The Quechee Diner

I’m combining my opinion (3 stars) with that of my boyfriend (5 stars) for this review, only because I don’t want to be unfair to this holy institution. Queche Diner is the ultimate vintage diner. It’s one of the few remaining working diners of its kind and it has had very few updates done to it since its beginnings. It is used now just for dining, as a working kitchen has been set up in a building next door. My boyfriend is fascinated by the atmosphere in this diner, but I find it lacks the charm of the stand-​by vintage diners I know and love. I get a real haunted house vibe here, but that may be the vintage carousel that sits outside talking. The food is inexpensive and tasty. It’s also convenient to the highway and sits in a quirky little row of shops, including a Cabot store and a distillery, so it’s worth checking out. We’ve been there two times now, and the waitstaff has always been super friendly. For this reason, and for their tasty breakfast, I would give them my business again when I go back to the area. Anyway, I won’t have a choice, because it’s all my boyfriend talks about when we go to VT. Queche Diner, do you have t-​shirts? I need to get him one for Christmas!

It’s an old fashioned diner the locals will love as well as the visitors — Holly and Christina are awesome.
It’s so great to have the diner back — a place where everyone knows your name and the environment, food and service are just as it should be

Starving and it was the first place we saw after sitting up camp at KOA just down the road. BIG mistake!
Two stars because service WAS great! Food gets no stars. Country fried steak frozen bought somewhere. Not fresh at all. Watery gravy awful. Meatloaf bland and YUK. Don’t bother with Monte Cristo sandwich — they have no idea what it is suppose to be. Mashed potatoes that come with dinners have to be boxed flakes with red skin flakes in it. Certainly not real potatoes.
Looked like breakfast menu MIGHT be ok.

The singular most horrible meal my spouse and I have ever endured; the worst way to end a beautiful vacation. Have never tasted food of a lesser quality or degree of edibility.
The service was good; friendly staff, but our order was put in incorrectly.
The orange juice was horrible; I could not drink more than a sip. I would rate it as being less than a 25% of the quality of a Walmart store brand orange juice.
I got the CJ Breakfast Combo and was excited for some fluffy sugared French toast. What I got was dry RYE FRENCH TOAST– who does that?! It was certainly not indicated on the menu and I could not stomach it. The eggs and sausage were ok, and the bacon undercooked.
Seeing as I did not eat much, I asked my spouse for some of his fries; he told me I could have some but shouldn’t — he was right.
Please, avoid avoid avoid avoid avoid at all costs. There is a Dunkin Donuts around 20 minutes from here and you would be MUCH better off there.

The service was pleasant, but it took 30 minutes to get our order, and in an empty diner that’s unacceptable. The home fries were old, hard, and overcooked, and while the rest of the meal was acceptable, it was nothing to race about. Disappointing to say the least.

Stopped in yesterday for Mother’s Day and sincerely, sincerely regret that decision. I used to really like coming here when it was the Farmer’s Diner and food was locally sourced and generally high quality. Under new ownership, this is absolutely bottom of the barrel. My eggs benedict were a sloppy mess of yolk the consistency of milk which drenched the entire plate. My Mom’s burger was overcooked and blah. Service was slow. The rednecks who were obviously somehow affiliated with the place hanging out in back (by the patio) and smoking the whole time were the icing on the cake. This place does not belong in VT, or anywhere for that matter.

Appears that this diner has thrown in the towel. Uninspired food. Dirty and rundown. This is a harsh review because our meal was well below average. I finished my bland sandwich because I was starving. My SO suffered through her salad. It was painful to watch.

This place is horrible would never go back… the dining car is empty and is dirty… food awful …

Went to the Quechee restaurant which is an extension of the diner. It was very, very, painfully mediocre. There’s no effort. Things are edible. Nothing very good… it’s just… food at its most boring. Fried fish on an untoasted kind of cold potato bun with no tartar sauce. Cole slaw that is essentially dole salad mix with a touch of vinegar. Blah. Very blah. Wouldn’t go back.

Horrible !!! Two chef salads =One piece of turkey and two pieces lettuce for $ 25.00. . No bread no crackers ! Dirty bathroom ! Do not stop here !!! Keep driving !!!

Walked in on a Monday afternoon about 1. There was a guy standing on a bench in the lobby looking at a map on the wall. No one behind desk. We sat ourselves in the diner area. Waitress was serving the booth behind us. No «hi, I’ll be with you» or any acknowledgement we were there. Guy gets off bench and walks behind counter. Waitress gets on bench. Waitress comes back with food for another table, delivers food and walks by our table. Guy behind counter comes out and starts cleaning booths. We leave to find a place that wants our business.

I do love diners, in general, and this definitely fits the bill. It’s located right within the Quechee Village and it’s an adorable little train car diner. Awesome in theory! In reality, this place was quite dirty and the food was… meh. Not memorable in the least. I visit plenty of diners, I’m not expecting gourmet food… but even for diner food this was not great. The one huge plus? Our server. The kid couldn’t have been older than 18 or 19 and he was AWESOME. So attentive and helpful, and super friendly with everyone… he went way above and beyond to entertain a little 5-​year-​old girl sitting at a table behind us, it was adorable!

not very good. My husband and I went there over the summer. Not pleased at all. I ordered and steak and cheese and there were more veggies in it than meat. Fries were cold and very sparse as well. I ordered a chicken sandwich with sauteed mushrooms onions, asked for no peppers… The sandwich contained mostly peppers. YUCK! Did not dare to complain as the waitress (Cathy who used to co-​own Crossroads Café in White River Jct, VT) was very short and seemed bothered by us being there because she was overwhelmed.
Will not be back. Servings small, prices high.

