Latham ‘76 Diner

This was not my first time at 76 Diner. We have been coming here for 16 yrs plus. I have to say today visit was the worst experience I have ever had at any restaurant. The owner was not accommodating at all. She made it very difficult to do business with her. I have been in the custmer service /​hospitality industry for well over 30 years. It is always my highest priority to deliver the BEST EXPERIENCE I can, always ensuring that my guests/​customers are happy. Sad to say she did not do that for me. My order was not what I wanted. We always orde the same thing every time I go, and I always get what I ordered and am very happy. Not this time. She did offer to redo but we opted not to. However charged us for what we got but did order. Paying more for food we did not order in the first place. Regardless if we chose not to get it redone or not. Good custmer service would have been. I’m sorry about that. And charge for the lesser ticket. Poor Poor Poor. Not only was it a bad experience. But we were made to feel we did not matter for her, and did not care if we retuned. That is very sad. We chose to come to this diner and have for the past 16 years. So sorry we will not be retuning again. I really do hope you value my comments. If not we’ll again Poor Poor Poor experience and customer service.

My favorite diner! Typical but GOOD diner food!
Good service. Nice family ownership.

Been coming here for over a decade, and have visited hundreds of times — for good reason. Good food, good service, good people. Open 24÷7÷365 is a bonus. Not a perfect experience every single time, but it’s still in my book, absolutely the go-​to diner in the area.

It’s a diner, serving diner food, all of which was good. The service we received was good.
The Capital City Diner in Albany is the benchmark for all diners in the area. That’s a true 5. This diner gets a 4 by default, because it can’t live up to that.
Still, I’d be back and enjoyed it. Just wouldn’t go out of my way. It’s a diner … remember that when reading this review.

As good as a diner gets! We came here late night after driving all night.
Our waiter’s name was Mike, but he could have been a stand in for Steve Buscemi. Sounded like him, and almost looked like him. One time during the meal, he ninja like snuck in a napkin to wipe up some tea I spilled to the left of my tea cup. Slick!
The place was friendly, and the hostess was professional and courteous.
My sis had a greek omelet, and with one forkful left, she found some blue paper in her cheese. Bummer, but at least it wasn’t a hair. I was still really good.
I had a minestrone soup which was hearty and good. I also ordered a cubano which I should have passed on, but it was good enough. It was deli ham though, and the pulled pork had some chunks of fat that I was able to separate anyways.
This place probably had awesome pancakes, but didn’t try. The fries were tasty, and so were the potato thingys.
They have three types of hot sauce, A+ in my book.
Looks like a local hangout for the nearby college kids? Not sure how close a school is here, but I’m sure the crowds can get obnoxious for the staff, but they seem capable enough to handle it ²⁴⁄₇.
If I ever find myself in Albany again, which I have no idea why I would, I would def hit this place up again for breakfast!

Not much to say exactly. They have a good variety of substitutes for their breakfast items, which I found refreshing. I recently went to a diner in Albany that didn’t allow me to substitute anything for the home fries. I told them I was willing to pay extra to sub, but it wasn’t even an option. The grilled tomatoes were a nice alternative to the homefries.
Coffee was tasty, service was quick, the food came out quickly and exactly as we had ordered it. Would definitely go back.

Update… here again for the pancakes… this diner has become my 1^st choice in the area. Thank you for the great place

It’s just that good. If you want a throwback décor of 1978 with the best comfort food in town, look no further. Peruse the pound an a half menu as you gaze into the marbled mirrors and wish there was a jukebox in the booth.
It doesn’t take long to become a regular here. If they don’t know your name, they’ll know your face. Owners and staff go out of their way to make sure you’re happy. Every single time. Try that with a chain!
Go ahead. Order the chicken florentine soup with your sandwich. And potato chips. What is delivered on your plate is nothing short of remarkable. Hand cut thin potato crisps fresh from the fryer, delicately salted and made fresh just for you. For a minute, you’ll think you’re Anthony Bourdain! But I digress…
Crowded? Yep. Follow the herd. They can always handle the overflow, no matter how busy. They have wi-​fi, but I never seem to have my Kindle.
Just go. Support local. Heck, bring cloth bags to the supermarket. End world hunger!
Or just yours.

