Dad’s Restaurant

First time in this diner and boy, we were lucky for having selected this joint. One of the best breakfast ever especially their classic pan cakes. Truly brought back great memories from my childhood. Such a homely place. A1 food, Top class service and not at all pricey.
Cheers guys for an awesome job.

Dad’s has become a dining institution in Wallingford, and for good reason. They offer great basic breakfasts and lunches without emptying your wallet. They also seem to have a very low, almost non-​existent turnover in waitstaff. Those same very personable women have been serving up that great food for many moons. That’s always a good sign.
I’m what would be called a semi-​regular customer.
On my latest visit, my tummy was telling me that blueberry pancakes were what I’d be having that morning. Tummy also said that some Vermont sausage would be mighty tasty too.
OK, OK, Tummy! I hear ya’!
So, along with a good cup of coffee and my usual large glass of grapefruit juice served ice cold (mmmmmmm), I ordered those up.
Did I mention that I am a rather rotund gent, but as big as I am, I’ve never been able to finish a plate of their «short» stack of pancakes? Two of these ’59 Cadillac hubcap sized monsters make a short stack. For the life of me, I can’t imagine eating a tall stack!
Anyway they’re always very light, fluffy, and chock full of blueberries, and served with a huge amount of real whipped butter that’s needed to coat these river rafts disguised as pancakes!
The Vermont sausage links are very large, and full of flavor with lots of sage in them. Awesome.
Every breakfast I’ve ever had at Dad’s was top shelf.
Try it! You won’t be disappointed.

I remember coming here with my own dad a few years ago and it being far superior to Ricks just down the road at a time where people couldn’t stop raving about Ricks (why on earth I’ll never know) but Dads was a solid breakfast place then. Today was a super different story. When a customer orders coffee, odds are they’re going to have a refill or two. When they ask for Splenda and you bring two packets, it’s not only annoying because now I have to ask for more each time you come back with a coffee pot, but it’s also insulting. I’m not going to take your splenda home. Additionally the quality factor has largely decreased. Where Dads used to use real, delicious chocolate chips in their pancakes, they are now using the super cheap, small chips that have zero chocolate flavor. Couple that with the exactly three banana slices in my pancakes and after half of one I was ready to throw them away. The worst part about this morning was listening to the apparent owner go on a rant for a good half hour at least about an employee who had made a few mistakes at their 1985 cash register. She kept saying how someone she trusts with her life told her they had received too much change and she just couldn’t lose money like that. Listen, you’re a small business owner, serving a mediocre at best breakfast a mile from an Ihop and feet from a well loved competitor, of course you can’t have cash walk out the door. But can you afford the lack of quality in your ingredients, the severely dated décor, having a ridiculously inappropriate conversation about an employee to your other employees in your main dining area with customers seated around you? We werent the only customers there. This staff could be anyones relative, you have no idea and as a business professional you should know better. What is the percent of your patronage that looks forward to seeing this staff when they choose your establishment over the others on Rt 5? How much business will you lose? How does discussing this staffs errors publicly to your other staff affect THEIR morale? This is NOT the Dads I used to patronize with my own dad. Not even close and it really is a shame because once upon a time after Bickfords had closed and left Wallingford desperate for a good breakfast spot, Dads really owned it and was the only place to go.

Great friendly staff interesting breakfast specials. We have never had a bad experience here. Love the eggs Benedict

A great breakfast place. Service with a smile, you get a real family feel from Dad’s. Nothing has been a disappointment, and the corned beef hash is the BEST we’ve ever had. We’ve tried eggs, pancakes, French toast, and bacon/​egg sandwiches. Decent potatoes, decent coffee. For a small fee you can ask for real maple syrup.

1^st Timers to Dad’s Restaurant in Wallingford this morning. My wife ordered the Banana bread French Toast (w/​a side of bacon) off the Special’s menu. I went with the Hungarian pancakes w/​a side of sausage.
Meals came out after a short wait, right away, I noticed I did not receive what I had ordered. Hungarian pancakes are thin (and that was the description on the menu also), what was in front of me were «normal size» pancakes rolled up with cinnamon inside. We had a few things to do this morning after breakfast, so I wasn’t going to quibble about this mistake. The pancakes themselves were OK tasting (hey, anything with copious amounts of cinnamon inside is going to taste alright no matter what).
My wife thought her Banana bread French Toast was decent tasting. But it lacked the eggy flavor she likes in French Toast though. Also, the portion size was small.
Our total bill was over $ 28, a bit high for what we received this morning. I do have to say, all of the staff was extremely friendly, I read other Unilocal reports saying that the staff was rude, but that was not our experience at all this morning. I see a lot of 5 Star reviews for Dad’s Restaurant AND a lot of 1 & 2 Star reviews. Honestly, we feel it’s a middle-​of-​the-​road, average breakfast spot.

Staff was very kind except to us maybe because we were new. Got an attitude when I asked about the wait and if I should give them my name.
Our waitress was kind and our food was good. We got omelette and pancakes. The pancakes were ok. The omelettes were delicious. The rye bread was great.

I come here at least once a week. I’m obsessed with their corn beef hash! Any other place I’ve been serves it canned but not Dad’s. The prices are very reasonable. 4 bucks for 2 eggs home fries and toast totally worth it.

Friendly staff! Great food (Corned Beef Hash… Yum). Pancakes, french toast also good. A local favorite!