I freaking love diners. I love the nostalgia, the kitsch, the throwback essence of it all… and Quechee Diner fits all of those needs of what a true, New England diner should look and feel like… with pretty decent grub to boot.
I gotta be honest and say although I had the address in my GPS, I passed by it on the first go around. I looked and looked in the large plaza for it and didn’t see it around all of the other buildings. On my next pass through, aaahhhh, a sign, I see it! I turned into the snow covered parking lot that didn’t have another single car in it about 7:30 in the morning and pulled up to the bright neon signage that welcomes the patrons sprawling across the top of the diner.
I dined alone the entire time on a early weekday. The gentleman working talked Patriots with me since he is a season ticket holder. Good Morning America played in the background behind the counter while I sat in a booth and devoured my $ 8.95 «Eggs In The Hole» special that day. Two eggs cooked over easy inside two pieces of cut out wheat toast, home fries and a ham steak filled out the plate. Nothing fancy, nor should it be. If you’re comparing the food against a lobster eggs benedict, it was about 3.5 stars, if you’re comparing it to other diners I’ve been to, it rates right up there with the best. The coffee was amazingly good, something about joe inside one of these throwback cars makes it that much better.
I feel badly for them, he said in December they are «between seasons», leafers in the fall to hordes of skiers come January and Feb so they are considering closing a few days during the week. I’ll always enjoy the solitude of dining alone and continue dreaming up what it was like to eat in this same car back in the 50’s and 60’s. I don’t know the entire history of it but I assume it has been there for a very long time. I can’t wait to go back… a true New England gem.

I only had some french toast and some fruit. It was ok and this is your standard diner fare. You are probably stopping here on the way to look at the leaves or to explore the countryside.

Food — who cares? This diner is real history — why some of us go to Vermont. Did you notice the Hopalong Cassidy lunchbox hanging from the ceiling? Or the wall of classic old radios above the dining room in the non-​diner section? Did you ask about the ancestry of this place?
Even a tourist trap can have merit. Explore, folks…

Great spot for lunch with some neat local character. The staff was friendly and accommodating for one who is gluten-​free in our party. I enjoyed the grilled chicken sandwich with salad instead of fries and was delighted with the freshness of ingredients. My kids were happy with their burger and fries.
3 stars is «A-​OK»; I would eat here again if traveling with my family.

Excellent meatloaf but very small portion
Went here with a group of 4 on a saturday afternoon for lunch and got in just before closing. I ordered the hot open faced meatloaf sandwich over white toast with french fries. The meatloaf was excellent and tasted like mine but the portion was so small. I am wondering if I got the last of it. It did not even cover the piece of toast. The place was jumping at 3pm when we got in and it seems like the kitchen was slow on orders. My partners chicken in the buffalo wrap was cold, he thought it was supposed to be hot. We were sorta in a hurry so just ate and ran. The only reason I am giving it 4 stars is because the meatloaf was very tasty.

Our annual trek to Vt and stopping by stores near the diner. Waited about 10 mins for a late lunch. I had soup & sammich special was good. Wife didn’t like her chicken & salad combo.
kids — were fine.

Having seen the decent reviews of the Queechee Diner here on Unilocal,we thought we would go for it and give it a shot. We had been once when it was the previous owners (one of the many) and had a pretty bad experience but we were hoping that had changed. Well, were we ever wrong.
When we got there it was absolutely freezing inside, but that isn’t really a huge deal for me if the food is good and the coffee is hot. Once we got our drinks, after having the menus for probably two minutes, the server came over to ask if we were ready. I said no, a couple more minutes please. Our menus were wide open and we were clearly looking through them, but the first time it isn’t that big a deal. I always think its better to have a server that is overly attentive than one who forgets your even there. So this happened three more times, she came to ask what we wanted while we were still clearly checking out the menu and it was just strange. Once we ordered, we took in the décor which is really quite nice. Its a little too open and echo-​y in their large dining room, but its better than being bare walls and such.
Once the food arrived, I had hope it would be good. He had a reuben with onion rings, I had a tuna melt with chips, and we shared an order of fries. The fries were good — not made in house obviously, but they were tasty. The onion rings were okay, the breading was sticking to the onion so that was good I suppose. Once I had a bite of my tuna melt it was so obvious the english muffin/​portugese muffin/​bread? they used for it was not only burnt, but extremely stale. The tuna salad was very bland, tasted just like tuna out of the can with mayonnaise and thats it. I don’t mind tuna out of the can, but you could at least add some celery, chopped pickles, onion, anything! The two small pickle chips were too tiny to get with every bite and it was just a mess.
The reuben was with corned beef that was bought in, not made in house. If you state you have house made corned beef hash, shouldn’t you make the corned beef in house as well? Just my opinion, I guess a lot of places get away with ‘house made’ by mixing ingredients in house. Anyways, it was okay until he got to the second half of the sandwich and a hair that was neither of ours was in the sandwich, cooked into the melted cheese! It was really disgusting, and having seen one of the cooks out talking to the servers they do not follow any kind of dress code. No hats of any kind, just an apron with a t-​shirt and shorts. They could at LEAST wear hats, don’t you think? It seems like nobody really takes pride in their job here.
Anyways, even though our server rushed us quite a bit (and the restaurant was absolutely dead) she did take the ruben off of the bill which was the right thing to do.
On top of all of that I am quite sure I got food poisoning from the tuna melt.
I hope that someday soon people stop giving this place a chance and someone changes it into a store or something. It needs to stop being a failing restaurant. I mean, if you can’t get a rueben and a tuna melt right, whats the point? Those are some of the easiest things to get right.