Standard diner fare. (Here for breakfast). Good prices. Friendly waiting staff. The omelette s are HUGE! Hash browns a little soft. Best place to eat in this little town. I'll be back. read more

Nicely's - Breakfast hour - American Near Me - Lee Vining, California

This is plain deli style food. The chicken fiesta salad was dry and tasteless. The chicken looked weird and the veggies didn't look fresh. The taco shell and salsa was cold. Overall it seemed stale and was served cold. We also ordered the Jamie's veggie sandwich which is a perfect example of deli sandwich but was better than the salad so could do with it I guess. The sandwich came with a small cup of soup and they didn't have any choice besides chicken noodle, tastes like any canned broth. The restaurant is in a good location close to the mono basin besides that no other reason to go. read more

Nicely's - Deli food, meh! - American Near Me - Lee Vining, California

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We showed up with a party of ten. They quickly set up a table for us. Many great choices of food from salads to sandwiches to full lunches which everyone enjoyed. We were too full to try their desserts. Service was very good! read more

The man working here was so nice and filled up our water bottles when everything else was closed, even though this was technically closed as well. Truly was the niceliest read more

The 3 of us needed a place for food. this place was half full of customers. friendly waitstaff--Good service.I had a Taco Salad with the "shell" ,but with turkey meat--The salad was great. They have a ramp on the side of the restaurant for persons can't walk up the stairs in the front. There is cocktail bar part of this restaurant separate from the food service area. My rating is for the restaurant only read more

I ate here twice in December of 2011. Good diner atmosphere, good food well prepared and efficiently (and cheerfully) served. I'll eat here again when passing through the area. Eat at the counter for better mingling, or grab a booth. read more

Nicely's - Club sandwich and fries - American Near Me - Lee Vining, California

This one star is for the lovely waitress. Otherwise - the food is just gross gross gross gross gross gross. We got a steak and a teriyaki chicken - we were not able to eat any of these two. Go eat elsewhere (the gas mart ou Tioga Road Pass Lodge - something like that) if you do not want to get sick. read more

We stopped here on our way home. The staff is incredibly friendly and very attentive. We got your normal breakfast diner food and I was pleasantly surprised. My eggs were cooked how I like them, the hash potatoes were crispy, and my coffee was good! Their buttermilk pancakes are large portions and quite delicious. Will definitely be stopping by again! read more

Best stop because only stop. Worth it and friendly service. It's OK food and we love them for being there for all of us :)

Loving the Ortega burger and onion rings. Simple and delicious. I'm into old, authentic diners. A friend of mine first introduced me to the scene in LA, and Canter's, the ultimate in famous diners. The menu usually includes taste of home and youth like jello, and bologna. When rating Nicely's to similar, homey diners, Nicely's rates high in my book. The waitstaff if friendly and familiar with the restaurant business. It's like they grew up in it, and filling your coffee is their pleasure. Their menu has just about anything you'd expect from a diner. A major plus is that it's surrounded with windows, providing lots of natural light. The restaurant was full when I was there, but wasn't noisy. I'll be back! Nicely's gets four stars from me because I am comparing it to other homey diners in it's category. It wouldn't be fair to compare it to a trendy spot or steak house. It's just honest, good food. read more

I think it is a great place in the area. Hubby and I were there on vacation . The area felt deserted, dry and lack of fresh food. So this restaurant really surprised us with the low price, huge portion, fresh food. And the service is very good too, everybody very friendly. We enjoyed our time there. read more

This place is a classic American diner. Don't expect anything fancy! This is diner food! And it's great, if you like diner food! If you don't like classic American, not-fancy, plain, greasy diner food, you probably won't like it. I ordered my standard diner breakfast - two eggs over medium (which was cooked just right), sausage, toast, and hashbrowns. The hashbrowns were cooked up nice and crispy, not just in a potato pancake, but it was tossed around so that all the shredded potato could get crispy! Yesss! Truly crispy hashbrowns!! My husband ordered a reuben but with a garden burger instead of meat. It was fantastic, made in a way that only diners with giant griddles can make it; you just can't replicate that at home on a frying pan. We sat at the counter, the service was good. Our food came out pretty quick. No complaints here at all. Nicely done, Nicely's! read more

