Crystals Country Diner

You can't beat the hospitality of good ole Kentucky! We were on our way home from an epic weekend in the Bluegrass state, when decided to stop for a little breakfast. We knew what we wanted--Cracker Barrel type food but with a more authentic country flair. So Crystal's Country diner fit the bill ! We went inside and we were greeted from across the room which was almost packed for a couple of tables. The server told us to take a seat anywhere we could find--we did. It took a little before anyone could bring us a menu. But a young girl around 12-13 came by with a paper with a poem and gave me a flower and told me, "Happy Mother's Day!". It seemed everyone knew each other more or less and we were the obvious outsiders. The server arrived at our table and gave us menus and took our drink orders. He was friendly--not overly so--which was understandable since it was quite busy for Mother's Day. He brought our drinks, and took our orders. It was maybe ten minutes before our food arrived. Hubs and I split a biscuit with gravy, he had fried eggs and bacon and I had scrambled eggs and the most delicious sausage I have ever had!I shared my other piece with my husband--reluctantly. And he agreed and said his bacon was yummy as well. The owner, Crystal was visiting every table introducing herself and taking photos of the patrons for her Facebook page. When she came to our table, I had to tell her just how delicious that sausage was! She said, "We get our sausage from a place in Bardstown called Old Delaney's". We gasped in delight because we had just been there a half hour ago and purchased a three pound package of sausage we were hoping we would like. Three pounds seem like a hefty commitment, since they didn't offer anything smaller. We were so happy with that tidbit of information! Crystal took our picture and thanked us for coming in. We will most definitely return--it's now one of our favorite places!

For someone being there for the first time we had a pretty crummy experience. We pass by this place daily and finally checked out what the rave was about. This is a seat yourself kind of place (or it was for us that day). The seating is more cafeteria style. We sat right next to the kitchen and register. There was foul language in the kitchen that I'm sure the entire place heard very clearly almost the entire time we were there. Each plate that went out was microwaved. I was very concerned to see this as the cooks just cooked it in the back and then would microwave the food again? Weird. Do they not have a heat lamp? It was a light amount of people inside. It made me question the quality of the food and practices this place brings. I'm unsure if we will be back to give this place a 2nd try. I'd rather drive to Hillview out of my way to eat a solid breakfast. We were not impressed at all.

My family and I just got done eating here at Crystals. Everything we had was delicious. The gravy was the best homemade gravy I've tasted in a long time. So so good! The chicken and dumplings were well seasoned, very savory and just melts in your mouth. The meatloaf tastes exactly like you'd hope a meatloaf would taste and was juicy. I can't wait to come back and try more!

For a country diner this place is really good. Whether you go for breakfast, lunch or dinner you will not be disappointed. As far as the service. It is always excellent and if you go when Anthony is working the service will be phenomenal. Anthony you rock pal. Crystal you staff is great and keep up the great job this place is doing as it is the best of Mount Washington. Only reason they do not get 5 stars is that is for perfect and no one is that good.

I really would like to give this place a poor rating, but the quality the food was so good and the waitress was very diligent that I can't. I have very mixed feelings about this whole transaction. To begin with not their fault, but previous menus and prices are terribly outdated. All the prices are now almost double if not higher. I will be posting photos of the new menu although they may be a little hard to read because of glare I couldn't get rid of. There was also a big misunderstanding on my part. I did not realize that you could not put french fries or tots on the special. It has to be the vegetables or sides that are listed on the special board to get them as part of the special so she said I got two sides, but I didn't understand that I would be charged separately an extra for the fries and tater tots The potato products are the cheapest items on the menu so I did not realize they would not be included with the deal. I later got them to give me two of the sides that count to make up for the difference. I was not expecting to pay with tip over $50 for two people at a casual diner. one more bad thing before I get to the good she did say that her coleslaw was the worst she ever had anywhere. She said the slaw is basically carrots cabbage and mayonnaise with no real sweet or any other seasoning or anything to make it flavorful Now for the good stuff almost everything I had was top quality and tasted very nice to begin with the mac & cheese was at least above average and did have cheese flavor. I'd give it a B. The evil tots were pretty tasty and her fries looked fine as well. The fish was one huge piece for both of us while we each got one large piece for our dinner and the batter had good flavor. She was a little upset at crunchy batter, but it didn't bother me. Lots of flaky fish. The biscuit I had was one of the best I've had ever, it had delicate flavor you could see the layers. It was a little chewy, but not hard just extremely satisfying for a biscuit and it came with real butter and they had apple butter packets on the table. Her cornbread was perfectly bounced. There was lots of it they have Pepsi product sadly, but as many restaurants anymore, they do have big red so I wasn't completely, put out by that I find it funny that my big red came in a Coca-Cola cup when their menu says they proudly serve Pepsi. They had good Heinz ketchup no generic House brand or anything. Major props to the waitress she was taking care of eight tables, taking payments and still found time to help an old man get up and get out to his car. She kept the drinks. She was very efficient. Everybody's orders seem to be correct it was very good work for being so busy, the decor is nice it very much felt like somewhere. I lived very homey clean bathroom although you do kind of have to walk through the kitchen to get to the bathroom that's always a little problematic, but it wasn't too bad. I do feel that it is overpriced, but there is quality there, so if you have good teeth to crunch the fish and a decent job to pay the bill, I would highly recommend this place

I'm a fan of Crystal's Country Diner. Home cooking. Nothing fancy, but for a single man who doesn't cook, this is like having Granny or mom cooking for me. Love it

What a hole in the wall delicious place this is!! The chocolate chip pancakes were to die for! I am an avid CCpancake connoisseur as well! I think crystal was there working too bc this old lady was bussing tables and running food, she was amazing! Props to her bc everything was so good! 5/5 would go back!

So good! My husband and I tried it one weekend and it was amazing. Friendly staff and the portions are huge.

Went in on Christmas Eve, they closed at 12 and we showed up at 11:30. Figured 30 minutes was reasonable enough. When we got in the main waiter (he had a pony tail with blue hair) gave us a dirty look. We then stood in the doorway not knowing if we could seat ourselves or not. As we were standing there we heard the waiter aggressively say to another customer, "I'm about to close is what I'm about to do, they came in late." He was clearly talking about us, when in fact we were not late. There was 30 min until close. If the restaurant was empty this would've been more understandable, but it was still full and there was even someone who came in after us. We then stood in the doorway for another minute before he reluctantly barked "seat yourself". We ended up just leaving. Not the kind of hospitality you'd expect from a small country diner. Won't ever be coming back. Merry Christmas

The food was absolutely magnificent! We came for breakfast. We had blueberry pancakes, fried green tomatoes, steak and eggs, and loaded meat omelette and everything was 10/10!