The Carriage House

Old people/​family restaurant. I like coming here for a nice cheap good old fashioned breakfast that never disappoints. What you order is what you get at this location. It is always cooked to order and you could even conveniently get a car wash next door while you eat. Lol. It is definitely a family friendly, elderly friendly restaurant. If you go there often, they even know you by name. If you are ever just in the area, and hungry, it is definitely worth a try.

It’s really unfortunate that the food and service has declined as much as it has. It’s pretty obvious that nobody who works here enjoys their job, from the cooks to the wait staff to the new owner (I’m blaming this on you). If you come here at night, good luck getting served in a timely manner. Nine times out of ten, my waitress disappears once the food has been dropped off, never to be seen again. Don’t order the spaghetti. The meat in the sauce isn’t browned, so much as burned (twice in a row, now). The waffles used to be fantastic. What was that flavor, almond? Oh, Carriage. If only you could be as good as you used to be. I actually miss the house sour cream dressing that you burped for days afterward. I’d hate to see this location turn into another fast food joint, but Carriage, you ain’t what you used to be.

Great breakfast love the bacon avocado omelete with fruit. Plus I get discounted 15 percent.

The interior is a bit aged. The service is a hit-​or-​miss at times. This time was a miss. I tried the spinach, feta cheese, bacon, and mushroom omelet with steamed vegetables, and biscuits and gravy. The food lacked flavor and visual appeal.

This place gets one star simply because of the filthiness of the bathrooms. Absolutely disgusting!!! The food is decent, however if that is what the bathrooms look like, what must the kItchen look like?!? YIKES!

Came on a Sunday for late breakfast.
The restaurant itself is VERY rundown, I could still smell what used to be the «smoking section». The restrooms need a major overhaul.
Party of 5– and 3 of us ordered ham and eggs. The ham, although a nice big steak, was salty and spongy.
Scambled eggs and egg whites were a bit underdone.
The bacon was cooked nicely and crisp, pretty tasty. One kid’s meal, a very big portion which included hot chocolate, which is a very nice touch– for a reasonable price– kiddo enjoyed the hash browns.
The rest of us opted for fruit instead of hash browns and although the watermelon was very tasty, the rest of the fruit medley was over ripe and inedible.
Unfortunately, none of our toast came out WITH our meals, so we ended up taking it home with us rather than eating with our meal.
We will not be returning to Carriage House Retaurant–

Sunday is fried chicken day whereby I try to recreate the Sunday dinners of my youth complete with comfort food, ice tea and the white haired old-​ladies in print dresses serving fried chicken and mashed potatoes and gravy. I know I will never be able to duplicate a real meal like this in OC since to be authentic fried chicken must be cooked in lard. But there are several restaurants that have come close and the Carriage House is one. The mashed potatoes and gravy was just adequate. This is a problem which is endemic to kitchens that cook fried chicken in a deep fryer– the fat drippings cannot be used to make a rich gravy as with home cooked pan-​fried chicken. So I rank the Carriage House fried chicken in the second tier in the Orange County fried chicken hierarchy. Not he best but you will enjoy it.

Love this place. The good is always fresh and the staff is super friendly. I have only had the breakfast before so I can’t speak for the rest of the food but the omelettes are wonderful and they are so cool with substitutions on anything. Very easy going. Fresh coffee and decent prices. Management changed and are a little less friendly but otherwise this place is great!

First time here, was very tempted to come in and try it! It looks so cute from the inside and is just as cute inside. It’s a cute older generation restaurant with great food! Was pleased, didnt get sick, service was great! My dad and I really did enjoy it and we will come back! Very clean and kept up. I love the older look of it, it’s cute :) always pass by it and finally I got the chance to come n and enjoy some fine breakfast!!!

Do yourself a favor, if you find yourself walking into this place for a tasty meal, walk straight out of there. ANYWHERE else is better than this place.
To say the food was bland, at best, is an understatement. I went for breakfast and ordered a garden burrito (veggie omelet wrapped in a tortilla). Oh my gosh, I had to force myself to swallow the first bite AND the second. (I gave it the benefit of the doubt.) I should have stopped there, but I tried a third bite and I threw in the towel. $ 10 wasted. Totally gross food.
So, if you decide to eat here anyway, my The Lord have mercy on your stomach.