This is the second year in a row that my family of seven have come here for breakfast while on our annual vacation. This time we were split up at two different tables, close to each other, and had different servers. The lady serving my table was quick and made sure we were constantly checked up on. The gentleman serving the other table brought the food out so late that it got cold and never came back to refill drinks. He forgot a side order of eggs, twice. They had to beg drinks and refills off of other servers in their area. He was just awful. The food I ordered was very disappointing. I got the biscuits and gravy with a cinnamon roll on the side. The gravy was very funky tasting and the biscuits were dry and chewy. The cinnamon roll tasted like it was frozen and nuked in the microwave. I had to beg my husband for some of his toast, which was the only thing that was edible in my opinion. I really want to like this place, but the food is just bad. It's really cheap, but I guess you get what you pay for. It's the only diner in town, so it looks like we're making our own breakfast for now on while here on vacation. Our first experience: My family of seven came here for breakfast before checking out of our hotel. This is the only place in town that serves breakfast. We didn't wait too long to be seated, and they had a table big enough for all of us. It took a while for a hostess to take our drink order and scurried away. We waited a while to get our order taken. A gentleman came to the table and took our orders. He looked like he may have been a manager because he was dressed nicely. My brother ordered a blueberry muffin as a sort of appetizer to his meal. He had to finally ask our server if he could deliver it before the meal, which he did. His face twisted while he was eating the muffin. He told us that he thought it was some healthy wheat muffin or something because it wasn't t sweet. I gave it a taste and it was the absolutely most disgusting thing I had EVER tasted. My other brother didn't believe me and had a try as well. We all agreed that something was horribly wrong with this muffin. When our server finally came back with our food we told him about the muffin and returned it to him. He gave us an annoyed look as he took the muffin and muttered "I'm sorry" and didn't offer anything else. He said not another word and wondered off. I ordered the buttermilk pancakes and a side of sourdough toast. I have to say the toast was the best pert of the meal. The pancakes were bland and flaky. I couldn't finish my meal. The most memorable park of the meal was when a large RV turning the corning hit the side of the building and took off. We all thought it was an earthquake. When we received our bill for our meals we checked to make sure the muffin was not included on it. The amount of the muffin was scratched out and then written back in. They took care of it at the register, but we were annoyed that they seriously thought that we were going to pay for that. If you can help it, buy something for breakfast at the mini mart or drive to another town. I wouldn't recommend this place to anyone unless you were absolutely desperate for food. read more

Nicely's is your standard all-American coffee shop serving all-American coffee shop food at moderate prices. The food is average, what you'd expect from that sort of place, service was good enough as well. Full review at: http://www.marga.org/foodblog/2011/08/nicelys-restaurant-lee-vining-review/ read more

food wasn't bad. service was ok. But the thing I didn't like was that they automatically charged me 15% gratuity when there was only two of us. read more

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Best Tuna Melt of my life. Food came out super quick, too! read more

Nicely's - Delicious Tuna Melt!! - American Near Me - Lee Vining, California

I stopped here in the morning while staying down the street. I walked in and was immediately seated. I was a little nervous because the place was pretty busy and I was in a little bit of a hurry. Remarkably, my food came out in less than 5 minutes. I don't know how they did it, but they did. The breakfast was just a normal breakfast. It was right in the middle. They didn't screw it up, but it didn't taste like Nana's. I got a little confused when the bill came. The guy gave me the bill. I whipped out my credit card and left it on the table. I sat there for about 5 minutes and he never grabbed my money. It turns out you need to go to the register. I get up, go to the register. Nope. That register doesn't take cards. I have to go to the other side of the restaurant to pay. read more

ONE STAR IS TOO GOOD OF A RATING WORST DINING EXPERIENCE I HAVE EVER HAD One of the most horrible Restaurants I have ever been to. The waitress (old blonde woman) was extremely rude and yelled at us for wanting to order things that were hard to make. All food arrived lukewarm and was bland. The worst was the fried chicken, it was rubbery and mostly inedible. Additionally, I woke up the next morning with the runs. Wouldn't recommend to anyone! NOT A NICE MEAL read more

Ok..... wife and I live in the area. Twenty miles away . Eastern side of the Sierras. Make this drive off an on year round. Good food, corn on the cob, real good rolls with butter and a salad fresh greens .Wife had a sandwich and I had a chic fried steak. Great ice tea. Great service . Dont know where some people that share on yelp come from, food, price and service in this area is great. Go get a greasy burger someplace. read more

