Gus’s Diner

Funky atmosphere. Pleasant service. Classic breakfast items on the menu. Prices are on higher side for diner food (on a dish by dish comparison), but the food quality and portions make the prices seem fair. Not a place I would go out of my way to try but definitely a place to hit up if in area and looking for diner food.

A breakdown of my experience of Gus’s Diner:
+ Cute, shiny exterior with lots of glittery, chrome goodness inside to match…
— … but overall some extra stuff piled up in weird places and looked a little worn, especially on the counter side
+ Super friendly staff
+ Great music appropriate to the theme
+ In-​booth mini jukeboxes…
— …that don’t work. The coin slots are all taped over. Boooooooo.
+ Inexpensive
+ Root beer malts, a thing I haven’t seen since going to Pinocchio’s in Racine as a kid
+ The option of an old-​school turkey dinner served on white bread and covered in turkey gravy…
— …where the turkey ended up being a slab of equally old-​school processed turkey loaf instead of carved turkey breast
— My meal came with soup — I went for the BLT soup out of curiosity and it was a cheesy base with halved cherry tomatoes and what appeared to be pieces of cabbage? It was actually surprisingly tasty, cabbage/​lettuce/​mystery leaves and all.
Overall the food seemed to fall a little more to the processed/​Sysco side of the spectrum. I don’t think I’ll probably need to eat here again, but I might make my way back to give them root beer malt a try because I am having some serious nostalgia for one. It’s hard to go wrong listening to oldies and sipping on a malt.

I’ve been here several times. The food is nice for a diner. I’ve never had to wait. I usually have the chicken sandwich. I’ve only ever been here for lunch.

My go to place for breakfast. The skillet as fantastic. Cool décor and always lots of coffee.

A 50’s diner with plenty of nostalgia (including 60’s, too), friendly and fast service and great food. My husband’s co-​workers recommended it.
My first course was homemade veggie beef soup. The waitress was right, it was outstanding, with tender, flavorful beef chunks, plenty of vegetables and a perfectly seasoned broth. No way any of this came from a can. Then came my gyro with cheese curds instead of fries (for an upcharge). They were worth every penny — crunchy breading, flavorful, large curds and a very generous portion. I’ve enjoyed gyros since being introduced to them by a Lebanese chef in the 70’s and these rate with the better ones. The portion of meat was unbelievably huge as well as authentically seasoned. The pita was fresh and tasty. I could only eat half of both. My husband was delighted to find corned beef hash and eggs on the menu and served all day, like all their breakfast items. It had more corned beef than potatoes. He took the pancake option and let me try them first. Good thing, because he might not have shared if he knew how good they were! I’ve heard pancakes described as «light and fluffy», but never tasted any that really deserved that accolade til now. Add the great flavor and I could have made a meal of just them. We’ll be back.

Been here dozens of times & have had great food every time. Excellent service & Great prices. We love this place & try to stop anytime we’re in the area.

Great! I got the Blue Cheese Scramble with a side of pancakes & the boyfriend got the Southwest Skillet. Great food, excellent service, fast. Will be back for sure!

Two undercooked cheeseburgers, two pops and a bill for $ 27.. after our waitress forgot we were there and people seated after us got waited on before us. We should have just left. Won’t be back.

Great atmosphere, friendly service and really good food! I love going to this place for breakfast (served all day), lunch or dinner. Delicious pies, sundaes and shakes, too!

Breakfast was good. Lunch was so so. Not bad for a diner, but I’ve had so much better at other diners as well.

Finally went for lunch yesterday and what a great place! Diner food with a diner feel! Ricky was our server and was very friendly and efficient.
Will be going back soon enough!

