Riverside Lunch

Oh wow, I stopped by to eat a dinner and guess what, I’m in love with this place!
They have great prices, my wife and I tried the cheeseburger and chicken burger. The chicken was fair, but when I ate my first bite of cheeseburger I order another one immediately.
The service is nice, they are super fast and food was hot. I definitely recommended.

Perfect diner style burger. Super fast service and cheap prices. Best carrot cake ever.

Great place if you’re looking for an old-​fashioned, diner style burger and super fast, friendly service! It’s relatively cheap with add ons (e.g. Lettuce, tomato, grilled onions etc) for 20 cents each. The patties aren’t pre-​made; they’re flat-​pressed on the griddle.
I recommend getting a basket of onion rings! They’re perfectly fried; it’s the first time I’ve had an onion ring that doesn’t pull the whole onion out of the breading when you take a bite. And for dessert you should try one of their homemade diner cakes — the coconut cake was delicious!

Wow this place is amazingly cheap and so delicious. You can’t go wrong w a great cheeseburger and fries. The beer and ciders are also only $ ²⁄₃.

Awesome burgers, quick and friendly service, and reasonable prices. If you want a good old fashioned American hamburger this is the place. Definitely my new favorite place for a quick lunch in Charlottesville.

Very good food, very fast and friendly service. There’s no way you could really go wrong with this.
The burgers are cheap but you have to pay to add all toppings, including lettuce and tomatoes! I also found it weird that we had to pay for tap water. But it overall was cheap and a great value meal!
I got a BBQ sandwich and the cheese balls they were both awesome but the cheese balls were soooo yummy. They were filled with gooey cheese!

This place is pretty much a hole in the wall but the burgers and fries are a greasy yumminess. They were very busy when we went so service wasn’t great but overall my experience was ok. Definitely will go again

Best burgers in town. Hands down, no questions asked. If anyone tells you differently, they’re just flat out wrong.
The service is always excellent and friendly. Delivering mouth watering delights with a smile and professionalism! What else could you ask for?
Don’t forget to slap some of that seasoning salt on those French fries!

Their beef may not be local, free-​range, grass-​fed, organic, but damn do they make a proper griddled «smash burger». Crusty greasy goodness. Yum! Friendly attentive service too.

My rating: 3.5 (not bad, but probably not my first choice if I’m ever in the area again)
Overview: A pretty basic, no frills burger joint.
After Monticello, I was looking for a good, quick, affordable place to eat and this place popped up pretty high on all accounts.
I admit to being a bit underwhelmed when we first pulled into the parking lot and the ambiance inside kind of matches the very low-​key exterior. The menu is fairly basic, but you have a lot of choices in what kind of toppings you get. I was curious to try the veggie burger after reading a glowing review of it, but when I inquired what was in the veggie burger and got the response that it was a Boca Burger, it contributed to my feeling of being underwhelmed. Don’t get me wrong; I think Boca Burgers are fantastic, but it was just surprising that people could get that excited over a product they can purchase at a grocery store. My friend had a hamburger with a slice of cake for dessert and both of us shared a basket of fries. We both agreed the food was cooked well.
The servers were friendly enough. And the price for the food was pretty reasonable.
Bottom line: Not bad, but as I said above, if I’m in the area again, I think I might try other places before coming back here.

We stopped by after our trip to Monticello. Definitely a local spot which is what we always strive for when traveling. We all had the cheeseburgers and shared a basket of onion rings. Everything on the lunch menu was ala cart. Prices were good though.
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Excellent food and service. A definite return if I am ever in the area again. Good old fashion hamburger and fries, brought back memories of childhood

Got a double with mushrooms and some other stuff, but nothing was actually tastable other than the burger itself. Which is fine, the burger is good, I just don’t think you should bother trying to add anything but cheese to it. The fries and onion rings were standard. Got a good ol’ boys down home feel to it with waitresses who’ll call you hun and whatever that some people enjoy.
Tangent: Charlottesville is really my only experience with the «south,» but a lot of the older women I’ve encountered here have a sort of hardened Southern charm to them. It’s where they’re charming but also rough around the edges and seem like they don’t take shit from anyone. I’m trying to describe that neutrally, but it’s really not my thing. The vibe just comes across as condescending. I’m not saying women have to be all bubbly or some shit, but I’d rather they just be gruff or nice in their customer service, not both. I’m a simple man and I don’t want to wrestle with your personality while I try to order food. On the other hand, it’s entirely possible that they just don’t like me but are trying to be nice about it. I doubt it though because I am pretty darn likable if I don’t say so myself.
In any case, this place might be great for you. It’s great for plenty of these other Unilocalers. But for me, it’s entirely passable.

