Tom & Tiff’s

like stepping directly into a stephen king novel… though i didn’t try the pie.

After having read the reviews here on Unilocal — we had to stop in to have dinner and try the pie.
The café has the look and feel of a regular small town diner, the waitresses were pleasant and efficient (went twice before writing this review). Overall the food was okay to good — hand-​pattied hamburgers, and several other home made diner type meals. As mentioned by a previous reviewer, the mashed potatoes were instant, and the fries are crinkle cut frozen — so you might want to asked whether an item is freshly made or a reheated processed food.
My husband said his GRILLED pork tenderloin sandwich was very tasty (they have a fried version as well) — although the sides we ordered were just okay. I had the burger — like my husband’s the meat was good — Ore-​ida fries were okay. Overall, the food was average — not bad, not great — some bright spots, usually pork or meat related items (Iowa has a lot of pork producers), most everything else was okay.
As for the pie, we specifically ask if the pie was homemade (as a previous Unilocal reviewer had said), our waitress said, «it’s homemade, but it’s not made here!» I asked if it was «made-​homemade» elsewhere, she said yes, they are made special for the diner, «just not here,» she said.
They had several fruit pie options and a couple cake options too — also «homemade» per the waitress.
We were a table of 6, so we ended up ordering several different flavors of pie and one slice of cake — the pies were NOT homemade, neither was the cake. My son did say the pecan pie was good. The crusts were very uniform, industrial looking — the look of deli-​mass produced pies.
The carrot cake tasted like the bargain carrot cake from any super market, NOTHING special! The frosting had a hard outer surface — probably indicating it had been around for a while.
We decided the breakfast menu had possibilities so we went back for breakfast the next morning — the coffee was bitter (although the locals didn’t seem to notice — thee waitress filled their cups several times), and their bread products were generic bread quality (probably get them from the same place they buy their pies). Again, the meats made the meal, the ham was great, as was the «really» homemade corned beef hash. My husband said all in all he thought it was «good.»
As for me, after having read the other reviews, I expected more. Still, it was an okay diner — would I go back? Sure, especially if I am hankering for a pork dish or good hamburger. Ultimately the food is «okay to good» depending on what you order — the desserts probably not worth the calories.

We came here on the recommendations from some locals. We were in the area from Omaha for the day. I was a tiny bit skeptical when we walked in and weren’t even sure they were even open, no cars in the parking lot, no patrons at 2:30 on a Saturday. We seated ourselves and were shortly greeted by our server. We asked for some recommendations, which we followed. Homemade onion rings were thick and delicious and very hot! My Reuben had tons of corned beef and the bread was nicely toasted on what I can assume was the grill top, plenty of sour kraut and 1,000 island on the side. Fries were just frozen crinkle cut but they were crispy and hot. The fiancée had the special, which was chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes both topped with country gravy and canned green beans (did we expect anything more, no!) the potatoes were instant but the CFS and country gravy were pretty good. The star of the show didn’t show their faces until we got home. We ordered two slices if pie to go because we were too stuffed. Coconut meringue and banana cream. We each got one we knew the other hated, as not to have to share. I can’t speak for the yucky banana cream, but the coconut meringue was ridiculous! The crust was thick and flaky. The meringue was tall and fluffy, and the coconut cream was not too over-​coconutty. There was a delightful little sprinkle of toasted coconut on top. All in all, it was a very nice experience, I’d go back just for the pie (the 4^th star is just for those sweet slices)!!

Happened on this place on the way to another boring Casey’s saturated fat laden hockey puck (sausage/​egg muffin type deal) when I saw Tom & Tiff’s. I thought I’d seen a review somewhere so I stopped. 2 slices of french toast, 2 perfectly cooked over easy eggs and 3 sausage links for under 6 bucks? Chase it with a cold glass of milk and I won’t ever go to Casey’s again. Great mid western farm breakfast!