Food was good. The atmosphere has changed from cozy diner to modernized. If you like the blaring pop country coming from one of the 3 flat screens and screaming kids then you will love this place. Not likely to go back. read more

Chicken fried chicken is awesome! Pie selection is dangerous and excellent! Love this joint. In our top 5 in manor behind Good Luck Grill. Parking is adventurous! Check your to go orders for accuracy! read more

Just had the best old fashioned hamburger - fast and friendly service. I can't wait to try the pies.

Just...eww. Food has no flavor. Much like cafeteria food. Nobody can understand my language when I place an order, so that came out wrong as well. Tried sending it back...that didn't work either...so they sent out more chips and salsa. I will not return, nor recommend this business to anyone. read more

Fairly good food and service. The only con is no breakfast after 11. For a small town diner that has to be a must.

very good place for grandma like sunday cooking. The chicken fried steak and chicken fried chicken with homemade fires is so good I haven't tried anything else. They have a chicken fried chicken smothered with cheese called chucks cheesy chicken that is ridiculous. Highly recommended read more

The coffee and biscuits alone give this place 5-star status for me. Seriously good coffee - buy some beans to take home and to give to friends as gifts. The coffee is so good I almost forget how good the rest of breakfast is, too! REAL food! I've only ever been here for breakfast and I usually get an omelet with home fries...and biscuits...can never finish it all (you get two huge biscuits as ONE side!) We usually make a full morning of it and walk around the flea market down 290 afterward. Yeah, I have vague memories of the service not being super on point, but they're always friendly. They're just not caught up in the rat race. It's 1945 here. So, just relax, enjoy whoever you're with, and they'll come around and fill up your coffee cup eventually. It''ll be worth it. read more

I think I may have had worse food and worse service but I'm struggling to remember when that may have been. I would have thought the service at least would be good when we walked in and saw more waitresses than customers. And then my second impression of the place was when I sat on the booth seat and the spring went all the way to the wood. Ok, I was starting to get a hint. The onion rings even though hand battered were horrible. They tasted like they had been fried in rancid oil. The taste, smell and texture convinced us to not finish eating them and the same for the fries in case they had been cooked in the same oil. The sandwiches and burgers were okay but I wouldn't go back to this place. The bathrooms were nasty also so I just felt like this place had a high likelihood of food poisoning. read more

Adequate food, I'd consider 290 a three-star brunch. But their lunch and dinner prices are high. Ordered the fried green tomato sandwich, big mistake. Now, I imagine avocado and lightly breaded tomatoes would be tasty, but the avocados were gummy, the lettuce was from a bag, slimy and dirt-flavored. Really? Is fresh lettuce expensive? Bread was standard sandwich loaf, like mom spread peanut butter on. Partner's burger had same pre-grated lettuce and a cheap, disintegrating bun. I am not a fussy person but these were $10 sandwiches...at that price, I think something better than a sloppy, soggy fallapart mess is a reasonable expectation. Guys...have some pride, or lower your prices. I want to make this a one-star review to compete with all the enigmatic four and five-star reviews, but that would be tacky. nothing's really horrible, and brunch was okay and well-priced. read more

2nd recent trip and was as good as the 1st except very very slow service but really really good pecan pie

Not sure what some of these negative comments are about. Not tasty? Overpriced? 290 is awesomely delicious every single time and their prices are so reasonable it's a wonder they make enough to stay open. Almost every plate is under $10. We have tried about a dozen of their dishes from breakfast to lunch and dinner, and every time it's soooooo good! This is Texas home-cookin', classic cafe fare. We have been going to 290 regularly since we moved to Manor about a year ago, and every experience has been great. Good servers, excellent food, great prices. And their pies are HUGE! Ask for a slice of the apple crumb pie and you won't be disappointed, but you may need to share. Chicken fried steak is MASSIVE and their white gravy is delicious, not too salty like most places make it. Their breakfast is classic delicious diner-style breakfast. Awesome food, great pricing, well-worth a visit! The only thing they are missing is missing is MILKSHAKES! read more

Yummy food and great service! Casual cafe/diner atmosphere was perfect for my tired family on our way home from vacation.

Great service and an Amazing chicken fried steak!! Be sure to leave some room for pie!

