The Original Mel’s Diner

Well, I never thought for a moment anyone could mess up a Patty Melt. I was really surprised Mel’s did given they are a 50’s themed place and Patty Melts have been around since then. I could be wrong, but a Patty Melt is a burger patty with grilled onions and provolone, or white cheese on Rye. My Melt had onions, tomato and orange cheese. The burger was very dry. The service was good, there were kids running around screaming. I was bummed management didn’t say anything-​keep in mind this was about 11pm at night. I only gave 2 stars simply because of the Melt alone. I’ll make sure to ask next time, «What’s in your Patty Melt?» I’m sure to get crazy looks :)

One of the worst Mels I’ve ever been to. It smelled a bit like cigar smoke (probably due to all the people coming over from the casino) & the food wasn’t great. The atmosphere was semi-​depressing.

We are staying at The Sands, so we decided to go down and order to bring back up to our room. We order, paid, and wait 25 minutes. When our food came out, we took it up to our room and realized we should have checked before leaving. They got my 5 year olds order wrong (We asked for Mac and cheese and she got a grilled cheese) and my husbands Philly Sandwich was dripping in grease, he was hungry so he ate it (Huge mistake). I went back down to exchange my daughter meal and had to talk to the manager. I got the exchange in 5 minutes, and the portion size was so small my daughter ended up eating some of my dinner. My husband was up all night sick because he shouldn’t have eaten the greasy food. Wont be going back.

We visited Mel’s Diner after a couple hours of painting at The Crafted Palette.
There are not alot of options and I am always looking for a place we have not been.
So at 9:30 at night I thought Mel’s would not be busy. Wrong, it was packed. We got seated right away, but soon after we were seated there was a 10 to 20 minute wait.
We both ordered the Mel’s burger with cheese. It comes with a healthy portion of fries.
The burger itself was delicious, we both asked for medium rare, and the Burgers were cooked just right, if not more on the rare side. The meat is fresh and the toppings, tomatoes, onions, pickles are generous.
The only reason I did not give five stars, is I think they lost our order. Tables around us were served before us. I think they realized the mistake and quickly got dinner out. They took our drinks off the bill for having to wait so long. I feel sorry for the wait staff because it is insanely busy.
If in area and have time, we will be back.

Fun environment and decent food. I felt it was slightly overpriced for what you get and their toaster caught on fire while we were there. Nothing says delicious like the smell of burning toast while you eat… Our server was very attentive but it took forever for someone to come up front for us to pay.

Here’s where I’m at with Mel’s at The Sands; the employees work incredibly hard, the place is 5x cleaner than the hotel and casino, the food is above average and fast. The staff checks on the patrons appropriately and I’ve yet to see even the slightest hint of discourtesy. Jacqueline the manager is def the driving force. She’s so busy but remains extremely effective with the most friendly and wonderful smile! Awesome room service restaurant too!

Ever had fries that were microwaved? Come to Mel’s. Reasonable service but pretty poor effort from the kitchen.

We ate at the Mel’s inside boomtown casino first time and will be our last. .we arrived at 900am waited 15 mins for the waitress (kaitlyn) to take our orders. we got our food around 945 or 950am all our food was cold, my daughter’s hash brown not cooked, still white, bacon not crispy but we ask for crispy, the manager took all our orders to be re cook, (waited another 10 to 15 mins) …now with the new re cook my husband’s eggs looked like a pancake (ordered over hard just break the yolk) too over cooked, so my husband just got up and left, while we were waiting for our food our waitress has time to join her coworker to sing happy birthday to a customer not even her table. overall a REAL bad experience, food sucks no refills in our coffee (until I asked) and one more thing when we arrived their were no customers around but as they were seated they all got served first… NEVER coming back here again will NOT recommend this place… BAD BAD SERVICE this place a JOKE… I told the manager that I will be posting this review…

A pleasingly old-​fashioned diner. I lament the rarity of diner’s like this these days. I especially love the duke box at my table. I ordered a burger and fries and it was yummy as expected. I actually spent quite a few hours in here as I arrived in Reno ahead of schedule and needed to wait a while before checking into the Sands. I survived on hot chocolate all night and the staff were very hospitable. I recommend Mel’s Diner for sure.

Service was good. The lemonade tasted homemade. French dip was decent, not the wow factor or anything but if you came to Mel’s looking for the wow factor… I digress

Oh Mel’s, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
1. You let me go into the Casino and get a $ 2 Bloody Mary and bring that in to drink with breakfast.
2. Your waitresses are real authentic working gals, attentive and sassy, saggy and snappy.
3. $ 7 steak and eggs. Decent steak, delicious steak, delicious eggs. Did I mention the steak was really good?
4. I’m with «my kind» at Mel’s. You don’t laugh at me like people in CT do when I use coupons. I am surrounded by Old people on a budget, disabled veterans on a budget. Working class folk on a budget.
5. No basic bitches here.

