Since coming here for lunch last year, I've been here two additional times for breakfast, so I wanted to review it from a Breakfast perspective. Again, I was warmly welcomed each time. The breakfast both times was delicious, with generous portions and reasonably priced. The service was as before, friendly, and prompt. The place is neat and clean. Oh, and their coffee is also very good with, of course, free refills. Overall, a lovely neighborhood cafe with decent pricing, generous portions and a wonderful and professional waitress (she waited on me all three times and seems to be the only wait-staff member). read more

I stumbled into this diner on a Saturday afternoon and what you see is what you get. No frills traditional breakfast with nothing special. I ordered the waffle which was presented beautifully with whipped cream powdered sugar and lots of fruit on top. It wasn't the best waffle I've ever had but not the worst either. I appreciated the friendly servers and the old fashioned feel. I would go back and try the lunch read more

Classic Cafe - Belgian Waffle - Diners Near Me - Arlington, Massachusetts

Wanted to give this place a quick shout out as I came with a party of 5 and was told to wait outside for a few minutes while they got a table ready. 15-20 minutes later one staffer rudely came out and told us that since we had a party of 5, not 4, we would have to have one person sit by themselves at a seperate table (or wait another 10-15 minutes). Just moved to West Medford and will never be coming back here, thanks for wasting our time! read more

Amazing people! Love the food! So much variety for breakfast and lunch. It can be loud and crowded on the weekend, but totally worth it.

My partner and I were excited to try this 10 minute diner from our house. As soon as we walked in the waitress immediately greeted us with a "we have no tables" shaking her head and just overall unpleasant greeting. When I asked how long the wait would be she was like "idk people just got their food." I understand things are busy and it's the holidays. I have absolutely no problem waiting my turn. What bothered was the approach and lack of hospitality..really ruined my morning and hope she spoken to about her tone towards customers read more

Really expensive for a not-so-good product. I don't like bashing local restaurants, I know how tough it is to make it work and be profitable. Aside from the friendly service we received, the meal was disrespectful to all of classic cafe's patrons. The waffle ($15!!) was a brick and was truly horrible tasting. It was nearly inedible, and we didn't finish. The fruit on top was not fresh. Please, owners of this restaurant try it and see. I refuse to believe you would find this acceptable Eggs Benedict ($15) had a watery flavorless sauce. Wife had her own plate of whatever, another $15 and not up to par. Portions were generous, but unnecessary. Overall we felt a bit ripped off, and 100% disappointed. Hopefully they can improve but we'll definitely opt for Denny's next breakfast outing. read more

Food and service was great !food came out fast , big portions and delicious !!! Server was sweet and helpful with ordering read more

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One of the best breakfast sandwiches I have ever had. Bacon was cooked to perfection with crispiness. read more

Classic Cafe - Diners Near Me - Arlington, Massachusetts

Nice old school diner! Think this place is busy at breakfast time, but I stopped in for take out to take to Arlington Resevoir. I tried their meatball sub and fries.. pretty good! Under $10 and very quick. The woman who took my order was extremely nice. Will definitely be back for bfast. read more

Classic Cafe - Meatball sub - Diners Near Me - Arlington, Massachusetts

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I've ordered from this place a few times and haven't been disappointed until today, they forgot all the toast for my order and better yet I ordered the hash and eggs special, has a few bites and had found a bug in my food! I'm beyond disgusted of this place and when I call to speak to a manager, they're "busy". I'm never going back to this place again! Like what the fuck is that!? A baby scorpion!? read more

Classic Cafe - a close up of a plate of food - Diners Near Me - Arlington, Massachusetts

Great little spot for standard breakfast food. Bagel with sausage, egg and cheese is great. Staff friendly but the place could use a good cleaning. read more

Great place! Ordered Irish eggs Benedict with corned beef hash. Order came out quick and delicious! read more

Classic Cafe - Diners Near Me - Arlington, Massachusetts

This is a really cute cafe. Nice cozy homie feel. The food is totally mediocre. I don't think they're going for anything fancy. Just a cute Little cafe. We don't have much in the heights right here so people go here. It's always busy. I don't love it but I like more over the top breakfast places. If you just want a simple bacon and eggs dish they have you covered. They also have lunch items. read more

