Nancy’s East End Diner

I will say, the food is pretty good. However, I called for a take-​out order, picked my order up, and returned to work. I looked at my order and it was missing the grits. I telephoned and the gentleman was very passé’ and rushed me off the phone. However, when I was there spending my money, he was very nice. I began eating my omelet and found what appeared to be red string resembling red dental floss. I called again and the man (this time he wasn’t so gentle) told me to,“JUST BRING IT BACK.” About a hour or so, I had my niece return the food to the establishment with a note written on the container, «Grits missing, string in omelet, give credit I eat there a lot» along with a smiley face. When she arrived, he told her, «I could have pulled the string out. It was a string from potatoes.» I didn’t have potatoes. I telephoned the establishment again. He picked the phone up, said, «Hello, I am busy» and hung up on me. Talk about good food with POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE!!! I am a Wilkinsburg Resident and have been for 35 years. I am VERY active in the community. I will make sure that others know about the poor customer service. I am truly appalled at his behavior owner or not. It was totally not in his best interest to treat a customer in that manner. THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT.

I noticed this diner when I was on the Vacant Home Tour last year and finally made it here one Saturday morning with my daughter. The place was busy which is always a good sign. There was no place to sit except at the counter when we entered. We took a seat and scanned the menu. My daughter ordered an omelet with home fries, and I chose the grilled havarti and apple sandwich on raisin bread. My sandwich was delicious… a great combination. The owner told me the apple butter gave it that extra taste boost. My daughter also gave high marks to the omelet. We shared the home fries which we would have liked fried just a little bit crispier. Conversation also made this diner quite enjoyable. We struck up a conversation with a ‘regular’ seated beside me. He showed me some interior pictures of the Singer House which I visited (outside only) on the Vacant House Tour. He also had some interesting pictures of the vault inside the Union Trust Building downtown. We talked about this Wilkinsburg neighborhood where he had grown up. We also talked with the owner about this diner which has been there for years but now under his ownership for only a year or so. Great place for breakfast if you’re in the neighborhood. I plan to visit over and over and try some other items, especially dessert. The morning we visited, they were offering sweet potato pie; we were just too full to give it a try. Then there is the Leona’s ice cream on the menu. All the more reason to go back for dessert.

What’s not to love, local diner, totally artisan breakfast sandwiches, retro atmosphere, but modern twists on classics. Grits and her specialized hangover-​helpers are fav. Great couple owns the place, hired personable people. Nothing worse than a diner with disgruntled staff. This place is the 5-​star diner of East End (yes, rivals Square Café and Point Bruge, just the atmosphere is totally retro diner, and not all Bistro looking ;)

Delicious breakfast! The pancakes are pretty good, but a hangover helper makes this my favorite weekend spot. It’s an omelette served over the best fresh-​cut fries around. Also, they have sausage made out of bacon. Just let that sink in.

As you can see from my reviews, my wife and I are on a constant mission to find the best breakfast diner.
Prior to visiting Nancy’s East End Diner this Saturday morning, Fred’s Diner in Akron and Summit Diner in Somerset were the undisputed top.
Nancy’s has dethroned them both and it is now our absolute #1 diner regardless of state or location.
Here are the reasons we have put Nancy’s at the top of our list:
Overall Ratings:
Food Quality — Six Stars
Cleanliness — Five Stars
Staff — Six Stars
Price /​Value — Five Stars
Food Specifics:
Home Fries — Absolutely the best home fries we have found to date. Excellently cooked, fresh cut potatoes and the addition of onions and peppers that are also sliced and cooked make these home fries absolute perfection.
Eggs — Fresh, large and high quality eggs cooked exactly to order.
Sausage Patties — Meat sourced from a local butcher in Bloomfield with your choice of regular or hot. Excellent flavor and nice portion size.
Pancakes — Nancy’s makes their pancakes «crêpe» style, meaning they are thinner and have crispy edges. This is the same type of pancake that Pamela’s in Pittsburgh is famous for but these are better.
Coffee — Better than average and cup was kept full without waiting.
Toast — This is the only item we would rate as «average» with the standard toast being small in size and nothing special. Nancy’s offers Mancini toast for an upgrade but we did not try that option.
Do not let the outside appearance deter you from giving this hidden gem a try, you won’t be disappointed!!!

