Timoleon’s Restaurant

We must have come by at a difficult time. It was our first time to come to Timoleon’s since we moved to Keene about 2 months ago. I notice that every morning the place is packed! Sounds promising. We arrived at around 2:00 pm on a Sunday. When we walked in, there weren’t any signs about whether to wait to be seated, or to seat yourself. I approached a server who confirmed that we needed to seat ourselves — which is great! I’m good with that.
After we sat down, no one brought us a menu. After a few minutes, I got up and got a couple of menus for my guest & myself. After about another 5 minutes, a very nice server took our drink order, & brought us back water & coffee. Then we sat — and sat — and sat. A server brought the person sitting next to us his meal — a fish dish which looked and smelled wonderful, by the way. Another waitress cleaned a couple of the tables round us, seated another couple of customers, who were given drinks, and — like us — sat, and sat, and sat, waiting for some server to take their order as well. Finally, after 20 minutes with no one taking our order, my guest informed me «Look, let’s leave. I don’t want to be here for an hour waiting for pancakes.» I took $ 2 out of my pocket to pay for the coffee and we left. No one said anything to us as we left.
The Good: The server who gave us our drinks was very nice and prompt. The food that was being served around us looked wonderful. I would have liked to have had some of it! The prices looked extremely reasonable as well.
The Bad: We waited 20 minutes and no one took our order. I don’t know if there was a problem, but it’s the servers responsibility to communicate that to customers before they get so tired of waiting that they finally get up and leave.

The place is gross… the waitress was handling money, dirty gloves, and then butter people’s toast without washing hands or wearing gloves. The owner was rude and the food was poor. The health department would have a field day if they just watched for 30 minutes

YUM! A welcoming diner feel and friendly staff as well. Breakfast served everyday! I’ll be returning!

It’s a little small so it can get crowded pretty fast but the food is good, the prices are even better and the staff is friendly. They have various sizes for juices which is refreshing since most breakfast places only serve juice in shot glasses and charge through the nose for them. It’s right in the heart of town so you can go for a little walk afterwards to burn off some calories.
Today I had: 2 eggs over hard (which come with home fries) and I shared a side of bacon and 2 blue berry pancakes with my husband. Delicious!

Very average diner with normal/​small entrees. Tried several times and couldn’t find anything I liked.

Went with a group of 4, got seated fairly quickly. Waitress was very slow to come to our table, finally took our orders after waiting 20ish minutes. After we placed our order, we waited for an hour, and still no food. We saw people who sat after us get their food, but ours was still no where to be seen. The waitress kept updating us on how long the food would take, as more and more tables seated after us continued to receive their meals.
We decided to get up and leave after wasting an hour and a half for our food. Don’t go here unless you have A LOT of time to kill.

We’ve had several of the entrees here over the years. Tonight We both had the lasagna, which may have achieved new heights of yumdom. Cheesy and firm, it really fills up the hungry diner. Served with tossed salad (with iceberg lettuce, thank you!) and nicely spiced garlic bread. For dessert, it’s the famed pie (apple a la mode) which makes Timoleons the talk of New England, with fresh brewed coffee chaser. We love Timoleons because in an increasingly hip college town, it’s a garrison of locals with well groomed taste buds and even better manners.

The staff were quite friendly, but the burgers were ghastly! I knew it from the first off smell. Off flavor and disgusting.

The same diner that’s in every small town — locals abound for a flavor of the town. 70 year old waitresses do a nice job of keeping the coffee topped off while forgetting the odd detail. It’s tough to screw up eggs and bacon and all I’ve had is breakfast. But no doubt it’s your average small time diner.

Food is just okay here. Just go, and get the pie!!! 4 – 5 star pies, lemon meringue, or coconut cream. You really cannot go wrong with the pie here. Go in for pie and coffee. Skip the regular food, it is not that great. But it is cheap. I believe it is cash only.

Nice, friendly staff and homey atmosphere. That is the good. The food is average diner food. Now the bad. The place is filthy. Top to bottom. So sad. They need to give everything a massive scrub down. Will not return.

To me, Timoleons is synonymous with Keene. I eat there weekly and enjoy the wait staff who have been there for years. Lately, however, it has become more difficult to ignore the DIRT! There is black dust covering the ceiling fans, dirt and grime on the floor vents as well as the bottoms of the tables and counter stools and dust on the artificial plants. The floor looks as if it is never cleaned although I’m sure it gets a cursory cleaning at times.
I don’t want a redo on the restaurant but basics should be tended to like uncomfortable and torn booth seats and good, thorough cleanings done on a regular basis.
I want to continue to make Timoleons a part of my regular routine but if some cleanup isn’t done soon I won’t be able to. It is getting harder and harder to ignore the uncleanliness!

Hands down best omelet I’ve ever had.
For a diner too, their coffee isn’t bad!
Totally love this place.

Great for breakfast. Inexpensive and good, solid food. The coffee is a little thin and they charge extra for real maple syrup, but hey 8 out of 10 ain’t bad. I like the egg sandwich, Elm City breakfast and omelettes.

This place is open all the time and good for a super cheap home cooked meal. I got the chicken croquettes and Black Forest cake. Both were good and more than you pay for, but it’s not going to blow your doors off. There’s a pretty big menu. Overall value and convenience is what get this place it’s rating along with super service. I’d be willing to pay a little extra for a little better quality ingredients. That all said, it is perfect for those on a budget, such as college students.

