Jumped online and looked for some reviews of local restaurants in Chesterton, Indiana, a little town adjacent to Indiana dunes national Park. Found a couple promising choices and we settled on northside diner. And it was a great choice. Inside it has that quirky retro 50s, nostalgic feel. Memorabilia and art around the small building. Standout performances by the service staff. As it should have been, it was extremely busy on a Saturday morning. There also happened to be a festival in town. Which may have even subtracted from the amount of people waiting to get a booth, as there were some food trucks and other activities going on. But that being said, we sat at the little counter and ordered your basic breakfast with eggs and bacon and toast plus some biscuits and gravy and I was pleased that I didn't order the full-size biscuits and gravy because the half size was as big as a normal size at other restaurants. Gravy was full flavor, not gritty at all, and there was more than adequate amounts of sausage. Sometimes you have to play hunt the sausage, which is just a scary statement. I had ordered an extra well-done sausage patty just in case I needed to cut up more and had it. But I would've been OK without. Happy with our choices plus a tremendous value. Highly recommend anyone coming into the Indiana dunes area looking for a great breakfast value I believe the place closes at 1 o'clock, so keep that in mind. Now we were there on a Saturday so please check hours. Enjoy. read more

See all

We were headed home after a 3-week road trip and needed one last place for breakfast. What a fabulous find!! Cute little diner, with great food and such nice, pleasant people!! It was busy, so we sat at the counter, and "Ti" (not sure how she spelled it) and her assistant Haley gave us excellent service, and then Ti's Mom came out and talked with us. What a friendly, positive place for good food! Highly recommend! read more

The food is delicious. My favorite place to go for breakfast. it's a favorite for my family also. We've been going there for years and years. read more

My wife and I had breakfast here recently and really enjoyed the experience. The food was very well prepared. I had over easy eggs with chicken fried steak and has browns. Eggs were perfect, chicken fried steak tender with awesome gravy, and the hash browns were crispy on the outside and tender in the middle. My wife had a waffle with an apple sauce and she said it was delicious. Coffee was a little weak but hey, it's a diner. And all for about twenty bucks. Old school diner ambience enhanced by the trains that continuously rumbled by on the tracks right next to the diner. Worth a visit even if you have to go a little out of your way. read more

What a GEM this place is! The service and the food were terrific.. thank you, Northside Diner team!

Great breakfast and very reasonable prices. Pleasant and quick service in very clean, quaint spot! Like walking back in time to the 50's

What a wonderful place! Yes it's small and you may need to wait a little bit. We just ended up putting our family of five across the counter. It was still intimate enough to have a conversation across the counter with each other. The food? Oh my God I'm dreaming about that waffle. And the prices were outrageous... Outrageously reasonable! We were able to feed a family of five for under 70 bucks which is unheard of. The staff is amazing, the food was even better. I'm sad I don't live in this area or I would be eating there a couple times a week. Definitely check them out if you're in town. read more

On our way to Indiana Dunes, just dropped by here to get breakfast. Wow excellent great place. Exceptional service, hard working servers, coffee and water always topped off. Food was great and cheap, country fried steak was soft tender and crispy breading. Gravy wasn't too salty and excellent. Hash browns were extra crispy and amazing. We will be back if we ever visit the dunes again read more

Northside Diner - a plate of food with a sandwich and french fries - Diners Near Me - Chesterton, Indiana

See all

The food is delicious. Get the prime rib breakfast if they have it, so worth it. Great staff

Visiting Chesterton for the first time & tried this place for breakfast. I had an order of eggs Benedict with hashbrowns, which was really good. Tried the blueberry pancakes & it was by far the best pancakes I've had. The kids had an order of pancakes & french toast, which were delicious. The interior was so amazimg! As you feel you went back in time. I totally recommend coming here for breakfast. There is so much energy & the staff are super friendly. I'm definitely making this a place to come whenever I visit. read more

See all

I have been eating at Northside diner for 27 years. There are other places to eat lunch and breakfast but none of them have the friendly staff or the amazing food. My husband had French toast and biscuits and gravy and I had French fries. The biscuits and gravy were better than grandma makes and the French fries were amazing. The fries had a perfectly crisp golden exterior with a fluffy, pillowy interior, seasoned just right with a salty kick. You must try Northside diner for your next meal!!!! read more

My nephew was in Valpo for work - he's from Minneapolis - so we came from Fort Wayne to meet him for lunch. We are "local" restaurant lovers so I got on Yelp & found this gem. Food was great! Cute little diner. The only pic I took was was not of food but this guy ! My granddaughter called him "papa" lol I would recommend going to grab a bite here! read more

Northside Diner - Diners Near Me - Chesterton, Indiana

What an amazing gem right outside of the dunes park. The nests are amazing, cheddar jalapeño biscuit, blueberry pancake. - BOOM! Love it all. Need to come back to try the milkshakes. read more

Northside Diner - Outside and inside is filled with old celebrities and musicians. Super cool place. - Diners Near Me - Chesterton, Indiana

Wondering how much ppl are getting paid to say this food is good been there few times unfortunately (I learn lessons the hard way) food is trash no flavor or seasoning hash browns are like eating cardboard eggs are bland bacon over cooked breakfast burrito 5 yr old can do better been in this industry a long time so I know shitty food when I come across it and pretty hard to screw up breakfast but here we are 1 star is being nice won't let me leave it blank read more

Best diner in America. Every time I'm back in the region I stop by. Won't find a better breakfast.

