Portside Diner

Went for a Sunday breakfast. First time, last time. I like to try different diners and I go for the hash to compare to other diners. I got the hash omelet. I just wanted hash and eggs but they don’t offer home fries on menu unless you get the omelet?! Hash was mediocre at best, cheese toooooo salty, egg so thin you didn’t taste any eggs? How do they make it so thin it would stay in form of an omelette… homefries, taste was good, spice nice not salty, but hardly none on my plate??? Didappointing. Who doesn’t give a decent serving of homefries in a breakfast?
Take your mom if you want more homefries so you can eat hers off her plate. OR order a side order for almost $ 3! Cause they are cheap on serving.
Price average, seating normal wait. Server ok.
Salem Diner still best hash yet. They also have gluten free toast.
Coffee? Lol… get bigger cups will ya? I drank 3 cups to make about one decent mug full. Coffee gets cold cause it’s too small a cup once you add cream. And it’s annoying to keep asking for a refill.
Looks like a diner, feels like a diner, Mediocre food, cheap serving, price ok, coffee cup tiny and hash eh… I probably wouldn’t return.

Grandma and I go to PD every once in a while for breakfast. We always get a very well prepared and tasty breakfast. Grandma said her eggs were done perfectly. I especially like the Greek sausages which I don’t typically order anywhere else. After breakfast we usually look at each other and wonder we don’t go to PD more often. They also have an interesting lunch and dinner menu but we only go for breakfast. The service is very attentive and fairly fast. Coffee is frequently topped off. I do recommend PD for breakfast.

Service can’t be beat, great place for a quick breakfast, with fresh food. Bar stools for more of a diner feel it’s great

Sought this place out for breakfast on what has become my Tuesdays in Danvers. The service was fast, the omelet was good, and the coffee flowed endlessly. No frills, which made it perfect for what I wanted.

While very quiet for a Saturday 11am Diner, the staff was nice enough, tired I’d go with.
The menu is pretty standard fare, I did not see food go by as it was so empty. We waited to order until 11am. All 7 minutes so we could order lunch. I guess this rule makes sense, not. Tuna club good, salad with turkey tips really tasty. I’d try breakfast here for sure next time.

This place is great! Food and service was great! I liked the home fries. Its a very nice dinner on the inside even better than the outside. I have tried many breakfast places around Beverly MA and this was top of my list and we didnt have to wait for a table more than 5 min. :)

Went in on a Sunday morning and the parking lot was packed so we assumed there would be a long wait. When we went in however a table had just opened up.
Service was fast & friendly and food came out quickly. I got a spinach and feta omelet with egg whites– came with homefries and toast, I got wheat with no butter. When it came out my order was correct which was a pleasant surprise because most places always forget and butter the toast. The omelet was delicious but the homefries were reminiscent of the sliced potatoes you can get in a can.
Prices were fair. For 2 filling meals it was only $ 19, not bad. Overall food, service and prices were all good so I will be back for lunch or dinner soon.

Have only been here once, but it was great. Our local sit-​down breakfast/​brunch place was recently converted to a pizza-​counter, so we looked online for a new breakfast venue.
Service was prompt and friendly, food was well-​executed diner fare. When the ice in my iced coffee had melted, i was offered more ice. That’s a first for me.

i want this place to be better. you see amazing food on «Diners, Drive-​Ins and Dives» and u want this place to be that place. it is convenient and there is never a line, but it continues to disappoint. i never feel well after eating here. they don’t thoroughly cook the food; uncooked eggs, pancakes, french toast. the hash browns are undercooked. the staff is tired, this place is tired. don’t waste your money.

I don’t know why I do it. Nor does my wife know why we do it. You WANT so badly for this place to start getting better. It’s a cool old diner. How can you mess this up? After today I think I know the 3 things you need to own a successful diner —
1. You have to enjoy being in the food service industry.
2. You have to enjoy working with your family, or get rid of them and stop it.
3. It helps if you like people.
Squiggly bacon, cold hash browns. Ugly. Great TOAST.
It’s a shame to see a cool old building like this go down hill. They don’t seem to want to feed people, to paint the building, or to clean it either.
I’d continue to elaborate, but My stomach feels like I ate a squirrel…
We went here because there was no line and no full lot like there was at daily harvest. Go figure.

Nice small-​town diner with a basic assortment of diner favorites. Interior is clean and quaint. Service was satisfactory. That’s all I’ve got.

Dirty and bad home fries

I was reading the not so good reviews of this diner from you Unilocalers out there and needed to find out for myself. How bad can it be? We’ll see. It’s Sunday morning and for me that means diner discovery day. The sun is up and I’m on the road. Destination, Portside Diner. The Road King is humming a sweet song and my stomach is a growling. I hope this trip is worth it. It was an easy find and I’m at the counter in about 45min. Looking around, the diner is pleasing to the eye and is in great shape. With a hot cup of caffeine in front of me, I chose a mushroom and cheese omelet with a side of kielbasa, wheat toast and some homefries. While waiting for my meal, the waitress and I had a nice chat. Super friendly and talkative, she did a great job of keeping the coffee cup full. My omelet arrived and I proceeded to devour it. Fluffy and tasty, cooked to perfection.Yum.A little more chat, a little more coffee and I’m good to go. The trip here was definitely worth it and I’d recommend this place to others.

