Mel’s Drive-In

My wife and I stopped by here for breakfast this morning. She ordered a bagel with cream cheese ($ 4.10) and I ordered a meal that came with 2 eggs, some potatoes, and 2 pieces of toast ($ 8.65). We also had 2 coffees ($ 2.85 each). The food was fine (nothing special), but the service was very lacking. It took a long time for someone to come by our table and ask us what we wanted. It also took a very long time for the food to arrive, perhaps 30 minutes for a very simple and easy to make order. I can’t see us coming back with better alternatives nearby.

Food is pretty decent but the service here is horrible I work down the street and I come here for lunch and the workers just don’t care about service I hope someone reads this from the corporate office cause they need to do something about this servers just ignore you and there not even doing nothing

It took 5 minutes or more to get told to sit anywhere. We had to call him over to get are order we never got are drinks, had to ask the bus boy to get them took a long time to get the food and never saw the waiter after the food arrived. The food was good but pricey I will pay more for good service but this was the worst service ever. No tip on the reciept yet the wrote a 1 next to the 0 I put and gave them self a $ 10 tip grrrrrrr.

2 stars because they advertise as the ‘best budget restaurant in San Francisco. in my opinion that’s false advertising.
You will sit down and pay $ 20 for a breakfast and a small oj.
The food is good however, but I’m not so sure it’s worth the high price tag. Jane on Larkin had better food, albeit not diner food, at a cheaper price. I would recommend Mel’s if you’re in the market for a $ 3 egg. Yes, that’s $ 3 for a single egg or $ 4 for tomato slices.

Host was rude. It is currently 12:06am. Posted closing time is 1am and he seemed mad that I showed up. Yelling at me that they are closed. Fix your posted hours of operation guy

Have been coming here for 20 years. Drove 1 hour to get food here at 11:40 pm only to learn that they were closed for the night. Might make sense to either stick to the operating hours you list online or to modify them

being the extremely awkward person I was, I stood at the counter where there were three staff members and waited for them to make the first move.
it didn’t work. I oh-​so-​awkwardly cleared my throat and said table for two, but they didn’t hear me.
so I did it again and they told me and my friend to just sit anywhere.
then, I picked up the menu. everything was quite pricy. $ 10 for a cheeseburger and $ 16 for a chicken salad?
the food took a pretty long time but I occupied myself with the jukebox that they had. ate my quarter, damn thing.
finally the food came and I understood why everything was so pricy.
I cried, almost.
at the sight and taste of their food.
suffice to say the chances of me coming back are high.

This is not your fathers Mels. At one point Mels used to offer decent diner fare.
I’m not sure what’s happened since the «original» but when I ate here the other day I was sorely disappointed. The menu had enough on offer but the prices seemed a bit much for a greasy spoon. After receiving the food the prices were exacerbated by minuscule portion sizes. I had the patty melt. Normally a patty melt comes with caramelized onions (note the s indicating plural) and American cheese and thousand island dressing. Normally. My patty melt came with a single burned onion slice, no thousand island dressing and was it Swiss cheese? Due to a lack of flavor it could’ve been melted action figure parts. What else can go wrong with it? How about a supposed juicy 1/​3lb beef patty? That seemed to be missing. Instead I had a dried out patty that seemed smaller than what you’d get on a McDonalds ¼lber. On the upside the side of onion rings that I paid almost $ 4 for were good. Down side? I had 4 so they worked out to almost a dollar a pop. No thanks. The serivce was good so theres that. The reason for the second star was the malt. I’d go there again for a malt/​shake or the like but thats about it.

Extremely over priced. I had the avocado burger which was alright, but that was $ 14 and doesn’t come with anything. A regular soda was almost $ 3. I went because it has a nice 50’s theme, but it’s not worth it for that price.

Claims to be open untill 1am I got there at 11:50 the mexican guy said is closed it sucks, Maybe will stop for breakfast tomorrow

It’s a diner not much more to say about that. Food was ok atmosphere was cool. Service was friendly.

I came here with some friends for Sunday brunch, and I was seriously disappointed. Service was insanely slow. It took almost 40 minutes to get our food after we ordered, and that wasn’t even the worst part. When we finally got our food the eggs in the eggs Benedict were over done, my friend sent it back, and then they came back under done. I had Gabe’s omelette and the turkey hash inside was very dry and flavorless. Everyone I was with was very disappointed with the food, and the service. I will not be coming back.