I’ve lived here for away too long to not notice this little place in the cut. It’s so friendly and the food was pretty great. Never really had a bruger that bad me not wanting to eat anything else. Definitely a place I have to come back to.

This place is a gem. Fresh made burgers, onion rings, fries, all served up hot and fast. Old style lunch counter with a bunch of booths and tables. The tables are just big enough to hold your plate and drink, no extra real estate needed.
Try the double bacon cheeseburger, it’s awesome. The locals fill the place up at lunch, and parking lot overflows, but the trouble of parking and walking is worth it.

Five stars! As a vegetarian, it is rare to find a decent veggie burger these days but Riverside Lunch did not disappoint. The staff was extremely hospitable and friendly. I ordered a veggie burger and shared an onion ring and fries basket with a friend. The food was prepared quickly, the wait staff always had our sodas refilled, and it was an overall relaxing and fun atmosphere.
We loved our food and the service. Thanks to Unilocal,I found this place! I will definitely be coming back when I visit Charlottesville again. We went on a weekday, so parking was not an issue. If it is busy, there is parking available on the street.

This is authentic diner/​drive in type food. Perfectly grilled hamburgers, crispy shoestring fries and onion rings. Sorry, this isn’t one of those trendy burger eateries with truffle fries and cabernet marinated onions. Heck, they don’t even use real silverware here, it’s all paper and plastic.
But be warned, there is nothing healthy on the menu and the atmosphere is real dive, not the manufactured dive you find at the trendy places. Expect to see real working folk eating and gabbing.
Places like this are a dying breed, I’m glad I got to experience the unhealthy goodness!

Riverside is a straight-​up dive, but the food is awesome. Expect paper plates and no frills, but delicious food and friendly service. My burger was amazing!

My first day in Charlottesville, and my first attempt to have lunch. I was nearby and I used Unilocal to the rescue to satisfy my midday hunger.
I ordered a double cheeseburger and a side of fries. The fries were good but the burger was exceptional! On top of that, the people were very friendly and caring for their customers.
I will definitely visit this place over and over again while I will be staying in Charlottesville, and I urge you to pay this place a visit if you crave for a burger. Just a note: if you visit during busy hours you may not find a parking spot (e.g. I couldn’t and I had a small car), so you may have to park on the street. If you have a large vehicle, just park on the street directly; it will probably be much more convenient.
Thank you guys! You will see me again! A very happy customer.

As a hamburger snob, this joint did not disappoint.
However, two big issues brought what wouldn’t been a rave review down to a passable one.
First point: you’ve been in business 80 years, and you’re making what is arguably the best burger in town. (It was, by all measure, DELICIOUS.) So, if you’re serving said yumminess, offering Burger King nitrate bacon – instead of actual bacon like a normal, real restaurant – is an affront to burger humanity.
I’d expect Oscar Meyer, or something sourced locally, well-​done, added to my double bacon cheeseburger. I took the limp, fake, mechanically rippled bacon off my burger and continued chowing.
Seriously: the burger was perfectly tender, seasoned well and cooked perfectly. Very tasty.
My second issue has nothing to do with the food. This is an unabashedly casual restaurant, and it was filled with trash-​talking, many-​beers-​at-​noon locals. Loved it. And the eating apparatus was predictably papered. I have no issue with that. The cups, however, were ALL styrofoam. Those styrofoam cups will go directly in to a landfill and NEVER decompose.
I don’t see how the city allows this place to use those types of cups in such a fast-​turnover restaurant. I’d like to see them switch to paper, preferably the compostable kind (but I’d settle for anything other that the dreaded styrofoam).
Styrofoam also is carbon-​intensive to produce, which means Riverside is feeding a bad business stream all around when it could be sourcing something else for probably close to the same price.
Overall, this place is highly recommended aside from those two points. You get local flavor, in all senses of that word. So, go… but check your conscience at the door and don’t order the bacon.