This has the perfect diner atmosphere- cute, kitschy paintings on the wall, red glittery booths, and a small counter for solo diners to eat. My friend brought me here and I happy with all the breakfast and lunch choices! I think my eyes bugged out when I saw I could get not only hashbrowns, but tater tots, curly fries, and regular fries as a side for an egg dish. Curly fries for the win! I ordered their chicken omelette, which came with mozzarella, tomato, onion, and pepper. The portion was large, hot and cheesy. The chicken in it was rubbery and hard, which was really my only complaint with the whole meal. I'd definitely skip this next time be cause of the chicken. I ended up picking some of the chicken out, and the rest of the eggs were good. The fry portion was HUGE. They came out hot and crispy too. They were heaven! The raisin toast came smothered in butter, and was real good too. I'd love to come back in the future and try something else! read more

Northside Diner - Chicken omelette with curly fries - Diners Near Me - Chesterton, Indiana

See all

You walk into this place and it takes you back to a classic diner. Jukebox and all. We had some great food here! I ordered the French toast, sausage links, and a homemade biscuit on the side. The French toast was fresh. The sausage links were perfectly cooked and delicious. The biscuit was by far the best thing on the menu. Everyone at our table agreed that the biscuits were fantastic. One of the best biscuits I've ever had. The waiting time was about 15 min when we arrived around 9:45 am on a Sunday. We were seated in about 10 minutes. We got our drink orders in quickly and I enjoyed some coffee. Coffee was good. They were a bit busy and it took a while to receive our food. They knew that we had been waiting a while and so our drinks were comped. Very kind of them. They were also very communicative so that helped alleviate any tension from waiting. I honestly didn't mind the wait too much in general since I was enjoying my coffee and chatting with family. Would definitely go here again!! read more

Northside Diner - French Toast, Sausage Links, Coffee, and a Biscuit - Diners Near Me - Chesterton, Indiana

This family-owned diner is one of the best kept secrets in Indiana! The warmth of the staff, the excellence of the food, and the nostalgia of the atmosphere made our visit one we would like to repeat. I highly recommend the eggs Benedict! read more

My wife and I love a good diner. Northside Diner has raised the bar for all others. The menu has excellent options for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, all of which are served all day. Portions were generous and the food was delicious. The staff are seasoned servers and attentive to your needs. The atmosphere completes the experience. On this visit they were offering lemon blueberry meringue pie. We passed because our meal was filling, so much so, we had to pack some to go. When we arrived home we discovered two pieces of pie were packed along with our leftover lunch. I mean who does that anymore? I recommend Northside Diner to anyone. We will be back again, and again, and again! Thanks for the pie! read more

One of my go to lunch and breakfast spots. Super friendly staff, and the menu prices are so cheap! If you're looking for a 50's style American diner, this is the place! read more

The service was great. My order was taken quickly and my food was out in a few minutes. My coffee cup was never empty. Which is a major plus! :) The food was very good; I went with "The Usual". Got everything just the way I wanted. The location was clean and the decor was awesome. I loved it. Will most definitely be coming back on my next visit to Indiana. I do recommend it. If you're in the area you should definitely give it a try. read more

Ok, my girlfriend said "outstanding" out loud. That's how the whole vibe was, outstanding! Northside Diner is the exact type of place I look for on a regular basis. We are already planning on going out of our way to come here again. It's a small, cute traditional diner with hand painted retro celebrities donning the exterior walls. While inside waiting was a friendly staff and great breakfast food. We had French toast that needed no syrup. The toast was soft and sweet, but stayed firm. I had potato pancakes that had a nice subtle garlic touch with the special of the day chorizo breakfast tacos. They were super good and not real greasy like chorizo can be. We sat at the lovely little counter and listened to the locals, servers and customers, chit chat while ordering meals that are worthy of being green with envy even though you're halfway through your own meal. Highly, highly recommend this sweet little diner. read more

See all

The food was okay but the waitress was a bitch. I've never met an angrier old lady before. I'm 18 and a waitress myself and I've never felt so belittled by someone before. I wasn't even being picky or needy. She is just a straight up bitch. So unless you're in the mood to be treated like an idiot, I'd stay away from here(: read more