Great breakfast, great prices, no wait at 10am on a Saturday! First time at Cafe 290, we'll back

salty and their sausage patties must be homemade because they have a flavor Ive never had before and I don't mean that in a good way. Been here twice. Once for dinner and for breakfast and that's the last chance Im giving this place. read more

Great food and service very friendly environment general manager jack greeted us and was very friendly and even gave us some free pie!

Great food and fast service even during Saturday noon hour rush. You just gotta try the Almond Joy pie!

Cafe 290 has the best comfort food. They have wonderful fried chicken livers and the gravy is always nice and thick, never watered down. Fresh soft dinner rolls. And Michael has to be one of the best waiters ever. Highly recommended. read more

I was happily surprised that they had ice café' mochas! I came around 1pm on a Thursday afternoon and decided it would be a good place to stay a while. I went back to the car and got my notebook, and when I got back the line was almost out the door. I didn't have to wait long, though. Nina, the waitress introduced herself and was very friendly and accommodating. I ordered the Taco salad. It's was excellent. I am going to highly recommend this place. read more

This food joint was not good. The food is over priced, the "amazing chicken fried steak" tastes like rubber. All my friends said that. There are cockroaches in the bathroom, hair in my food, and one of the waiters was not considerate at all. We also had to wait around 1.5 hours to get our food. And one of my friends didn't get his till 30 minutes after we got ours. I give this one star because I got to talk to my friends. That is all it deserves. read more

I have been coming to Cafe 290 for 20 years. Early on the food was great, service friendly & efficient and the management always responsive. But NO more. New ownership has not resulted in improvements, quite the contrary. I have tried the restaurant 3x in the past months. Each time was a disaster! The waiters did not get our orders correct, the food was very disappointing & the management did not seem to care at all. Today was my FINAL visit here. The "over easy" eggs were hard as rocks. I could not even cut through the pancakes. The food was Inedible. When I pointed this out to the waitress, she presented the bill & waited for payment. I did pay for this meal which I could NOT eat. When the waitress returned with my change, she said she stated that she had shown the Manager the problems. The Manager did not come over to speak with me about the problem. He just sat down to eat his breakfast. Don't waste your money at this restaurant! You will be sorely disappointed! read more

Food is always great!! Eating their children fried steak for the first time, it's huge and delicious. The wait staff is amazing as always.

The food here is always so good, AND THE CAKE!!!! We come here monthly, and its always great food and great service. You will never leave hungry or disappointed with the service. read more

I love the breakfast here. Ample portions and coffee as good as any of the high priced coffee stores.

Been eating here since I was a kid and it hasn't changed one bit! We're always impressed with any of the fried dishes, with the chicken fried steak sandwich taking the cake always. Service is good most of the time, and you really can't complain about anything but a suttle heart attack afterward. read more

I used to love this place. The food and atmosphere changes dramatically and now its something to be avoided.

It's not every time that a new owner and a new cook translates into a bad restaurant experience; however, this was one of those times when it did. We ordered the queso with guac and ground beef. It was too thick so I had to dump a whole bowl of salsa to soften it enough to get a chip through it. My kids ordered the burger and fries. I ordered the chicken fried chicken. The cook sent out a chicken fried steak, so I sent it back. My meal included incredibly flavorless and watery mashed potatoes and chewy corn in some white, watery sauce. I didn't get any rolls either. The chicken wasn't dry but it had no flavor. Did the previous owner take off with all the salt or something? Ugh. It will be a long time before we trek over there again. For crying out loud, even the fries and burger lacked a touch of salt. Although I should add, the waitress was sweet and helpful. That was the ONLY plus to this experience. read more

You only get one first impression, and Cafe 290's wasn't good. Very slow service with only one waiter. Saw others getting food before my wife and me even though we had been there much longer. I think they forgot about our orders. Almost walked out, but burgers finally came. Not good enough to wait for or pay the price for. Not what I expected out of a diner. Can't say I will give it another shot. read more

