try the Osso Bucco and Italian cream cake. It seems that they have half-​off entrees on Sunday.

I wanted to try someplace different for brunch a few weeks ago, and the reviews seemed pretty decent so I went to check it out.
Getting into the shopping center can be a pain because Lovers is so busy and there’s no signal.
We made it though, and my first impression was ‘old lady chic’. Blaring loud jazz muzak, table cloths, and University Park/​Highland Park clientele.
Aside from not being a fan of the atmosphere, the menu had some good options. I had the shrimp and grits which were creamy buttery goodness with 4 medium sized shrimp in a creamy, tangy mushroom sauce. The prices seem a bit high, but the servings are large, plus they fill you up with scones, muffins, and biscuits.
Overall it was ohh-​kay, food was good, service was spotty, atmosphere was eh.

I love this place! It is adorable inside. I have been on a cold evening when they had the garage door closed, where hubby and I had a full dinner. I have also been on a warm afternoon when it was opened up to the street, and a girlfriend and I split the Italian Cream Cake (HUGE piece of cake) and a bottle of champagne. Each of the different atmospheres /​food choices were great!
Highly recommended!

We hit up Kathleen’s last week not really knowing what to expect, but armed with a 25% off dinner coupon. The restaurant setup is unusual in that most of the restaurant is open to the outside, but it’s not exactly a patio… more like an open garage door. We chose to sit further in the back away from the garage door because it was chilly outside.
The menu does try to incorporate Kathleen’s (and I guess it was her husband who welcomed us when we arrived?) travels; there are definite inspirations from different regions of the world and the menu even says «Flight 3482» or something at the top. It’s kind of cute, but also reminds me of something an elementary school kid would come up with.
I’m a little torn on the rating because I have a feeling we didn’t order their best food. We definitely want to come back because we feel like there’s a better Kathleen’s experience out there waiting for us. But on this «trip» I got the meatloaf sliders (ranked among best sandwiches in D Mag), Dr. S got a Thai-​style noodle dish, and we split a piece of chocolate peppermint cake (also ranked among the best in D Mag) for dessert.
The meatloaf in my sliders was quite good – just too small! The things were dwarfed by the buns, which were dry and didn’t do much for the sliders. I ended up removing most of the bread and eating the meatloaf and tomato with a dab of ketchup… the three sliders were really only about 3 bites each. Our original plan was to share the appetizer and then share the dinner but then we noticed that there was a sharing fee of $ 5 PER PERSON so we decided against that. I actually REALLY enjoyed the noodle dish but it was kind of funny because we had chosen Kathleen’s over Mango Thai next door which we really like, but then we just ended up getting Thai food anyway! I would get it again but I don’t think the serving size was hearty enough for him.
The cake, however, made up for any lack of food in the previous dishes – it was huge! And deeeeelicious. It almost seemed like the cake itself was kind of wet with a minty liqueur, rather than being moist. It was kind of weird but also kind of amazing. The pink peppermint icing was super sweet but when eaten with the cake it was great. I wouldn’t go so far as to give it a «best of» award but I did like it a lot, and I’m not even a chocolate person.
I have to mention that service was pretty slow – took awhile for anyone to even come get our drink orders, and then they forgot to bring our iced tea so we had to remind them anyway. However, it didn’t seem that there were any busboys either. The waitresses were cleaning off all the tables themselves.
I think this prevents me from giving them four stars on this visit but I will definitely return at some point and would definitely recommend giving it a try. The menu is rather expansive, and there’s surely some great gems in there, if only the service were a little better…

I’m usually skeptical of restaurants featured in coupon books or entertainment guides, but a 25% off dinner check coupon and a return to frugality convinced me to check out Kathleen’s Sky Diner. By the end of dinner, I was ready to chuck the coupon and pay full price because I so enjoyed my experience.
Kathleen’s Sky Diner is the amazing, low-​key restaurant that everyone wants to have in their neighborhood. The setting and food reminds me somewhat of Luna Park in LA/​SF. The interior has a somewhat industrial feel with the exposed brick walls and venting ducts, but the warm glow of the lights and the eclectic collection of maps and posters from around the world add warmth and coziness to the space.
The food. Uh Mah Gawd. I really wanted to try to the meatloaf sliders, but my dinner companion convinced me to try the hummus plate. I was reluctant because if you’ve tried one hummus plate you’ve really seen them all. I was proven wrong. This was the most unique hummus plate I had seen. The hummus and warm pita bread was standard, but they also included a ball of fresh goat cheese, olives, and half a roasted garlic. Adding these ingredients together were incredible. So incredible that we attempted to recreate this plate at home the very next evening for dinner. For my entrée, I ordered their ragu tagliatelle pasta with fresh ricotta cheese that was fantastic. My date’s roasted lamb leg osso bucco was phenomenal — tender and flavorful. Food was a very strong 4 star.
Our waitress was a bit overeager and checked in on us throughout the night every couple of minutes, which was nice at first, but then a bit annoying after the 4^th check-​in in 20 minutes. Pacing of the meal was a bit off — entrees came while we were still enjoying our hummus plate. We were too full to sample dessert, but I hope to hit up the sweets menu on my next visit assuming I make it past the entrees. Kathleen’s Sky Diner is a fantastic dinner option if you’re looking for a more relaxed, casual date, but expect stellar food and dessert options.