What a cute little spot! Was visiting family and needed a warm breakfast on a surprisingly chilly rainy April day. Chose this place over dunkin and was pleasantly surprised. The waitress for the whole place was absolutely lovely and very attentive. Loved the classic decor (black and white tile floors, marilyn monroe artwork, and intricate ceiling tiles). Coffee was delicious and the food was comforting. I ordered one of eggs benedict with mushrooms and asparagus- it was good, although I think the asparagus was canned (next time I'd stick to spinach & tomatoe.) My fiancé ordered a traditional shmorgishborg and enjoyed it all. Large portions for the right price. Their lunch specials seemed reasonable too. Street parking was a little tough in this part of Arlington but we managed. Glad we found this place and supported a local business. read more

Classic Cafe - Diners Near Me - Arlington, Massachusetts

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Great simple food for breakfast. Environment is relaxed. Clean, friendly. Omelettes with artichokes, black pudding with eggs, steak and eggs, all great. Lots of food i didn't try that is classic greek food and looks wonderful.. Home made beef stew, lamb shank. Soothing with a nice chatter of people conversing and not staring at phones. Omelettes with artichokes, black pudding with eggs, steak and eggs, all great. read more

Grossest breakfast I have ever had in my life. Took 2 bites. I've never tasted eggs like that. Hard to describe. Just awful. Everything on the plate was awful. No seasoning on the home fries. Even the white toast was suspect. Was really hoping there was a decent breakfast spot in my neighborhood. Nope. read more

Extensive lunch menu. Lots of specials. Great breakfast menu. If you want good wholesome food and large portions with good service, this is your place read more

I haven't been to this café in at least 12 years (it was a childhood favorite of mine), and other than the physical renovations, nothing has changed -- the food is still great! I got chocolate chip pancakes (which I normally am not a fan of), but at Classic Café, they're special. The pancakes are thick and fluffy but not too dense. On top of it all, two of us ate and got orange juice for less than $14 -- amazing deal especially for great food! Check it out! read more

Classic Cafe - chocolate chip pancakes - Diners Near Me - Arlington, Massachusetts

Hands down this is best diner in Arlington. Best breakfast I've had in years and I moved here from two big cities.

Great breakfast spot. Make your own omelette are filling and the side of home fries are delicious. Be patient on weekend because is a busy spot and be hungry because the plates are big. read more

The new owners have improved Classic Cafe a lot. The food is still good but the atmosphere is much better. They painted the walls and have hung some pretty pictures. read more

Excellent breakfast omelettes today. Toast and hash browns were great. Our two orders were perfect. Highly recommend.

Ordered via Grubhub and delivery was late. Food was lukewarm at best, bacon and sausage was overcooked, omlette wasn't fresh like it had been sitting out for a while, didn't receive wheat toast with my omlette order, left notes for no sauted mushrooms and no one paid attention to that note. Pancakes were cold and dense. Ended up throwing our meals away. Really unfortunate and a waste of money. read more

Trash. Do not order the steak. It was so thin I thought it was going to blow away every time the door opened.

It's really basic quality food. It's not bad, but I wouldn't make it a top choice for sure.

Listen, I waited tables in college-- I know it's a tough gig, and something's really got to be off for me to leave less than a huge tip. But damn! There's one lady working in there who is such a monumental witch- blonde who looks to be in her sixties- that this place's been ruined for me. I HATE that. read more

Where to start? There's the waitress, who got annoyed the minute I asked to sit at the counter. Her annoyance grew when I refused hash browns. How much did she expect a single girl to eat on a weekday morning? She finished off my meal by presenting me with two receipts (one for my egg sandwich, one for coffee) and keeping the change as a tip. The coffee has a 1-refill limit (really?), which is probably for the best, since more than that would burn a hole through your chest. The aforementioned waitress refilled my cup when it was about 1/3 empty. Does that even count? And I prefer my egg sandwich on a roll, rather than a bagel or english muffin. Or toast - what is that? Still, the egg was nicely done and so was the bacon. But as I tried to get on with my day, I found I needed to take an emergency bathroom break due to "violent indigestion," if you know what I mean. Classic, indeed. read more

