The Dining Room

Dropped in for lunch at the recommendation of a passerby we stopped on the street. One word: delicious. Cuban, meet Fusion — you two seem like you will get along great together. It all looked good, but I settled on the pork sandwich with the rice and beans. It was a perfect combo and a welcome departure from the usual regional BBQ fare.

We came here during the Storytelling Festival so the menu was more limited than usual to deal with all of the crowds — having said that, everything was very good. We had flavorful beans and rice, good salads, a delicious quiche, and a yummy caramel apple pie.
The servers are the best! They were taking care of the non-​stop customers (the line extended outside onto the sidewalk) and they were able to be friendly, professional and relaxed despite all of the chaos.
The restaurant itself is lovely — three levels for seating plus an outside area in back. Comfortable chairs, nice decorations, airy-​spacious feel to the restaurant. If we lived here this would be our favorite place to have a good meal or cup of tea + desert. I hope we can come back during a less busy season and eat some plantains!

Stopped at the place after a recommendation from a store owner. For a late lunch on a Saturday we were the only ones there (seemed like we were the only ones downtown!). The food was decent, and our server was very nice. Not sure if I’d go back, but there really isn’t anything else downtown.

First time visiting this small historic town and decided to try The Dining Room. I ordered the Saturday special which was a crab cake sandwich with a fried green tomatoe. This was at best mediocre. My wife got the Chipotle chicken sandwich and she felt about the same. The service was good. We feel like we will probably not visit this place again. I think we may have just picked the wrong sandwiches for our taste.

What a gem! This restaurant has some real and unexpected Latino treats. It isn’t 100% Cuban — the owners are Italian and (I think) Venezuelan. The Cuban bread is perfect, and I highly recommend the sides (yucca, tostones, etc). The only thing I would suggest is to get a tropi chop with beans on the side because they give you a TON of beans and you may not want that many mixed in your dish. All of the tropi chops are so great… even though you would never see chimicurri, salsa and cilantro on top if you were actually in Cuba. Love it here! Very fancy and the absolute cleanest restaurant I’ve been to in a long time. There isn’t even dust in the air vents! You could probably eat off the floor. There are four seating areas, downstairs (a little loud and crowded but good views of the street), by the bar, a beautiful patio with garden, and a roomy upstairs has a lot of seating.

Service is beyond slow. Ordered cold sandwiches and a hamburger. After 45 minutes no sign of food. 3 tables occupied, not like they were swamped. Owner is about as friendly as a pit bull.
Food arrived after an hour wait. Was it worth the wait? No, not really. It was good, not spectacular. The burger patty tasted good but there was waaaay too much lettuce on it. The chicken was tender, but also over-​dressed.
Won’t return

Lindsey and I came here with very empty bellies. I am finally getting her to try different things and when she realized it was «Cuban» I didn’t know how she would take it. Heck, I don’t even know what Cuban food is.
Anyway, we were hoping for a nice appetizer to old us over, but was let down by seeing none on the menu.
Service was ehh… waitress wasn’t very attentive, pretty slow, and she was very stingy with the lemons!!!
I ordered the «Cuban Mix» with the special side of the day, garbanzo salad. Both were very good, although the sandwich needed some sort of sauce or more mustard on it. It was a good portion of food as well.
Linz got the «Ham and Havarti» with a side salad w/​honey mustard and the marmalade on the side. Oh man the croissant bun was fantastic! If they had those as appetizer bread we both would have left 10lbs heavier! She insisted on using the honey mustard dressing on her sandwich as well.
She isn’t a jelly/​fruit spread fan so I used her marmalade which was absolutely great, almost like honey actually.
If this place had better service, it would have gotten a 4 easily. But until then, 3 – 3.5 will do.
$ 17.30 for both of us, we were satisfied and most likely will be back.

I’ve probably been to The Dining Room ten times since I moved to Jonesborough a few years ago. All was well until my last two visits at their new location.
About a month ago, I stopped in for a quick lunch and ordered a sandwich. They apparently had a large table upstairs but we were the only other table. After waiting for about forty minutes, we had to tell them to put it in a to-​go box, and we had to wait a while longer for even that to happen. I would have expected them to waive part of our check due to the fact that the service was slow and was not our fault.
Today I went back for a second lunch at their new location. I got the chicken pesto sandwich but took one bite and couldn’t eat it. It was really tough to chew and seemed old or something. And then it took our server so long to come check on us after another server brought our food that I ended up just asking for a refund.
Guess I’ll stick with Main Street café.

We always try to go here when we are in the region. One of my favorite spots. The soup is always amazing, and I love the desserts.

Amazing food. Their new location (central downtown) is beautiful. So glad they have more room; it was hard to get reservations at their old location, which was much smaller.
We haven’t had a dish we haven’t liked. The Cuban sandwiches are authentic; they fly the bread in from Miami. The yucca and sweet plantain appetizers were especially good. And the chicken and rice soup is ridiculously tasty and cheap!
Great place for a quick meal, or a special occasion, or just coffee and dessert.

Very good food. A little more pricey than I was expecting, but still good. My only gripe was that the meal didn’t come with any bread, and when I asked for some, they charged me for it, in addition to a meal that already seemed a little expensive for what we got. I’ve been to quite a few Cuban places and that was a first.

Cuban cuisine in Jonesborough, Tennessee? It may not be wholly auténtica, but I would eat here again in a heartbeat. My pesto-​chicken sandwich was perfectly prepared, and the service was friendly… This place is obviously a local favorite!

Wow, not bad at all, considering we are talking rural Tennessee. :)
If you are tired of burgers and fries, try this.
I was impressed in that this was ‘real food’ and the prices were reasonable.
They have a sort of Cuban-​inspired menu (whilst not exactly real Cuban) which is heavy on the black beans and rice thing, but did a pretty good job overall. I would definitely eat here again.
Cute environment, small, cozy, not much privacy if you need that.
I had a black bean, pork & rice dish. My wife had one of the chicken sandwiches and for once the chicken breast was properly done, moist and not dried out.
Would definitely eat here again. The lunch menu was a bit limited in scope, but considering it was a small place, that is to be expected.
For the traveler, this is a low risk place to eat if you like this genre. Not exactly the sort of food you would expect to find in Tennessee, but it worked for me. :)
It was a bit hard to locate and I missed it driving by the first time. They might want to improve their sign.

The Dining Room easily has the best food in Jonesborough as well as the Tri-​Cities area. The food is all made-​to-​order, delicious, and very reasonably priced. The soups are homemade from scratch with fresh ingredients and they are some of the best soups you’ll ever try. The sandwiches are great too.
People I’ve eaten with there have said that their Cuban sandwich is the best Cuban they’ve ever eaten. Also, their Portabella Mushroom sandwich is the best one I’ve ever had.
The one negative thing about the Dining Room is that the service is slow, but personally, I like to go to a restaurant and hang out and have a nice quiet and calm meal. When you order something, they basically cook it fresh for you, so just know that it is not fast food when you go in there to eat and make sure you have some time to just relax and enjoy your meal. Also, they have strange hours, so make sure to check and make sure they are open before you go. Making a reservation is a good idea as the place is small.