Well my husband and I sat there for over 10 minutes and we had a refill on our coffee and no to take our order. worst service ever. Can’t tell you about the food because all we had was coffee. We left.

The owner or manager tried to charge me for a hot chocolate that is included in the kids meal. He said because its to go he had to add to bill after I ordered it. I told him that I asked waitress if it included and she said yes. He came to register to tell me that he had to charge me incase it was a meal for an adult !!! He said that he isn’t giving free drinks when it to go and he never let me talk, he talked over me and was very condescending !! He said he was going to charge waitress for hot chocolate if she said it was free. I told him it says on the menu that drink is included. He continued to talk over me and said I should be grateful that he already granted me a free drink with my daughters meal in which is INCluded In the kids meal! I told him I have been a customer for many years and he said well for many years I have given your children free drinks !!! I told him well «they are Included «he was very mean and made me cry when he said he was going to make the waitress pay for it!!! He made me feel like I was robbing him for a hot chocolate «To go“we are regulars at the carriage and he sees us there all time ! He was very arrogant as to say he already gave us free drinks for years !!! He must be an a&& to his employees!

This American style diner is a good overall value. Don’t expect to get gourmet, organic, health food here. This is a bonafide American diner. Service is fast and friendly. Food is good but not stellar but I do recommend the veggie omelette. There’s nothing fancy about The Carriage but it beats fast food breakfast. There are not many «good» options in this area so The Carriage is definitely a keeper.

The Carriage Family Restaurant in La Mirada is a veritable landmark. Dating to 1933 — boasts a sign on the front of the building! — it’s a one-​of-​a-​kind.
The décor is nothing fancy but it’s not too shabby, either. The place is clean, the people down-​to-​earth, breakfast is served all day and the number of daily specials unusually generous (with dessert!). The menu offers affordable American-​style entrées: From fish to T-​bone steak, eggs benedict to pancake breakfasts, spumoni to pie, this family-​style eatery will draw you back for more.
Now I won’t lie: If you’re a foodie or a trend-​hopper, this restaurant will do little to impress. But if you like dining off the beaten path and feel at home alongside a hodgepodge of gray-​haired grandparents and 20-​somethings, you’ll like this place. Ditto for diners who seek out American-​made originals and mid century kitsch — the restaurant is accented in an unmistakable shade of ‘60s pink, after all!
If you’re after an authentic American coffee shop atmosphere, this is the real deal. If, on the other hand, you’re in search of fabulous food and fabulous food alone, you’ll win some and lose some at The Carriage Family Restaurant. Speaking for myself, I’ve had some way-​too-​salty lasagna here, but on the flip side some of the best BBQ ribs I’ve sampled (better than I’ve had from dedicated rib joints).
If The Carriage Family Restaurant happens to be on your restaurant bucket list, don’t hesitate too long. That’s because the restaurant site may soon become home to yet another carbon-​copy fast food establishment, the Whittier Daily News reports (March 19, 2014*). The article says: «Santa Ana-​based Rich Development […] wants to buy out the lease from Carriage owner Louis Liu of Corona and bring in a McDonald’s Restaurant.»
A look at Rich Development’s corporate website suggests the company is big on leasing space to ubiquitous, name-​brand businesses — the type of nationally-​recognized chains that in recent years have gone out of business entirely or undertaken rounds of store closures — leaving gaping holes in the Southern California retail landscape (not counting the vacancies along Whittier Blvd. and elsewhere where auto dealerships once were.) Rich Development seemingly courts the same over-​saturated market players every other commercial property developer has bet the farm on. By over-​saturated, I mean this sort of phenomena: Staples buys out OfficeMax, only to announce a nationwide round of Staples store closures earlier this year. Barnes & Noble puts Borders out of business, but in spite of the reduced competition announces a multi-​year plan to par down its over-​expanded national retail presence. If this is the sort of «action» the property owner and the City of La Mirada want in on – another market-​saturated, cookie-​cutter establishment — this very well may be what they end up with.
Ironic.
Much like when Boston Markets in Whittier pulled out, I recall the day when Arby’s in Whittier — also ideally positioned along the the high-​traffic corridor that is Whittier Blvd. — went out of business. If those fast food locations failed to yield the revenue to justify continued operation — with the next nearest Arby’s and Boston Markets locations more than a city away — what could the likes of McDonalds (or In-​N-​Out Burger per recent rumor) want in land-​locked La Mirada — particularly if The Carriage locals boycott?
To Rich Development and the City of La Mirada, I would caution: Don’t fix what isn’t broke — not in the economy of today, anyhow. The Carriage has survived the test of time, a coveted quality desirable of any business. Contrast the longevity of The Carriage with more recent development efforts across the Southland: The Whittwood Town Center, which not too many years ago underwent a major upgrade, still has vacancies. The same can be said for the «mixed use» development on the former Hughes Aircraft site off of Malvern and Gilbert and, similarly, the former Mervyn’s site on Harbor Blvd., also in Fullerton.
Frankly, it’s difficult to come up with many modern strip– and outdoor-​mall developments, even those that aren’t severely dated, that boast 100 percent occupancy. Once McDonalds or any number of over-​saturated national brands occupy the current Carriage parcel, expect turnover. As fast as national fast food brands may be inclined to expand, management takes a dim view to marginal performance. Pair that reality to the following The Carriage has in La Mirada, Whittier and elsewhere, and getting a fast food establishment up to that of a top performer in a controversial location is at best unlikely. Because SoCal is littered with fast food eateries around every corner, don’t underestimate for a second that what a company such as McDonalds agrees to build they will also abandon in response to mediocre sales. The increasingly cut-​throat retail landscape proves as much.
Leave The Carriage be. That’s my vote!
*