Nice place. Nice people. Good service. Pancakes were very good. One person with us had an omelet (peppers onions bacon) that was good as well. The breakfast sandwich was fair. Not much to it. And the traditional breakfast eggs, toast, sausage and home fries was just OK. Greasy sausage patties. Home fries without peppers or onions. But they were happy to add some when asked. And beware… The butter on the butter toast tasted like movie theater popcorn. Would go back and try some other things on the menu.

I never went to the old version of Nancy’s, so I can’t say how the new version compares, but I certainly like it. I’m a big fan of the fact that they have a lot of local and house-​made items, and their chicken and turkey sausage and bacon options are great for those like me who don’t eat pork. The Fancy Nancy Burger and the Southwest Omelette are great selections to try, as are the ice cream sandwiches.

Went this morning for the second time. Also the second hour-​plus wait after ordering. The kitchen lost our ticket. The food is ok for diner food, price is ok. They need to get a better kitchen management system. The waitress was nice and they comped the coffee.

This place was great. Best pancakes I’ve ever had. They’re light and thin, so you can actually eat them with other food. The staff is also fantastic.

The restaurant is on the smaller side and there aren’t that many seats, but there were a few empty tables so we were seated immediately at 10:30am on a Saturday. Food came out pretty fast; took about 10 minutes. I got the Fat Cat breakfast (eggs, homefries, sausage, and pancakes). I enjoyed the homefries more after seasoning it with black pepper and the pancakes were great (just wish they came out a little warmer). Boyfriend got the meat-​o-​rama (bacon, ham, sausage, and your choice of cheese) and thought it wasn’t bad. He also ordered a BLT to go, but thought it was average when eating it a couple hours later. Overall, a solid place for brunch. The pancakes were the best part.
Taste | 3.5
Atmosphere | 3
Presentation | 3
Service | 3.5
OVERALL | 3.5

I special ordered a chorizo omelette, it was perfect! The home fries were excellent, and an awesome cup of coffee to boot. 2 thumbs up!!! Very friendly owner, really takes care of customers. I’ll be back every chance I get.

Nancy’s is exceptional in every sense of the word. Incredible value, unlimited local coffee, wonderful people, delicious food, quick and attentive service, old-​school diner charm, farm-​fresh eggs, unlimited local coffee…
Go. Be full. Drink coffee. Pay ½ of what you’d expect.

I’ve eaten here three or four times and it hasn’t disappointed. They have the best diner coffee around and the breakfast is really good too. The staff is very friendly and the prices reasonable. It’s everything a small diner should be.

I went to Nancys once before right after they reopened with the new owners and it was really good, but I thought maybe it was just one of those ‘I’m hungover so anything greasy is good’ kind of days. However I went this weekend, stone cold sober, and dang. It’s good. Really good.
I’d go so far as saying the best diner good I have ever had.
For starters the coffee is beyond legit. It’s easily the best tasting cup of coffee I have had in a restaurant that wasn’t a coffeeshop. I believe when we went it was Tanzanian Teaberry (Is that correct?). Then the food. My god, the food. I had the vegetable omelet but asked for it to be scrambled with homefries, and had rye toast. All great. All of it. The owner is amazingly friendly, rhe food is excellent, and THEY HAVE HOMEMADE PIE. Check it out, you will not be disappointed.

Now my favorite spot for breakfast or lunch on a quiet day off. Gobbled down a huge breakfast followed by sweet potato pie with ice cream, all washed down by the best diner coffee I’ve ever had. I’ll be making this one a regular stop!

A hidden gem in Wilkinsburg! Ample parking, very friendly staff, great coffee. Try the grilled havarti and apple sandwich — heavenly. And homemade sweet potato pie!

The Classic Breakfast was delicious! The eggs were done to order; sunny side up was perfect and so were the scrambled eggs. Home fries were yummy, and we could taste the freshness of the sausage. The bacon was crispy and very tasty. The coffee was outstanding. My partner and I will make sure that this restaurant goes on the list of restaurants to visit.

The food is great and affordable. Had the Helen over fries. Very original place with friendly staff. Can’t wait to go back.