To sum this place up:
1. Greasy food
2. Crappy coffee
3. Cold/​Uninterested Service
Undermost circumstances, one-​star tops. At 6am when I am barely awake…4 stars!

This was a pretty average diner. Everyone seems to be knocking the breakfast, but their dinner specials were pretty good. I got the meatloaf, which is a diner classic, and they did it pretty well. It was pretty much empty except for us, and the family of the owner. It was kinda strange. Think I may have been joining a family dinner.

Too bad. Had breakfast 5 days and for 5 days I requested WELL DONE homefries. Cook could care less. Got them raw 5 times. Will NOT be back. Left $ 2.00 tip for a $ 6.00 meal. Didn’t help. Still got raw homefries. I’m glad business is so good that they can blow out customers by not giving a crap. Never any cars in their lot.

Great service & food all around. The omelets are delicious, as well as the kielbasa.
The staff here is very prompt and friendly, family run so they have a great relationship with the local residents who come here alot.
FUN FACT: An original Worcester Lunch Car Company diner, it was originally sent to Gloucester as the Cape Ann Grill!

I have been a few times and will admit the service is less than stellar. The last time I went there was with the girlfriend and our waiter made it pretty clear he hated his life and did not wan’t to wait on us at all. I personally didn’t really care because I was ravenous, and to tell you the truth, the less personable a waiter is, the better. I don’t want to be your friend, i just wan’t to eat!
On that note, the food is actually really good. I don’t know what is but the scrambled eggs are quite tasty. I get the same thing no matter what diner I’m at– 2 eggs scrambled, white toast, homefries and bacon. This may seem impossible to screw up, but it is– believe me (see: City Side Diner in Beverly)
Anyway, I like old-​school dingy diners so I am fan of Portside.

I recently moved to Danvers and as someone who loves breakfast and diners, being down the street from the Portside felt like Christmas! (coincidently it was Christmas.) Unfortunately this was the only time I’ll be celebrating at this place.
(***note, I went on new year’s eve morning, not actually on Christmas)
The place wasn’t that crowded and I was able to sit at a dirty countertop right when I came in (a plus for quick seating). Service was terrible. The waiter took forever to clean off where we were sitting, then longer to take our order (and didn’t even come up and ask for drinks etc. first) Clearly he was someone that had absolutely no interest in being at work that day and it showed. He didn’t even attempt to be personable or someone you would want to talk to at all, he was slow with taking our order, was slow with getting our drinks, and we never actually got any refills (or even had it offered)
The menu was basic, nothing too exciting, but the actual food? bleh. Breakfast is one of those things that should be really hard to screw up but the Portside had that on lockdown. The portion size of my french toast and kielbasa was disappointing to say the least. When you pay an extra 2 dollars for a side of kielbasa I expect more than 5 – 6 thin slices. The french toast had a nice crunch to it and that was about it. It had no flavor at all until I covered it syrup and if i didn’t know any better I would have thought I was eating plain white toast. Homefries were unacceptable for a diner or any breakfast place. I wasn’t sure what they were trying to be, it was half mashed potatoes, half undercooked hard-​to-​eat potato chunks, and the whole thing was lukewarm and completley flavorless. I SAW that there was in fact seasoning there, but you sure as hell couldn’t taste it.
After I finished eating I had to hunt down my waiter after twiddling my thumbs for 15 minutes waiting for my check (which was 20 dollars for 2 people, not bad)
This is probably one of those local favorites among Danvers residents but the terrible service and food left a bad impression for a first timer. Next time I want local breakfast I’ll be sure to pass this place on by and head to the Dunkin’ Donuts down the street.

I’ve driven by this diner so many times. Well, last Saturday, my friend and I set foot into this time machine. We sat ourselves on the counter stools and I took in the environment. In front of me was a picture frame of the husband and wife team that runs this time capsule. Directly above me was a glass case menu board showing the specials. Upon closer inspection, I found laser printed paper menus taped onto the board. They cheated! The waitress said it was just too time consuming to use the block letters. I can understand, but those laser printed menus sure look out of place. I asked if every piece of hardware is original and she said they were. «How about the silverware,» I asked. To which she replied, «Oh, no». My friend chimed in, «I wouldn’t eat with them».
I asked the waitress when the diner first opened its doors. She thought for a moment and blurted out 1948. Let’s see… that’s the year when U.S. President Harry S. Truman signed Executive Order 9981, ending racial segregation in the United States Armed Forces. It was also the year when Brandeis University was founded.
It was beginning to get busy around 8:15am. My order of scrambled eggs, potatoes and toast was delicious. The waitress was very pleasant. I believe the family is from Albania.
I learned that the car was built by the Worcester Lunch Car Company, Number 813. It was built as the Cape Ann Diner and sent to Gloucester, Massachusetts in 1948. It later moved to its current location in Danvers, Massachusetts and renamed the Portside Diner (Elizabeth Thomsen, Flickr)
Verdict: If you’re into diners and nostalgia, come up with a friend and enjoy a hearty breakfast. Make sure you bring a good appetite and a camera. Afterward, walk down the street to John George Park; there’s a 1 mile walk loop and a playground for kids.