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    Mels Diner

    5.0 (53 reviews)
    Closed 10:30 am - 9:30 pm
    Updated 3 months ago

    Mels Diner Photos

    MELS DINER ATMOSPHERE

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    Seafood Platter
    Elizabeth A. H.

    I Love the wait staff here!! They always make our visit a joy. The food is also amazing it is very worth the stop. Everything we try here is good. [[HIGHLIGHT]]Casual atmosphere good for families, kids, friends, or even date night.[[ENDHIGHLIGHT]]

    Keri O.

    YeeeeeeHaWWW! Found a new place to eat with Semi Truck Parking next door on Wed&Thurs but gonna be a tight fit Fri-Sun in either lot. The staff is an absolute trip. I had fun meeting them. The Burger was flavorful , fresh cut fries, great milkshake with all kinds of flavors, Chicken Fried Chicken with white gravy, chunky mashed potatoes and fresh green beans that taste like they were right from a local garden........ Cha Ching. You gotta stop in.

    Burger salad
    Lindsay M.

    Love this place! The service is great! [[HIGHLIGHT]]It's very nicely decorated and very cool with a bunch of vintage decor I love It.[[ENDHIGHLIGHT]] The food was really good I had the burger in a salad very tasty. Will be back!

    Say "hi" to Mel if you see her.
    Adele Q.

    Off the highway by 2 miles but well worth the detour. Large interior with tables, booths, and bar. Saw a couple of additional small rooms that would be perfect for meetings. Everyone we met was super friendly. Mel even came and visited with us. Not the big burley diner "Mel" I had envisioned, but a smiling, gregarious, blond haired woman! We really enjoyed visiting with her. I had their fried shrimp which was hands down the BEST fried shrimp I have had since moving to the DFW Metroplex area. The dish I had was drizzled with an Old Bay Seasoning and honey mixture. It was delicious. My husband had the chicken fried steak and is always looking for the best. He rated this one in his top 3 which means it was really good. Along with the entrees the sides, fresh cut french fries, lobster macaroni salad, jalapeño poppers, and cold slaw, were all delicious. I highly recommend you make the trip to Mel's Diner and try them out.

    If you are ANYWHERE close to Mingus, Texas (Stephenville, Abilene, Weatherford or Granbury) do yourself a favor and drive past the smokehouse restaurant and go to Mel's diner just down the street. It is amazing! [[HIGHLIGHT]]Super fun, clean restaurant.[[ENDHIGHLIGHT]] [[HIGHLIGHT]]They even played reruns of the Mel's Diner tv show.[[ENDHIGHLIGHT]] Husband had the seafood platter and I had the catfish/shrimp plate. All of it was amazing including the hand cut fries. The shrimp was so big I had to cut it with a knife. The catfish was the thickest I have ever seen. All of it was hand batter and as Mel herself said "cooked with real butter"!! Met Mel and her daughter, who waited on us. So nice! We tried to convince her to open a place in Granbury! 5 stars all around.

    Chicken Fried Steak
    Fabian G.

    Finally made it to Mel's Diner.. [[HIGHLIGHT]]Greeted with smiles and a very nostalgic place[[ENDHIGHLIGHT]]. I ordered the chicken fried steak, fried okra, and Cajun french fries. Everything was amazing! Looking forward to going back and trying a burger.. Would Definitely Recommend!!

    Found three restaurants in the area with good ratings. So of course had to try them all. At Mel's got the fried shrimp. Not bad at all. The shrimp are huge and it is a lot of food. [[HIGHLIGHT]]The service and the atmosphere are on point.[[ENDHIGHLIGHT]] Fun place to stop and grab a shake. Worth the stop.

    Fried catfish, shrimp, okra, & fries
    Michael J.

    Are you up for a short drive off the interstate to have the experience of your life? We made the trek to Mel's Diner in Mingus, Texas (816 S Mingus Blvd, Mingus, TX 76463) to give them a try. 100 mile round trip worth every mile. (From Hudson Oaks). Not Oarker County but they are our small town neighbors. I saw the homemade Maryland Crabcakes and my mouth immediately began to water. I traveled the East Coast and nobody did crab cakes better than Maryland. Just my luck ... they were out. They did have enough to whip up 3 small crab cake balls so I settled for those and a Greek salad. My only disappointment was the quantity. Never enough crab cake. My wife ordered the fried catfish, shrimp, okra, and fries. She had a tummy full of oil but she was happy. Let me tell you... best batter on the catfish I have tried in a long time. The owner is from Maryland and managed to find just the right mix of north and south batter. It was fantastic. My next trial is the Chesapeake Chicken. For our trip home we decided to splurge on calories (heck we had already eaten two days worth). My wife ordered the Reese's Peanut Butter milkshake. Folks it ain't what you think. No peanut butter cups blended in ice cream and milk here. Individual portions of chocolate and peanut butter carefully portioned and blended into the ice cream. My wife had to wrestle it away from me after letting me taste it. Trust me. It was that good! Now I couldn't let my wife show me up. I ordered a banana malt with just a tad bit of butterscotch blended in the mix. My favorite shake. We wallowed in our wonderful misery the whole 50 miles home. My wife is in blissful slumber as I write this. I'm wondering why I'm still awake. Don't miss out. They are only a few short minutes from the IH20. You will not regret the trek. The menu is awesome and the staff is unforgettable I've included a few of my favorite menu snippets. Their menu is on the website.

