Tip Top Cafe

First time here so here goes all the good news first. We were looking for an old style lunch diner with comfort food. We would definitely come back. There were a few flaws but not enough to scratch this place off of our foodie road trip list. It's very clean, the decor is simple diner style, the staff is super friendly and efficient, the portions are huge, and the prices are very reasonable. It's a typical fairly limited diner lunch menu with daily specials (can you believe liver and onions - haven't seen that in years), and the ingredients for the most part were fresh done old school style. The roast beef was a REAL roast cooked in the oven for hours - so tender it just fell apart on your fork. I could eat that every day. The chicken fried steak was from scratch as were the amazing thick sliced huge onion rings. Almost every table had them. The breading for both looked like it had a little cornmeal mixed in. The gravy for the CFS was not the typical cream gravy. More on that later. The dinner salad was the usual diner salad but so crispy fresh and cold. The chunky thick blue cheese dressing looked and tasted like scratch made. The fluffy dinner rolls are made every morning and so are the scratch pies. You have to wait til the pies cool enough to slice. Some are a mile high. So there were a few minor issues but not enough to keep us from coming back when we're in San Antonio. First and foremost, the coffee was weak. That's a crime at a diner, and another customer was ticked off, but oh well. This isn't a coffeehouse. Overall, the food lacked salt. I'm ok with that because I'm cutting back and prefer to add more if needed, but some people want their food seasoned during cooking. Here, it's all very flat from lack of salt (except the salty packaged brown gravy mix on the roast). That included the bland thin yellow gravy that is served under the CFS. Never saw that before, but it kept the steak batter crispy. The mashed potatoes were a huge disappointment, the main reason for the 4 stars. To me and other diners at the table next to us, they were horrible. They were straight up russet potatoes mashed plain as if they just baked then smashed into a hard, dry lump that looked like it was scooped out of a big pan - no salt, milk, seasoning, or butter - just pure literal solid mashed potatoes. But the worst thing was the cold roast beef on the open face sandwich. The next table over's was cold, too. We sent it back to be microwaved, and then it was hot. And still delicious enough to order every day. Even so, with such a shortage of good diners serving comfort food these days, we were happy to find this place, and we will be back. We'll just avoid the pitfalls we learned from this trip.

Had lunch here on my way through San Antonio specifically because someone had them recommended for chicken fried steak. Their CFS was well tenderized, but crust was a little plentiful for my taste. And was served over gravy! Now, the gravy was very tasty with good consistency, but served beneath the CFS with no question as to preference was different. The service and speed of order fulfillment was great. The ambiance is nothing special, as this is old-school diner complete with juke boxes at the booths. The clientele was mainly older and non-demanding. In conclusion, although I enjoyed the CFS, not sure that it would be on my list of best chicken fried steak in Texas.

Great food. Good service. One of the best hamburgers I have ever had. Amazing onion rings

First off I have been there several times and I have never had any complaints so these reviews I'm reading just wonder about these people. The food is great and I love their onion rings and everything else falls into place.

Amazing chicken, fried steak and onion rings with scratch pies and cakes... this place is absolutely Amazing From the food and to the service, I definitely recommend this place!

Superb menu, known for their chicken fried steak and onion rings. Really good food. Older folks vibe, vintage ambiance but well worth your money.

This staple restaurant never lets me down. I've been coming here for years. Food is always delicious great small town diner feeling. Our server was great. Oh and the onion rings are fire!!!

I love this place.prices are awsome.service is quality.thanks to more adult servers and cooks.the atmousphere is old classy style dinning.made me feel like I was in Odessa in an old country store resteraunt.and with all the antiques and juke boxes at the tables.wows me.portions are more than plenty.the meatloaf is huge.the real steak in chicken fried steak is larger than the 11 inch porcelain plates.dont order the hand made onion rings.that I haven't seen like that since I was a child.because you will never finish them.then the lemon pie.ill let you be surprised.please order it.get your camera ready.parking is ok.its a san antonio gem.

Seven family members came here for a birthday dinner. Let's see, where to start. First the place needs an update. Decor and recipes. Next, our waiter pushed us and rushed us to hurry up and put our orders in. Pissed me off for sure. Didn't give me a chance to look at the menu. He hung over me with impatience so I just said fine and ordered chicken fried steak. Onions rings were bland and breading just fell off. The others that ordered burgers were rushed and didn't really get to make preferable choices. My food arrived warm and got cold fast. Mashed potatoes were horrible, dry, no flavor, the gravy was very thick and tasted like no where near what goes on chicken fried steak . I had to have him microwave it and it came back soggy. My husband's liver and onions was like a child's serving and the gravy was like brown jelly. All burgers had no flavor and just crumbled making them unable to pick up and eat, catfish was decent but no seasoning, was served 1 small filet, all mashed potatoes were like hockey pucks, no one finished their meal, leaving the rest to the trash. We will not return nor recommend. Also heard other folks verbalizing disappointment with their meals. This place desperately needs to get better cooks and/or recipes, or shut the place down permanently.

Loved this place for decades. So disappointed on my recent visit. Ordered the onion rings and iconic chicken fried steak. All of it covered in Cajun seasoning!Rings, fries, steak and gravy Also cooked in to hot oil that left raw tasting flour and burnt oil taste. Should have been a clue when there was only one car in the parking lot that use to be packed front and back. So sad.