Empress Diner

I worked at the Empress for nearly 7 years, and I was always treated like family. The owners are very fair, hard-​working people.
Empress Diner is famous for its breakfast. I was there during the introduction of the two dozen or so choices of pancakes and oatmeals. The owners thought of everything!
You can’t beat the dinner specials, and I still go in from time to time to get a 5-​course meal for under 20 bucks. The fish is ALWAYS fresh. I wouldn’t go near it if it wasn’t. The portion sizes are ENORMOUS.
There is something for everyone on the menu, and the staff has no problem with helping you avoid allergens or foods you don’t care for. Check this place out!

It looks like my review is not the majority opinion, and I would say that perhaps I should enter a disclaimer that I’ve only been to this diner once (yesterday). I can imagine that a potential visitor should weight the opinions of those that come here often over mine a bit more.
With that being said, I had to review this diner because I was very pleasantly surprised with my breakfast meal yesterday morning. We came here for a coworkers’ breakfast (when the bosses are away, the girls will play! or at least go to breakfast before our shift) yesterday, and there was no one there besides a couple regulars and a large crowd separated in the back in an apparent business meeting (such a cool place to have a meeting!)
I ended up getting the health egg white wrap special that has portabello, swiss, spinach, and egg whites on a wrap. I also got a side of salsa with it. I can honestly say that it was one of the best diner breakfasts that I’ve had in recent memory (and I’ve had many diner breakfasts in recent memory :)). All of my coworkers got eggwhite omelettes with various fillings and all enjoyed them very much. Our waitress was very nice, attentive, and always refilled our coffee as soon as the cup was empty.
All in all, I enjoyed my visit and will be back very soon to enjoy a specialty oatmeal to go :).

It is what it is… a mediocre diner.
We are a family of four with two young girls (one being a picky eater) so a diner is always a safe bet. While the Nautilus in Massapequa park is our favorite it is of distance to us as we live 2 mins from the Empress.
The Empress has not been remolded or updated since sometime in the early 90s and it is showing. The bathrooms are on par with a gas station restroom and all the décor and flooring is on its way out. I think they only remain in business because the recently remolded Colony down the block has a ridiculously small parking lot and the overcrowd may end up here on weekend mornings.
The food is nothing to rave about and is just okay. Their prices are normal with the economy these days but their portions are far smaller than other diners.
If you are in this region of Nassau County I recommend going over to Harvest in Westbury for price/​quality/​atmosphere.

Has gone downhill over the past few years. Food quality not as it once was & service is hit or miss. Still has the best Onion Rings on Long Island though!

Visit Date: November 15, 2015
Came here with my family and some friends. This diner is really alright, it’s not terrible but I definitely wouldn’t say it’s outstanding either.
The parking lot is a pothole nightmare at the moment, not sure if they plan to fix it anytime in the future.
I had the cheese quesidilla and the spinach pie. Our waiter seemed a little out of it and he accidentally gave me more sour cream instead of tsiki sauce so I had to ask him for tsiki sauce. I had it happen to me in another diner too so I’m guessing the condiments are near each other and confusing when a waitress or a bus boy is trying to make a quick grab. Either that or sour cream is the new thing for spinach pie. The spinach pie and quesidilla were alright. They weren’t memorable but not horrible.
So overall this diner is good for decent food but not great food.

Horrible is all I can say and need to say.
How can they even stay in busines?
The steak was chewy as hell.

We were out on Long Island for a business meeting and wanted to grab a quick lunch before we met the client. I’m generally not a diner fan but my partner said, it will be quick and should be fine. IT WASN’T ! Let me say the service was okay, our waiter (who appeared to be new) is obviously an aspiring comedian not a waiter. He should however pay more attention to bringing out quality food than pandering for applause. I had a chicken pesto sandwich which was essentially a piece of grilled chicken on a toasted kaiser roll with a schmear of pesto sauce, a slice of unripened tasteless tomato and some lettuce. The french fries that came with the sandwich were also tasteless, soggy, greasy and not edible. (for me not to eat the FF they had to be really bad and they were) My partner had a Greek salad which was unremarkable, All in all that 2 coffees came to 30.00. Not going back and I’d suggest if you’ve never been consider yourself fortunate.

If anybody can find a place as terrible as this one please contact me immediately so I can compare how bad they are. People are disgusting. Food is terrible. Never again.

Horrible. Food was marginal. Asked for waffle, got pancakes, asked for scrambled egg sandwich, got it on a plate, asked for Swiss cheese, got american. Pointed it out, a shrug and a sorry. The owner who rang me up could care less. No eye contact. No thank you. Won’t go again.