The atmosphere is worth the time to eat here. If you like the feeling of the 50s and 60s, enter into a world of rock n roll history. The food was very filling, ready also. Toy have to get a classic milkshake, but you won’t have any space left for dessert.
My waitress was perfect. Didn’t come to bother me. came only when needed, gave a few good suggestions, not bad to look at either, which is ALWAYS a plus! This will go into my memory banks as one to come to if in town again.

This is definitely the best breakfast in the area and possibly anywhere. Don’t even bother trying the other places on Lombard. We made that mistake. The atmosphere and quality of the food is unmatched.

You already know what you think of Mel’s before you see the menu and that’s what the place is shooting for. Had a decent breakfast here but received some dirty silverware and slow service.

Had a late lunch at 3pm on Saturday, there were still people eating inside. I was hesitant to come back to Mel’s Drive In because many years ago I went to the Geary street location and ordered a burger and it tasted like cardboard. This time I ordered the tuna melt with fries and my friend ordered Portobello mushroom sandwich with sweet potato fries. Both items were served hot off the grill. We both enjoyed our dishes and the final bill came out to be about $ 30. I was happy that my food was actually tasty this time around. Maybe I should give their burgers another try if I am in the area. I like the laid-​back atmosphere and old-​time diner feeling. By the two seater booth there is a small mini jukebox attached to the wall which I’m not sure if it works or not but it serves as a nice decoration for each booth table.

It was between here and Dennys due to the late hour so this place won out. I’ve been to a few other locations and this one delivered that same 50’s diner ambience… which is great.
I ordered a patty melt with seasoned fries and a banana shake. My friend got a cheeseburger and a chocolate shake. Everything was really good. The fries were crunchy and the burgers were juicy and the shakes were indulgent.
It’s not fancy food… just a classic diner with good burgers and shakes. I’d be back again when I’m in the area.

Came in with a positive and hopeful attitude despite all the negative Unilocal reviews on this place. Don’t do that, just listen to the Unilocal reviews and stay away!
Service was basic and I was surprised how big the hot chocolate was. But other than that nothing special. My boyfriend got a burger and I got the French dip. A lot of the things on the menu were really expensive (especially for a diner) but we both picked things on the cheaper side of the menu.
We were basically content with our meal until we got the bill. For two people the bill came out to $ 40. This didn’t really sound right to us. We saw that they charged us for fries for the burger (the waitress made it seem like they came with the burger). Seriously, a $ 13 burger that doesn’t come with fries? $ 16 for a burger with fries is just kind of ridiculous.
Also the bill included a mysterious charge in addition to sales tax, we asked what the charge was for to the owner and he said «um it’s because of Obama and his army guys». (Not kidding that’s what he said) Hadnt experienced this mystery Obama tax at any of the other restaurants in sf that I visited so I did some research online (everyone may already know this, I’m not sure) but if you have a certain amount of employees in SF you can either provide health benefits for your workers or charge an extra tax on your customers. We already pay sales tax and pay your employees for you through tips… Considering the fact that Mel’s is charging $ 20 for a meal at a basic diner and getting a lot of business it doesn’t sound like health benefits for their full time employees is a lot to ask.

Waiter had to be asked twice for water and the music was kind of annoying but the food was brought out in 5 minutes flat, and was hot and fresh. My dad got a chili burger, my step mom a BLT and I got a short rib grilled cheese sandwich.
Everything was a large generous portion and I brought half of mine home to eat later. Everything was tasty. I’d avoided trying what appeared to be a tourist place for so long but I walked out satisfied. Also it had a parking lot.
For a diner you can’t go wrong.

Poor poor food. Ordered chicken wings and the menu said it is supposed to be extra hot. I have posted a picture of the order that got delivered to me… Guys take a look this not chicken wings this is fried chicken. Their is no sauce glaze on this chicken wings. The chicken was little over fried on the issue and this is maybe because they probably used frozen wings and fried it straight. The wings was really really dry no moisture to it. Not at all fresh and besides no sauce. I know I mentioned it already but I have to repeat it again. Only plus point is on a busy Lombard street this place had tone of parking. But if you care for tastier food than parking then slowly step back. Bottom line won’t go back again. Sorry I am not happy when I write such a negative review but need to be truthful

Le must du diner américain! J’en rêve encore la nuit tellement c’était parfait. Du petit déj Hyper copieux, servi à la carte avec un prix plus que raisonnable, les bergers sont également super bons! Cela me rappelle que je dois impérativement retourner sur la côté ouest pour me refaire une cure de Mel’s!

Muy guay la gente muy hamable. Se come bien.