This is the perfect example of what a Diner should be.
This is a 24 hour joint. Think about it, the delicacies served at Mel’s are available to you, day or night, rain or shine… whatever the hell you want at any time!
I often think about ordering Ice Cream & Coffee for breakfast, but I tend to order the Steak and Egg Special instead.
In true Diner fashion, always sit at the counter and enjoy the show that never ends. The service here is always top notch. It’s always fun to watch your order of burnt toast jammed up in the conveyor that eventually gets buttered and slathered with a paint brush.
«That’s Good Eatin».

Party of 7 for breakfast. Coffee took forever to come to us. All I had for breakfast was a bagel. I just wanted a nice warm and bagel. But it came back burnt! I asked for another one less toasty. The server came back with another burnt bagel stating that was there lowest setting. Everyone at my table enjoyed their breakfasts. But I did not. Service was slow. Do not recommend for picky eaters. So upset!

I really don’t understand how you can mess up literally 2 orders of the same thing. I had to wait 20 minutes for them to bring up my order while my friend ate his. Their room service is terrible (at the sands). When I call to tell them they got the order wrong, they sound irritated. If I’m paying money for your food, please don’t sound like its the end of the world when I tell you you got my order wrong. Bad customer service.
I don’t WANT to bash them because I like this place when I go to sit there to eat. Their room service needs improvement though. This was not the only time they have messed up a simple order.

On the morning of September 1, I was on my way to burningman. Called downstairs, ordered my grub, by the time I walked downstairs everything was set and ready to go (max 6 minutes). What a wonderful restaurant to have at the tip of your fingers while staying at the Sands. I hear they are 24-​hours? Looking forward to spending more time in Reno next time and visiting more often.
Food was awesome and hit the spot!

Ordered my food, i usually love Mel’s back in Sacramento.
I order the chicken fried steak and it was absolutely horrid. They piled gravy on top and the battered steak was very stale. I quietly set the plate aside. The very kind waitress asks me if I’d like anything else I kindly decline and say I wouldn’t like anything. So she brings out her manager and I let the manager lady my unsatisfactions and she says «Oh that’s weird. We’ve made plenty all day and you’re the first person to complain» this was at around noon and at this point she picks up my knife and starts violently chopping up my chicken fried steak on my plate and says «looks pretty good to me» she then proceeds to hand me my check.
This is no joke. This actually happened. I paid and left in awe.

I didn’t read the reviews until I sat down. I ordered the eggs bene w avocado and the dude ordered two plus two with pancakes. He didn’t seem to care much for his eggs, liked the bacon a lot and said three pancakes would have been better. At least he appeared to like the cakes. I liked mine. I scrapped off most of the sauce only cause I’m not a saucy gal. And I forgot to request half as much sauce. The potatoes are good I liked them. They have green and white onion. Very tasty. It was a good experience. The reviews must have been a bad run. Or new management. Although there was a lady behind us who was not happy at all. While the food was fair they got three stars for one specific thing.
Fox News was on the tv.

Pretty awful, if you ask for anything that requires more effort than flipping something on a griddle. Stay away from things with sauces and gravies, dressings, multiple steps of preparation. Check your cups, glasses, silverware for effluvia — the dishwasher is feckless and basically a liability; there were smears of food and grease on our service ware, and my son saw him in the restroom, apron on (big no-​no), sort-​of washing one hand and talking on his cell phone with the other. Disgusting. I hope my family doesn’t get sick!
Whatever nostalgia surrounds Mel’s, that’s all they have left; they are resting unflinchingly on their laurels. The extra star is for our excellent server, Tony, who needs to shop his polite, prompt, unobtrusive, observant skills as a waiter around town to some place with good product and better tips. It won’t help your career down the road to be associated with a joint like Mel’s.

What a great place?! Its a diner!!! :D
We were greeted by the hostess and immediately seated. The waitress showed up, took our drink order and it was off to a relaxing lunch. He ordered the French Dip and I got the Open Face Turkey Sandwich.
The French Dip was packed with meat and served with an ample amount of french fries. My Open Face Turkey Sandwich was smothered in gravy and served with a side of veggies.
The French Dip was average. It didn’t stop the hubby from gobbling it all up. Speaking of gobbling, my turkey was yummy. It was real turkey! I was expecting sliced turkey meat. But nope, all white turkey meat! I was let down by the spongy unseasoned vegetables. But the lack of any salt on the veggies was made up with the overly salty turkey gravy.
End of the day, the question is will we be back… Probably. For the breakfast. But it won’t be my first choice. Super friendly wait staff, prompt service, and clean restaurant.

Visit started with waiting to be seated while the host, some Elvis wanna be looking kid, literally was doing nothing. When he finally deigned to acknowledge our presence, it was not to greet us or ask how many for breakfast… what he said was, «what do you want?» (RUDE!)
Long story short, it was further downhill after that… scrambled eggs were just wet undercooked and nasty. I spent that evening of my vacation pretty tummy sick.