I’m going to explain New York diners in case anyone is from Mars or anywhere else outside the tri-​state area:
New Yorkers need a place where they can eat anything, including breakfast, foreign cuisines, dessert, thanksgiving dinners, anything, at any hour of the day, on every day of the year. Including thanksgiving itself.
And the food has to be hot fresh and excellent at all times. Or else we Unilocal about it and whine. Moreover the service needs to be spot on, attentive and prompt. I’m not a coffee drinker but this is a big measuring stick for the service.
With all that said, the most important thing is…(drumroll)… The French fries! We eat these golden brown potatoes more in diners, at all hours of the day, than at McDonald’s. And if your diner makes good fries and serves them to you nice and hot, well that’s a great meal.
And, by the way, Empress just made me a very tasty sandwich with fries just the way I like em. Nice!

First off, we walk In to an open door with a cold day. The place looks awful and if you want to meet some new old people, this is the place to be. The cakes look as disgusting as the floor and as old as he outside of the place. But it isn’t just the looks. We get sat down to our waiter with smelly cigarette breath and doesn’t even say hi. I coughed. The sugar a mess-​literally and the pepper looked like cinnamon. Mozzarella stick were not so good and we found a hair in one of the chocolate chip pancakes. It’s a rundown diner at its best. The Belgian waffles were skinny and when I cut I thought it was hard but I was cutting the plate. Some mosquito bite incidents happened along the way and I didn’t even touch the water. Lastly the French fries were great.

The owner is a douche, the waiter was on crack, and the food was god awful. In a nutshell.

Service horrible. never going back had to ask for coffee please take my order can I have my. Check ask ask ask wow this 20% tipper left 0. He should have paid me. It was not busy, if it was busy waiter wouldn’t be sitting at counter talking to his friends instead of attending to guests. Chase him for food coffee check called manager on fone he defended his STAFF. wow if the food was free it isn’t worth it

There’s a server with a terrible attitude. He looks pissed off all the time, when you ask him a question about the food he gives you an attitude and makes it sound like the question is stupid like you should know the answer to it. Didn’t bother filling up my friends drink. The food was okay, I got a wrap and when it came out it was falling apart.

If give it a 1 if I hadn’t been there before and had good food and acceptable service. Went there today for brunch! They were fairly busy but not packed. Stood at the door like a moron waiting to be seated — finally asked the cashier if I should just simply grab a table. After a couple of minutes she realized ‘The Guy’ we were waiting for wasn’t going to show — she seated us. (3 people with 2 place settings)
Long story short — after 10 minutes and not even being glanced at by wait staff we left and went Embassy Diner in Bethpage!
Seated immediately, and offered coffee immediately.

Best diner burger hands down! Tried colony and surrounding. Nope. I cannot say I’ve eaten anything else from Empress. I only got there when in search of an AMAZING burger.

This diner used to be one of my favourites. However, over the last few years it seems to have become the home of complacent waiters and waitresses.
Upon arrival, you are «greeted» with immediate crap attitudes. Following this lovely greeting, you will wait about ten minutes until actually being served water. At this point you feel as though this is the glowing water from Water Boy. The food is okay, but not something I would daydream about. And, you best ask for everything you’ll need for the entire meal… because your waitress will sit and eat a beautiful meal to herself as you attempt to flag down any busboy to grab you more water, etc.
I would not recommend this diner… unless you’re wasted and have little other options.
The emptiness of this diner is for obvious reasons.

The 5 stars is ONLY for the Elvis pancakes. It’s the only thing I’ve ever ordered on their menu and it’s so good that I can’t seem to order anything else. I crave it. I day dream about it. When I eat it, it has the right amount of sweetness — not over powering. It doesn’t even need syrup. But even if I did have it with syrup it’s still amazing. They use the right balance of cinnamon, banana, PB chips, and fluffiness. Even the regular pancakes are delicious. And only reason I know how the regular pancakes taste like is because after I wiped my plate of Elvis pancakes clean, I’m looking for more, and since I have no more I steal a bite or two off my bf’s regular pancake order.
I’ve never had a problem with service. Maybe bc I’m too busy with my Elvis pancakes it’s more like I give the «don’t bother me» vibe.
Oh I can add that from a taste of their flavored oatmeal it isn’t anything to rave about. I’ve made better at home.

the best onion rings ever. the best brown gravy too. The service is what it is, its a diner. same shit everywhere. I had pasta, don’t judge and the sauce was ick but the onion rings were amazing and its part of my childhood and it will always be my fav diner.

Sluggish service = Check!
Horribly over-​buttered toast = Check!
Bland, tasteless Home Fries = Check!
Sour Milk & Half & Half for your coffee = Check!
Me coming back??? = NOPE!
This used to be a great place where I brought ALL of our of town guests.. what happened?