I haven’t been to Latham ’76 Diner for over a year, but between 2012 and 2014, I went there maybe 20 times while on a regular business trip to Albany, NY.
The food was always very good, but one waitress, Dana, terrible. She was always slow, would get the orders wrong, could not remember the diversity in desserts. In other words, do not get served by Dana!

Comfort diner food, hit or miss service.
I’ve been here quite a few times over the years, and don’t recall ever leaving disappointed in my food selection. They have a huge menu, and I believe are open 24 hours. The restaurant itself is huge, so can accommodate a busy Sunday brunch rush.
The service is whats spotty for me. Most of the time, it’s decent, nothing overly impressive — but there are a few times that stand out as being awful. For example, if you dine here late night, be prepared to see bussers/​servers that appear to be high or drunk, just not acting very professional. This past Saturday I dined here for brunch with a decent sized party of about 10 family members. We ordered breakfast/​lunch and our server was a guy who looked like an older/​drunker version of Colin Ferrell. He seemed fine at first, and our orders came out right, but he did not check up on us AT ALL after leaving our food at the table. No water/​coffee refills, someones soup was forgotten, and it wasn’t overly busy at the time. Just kind of annoying when your parched and sucking on ice cubes to quench your thirst.

Occasionally my mother and stepfather will pop into town for a quick lunch. Usually, I try to pick interesting places to bring them. Perhaps they have been a little bit too interesting. Because on the recent trip, the request was for «regular food» or something like that.
So we were off to the Latham ’76 Diner. I probably should have realized that they would be crowded on a Sunday around brunch time, but the 10 minute wait wasn’t really that bad. We were in a bit of a hurry, and our waitress seemed a little stretched thin, but it all worked out.
This was my first trip here, and I would say that for a maiden voyage, it was reasonably successful. Sometimes you have to visit a diner several times to really figure out what they do best. But having the option of ordering your egg and cheese on a hard roll with over easy eggs, is worth the premium of having to pay $ 6 for the sandwich.
The kitchen makes sure not to break the yolks, and presents each half of the hard roll as an opened face cheese and egg sandwich. So it’s up to you to put them together and burst the yolks. It’s a sensuous pleasure.
Good crisp bacon was another upside. And while it’s always a little disappointing when pancakes come with «pancake syrup» instead of the real stuff, it’s better that what Latham ’76 serves is made from corn syrup instead of high fructose corn syrup.
The only real miss were the potatoes, which came out less done than I’d like them. But the next time I visit, I’ll try to remember to ask for them «well done» or «extra crusty» and see how they work out.
Or, I could skip the potatoes entirely and amuse myself with a further exploration of the breakfast sandwich menu, because breakfast sandwiches are a good idea regardless of the time of day.

I come here whenever I need to bring my car in to get serviced at the Toyota dealership across the street. The service staff are usually nice and attentive, and I don’t feel weird eating there alone. I had my first grilled muffin here, which is not a thing on the West Coast. It was delicious where it was buttered and a bit crunchy, but it was still a bit cold in the center. Coffee quality is what I would expect from a diner like this. I have also tried the Greek omelette here, and it came out with some home fries and toast. Overall, this place is alright in my book, but I only really come here when I need to.

Food is adequate, service is poor. I had my water glass refilled once in the 45 minutes I was there. I had hoped this establishment had changed since I was there six months ago, but it clearly has not.
Don’t get me wrong, the food is ok; typical diner food. Better than fast food, but not as good as a restaurant. Service is what kills the place. It could be a few particular waitresses, but so far I haven’t had a good experience here.