Went in for a late brunch one Saturday. Overall, a pretty good diner experience. The retroness of the décor added to the experience in my opinion. But I still get entertained by standing in front of a jukebox flipping through the song list. The food was good, not great. My steak and eggs weren’t great. At least the steak wasn’t. A little overcooked and seemed like a slightly lesser piece of meat than the steak and eggs at some other cafes and diners, but I’m not too picky about my steak unless it gets charred, which they didn’t do. The highlight for me though was the pleasant cheerfulness of my waitress. She even called me «Hun» (as in honey, not Attila), and being called hun by a waitress in a diner setting just made my day. Definitely a good place for breakfast and brunch.

Note. I’ve been here many more times. The chocolate shake is great. The ribs are awesome… fall off the bone St Loius style. Still staying away from apple pie though ;)

Have driven by it for years to and from Sun Prairie and always meant to stop in. Took the family there today for Father’s Day. The restaurant has an attractive retro décor, and the place was immaculately clean. Staff was all helpful, pleasant and prompt. The food was excellent — I tried a burger that had a fried egg, barbecue sauce, cheese, etc. that was delicious. Oldest son had the Elvis pancakes (peanut butter, banana, chocolate chips on the pancakes) and liked them very much. Youngest son had mac and cheese, which had generous shavings of cheddar on top Middle boy had the ribs, tender and nicely done. The chicken dumpling soup was also good.
Word of warning, come hungry – the portion sizes were enormous!
The chocolate shake my son ordered to go was a work of art.

We tried the Ruben and the French dip. The Ruben was OK nothing special. The so «special» chili was also OK. Besides good service all was OK. The place looks pretty nice and the decoration is old school too.

I’ve been here a couple times. It’s never really been amazing. This evening, we were seated in the way back room which has the worst ambiance. I got to sit at a table and I faced a grey wall with tacky new pictures that are trying to look old. I didn’t even have a window to look out of. I’d rather sit in my car in the parking lot and eat.
I got the unlimited fish/​shrimp fry with a baked potato. My potato wasn’t warm enough to melt my butter. It didn’t taste like a baking potato. The breading on fish was wet like it had been sitting around for a while. Btw it was 7:15 on a Friday. A busy time. Why wasn’t it made to order? We were asked if we wanted more fish or shrimp AFTER our plates were bused.
We rarely saw our waitress, she spent her time in the front part of the restaurant which I honestly don’t blame her for doing.
We won’t be going back to Gus’s restaurant.

We gathered for a family thing — the back room is a nice way to do that. Ricky, the waiter, was very personable — he was fantastic. The food was okay. The appetizers were very good — cheese curds and onion rings. Tasty. For dinner, I got the pot roast over noodles. It sounded like a nice comfort food dish. When served, it wasn’t quite the «Ma’s home cooking» I thought it would be, but it was alright. Not quite enough roast, but it tasted fine. The soups there were pretty decent — nice to get a bowl with each meal. I tried someone’s cole slaw and it too was pretty good.
Overall, the food is what you would expect at a typical diner. Not the best, but not the worst. The burgers looked pretty good — I’d probably try one of those next time. The french dip looked a little dry, which made me think I would have regretted getting the philly, which was my second choice. The menu has a little bit of everything, so everyone in your party should find something to order.
The ambiance was classic diner. If you’ve seen this place from the outside, you should NOT be surprised by the 60’s style diner interior. If you’re not up for that, then just stay away.
Would I go back? Yeah, sure — if something was planned there. Sun Prairie isn’t exactly next door, so something besides the food would have to draw me there.
Reading other reviews, I WOULD go back to try their breakfasts.

Had a very good meal here. A burger/​ruben sandwich combined. Service is friendly, portions big. Will definitely stop here again.

It was our first time to Gus’s Diner and we would visit again soon.
I was pleasantly surprised that everything we ordered (I had the Vegetarian Omelette and my friend had Southwest Skillet) wasn’t greasy. The serving size was perfect, the price was reasonable, and the service was great– attentive, accurate, and well-​knowledgeable.
The food came out in a very timely manner, considering that the place was relatively busy.

Love this place.
Reminds me of the dinners I went to all the time back in Philly.
Food is good, prices are reasonable and always a good crowd.
Sadly a sign says there is WiFi, but I have yet to connect to it.