Christa S.
Yelp
Diners are some of my favorite places to go. Now that I'm vegan, it's very hard to find a diner to have a good (bad) cup of coffee at and order all of the classic Americana diner delights. Sure, there's Veggie Galaxy, but finding parking in Central Square is a nightmare and it is more of a vegetarian restaurant with a diner theme than an actual diner.
Donut Villa Diner is closer to me, is a diner-diner, and has vegan donuts seven days of the week! Score.
This diner is in an unassuming strip mall in a tiny, narrow spot. They have outdoor seating now in the form of a white tent in the parking lot.
Our first visit was heavenly. It was a Saturday morning. I had the chik'n and waffles and my husband had the vegan Almond Joy waffle. The coffee flowed, the waitress was quick and played the "diner waitress" part to perfection, and there was a very sweet young server who kept offering us refills or asking if we needed anything else.
Our second visit was a bit hectic, and the tofu scramble was the worst I'd ever had. It smelled like old sponges and old onions and tasted bland. I could only take one bite. The pancakes, house-made vegan sausage, and home fries were good! The waitress was new and very sweet and polite. Some minor things were forgotten, like a coffee order in addition to orange juice, but hey, we're all coming out of the pandemic and things are tough right now.
The third visit was hectic and we ended up having to leave cash on the table (we way overpaid) and bolt. Everything was extremely discombobulated - no menus on the tables, some silverware set-up at a waiting station you had to end up serving yourself even though I don't think it was for patrons, etc. My husband went inside and tried to directly pay for our meal, but the only person who had our order information was the waitress - no centralized point-of-sale system.
The Vegan Scramble (not tofu - it's home fries and beans and onions, etc) was good - mine had a hair in it and a metric ton of salt - but the extremely loud patrons next to us seemed to be having a competition with the other table next to us on who could be the most obnoxious in public and made me leave before I could finish it. One table blared videos of church and scream-talked and the other table loudly Facetimed with kids. I know it's not the restaurant's fault that the patrons were extremely loud, but my husband has sensory issues and had to keep leaving the table and sitting in the car until I texted him our food had arrived. It was honestly so horrible. One of the patrons was even talking and laughing so much she coughed on her food a few times. The waitstaff was totally MIA for most of the meal, probably because of the loud customers.
All in all, it's cool that they have a vegan menu. There are vegan menu items on the Online Ordering system that don't appear on the paper menu. Will stick to donut takeout. Maybe will try the food again. My stomach doesn't feel super great, though.