Came here exclusively because of what I've heard of their fried chicken. I was not disappointed, although it is not the best fried chicken, it definitely hit the spot after a day of some mild hiking. Just a little salt was needed to bring out the flavors. A generous portion was given along with some savory mashed potatoes. The side vegetables were left virtually untouched as they seemed to to have the previously frozen for a long time flavor. Service was excellent, our server came back often and my iced tea never remained half empty/full. read more

A blast from the past in this old school roadside diner: hearty food and great service. I had Eggs Benedict and my partner had Steak and Eggs. The owner was bussing tables, and an active participant in her business! Great experience dining here! Bathrooms were clean! read more

The best Denny's in the world. It's like they took the Denny's menu and decided to do a home-cooked version. Chicken Fried Steak and eggs? Brilliant. Pancakes? F-ing delicious. Reuben sandwich? Yes please! Can I have another?? So tasty. We loaded up on calories here before our backpacking trip and the food was surprisingly good for the price. One might even say it's "prepared Nicely..." The only bad thing is the servers work really long shifts and don't have the best "bed side manners." I don't care though because they always got the orders right, the food came out when it should have, and everything we tried we liked! Oh yeah and there's a door that leads from this restaurant straight into a FULL BAR. So... Yeah. WINNING!! Order your food then go have a drink. Come back and eat. No complaints :) read more

I get easily peeved when eating breakfast at a diner. It's not tricky food to execute and you'd think a short order cook would master food they have made a million times. But for some odd reason, most cooks can't get it right. Thankfully, the cook at Nicely's did most of it right. (Or dare I say, quite nicely? Yeah, that made me groan too.) Pass: I have a pet peeve about toast. It's easy to make. Right? But why is it that most places make toast that's cold and not very toasty. The toast at Nicely's was correctly served warm and toasty. Fail: I have a pet peeve with hash browns. As the name says, they should be "brown". The hash browns at Nicely's were undercooked and barely browned. Pass: I have a pet peeve about eggs. I like super runny fried eggs. I prefer it when both the yolk and part of the white is runny. Most folks would consider this terribly undercooked and a sure way to get salmonella, but I don't. The fried eggs at Nicely's were barely cooked - just like I like them. The dingy Yelp photos almost scared me away from this place, but there was nothing to fear here for breakfast. read more

One of the few establishments in the area which remains open year 'round, burgers, sandwiches, omelets... you pretty much get what you expect from a coffee shop style restaurant. One notable bright spot on their menu is their enormous selection of pies in the summer. Save room for dessert, or eat dessert first! read more

Most pathetic place!!! Avoid at any cost - Milkshakes taste like hazardous chemicals Sandwiches take forever to get ready and dont even ask about the service read more

I might be a food snob but I can't imagine anyone liking this food. The pancakes taste like cardboard. We also had a mediocre omelette. The coffee is like tasteless brown water. This town is so cute...Nicely's needs to step it up. To confirm our experience: the guy working next door said he hasn't eaten there in 7 years! Do whatever you need to do to avoid this place. read more

This establishment is in business because of its proximity to the Yosemite park entrance. If there was enough competition, this would likely be the first place to close. We stopped in around 3 for a late lunch after leaving Yosemite. Looked like an old diner so I was optimistic about some good home cooking and friendly service. They fell flat on both counts. After ordering, we waited about 35 minutes for our meals to arrive. It wasn't terribly busy, so that seemed a little long but not unacceptable. Sadly, it was a long wait for extremely underwhelming food. I had the fried chicken special. The chicken was piping hot, but the corn and mashed potatoes were bordering on cold. Everything on the plate was bland and lacking flavor of any kind. We just had water to drink, and the staff was completely put out and inconvenienced when we asked for a refill (after our glasses had sat empty for most of our meal). Our waitress, the white-haired grouch, was a little overwhelmed by the time we were leaving, but she was rude and inhospitable from the moment we walked in. There was a line of 6 people waiting to pay the bill, so after over an hour of waiting for our food and then check, we left cash on the table and left. This is the type of place where you're made to feel like they're doing you a favor by serving you lunch. Not interested in returning and wouldn't advise a visit by the daily Yosemite tourists. read more