Been back to Dad’s a handful of times since my last review. Restaurant has gone down hill in my opinion in all aspects. The food is not as good as several years ago. I’ve had a mix from pancakes to omelets to hash and home fries. I’d say it’s been a steady decline. Omelets seem a little flat and just poorly put together. Hash was really just mush last time I had them. Home fries are pretty decent although not nearly the best I’ve had. Pancakes were always my favorite and even they seemed to lack flavor and tasted of batter. Under cooked? Then comes the descriptions of the food. More than one occasion the item ordered was not what the description on the menu or specials board made it out to be.
The service is terrible with some of the waitstaff. Not very attentive. Forgetting things. Having to ask multiple times, This is something that is fairly consistent. Some of the waitstaff just look over worked and really just don’t want to be there.
To top it off no condiments are kept on the tables. I like having jellies, butter, creamers, etc ready to go as I need it. When I have to wait for someone to come by so I can ask for a specific number of something only to have to brought to me 5 minutes later (possibly) is not acceptable. When asked why they do this I was given the answer because people were stealing. Acceptable loss. Don’t make your other customers suffer and if you really don’t want to put them on the table make sure your waitstaff drop some on the table without being asked. It’s the little things that matter in my opinion.
Having so many better options it’s been months since I been to Dad’s and probably won’t return. Huge shame…

Excellent breakfast joint! One of the best in every facet. Great food, exceptional choices, wonderful service and a laid back vibe.

Always a favorite of mine-​especially the omelet with cream cheese and salsa. Also love the girls there :-)

Great Food. Great Service.
Hiding in plain site as an unassuming breakfast luncheonette, Dads, is the family place that feels like you are eating at home, with standard offerings and a couple of specials that are truly deserving of the name special. The amount of bacon they give is a thing to behold. I would highly recommend.

I don’t like Dad’s. I’m sorry not sorry that I’ve given them a bunch of tries to get me on this Dad’s is the best!!! Brainwash the rest of the area is on but I can’t do it.
The food is average. It’s not hard to screw up breakfast. You can add a bunch of stuff to eggs and guess what? You’ve made eggs with a bunch of stuff in them. You can give me frisbee sized pancakes with stuff in and on them-​it doesn’t necessarily make them elevated pancakes.
I’ve had waitresses just wander away from the table mid order to talk to someone else. Rude. But this is Dad’s and they are the best ever!!! So I guess that is acceptable?
If Dad’s would go out of business, I’m not sure I’d really care.
After the extremely hostile and personal attack left by the owner, this is now a one star review. I really don’t care if this place stays open or is hit by a meteor.

The food is awesome and they give you a lot of it ! Its My favorite breakfast restaurant in Wallingford hands-​down!

This is your perfectly ordinary, run of the mill, small business restaurant. The food is perfectly ordinary. The décor is perfectly ordinary. The staff, though, are a very good, especially the older dark haired woman with glasses — she was awesome.

Love the #Healthy Servings of this gem of a breakfast diner. Host was nice and food was on point!

Have been looking for some good pancakes, french toast or waffles and stopped into Dad’s at about 11:30 on a Friday to give them a go. Was informed by the incredibly friendly waitress that the pancakes were substantial, so I went with a short stack of chocolate chip and some scrambled egg whites (comical attempt to add in some health).
The pancakes came out plate sized with butter on top and chocolate chips cooked in and spread throughout. Light, fluffy, amply sweet but not overwhelmingly so and more than enough for a normal human, these were excellent. Could have polished off a full stack, but I was able to mercifully restrain myself.
We also ordered a grilled tuna sandwich on rye with tomatoes and onions, accompanied by some fries, coleslaw and a pickle. This was generously portioned and disappeared quickly, evidently quite good as well.
Dad’s may the first of many stops, but has set the bar high. If you are hungry and like pancakes, or just food in general, you have come to the right place. Nap time.

This place is a solid 2.5 I give 2 because was kind of unacceptable. Place is clausterphobic… and I’m not a big girl. We entered with nowhere to really stand and was told after a few mins to sit over there. Grandma immediately came up and asked if we wanted a drink while we were still sitting down before even looking at if they had smoothies etc. Then my hot tea comes out with a lipstick stain on it I ask for a new mug grandma grabs it and told me she took care of it and runs away before I can even ask if it’s a new mug.
Waited quite awhile for our food next to many other miserable looking patrons. Food finally came home fries were good and it was a solid meal nothing spectacular though. Place was just so depressing and took so long to get food by the time we left we just wanted to get the hell out of there.
Can’t see myself coming back here with the other options available in the area for breakfast.

I don’t get the hype. We went to Dad’s for breakfast because we had to run some errands in Wallingford and saw that they had a deal available on Groupon. We got there and realized this is one of those «wait outside» type of places. On a cold rainy day, I was not excited about this. It was 10 minutes before we got inside out of the cold, 20 minutes total before we got seated. Half an hour after ordering before our food arrived, which seems excessive. It’s a diner, they should have a better system to get food out quickly, even when it’s busy.
I would describe our entire meal as «fine». Definitely not worth the 50 minute total wait time. Had I gotten the food in 10 minutes, maybe I’d have been more impressed. The pancake was fine, sparse on the bananas. You can see in the picture below — 8 small, thin slices of banana do not make a banana pancake, in my opinion, especially when they charge a premium to add them. The corned beef hash was tough and chewy, I’m guessing it was overcooked? The eggs benedict that my husband ordered were fine, the homefries were gross — greasy and bland. It was hard getting coffee refills. One waitress even leaned up on the wall behind us and asked «is it 1:00 yet?» I get that you’re tired, but when we’re sitting here with no food and empty coffee mugs, I sort of don’t want to hear it. Go in back and complain to your co-​workers, not to me.
I guess maybe it’s a local phenomenon and maybe I just don’t get it. But I wouldn’t go back, even with a Groupon. The food was so-​so, the wait was unbearable given the quality of the food and there are just so many other great breakfast choices closer to my house. If I find myself in Wallingford at breakfast time again, I’d probably choose IHOP over Dad’s.