My boyfriend and I just moved to the area and were very excited to find a close-by weekend brunch spot. After looking at a few cafes and restaurants on Yelp we decided to walk down to the Classic Cafe since everyone seems to like it. We both ordered fairly generic items -- grilled cheese (with fries for $3 more = $8 total. $8, REALLY?!?!) for me and a breakfast burrito for him. My grilled cheese was fine, nothing fancy, but I didn't expect anything fancy. My fries were sub par soggy bar fries. The bf's burrito was like a soggy omelet in a wrap, and it came with fruit and homefries that were decently tasty. Our food was ok, but nothing to write home about. The cafe itself is cute enough. Everything was clean enough. Service was good enough. Food was good enough. But then again at $30 after tip, I'd expect something more than good enough. My conclusion comes with 2 proposals: Change your prices to be commensurate with average food. OR Wow me in some way so that I forget about the price tag. We are not likely to return until we've exhausted all other brunch possibilities in the area, but I have a feeling that Panera will win. read more

Saturday morning? Lady and I arrive at Classic Cafe to a reasonably busy breakfast service. It only got busier the longer we stayed. Quick polite service - the Big Breakfast ($9.95) has 3 eggs, 3 bacon, 3 sausage, sauté mushrooms home fries and two amazing blueberry pancakes served with butter and powdered sugar. The 2222 is the same as the Big Breakfast minus the mushrooms and served with two of everything ($8.99) - lady friend orders this with eggs sunny side up. Regular pancakes were excellent. Coffee, OJ. A total win on all fronts. read more

Meh is right. I hate to be a downer on this place when others so clearly love it, but we felt pretty misled after we had a Saturday breakfast there for the first time. It's certainly kitschy atmosphere-wise, but to us that didn't feel so much "cozy" as "cobbled together". The staff seems nice enough, although our waitress was a little distracted and not exactly friendly. The real problem was the food. My girlfriend's eggs (Irish Eggs Bennie) which she'd ordered over medium were over very easy (runny), the orange juice was sub-standard plastic-jug stuff, and my pancakes were just, alas, terrible. WAY too much baking soda in the batter, so they both tasted like baking soda and had that weird chewy texture I associate with the first time or two I tried to make pancakes when I was like 8, before I learned how to do it right. On the bright side the corned beef hash was fine (and the server asked if I wanted it crispy, so points for that) but it was just cooked hash from a can. They apparently use a lot of prefab stuff (we saw the can of country time lemonade on the shelf for instance), which would be fine except that they aren't exactly cheap either. Between the two of us breakfast was $25. That was thrown into starker relief by the fact that I recently got back from a business trip where I ate at a Cracker Barrel and had a VASTLY superior meal (hashbrown casserole, fried apples, flaky biscuits, fresh squeezed OJ, good coffee) for $10. Granted, that was Arizona, but still we felt $25 was too much for what we got. I was psyched to like this place, really. They may have just been having an off day, but it was bad enough that we won't be returning for a 2nd try. As always your mileage may vary, but we'll stick to Sound Bites and Johnny D's for now. read more

Ok... Classic Cafe is a DINER. Yes its humble, no it's not "filthy". It's not the Ritz Carlton, but I didn't expect it to be either! All the servers I encountered were very pleasant! In fact, I observed my waitress dealing very diplomatically with a very miserable patron, (who might have been one of the one-star-leaver-yelpers on here :p) The prices are awesome, the menu is pretty expansive for brunch (11am-ish) time, and they offer a :) **Full Irish Breakfast** :) Yes, complete with black pudding and beans! You can't find that at any "Irish" establishment in the city! It's decent too! I knew full-well when I ordered it that an Irish breakfast, (a.k.a. a "fry-up") is cooked in pure fat, (lard or butter). (I was not going "health conscious" that day, obvo.) So, I will not complain that the eggs were greasy, that the sausage was greasy that the beans were greasy... (you get it. ) If you know what diner food is, and you still want diner food, go to Classic Cafe. If you know that waitstaff are humans and not just people-pleasing robots, go to Classic Cafe. I'll be back the next time I need a trans-fat-transfusion Irish brekkie :) read more

I ate here once with my wife and kids on a Saturday morning. The place felt grubby, the tables were packed in too tight, and the food was uneventful. They have a shelf with a bunch of toys that my kids played with happily but it's like they were picked from a junk yard (and I normally never care about that stuff). I paid the bill which was overpriced and knew I wouldn't be back. If you are limited to walking distance, this is the only diner in the area. A jaunt 5 minutes down Mass. Ave and you will find much better options. I figure the locals in the neighborhood keep this place going. The owner must also own the property because it never seems to be open except for standard breakfast and lunch hours. I've been to plenty of diners and hate to see them dying off, but this one deserves the axe with something fresh and new in its place. Otherwise, put a little love into the place and get it back on its feet! read more

