Shirley’s

A Saratoga classic… It has been here for years and the food is always great. With the new owners and that patio out back makes this a Saratoga must. If you like classic diner food with a twist… Try it out you will not be disappointed.

We go to Shirley’s every Sunday. My wife enjoys their Buttermilk pancakes with extra butter and real maple syrup. I love the corned beef hash with 2 eggs over easy. Get there early, by 10am usually, to make sure you get the hash as it’s just a special. The waitresses know our orders and basically just confirm we’re having our usual order and off they go. As we sit down our drinks are brought over to us. Oh so great to have that hot cup of coffee right away.

Great place. Wonderful breakfasts, nice lunches, inexpensive, no stairs and
a short comfortable. Very busy place but is still a short wait. Excellent Eggs Benedict.
They honor vets so have your favor cards out. Highly recommend !

Love Shirley’s diner! Great wait staff and it’s a wonderful, traditional diner. Food is delicious, well prepared, and always hot. Took my three sons here for breakfast the morning before Christmas and had a really nice time.

Got a Mediterranean omelette with home fries. The omelette was OK but the potatoes were tasteless.

An all around great diner with great staff and great food. Their meat lovers omelette is awesome, I’d recommend this place to anybody

Very delicious breakfast, I ordered the traditional Benedict. It was a good choice, it was filling and made with very delicious ham. The pancakes that they serve is very large and tasty. The place looks small from the outside, but I was surprised at how much room and seating there was. Was very satisfied with the service and food. I was recommended to eat here by a co-​worker, I’m glad he told us about Shirley’s.

Visited here last weekend. Hubby and I are locals and had not been to Shirley’s in quite awhile. We both got eggs, toast, bacon, and homefries. The homefries tasted like they had been fried in fish oil. I asked the waitress if they were deep fried, she said no and promptly walked away before I had the chance to tell her why I asked. She obviously didn’t care that there was an issue. We were disappointed because our previous meals have been good. We may try it again for a lunch but it we experience the same service/​food, we won’t go back.

Stopped in for breakfast ordered two eggs with toast and home fries. Home fries were cold and tasteless ruining the rest of the breakfast meal. Waitress was very courteous and attentive. However, I came here for a good meal, not good service. Terribly disappointed. Have not had a bad breakfast over many many restaurants but I guess it was my time to have one.

Love shirleys, a great diner option in Saratoga. The food is the bomb and my favorite part is their eggs all come from a local farm.

One of my favorite breakfast choices. Food is hot, flavorful, and the new menu gives plenty of appealing choices! Not to mention, love the new patio out back! Highly recommend

My husband loves this place, and I’ve gone with him on two occasions. The first time the food was phenomenal. We’d eaten somewhere else a few weeks prior, and the food had been awful, so it was a welcome relief to find ourselves at Shirley’s with some yummy breakfast options. The second time we went together I was less impressed. Despite ordering the same hash browns, the flavor was completely different, arriving slightly over seasoned this time. My husband’s eggs Benedict were undercooked. I’m willing to assume they were just having an off day, but my husband has mentioned that this has happened before. I’m wondering if there is one chef we’re just not big fans of.
Ultimately it’s one of the better breakfast options in the area, and we’ll definitely be back. If you’re not happy with how your food arrives, just send it back. They’ll fix it up for you.

I stopped here this morning on my way to the airport and I regret it. The service was almost as bad as the food. How can anyone screw up an egg? Ask their cook, he’s an expert at it. My over hard eggs were runny, and greasy. My hash browns were raw, and bland. There’s a little thing called salt, look into it. I would’ve had our server bring it back to kitchen for a little more heat, but she never came back to the table. So I leave starving because of the awful decision I made stopping there. Nobody takes any pride in what they do anymore, and the customers and the owners have to pay the price for these morons just not giving a shit. Such a shame.

Had time to kill and was hungry so I stopped by. Had 2 scrambled eggs, potatoes and toast with a soda for about $ 6.50. The eggs, despite being plain scrambled, were amazing, the potatoes were cooked perfectly, and the toast for some reason really hit the spot. I was in and out in 15 minutes– I wasn’t rushed, service was just really good and really fast

Eggs, pancakes, choice of home fries OR hash browns! Everything you need plus Montréal smoked meat !
Staff is friendly and efficient. I like to sit @ the counter but the tables are built for parties of 4.
This is my second visit and I’ll be back again!

After hearing that Shirley’s serves poutine, I decided to make a stop, as poutine is not commonly found in this area. Shirley’s is a typical diner, and has much more on their menu than poutine. I may make it a point to try out their other menu items or desserts at another time, but my meal was all about that concoction of fries, cheese curds and gravy. You can order the traditional poutine, or try one of their other types of poutine, that may contain meat or peppers. I decided to have my poutine with the Montréal smoked meat. The poutine in itself looked very authentic, with the darker gravy and all. I was served quickly and the poutine was quite tasty.