Breakfast was good, I ordered 3 scrambled eggs bacon hash browns and toast......turned out great, place was packed but the service was super quick so no worries there, place had a nice 1950's vibe going on that I thought was cool read more

I I only had the breakfast... multiple times! Northside is what a diner used to be! It has good honest food at fair prices. I love their pancakes and biscuits an gravy... there are no small portions here. It's definitely a local favorite... a small spot in town you should really look for! They did have a Prime Rib lunch that I heard was yummy, but I believe that was a holiday special. When you think about it our small town should surrounded with mom& Pop places...Northside just might be the only true diner around. read more

Great atmospher, excellent service, but most importantly EXCELLENT FOOD!! Best breakfast anywhere!! Tried something different this morning. We had the ribeye steak and eggs and oh my God the flavor the taste was just phenomenal. I don't think you can go wrong with anything you order there. Their food is just so wonderful. We drive all the way from Laporte to get probably the best breakfast I've ever had in my entire life. Brought my family when they were in visiting from Springfield Illinois for the holidays and my son said by far this was the best breakfast he has ever ever had. He can't wait to come back and visit just to go back to the NORTHSIDE DINER for breakfast. If you have'nt experienced the food, the friendly service, the atmosphere at the NORTHSIDE DINER I suggest you need to do so because once you go, you will wanna go back. read more

This is a cool divey little old-school diner. Good breakfast food all day. Local flavor, including the old dudes with their droopy overalls and ball-caps. I don't recall the name of their specialty Bird's Nest breakfast. (Something like "_____-Chicks", with at least a dozen variations from ham, sausage, bacon, steak... etc... and on hash browns, tots... etc...) It's awesome, and inconceivably huge! Amazing down-home breakfast, and the servers are nice and very helpful. And don't forget to include their famous homemade biscuits in whatever selection you choose. read more

Every time I am visiting NWI, I make it a point to stop here. No matter how much time passes, the food is always on point! Anything you order will be delicious! read more

Traditional old-style diner with great food, great service & reasonable prices. The menu is huge & specifically says you can switch things up to suit your taste. We had eggs, bacon & pancakes. Warning: the short stack of pancakes are HUGE, but of course we ate it all! Server Stacy made us feel like regulars & ensured our experience was top-notch. They're only open M-F, so plan accordingly. read more

Came here with a big group the day after a bachelorette party. They were very accommodating, despite them having a small space. We had fast and friendly service! The food was really great, too. read more

Northside Diner - Diners Near Me - Chesterton, Indiana

Not comfortable to eat the food since it was too tight We stopped by on Labor Day yesterday for breakfast. The place was packed and we had to wait about 10 minutes. I had to sit a table near the front door and had to literally get up each time someone came in or wanted to leave. The air conditioning did not work so it was a hot house. The service was good and food was pretty decent. Probably won't be back since they probably packed two too many tables in such a small place. read more

We love this place!! Have been coming here for years and we are never disappointed! They have the best coffee too

I had a fun time here yesterday with my BF and his friends. Good selection of breakfast and lunch options offered at very fair prices. Taking off a star because the service was friendly, but a bit slow. read more

If you're looking for some good old-fashioned greasy breakfast food at a fair price, look no further. Not only is it a good meal it has an awesome classic diner look and feel. The employees are always super welcoming and sometimes they have free cookies :). If you're coming right at peak breakfast time be prepared to wait. read more

Northside Diner - Diners Near Me - Chesterton, Indiana

We're on a long road trip through 5 states, staying at 8 different campgrounds. I believe this was one of the best diner breakfasts that I've ever had! 100% delicious, hash browns were perfectly golden brown, over medium eggs cooked perfectly and the pancakes were outstanding, light and fluffy. Sausage patties cooked perfect, even the sourdough toast was fantastic. And as good as the food was, the service was even better. Try this place, you won't be disappointed. read more

Great food and nice staff! Also their portions are huge!! My husband ordered the breakfast with country ham and as you can see from the picture, he got a huge piece of ham that covered the plate! Needless to say, we took over half of it home! My meal was a half portion and it filled my plate as well. I can't imagine how much a regular portion would have been! We will be back! read more

Disappointingly average biscuits and gravy. The gravy is very flour heavy and not very sausage flavored

Favorite breakfast place after moving to Chesterton. Great food and very quick service. Owners are very friendly and happen to be my neighbors! Fresh cookies are complimentary too! They offer curly fries and tater tots as potato options and that is reason alone to love it. This place is busy but always quick to get a table. Love it here!! read more

Great breakfast place. Has a working jukebox and a large breakfast menu. Reasonably priced. It's cute and nostalgic. Worth the stop for breakfast. read more

We'd go out of our way to go here again! Fresh, real ingredients. A little creativity with an all american familiar feel. Our waitress was fun and fast- even got to meet the kitchen staff. Thank you for a perfect breakfast! read more