5 stars on the clam chowder alone! If you haven’t tried, you need too. This gives most places on the coast a solid run for their money! A typical family run diner, not fancy if that is what your going for but really good prices and awesome comfort food. Great place for breakfast as well which you can get all day. Right on scenic Main St. In Keene overlooking the square.

The service is great in this restaurant, and it has a nice diner atmosphere. I was a little underwhelmed by the food though. I had steak and eggs with potatoes as a side. I ordered the steak medium, but it was cooked well done and was tough as nails. The potatoes were about as bland as breakfast potatoes can be. I’d go back for the service and the reasonable prices, but I would prefer one of the other local diners for the food.

My neighbors rave about this place. it usually has a line to wait for a table. While the food is ok. (diner quality) I wouldnt wait in line. The staff is friendly, the restrooms are clean. Food is prepped fast and served hot. Happy to make special requests like no bread. They make a low carb bread that is not bad. Would I eat there again? yep! if there was no line. I am not good at standing in line.

We got a contender of «best chowda.» The chowda was loaded with clams, BUT not as creamy as Union’s in Boston… NEEDLESS to say it was good!
Had a TC special… Cheeseburger with fries. The burger was perfect! The cow was dead and not still moo-​ing, nor was it burned to a crisp… It was perfect! I’m not a carb fan, so I found the bun was a bit overwhelming.
The fries on the other hand were definitely dead… too done for me! Crisp to be exact!
Atmosphere was great. Heck it’s downtown Keene, parking is going to suck.
Put a few extra quarters in the meter, there are some great other places to see within walking distance.

It was a cold winter’s day, back in 2007. An associate and myself were strolling down Main Street in Keene in the afternoon and had a hankering for something to fill the void in our stomachs. We had tried all the usual places: the dining commons, the PMD house, and even tried concocting a meal of our own (which ended up being flour mixed with sriracha sauce… don’t try it at home). While we were walking to the Center Square to protest the hippies, we saw this beautiful beacon of sunlight. What was it, you ask? That’s right… Timoleon’s Restaurant.
We noticed something different from the second we set foot in the restaurant. The patrons were having incredible conversations with the waitresses, the cooks seemed to be beaming with smiles while cooking this food of Gods. A little timid at first, we could not decide where to sit. The waitress, sensing our slight hesitation, invited us to sit wherever we would like, and to make ourselves at home. Seeing a perfect booth, we sat down and made ourselves comfortable. This was not a daunting task, as the bench-​style booths were as cottony soft as a small baby wrapped in fresh linens.
While seated, we took our surroundings in a little more. There were hand-​made paintings on the walls around us; all of them were made by local artists. Even the place-​mats garnered some of our attention. Customers 65 and over receive a 10% discount at the local eye-​wear establishment? I know where I’ll be retiring when I’m older.
Like a sign from David Bowie himself, Let’s Dance started playing over the radio. It was at this moment that my comrade and I realized that we had found that restaurant that everyone knows exists. A place where everybody knows your name. Timoleon’s had become that place.
The kind waitress quickly came over to our table and asked us if we would like to partake in a beverage. My associate ordered himself a home-​brewed ice tea, while I ordered a cold glass of chocolate milk. «Excellent choice, gentlemen,» the waitress said to us. She then asked if we were ready to order. However, wanting to make this first experience the best that we could, we asked if we could have a few more minutes to decide what we were going to enjoy.
We all have those major decisions in our lives… where am I going to go to college? Am I going to wake up for my 9:00 class? Am I going to try to sneak out of that girl’s room before she wakes up and asks me where I’m going? I’m here to say that none of those questions even compared to multitude of choices we were both faced with on this menu. The best part about these choices, though. You absolutely cannot go wrong.
The chinese pie? To die for. The meatloaf? Made by Zeus himself. Mac and cheese? Top shelf stuff. Even the chicken caesar salad was beyond comprehension. For our first times though, I decided on the reuben with a beautiful floret of curly fries, and my friend decided to get the Frank Zappa-​approved egg salad.
The waitress gladly took our orders and made a funny joke about the weather in New Hampshire. «Don’t like the weather? Wait five minutes!» You had to be there.
After a very short wait, our waitress opened the kitchen doors and a beam of sunlight seemed to come out… which in hindsight was probably the florescent light from the kitchen. The moment we have been waiting for… our food had arrived.
The second that I saw the reuben placed in front of me, I knew it was destiny. Corned beef stacked to the ceiling, beautiful slices of swiss cheese, imported straight out of Deutschland sauerkraut all on a beautiful homemade rye bread. I took one bite of the sandwich and immediately fell in love with the Taj Mahal of Keene, New Hampshire. Seriously, this should be one of the wonders of the world.
After finishing the best meal of our lives, we were saddened that our short time here would have to come to an end. We stuck around to talk to the patrons, waitresses, and waiters. They seemed genuinely pleased to have met us. The feeling was absolutely mutual. We paid for our food (which came out to be about nine dollars before tip) and wished everyone a great night. I may have been mistaken, but I could have sworn I saw a few tears shed by the workers. None of us wanted that magical meal to end. However, because duty called — the hippies weren’t going to heckle themselves — we had to call it a night. We thanked our perfect hosts, and strode off into the falling sun… to fight for a noble cause.
I would absolutely recommend this restaurant to anyone within a 75 mile radius of this building. It’s well worth the time it takes to get there. If you go there, try the food, and find yourself to disagree with me in any way, I will personally make sure to apologize to you in my head. You can take that to the bank.
Okay, but seriously. The food there was absolutely splendid, the service was great, and it is extremely affordable for the down and out college student. This is the first place I visit whenever I make it back to Keene.