Since about mid-​November of 2011, Shirley’s has been under new ownership. But much of what people expected for the prior 50 years is still being prepared and served. My parents were big fans in the 80s and early 90s and repeatedly told us to go there for the meatloaf and pies. My wife and I did go there once back then, but didn’t return because we were looking for something a bit more adventurous.
There is a dish they now serve there that I’ve started to hear a lot of comments about — Poutine. Most of those comments say that the closest place to get Poutine prepared properly is Montréal. Since the new owner is from Montréal, I figured that this would be the proper place for me to be introduced to Poutine.
Poutine consists of French fries, curd cheese, and brown gravy. Some people will tell you that it also comes with a heart attack! A few places in the area are now adding Poutine to their menus and reviews I read all seem to find fault with one or more aspects of those preparations — the gravy is too thin or too thick, the cheese curd is too small, or too warm, or too melted, or the wrong type of cheese.
So off we go for an early Saturday dinner to Shirley’s. It’s about 4 pm and the place is maybe a third filled — that would be roughly 5 or 6 tables. A sign says they serve beer and wine but we get a diet soda and a coffee. My wife orders a Grilled Corned Beef sandwich and I get the BBQ Pulled Pork sandwich… with a side of Poutine, or course.
The Corned Beef sandwich doesn’t look like anything special, the meat isn’t piled high and the French Fries are very typical. But the slices of rye bread are fresh, full of caraway, and she is very pleased with the flavor of the corned beef noting that it is not overly salty.
Presentation of my BBQ Pulled Pork is also nothing to rave about, but before I can try it I know I MUST try the side of Poutine. It looks like a mess. First I try a piece of curd cheese — it’s slightly cool. Then I try a French fry with some gravy. The fries seem typical but the gravy adds a nice additional flavor. The gravy is not overly thin or sickening thick. As I go back and forth between my pulled pork sandwich and the poutine I realize that the curd cheese has warmed up from the fries and gravy and is starting to melt in some in some spots. This is nice how the textures keep changing as the dish develops over time. The pulled pork was tender, and again, not salty. It had a good amount of flavor and the portion was reasonably piled on a fresh roll.
Well, I don’t know if this is as good as Poutine gets in our area, I may have to try another establishment like a gastropub. Otherwise, our next trip to Montréal will have to be a reintroduction.
Service was very good, refills were provided for both the coffee and soda, and our total bill was just over $ 26 including tax before tip. I did see some pies listed on a chalkboard; maybe we’ll be back sooner the next time around.

Went there for breakfast this morning — enjoyed the «old-​fashioned-​diner-​with-​wood-​paneling» vibe and the quick, courteous service. No need to wait for a hostess or waitress to seat you — sit wherever you can. There isn’t a big staff and these folks work hard — hustling quickly to bus tables after waiting on them.
The breakfast menu is basic — eggs, morning meats, hash browns, home fries, pancakes… etc. Nothing eclectic — just simple breakfast stuff. Everything is pretty good — nothing over the top and certainly not bad. The pancakes are HUGE — and fluffy. The potatoes are definitely cooked in butter and the toast is heavily pre-​buttered as well.
Good place to go for a quick and easy breakfast.

I am always looking for a new place to go out to eat for breakfast. Unilocal helped me find this place, I only wish I picked another place to eat. I really don’t understand where all these good reviews are coming from?
As we entered I knew, this is the type of place that after you eat you are going to smell like it all day. From past experiences places like that are usually awesome but not here. We were sited right away, no wait, the food looked ok basic diner food. Their portions were small here too.
I ordered their morning platter, I can’t remember the actually name of it but it consist of 2 eggs any style I choose over easy, 1 sausage link or patty, I choose link, bacon, home fries or hash brown, I choose home fries crispy and toast plus a choice of small juice, I ordered cranberry. My wife ordered 2 eggs over easy home fries and toast and a water. I also got a coffee. When I go out to breakfast I always blow through coffee while waiting and when eating breakfast. Normally it is never a issue but the waitress here didn’t walk around often to ask for coffee, in fact I only had a measly 2 cups!
Food came out and it was NOT fresh at all. The waitress messed up and gave me a hash brown instead of home fries I mention this to her and she fixed it. Another miss hap was the toast, it was stale, rock hard and covered I mean saturated with butter. It was so bad I told the waitress this is gross, I was surprise that the bread didn’t start to grow mold on it that’s how stale it was, she quickly fixed that too. The new toast and home fries came out and the home fries were good the toast was again covered in butter but I was too hungry so I just scrapped the excess butter off. The bacon and sausage was ok but the eggs need more time to cook too but my wife was done with her breakfast and I wasn’t sending anything back again.
Both my wife and I both agreed that we won’t be coming back here, the food was terrible and was not fresh.

What can I say? I live in LA and I’m doing a job here in Saratoga. I have driven by this joint (a compliment) every day and today took 2 guys I’m working with. They have never been here and work less that ½ mile away.
This place so rocks! Met Lee the owner and Shirley’s son (she has passed)…Lee is my new idol.
Started with the chili and moved to the hot roast beef sandwich. Fries without gravy (on the side) and coleslaw. The ONLY reason I didn’t give it the full 5 stars is the coleslaw.
I had to bring a piece of the banana crème pie home, it looked amazing.
The food is just what you want out of a place like this… classic and good.
Go…NOW!