I enjoy eating here, even if the food is a little over-priced. If I weren't living paycheck-to-paycheck, the prices would be acceptable enough. The staff are always nice to me, since I'm polite and probably not as high-mainetenance as most of their other customers. The toast and coffee are next to worthless, but the main menu items are good. The omelets aren't over-greasy, and the pancakes are filling enough by themselves. I like being left alone, to eat my food in peace. I've noticed the staff receive lots of negative reviews, but Í've never found them neglectful, exactly; I attribute their attitudes to the fact that most of them are European. Americans want to be pampered, and made to feel the center of attention when they go out to eat. Americans also want food service employees to put on fake smiles and give them what they want all the time- they hate to think that servers actually get tired, or are put off by having to do certain things that they don't consider in the job description. But this is a local business, not a chain; if one wants to pay for more expensive products and service, there are such options a bus ride away. read more

Ate there this morning with five others. Great breakfast, attentive waitress who catered to our needs and kept our coffees full. Very happy with this breakfast, and will be back again soon. This is a good, quick breakfast destination. read more

Yuck. We decided to take a little trip down the road to Arlington this past weekend trying to find a new place to slip into the breakfast rotation... this place definitely didn't fit the bill. It's dank, it's kind of dirty, it just feels gross. It was basically empty. Never a good sign. The waitress was surly and clearly just wanted to go home. The coffee was weak (they only have sweet and lo which in my book is a huge negative). The water was warm and tasted kind of funny. My omelet --- veggie with egg white -- was more diced up pepper an onion thrown on a plate than omelet. There literally wasn't even enough egg to hold the thing together. Fork goes in and the flat little thing just crumbled. The boy's bacon and cheese wasn't much better -- it was the flattest omelet I've ever seen You could actually see the two strips of bacon thrown in the middle through the top layer of egg. Home fries were just undercooked hunks of potato no seasoning no effort. Maybe they have some secret breakfast order that's utterly amazing, but from my experience it's not worth the trip out Mass Ave. read more

This place has terrific home-cooked food by the owners who are from Albania. They are provided gracious and friendly service, and charming atmosphere. They recognized me after my 2nd visits, and I never feel rushed. I've been here for 3 lunches and 2 breakfasts. As I stated in my tip, I love her stuffed peppers, which I have had 3 times. Their portions are large, they had Lamb Stank on the lunch menu, but it is a lot of food. They do close at 2:30 pm in the afternoon. For breakfast, I had a standard breakfast (eggs, beacon & pancakes), that was all cooked as I requested. The second time my family and I had Sunday Brunch there. My husband order hash, only to find it came from a can, he was very disappointed and I was surprised that they don't make their own. One of sons ordered the Belgium waffles with fresh fruit, he was disappointed, there was more whipped cream than anything else and waffle was soggy. My other son got standard breakfast and he was happy with his meal. I got omelet and was happy with it. They do have a huge menu of omelets, all very good, as well as interesting variations on the usual breakfast fare. I agree that is a good family restaurant, especially for young children, there is a supply of playthings which is a hit with kids. They do not yet accept a credit card, which is a problem for those who are new there, but definitely this place is worth a visit. read more

Classic Cafe - Cafe from the street - Diners Near Me - Arlington, Massachusetts

Just love this place, service is good, food is good, this is my new diner to go to. Highly recommend it. read more

Arlington has a dearth of options for breakfast/brunch, so I'll come here occasionally. Honestly, it's just very average. Food is fine, coffee is fine, waitstaff is fine. The wait is usually short, but the tables are packed together very close. Nothing about the classic cafe stands out, one way or the other. read more

Just had the BEST lunch here! Eggplant, mozzarella, tomato, lettuce on thick pita, ooooh. With onion rings! Super friendly service, I plan to go back soon. read more

Nice & pleasant staff. The food is really bland. Nothing is especially good. Nothing is especially awful. I guess "barely good enough food" is their goal here. We come here when we don't really have any other choice. read more