Diner test:
Open ²⁴⁄₇: yes! But not a full menu around the clock, so you are warned.
Hiya Hon service: decent, attentive, but not exactly bright-​eyed. Meh.
Coffee refills offered: one. The coffee was very bad thin Columbian and a bit burnt.
Breakfast all day: yes!
Ambiance: not the classic diner layout but close enough. Marred considerably by having many TVs, all of them with audio on, and on different channels, which makes it hard to either have a conversation or even watch the TV. When I go to a diner I want the gentle background noises of clattering dishes and pleasant lowkey conversation, not talking heads.
Food: meh. Patty melt test was sufficiently meltish, the omelettes were a little tasteless — I blame the eggs, as ever, although the spinach omelette did have plenty of spinach in it. The sausage fat links were undercooked and inedible in the middle. Toast came out overbuttered, soggy, and actually crumpled — showing signs of having been massacred while being prepared with somebody’s heavy thumb. Came out promptly but wasn’t entirely hot, which always makes me wonder.
It barely suffices in the three-​star category, weakly so, but adequate won’t win me repeat business. Nearby, the Circle’s a bit better, although not by any orders of magnitude; both establishments present challenges getting on and off 9, to be sure, so my recommendation is to go to whichever one is more convenient for you if you’re hankering for diner food and don’t want to drive in to better-​appointed areas of town.

This place holds a special place in my heart, as I am sure it does for a lot of the alums from a certain local high school. Eleven months ago, I moved away from my hometown and this is one of the breakfast places my husband and I miss most.
The prices are a bit high, but thankfully you can visit the 76 Diner ²⁴⁄₇ if you need to. The food is usually pretty tasty, I recommend the Belgian Waffle. Service can be lacking, the staff is a little slow on those coffee refills at times.
Décor is… funky, but it’s nice to see it all stay the same and the place seems quite clean.
It was nice to come home and see that many of the same wait staff is still working there (almost a year later). I do enjoy visiting this establishment, I was here a handful of times during my visit to the area.

Who knew I needed a simple, but delicious tuna sandwich from this diner? Cajoled by a friend to meet at this patriotic testament to another era on Route 9 in Latham, I remain so glad to know of it.
The restaurant is spotlessly clean but probably hasn’t been updated much since the mid-​70s, and I don’t really care. In fact if the menu and the décor didn’t match, I would have been concerned. This place is all about comfort. The staff is friendly and confident. And they really seemed to care we were enjoying our visit.
So back to the tuna… I really don’t think I’ve had an old-​fashioned tuna salad sandwich in 20 years, merely for the fact that I overlooked the possibility.
What arrived on my plate was utterly delicious. Perfectly toasted whole wheat bread with the right amount of give in the center of its crispy, browned shell, flavorful– even bright and clean– tuna salad flavored with a bit of mustard and dill pickle all made creamy by the perfect amount of mayo. It was accompanied by nearly perfect mustard and mayo slathered potato salad– perfectly seasoned so that you wouldn’t want it any other way.
I looked around to see if my 86-​year old mother had flown in from the west coast to make this meal for me; I was sure there were cameras of a new (but perhaps a little limited) restaurant reality show waiting to capture the look of surprise on my face as she toddled out from the kitchen. But alas…
This experience was great. The food was delicious even without my mother, and I can’t wait to return to try more vintage delights on this extensive menu. I’m told they make a killer plate of French toast…

Had to try to bump up the star rating here. This place makes you feel like a kid again. I order the chocolate chip pancakes every time. They are painfully good (and huge).
The waitstaff has got it down to a science. They don’t even judge you if you get french fries before 10am.
The desserts always look amazing but I eat wayyy to much of my food to even consider them.
Thanks for the memories 76!

Marie Antoinette said, let them eat cake. I say, Let them eat Latham.
Having just made the long drive from Concord, this diner was a welcome respite and served up typical American fare, not the kind you would get on a fair, but everything you expect from a diner. I had a Chicken Dinner with mash and salad, and it hit the spot. The salad didn’t taste like the freshest I’d ever had, but it all went down well.
I’m not sure why I didn’t order the Greek stuff though. If and when I come back to this part of the world, I definitely will.

Came to this place a little scared by the three stars.
When we arrived… Oh my God! The place is spotless with great servers. And the food. I had one of the best burger ever and the best baklava! Delicious!!!

One thing I have noticed when I come to this city is there is no shortage of good diners. If you’re staying by the airport, skip the pathetic «breakfast bar» and hustle over here. Service is friendly, all the classics are on the menu, and the food is tasty.
The challah French toast is pretty legit.