    Shrimp Salad with Italian yum

    Cannot say enough good things about Mel's. Hand dipped milkshakes with a variety of flavors. Try the shrimp salad anyway. So good. Burgers and some great variations of them. The service is top notch and friendly. We'll worth the few minutes to jump off I-20.

    Menu as of June 2024

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    Just ate here for my birthday. The crab cakes are amazing. The greatest milkshakes I've ever had. Just the best experience.

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    2 years ago

    This place is our favorite! Everything is delicious and the owner and staff couldn't be kinder. Be sure to leave room for a malt milkshake!

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    Mary's Cafe - CFS

    Mary's Cafe

    3.4(518 reviews)
    4.5 mi
    $$

    Great chicken fried steak at Mary' Café. We watch the show The Daytripper with Chet Garner on TV…read more He did a segment on Mary's Cafe. So, we drove about 2 hours west of Fort Worth. The place is just an old diner in the town of Strawn. We showed up at 1130. They had nice crowd no wait. Sit down and order. We got a small and a medium chicken fried steak. For the sides fries and mash potatoes with a small salad each. The small steak is prefect size for me. But if you are hungry go for medium or the large. The chicken fried steak is made a little different than most. Not the usual type of breading. We really enjoyed the meal all was very good. The steak was tender and great flavor. Fries cook perfect and great for dipping into my gravy. Mary came around and took the order and she also went to each table and made sure you like the food. Very good service from all the staff. We will be back and you should give them a try.

    Came here based on the Daytripper review saying this was the #1 CFS place in Texas. I hate to give…read morea hometown, non-chain restaurant a bad review, but also want to be honest. I'm really surprised at how many four and five stars there are. Almost nothing we got had flavor: Queso - literally just cheese with nothing added - no salsa, no jalapeños, no onion - nothing. If you put queso on the menu, I think people expect it to have more than literally melted cheese. Chicken Fried Steak - loved that the breaded parts stuck to the meat and was excited to eat, but again, literally no flavor. We didn't finish it and we didn't take the leftovers. Mashed potatoes - No flavor AGAIN. We were so surprised and disappointed. You can see everyone there busting their tails though. Those women deserve every penny of every tip left for them.

    Photos
    Mary's Cafe - Souvenirs if interested.

    Souvenirs if interested.

    Mary's Cafe - Chicken fried steak

    Chicken fried steak

    Mary's Cafe - Exterior

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    Exterior

    Red Star Cafe - My husband got Peach Cobbler to go and ate it a couple days later. It was still wonderful!

    Red Star Cafe

    4.2(58 reviews)
    26.2 mi

    Sooooo yummmy!! Today's special (Tuesday) is the fried pork chop and it was HOT and DELICIOUS and…read moreHUGE!! I needed a to-go box! Our 9 year old got the classic cafe burger and it was also huge and delicious and those FRIES... We also got the Texas Two Step which is slices of jalapeño and onions deep fried... sooo good! If you're going through, stop by!! Our waitress has been on point and is HOPPING!

    We walked in at 7:15pm to find 6 other tables without food, 2 servers (1 was doing all the work)…read moreand 3 people in the kitchen prepping food. It took 7 minutes to bring us menus and take our drink order. When the drinks finally came 5 minutes later, it was short the request of lemons. Then it took another 12 minutes to take our order of which we were informed that they were out of the "some" food and did not have the daily special today. We ordered what we always get: Crispy Chicken House Salad with extra Ranch and Biscuits N Gravy with Bacon and 2 fried egg whites. At the top of the hour our food came to the table and much to my surprise, the huge biscuits that the red star used to have have been replaced with ping-pong ball sized biscuits..... cut in half and served with water gravy, not creamed gravy, and three very burnt pieces of bacon, not crispy, but burnt. And of course, the egg whites which were fine. When I attempted to cut the biscuits with a fork knife, you could not cut through them because they were old and stale and not heated at all. I told the waitress that I couldn't even cut my biscuits and that they were old she took my plate and had them remake my meal. So while my beloved ate his food, I was waiting for mine. When my second plate came, it had three biscuits cut in half way more gravy egg whites were great bacon was undercooked. And I sent it back to be cooked to crispy not burnt. When I cut into the biscuits, this time, half of them were edible. The others were still old and stale and uncuttable. The gravy was not your grandma's gravy like it used to be and the flavor didn't even resemble gravy. As for my beloved salad, he said that the ranch dressing was not their normal ranch dressing. It was watered down and sweet like they had used miracle whip. And they did not bring his breakfast burrito to go. The waitress completely forgot to place that order. I don't know what has happened to the Red Star, this used to be our favorite place to eat when we came to town. Wondering if ownership or management has changed? Because this is not the Red Star we know in love.