My picks: Mike's Favorite Sandwich Pie (blueberry) Multigrain pancakes We stayed in Lee Vining overnight, and ended up having lunch, dessert, and breakfast here. It's a tiny town, so there aren't many choices. This place is a diner, with pretty standard diner food. It's friendly, clean, and not overpriced. We had the "Mike's Favorite" sandwich, which was delicious. We also had a soup of the day and a salad, which were only okay. We came back later for pie, which was surprisingly good (the pie is what earned this review it's 4th star). If I recall correctly, we got blueberry, raspberry, and deep dish cherry. The blueberry was the best, but they were all pretty tasty. The one warning about the pie: if you order it a-la-mode, it comes with soft serve ice cream, not real ice cream... tastes okay, but usually not what you expect to be served with pie. For breakfast the next day we had the multigrain pancakes, which were awesome, the waffle, which was pretty good, and the eggs benedict, which was only okay (the hollandaise sauce really wasn't what it should have been). We also ordered a side of stewed prunes, since it evoked memories of childhood, but the prunes were cold and not stewed nearly enough. read more

My wife and I stopped into Nicely's while staying at Lake View Lodge in Lee Vining. We'd had a long drive from Las Vegas, so we wanted a quick meal and then to crash out. Nicely's appeared to be the nearest option, so we went in. The decor doesn't look like it's been updated since the 80's but that adds to the charm of the place. There was a wait to be seated, but given that's it pretty much the only restaurant around, it's going to be understandably busy. There is a bar area to wait in, but no one was serving at the bar. It didn't matter really as I don't think we waited much longer than ten minutes. Not wanting anything too heavy, my wife opted for the grilled cheese sandwich and fries, and I had the Toasted Reuben with a side of fries. The food came quickly despite being them being very busy, and both sandwiches were very nice indeed. I also had a nice, cold mug of Pabst Blue Ribbon, which hit the spot after a six-hour drive. Overall, as long as you don't mind a wait to be seated and don't expect gourmet cuisine, then Nicely's is a great place to grab some nice home-cooked food and a cold beer in a nice, friendly atmosphere. They also do take away if you don't want to wait for a table. read more

Yummy fried chicken dinner ! Crispy and non greasy! Real mashed potatoes and green beans ! Good food and good service! read more

Nicely's - See review - American Near Me - Lee Vining, California

Walked in for lunch. The person who greeted us was not friendly and hardly spoke to us. We sat and waited for 15 minutes and nobody came to serve us. We asked to be waited on and after another five minutes of sitting there we walked out. There were only two other tables in the restaurant. Two women were walking around the dining room and didn't seem to care that we were there to eat. We ended up at a place down the street which was awesome. read more

Good diner food, 60s ambiance, and a full bar! Just the thing after trip up to Bodie!

Had a pasta plate, lasagne, after a day hiking in Yosemite. Below average quality, but thankful that I could eat without cooking. Lasagne was $12.25 plus tax. I give it a 2.5 stars. read more

We ordered a cheeseburger, peach deep dish pie, and French dip. The French dip was okay, the cheeseburger was good but the pie was awful. It literally looked like the dropped canned peaches and a wafer in a bowl. I've never seen a pie like this before..and the taste was bland and not good at all. read more

Found hair in my food. Rude server took it to the back and remade it. New dish also had hair in it. Seats are in the blazing sun, makes eating there unenjoyable. Would not recommend. Go somewhere else. read more

Had breakfast with my girlfriends. The food was excellent but they should had have more help. I never got a second cup of coffee, got bacon instead of the requested ham and had to ask for my toast because she forgot it. I would go back because the food came out fast and it was yummy. read more

This place was gross. there was food in the jug of water on the table they brought after we were seated. Silver wear was dirty People eat there because its the only restaurant in lee vining, people go there mainly to go to Yosemite. One waitress for every 100 people in the entire restaurant. food was Okay.... when your starving. VERY OLD CHAIRS, BATHROOM, EVERYTHING! Underage children work here too.... I was there aug 14, 2009 read more

Basic american fare. Huge servings and friendly staff. All set in a pretty classic diner (and an even more classic bar next door). Had the spaghetti special - like a tasty home made Bolognese. The apple pie was amazing. If you need a smaller bite with veggies I recommend the baked potato with broccoli, cauliflower and cheese. We stayed in the area for three days and found ourselves here on four occasions even though meat and bread are things my travel mate tries to avoid! read more

Great service. Helpful staff. It's a diner, expect the standard menu items. Timely and efficient. Plenty of parking out back and on the street. Great for breakfast anytime of day! read more

I motorcycle Mono County a lot! And when I do, I always stop in here. Food is consistently good as is the service. There isn't much in Lee Vining and it's fortunate to have a good place to eat there. read more