Horrible food horrible service. I have gone a couple if times and every time it's sucked. This last time I was so disappointed we ordered our food it took forever to get and we had to ask for a refill. I had unsweetened ice tea and one of the times I got a refill she gave me sweet because they were all out if unsweet tea. We were done with our food and my daughter didn't even get her mashed potatoes it took them over and hour to prepare it, really mashed potatoes and the were alright. The waitress kept saying they were busy but it wasn't busy at all there were plenty of open tables. Our bill was messed up at the end and as I was waiting to fix it another customer ordered a Togo order when they ordered their food and it wasn't even started when they were ready to leave. Get your act together or your going to go out of business. read more

I have been coming here for years. This is the first time I have been very dissatisfied and I can only assume it is because of the new management. There were 3 of us and all of the food was cold. In addition, I remember coming here getting great French toast and the bacon was long thick and crispy. Now Everything was half the size it used to be. The bacon was what you would get on a burger at a fast food restaurant. I told them to take my plate back but my friends decided to overlook it although they were not happy to eat cold food. We were all surprised to find that no adjustments were made on the check. Last time they messed up the order, the acting manager adjusted the bill. Natalie the waitress kept apologizing so I thought she would do something. Oh, she did offer us a free piece of pie on our next visit. Yippee! read more

Really nice place, food was great. The waitress was very helpful and sweet, and lastly the owner was awesome. He came to check up on us and even offered us to take free coffee with us! read more

It was sad to discover that after 19 years Café 290 has closed. Yesterday was their last day. I heard they sold to a new owner and I hope they will reopen under new management. The wait staff was always fun and was a main reason for going. I will miss them and of course my Chucks Chessey Chicken. I wish the staff well and hope they all find work and that 290 reopens soon. read more

Update - well, things have been going south the last few times I've been here. Portions are much smaller and not worth the price at all. Won't be going back anytime soon, unfortunately. read more

Fantastic chicken fried chicken and excellent burgers. TexMex entrees are good, but not as good as their homestyle southern dishes. Their veggies are absolutely top notch. read more

After waiting for 45 min to get the order when the establishment was not full, the soup was cold and the burger was wrong. I walked out after talking to the manager for the poor service. read more

Always see this place on our drive to/from Houston. Finally decided to stop in for afternoon coffee & dessert. The dessert selection was down to pies and one lone slice of carrot cake from 3 days ago (why were you still serving that???). Most of the pies looked unappealing. We chose the least unappealing one, some sort of chocolate cream pie with meringue. We got a generous slice, but $3.59 was a bit overpriced for what it was (chocolate pudding topped with an overwhelming amount of egg whites). The coffee ($1.89) was pretty watered down. It was hard to believe they sell bags of their coffee for $12.95 a pop. Service was friendly, but unfortunately that didn't make up for the lack in quality of food. read more

I've been driving through Manor and wanting to try this place for years. Finally, yesterday I found myself driving through alone with a little extra time, so I pulled in to 290 Cafe. Now, let me say that the hostess was really nice, but my waitress seemed rushed and flat out annoyed that she had to serve me. I was not even halfway finished with my biscuits and gravy when she put my ticket on the table and didn't even look at me or say a word. Meanwhile, during the 15-20 minutes I was there, two *2* employees (both men, making this even more awkward) reached right over me to adjust the thermostat, which unbeknownst to me was right above my head. Neither of them said, "excuse me, ma'am, but I need to adjust that thermostat." Or even, when I turned around to see why someone was standing right behind me and reaching over my head, apologized for being so rude. The closest I got to that was, "Umm mumble mumble...thermostat." I mean, my mama taught me that reaching over people was rude. She also makes biscuits and gravy that are 10 times better than 290 Cafe's. Next time, I'll just keep on driving. read more

The service was slow for there being little to no people in the restaurant. They messed up my order twice and forgot to bring our sides out. Overall not impressed. read more

The place is so very hit or miss that it is impossible to give it a good review. Go there one day and it is great. Go there another time and it is garbage. It is like it has one manager and cook that cares and the other manager and cook couldn't care less. read more

Very over priced we went had the fried green tomatoes they were ok but sauce was to spicy my husband got chicken fried steak mashed potatoes when they bought the meal no gravy on anothing had to ask for it. It looked big all batter the meat was tough no flavor he only ate half i orderd chicken tortilla soup mostly veg lukewarm we had icetea when i got the bill 34.50 ice tea was 2.95 each will not be back read more