    Photos
    Red Star Cafe - Very few places still have a bar to sit at!

    Very few places still have a bar to sit at!

    Red Star Cafe - Classic Burger

    Classic Burger

    Red Star Cafe - The Dessert board and the Specialty Cake of the day, Coconut

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    The Dessert board and the Specialty Cake of the day, Coconut

    Dianne's Ranch Diner - Dianne's Famous Apple Crumb Crisp

    Dianne's Ranch Diner

    4.6(21 reviews)
    28.7 mi

    I had driven by this place several times before I finally stopped for dinner with my family. I wish…read moreI had done so sooner! The food is simple, but almost flawlessly executed. The menu leans heavily toward comfort food classics like meatloaf, lasagna, and shepherds pie, but lighter options like a chicken ceasar salad were also available. The desserts were definitely the highlight of our meal. Like the other menu items, the dessert portions are HUGE. My daughter and I split a piece of coconut cream pie, and we still didn't finish it. An amazing view, rustic atmosphere, and wonderful service rounded out the experience. If you're passing through the area, don't miss this place! I can't figure out why it wasn't packed to the gills.

    We really like trying new places. Sometimes it doesn't always work out for us. This was one of…read morethose times. Be prepared for sticker shock. We got the meatloaf, king ranch chicken, two teas and one desert and it cost us $54. And for that price we got served on flimsy paper plates with plastic forks. The food was less than average. We didn't finish our food and declined a to go plate. The cheddar biscuits had no flavor and were not warm. For desert ,we got the apple "crisp" which was not crisp at all. It was very mushy. Thank goodness we got ice cream with it. I am posting a picture of the Apple crisp. There is certainly a lot going on there. We stopped on The Junk Store (as they call it) and the sign was correct. We were not impressed and will not be back. To answer your response, the words "delicious" and "great" never left our lips. And no motive other than to provide an accurate review of your restaurant and food.

    Photos
    Dianne's Ranch Diner - French Dip Sub Sandwich w/ Soup or Salad
 (Made with local, grass-fed Chapman 3C Cattle Company beef)

    French Dip Sub Sandwich w/ Soup or Salad (Made with local, grass-fed Chapman 3C Cattle Company beef)

    Dianne's Ranch Diner - Chocolate Mousse Pie

    Chocolate Mousse Pie

    Dianne's Ranch Diner - Blackberry Pie

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    Blackberry Pie

    Newton’s Saddlerack

    Newton’s Saddlerack

    4.6(103 reviews)
    25.4 mi

    Newton's has been our go to restaurant when we want to enjoy some delicious food. We normally only…read morecome here for dinner, which is when we had the ribeye and chicken fried steak! The ribeye was perfectly cooked, tender and perfectly seasoned. My wife always gets the chicken fried steak. It's a huge meal and a heck of a deal. Each plate came with mashed potatoes and some veggies. I love desserts and I am always trying new places to find the best desserts. I can honestly say that Newton's bread pudding is the best bread pudding I have ever had and is one of my favorite desserts. I follow their social media and I always see their burger Tuesday's. We happened to be passing through and decided to stop in. Carlos was our server and he was on top of things and he offered great customer service. I got the triple meat smash burger with grilled jalapeños and bacon added. My wife got the buffalo chicken sandwich. They were both tasty. I would definitely stop by again for their burgers but their steaks are still my go to. And of course we had to finish our meals with a bread pudding!!

    Country decor is fitting for the "cowboy chef" and the menu falls right in line. The chicken fried…read moresteak was great, sorta wished my grilled veggies and mashed potatoes was separated on my plate instead of basically mashed together under the steak and gravy. My wife had the filet and the kitchen was nice enough to sub a gluten free pasta for the blue cheese gnocchi that was on the menu. The pasta was buttery and rich, very rich but my wife enjoyed it and said the steak was up there with the best steak she's ever had. Get the bourbon glazed carrot.. trust me.

    Photos
    Newton’s Saddlerack
    Newton’s Saddlerack - Smash burger and buffalo chicken sandwich

    Smash burger and buffalo chicken sandwich

    Newton’s Saddlerack

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    Mels Diner - diners - Updated August 2026

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