I find it hard to believe that Carriage House might be closing! Of all disgusting restaurant chains, McDonald’s is seeking to buy the land and open up yet another restaurant. I guess it’s a prime location, considering the nearest Mcdonalds is about 1 – 2 miles away.
Since I heard that it may be closing I decided to go there for the first time with my boyfriend yesterday for breakfast. They have great breakfast specials (come in before 11 am), lunch specials and daily specials. I ordered the chicken fried steak, with hash browns, scrambled eggs, and biscuits and gravy. My bf had a ham, onion and bell pepper scramble with eggs and hash browns.
I was very pleased with my meal, in fact it ended up being my lunch a few hours later because the portions were that large. The chicken fried steak was seasoned well, crispy, and the gravy was SO good. I really liked the hash browns, which were so perfectly crispy and moist and tender on the inside. The biscuit was a little overbaked for my liking, but the gravy was so good I didn’t mind that at all. My boyfriend ate his entire breakfast (meaning it was delicious!) and some of mine, as well.
So why only 4 stars? Service was a little slow, the water had a nasty taste to it, the coffee was weak and lukewarm, and the restaurant is really run down and outdated. It needs a good renovation. The patrons are mostly older people, and I noticed there aren’t too many waiters to accomodate the size of the restaurant, so service can get backed up.
Being a La Mirada resident, I don’t want to see this restaurant change to McDonalds, because if anyone knows me, I absolutely love my quaint little city and I absolutely hate McDonalds. I signed a petition to keep it open, so hopefully they don’t close. That way, I can come and enjoy their breakast again.

I’ve been coming here for some time now. I watched as it went through a rough change of ownership and the quality of food suffered while they made the adjustment. I started coming back here a few months ago and I’m glad that the food is solid again. We are regulars and the waitresses are always attentive. They serve breakfast all day. The soups are delicious and the homemade Greek salad dressing is solid.
I’ve read some of the reviews and here’s the thing, you have to know what to order. I’m a fan of the snapper, omelettes, and enchiladas. The meatloaf is also solid. Don’t expect five-​star dining. This is no-​nonsense grub at no-​nonsense prices.
Those of you who are complaining about the décor being outdated” Get your priorities in order. So, you’d rather eat at a fancy looking place with crappy food? This place prefers to keep its history. Enjoy the good food they make.

A local favorite that has been here for quite some time. As many people might not know it’s just sort of like an old school type style diner. Something that you might consider like a Denny’s type food with eggs and hash browns with toast. But they do have other things such as biscuits and gravy and some Mexican type style food.
The food is cheap and if your a health freak you might not want to come here since portion are large and also just plain good but a little bit high on the calorie side.
It does get busy on the weekends but if you come here on the weekdays it’s pretty empty and not that much of a wait time.
Simple, fast and hearty breakfast food. I love eating at this place just to cheat sometimes on my diet. It isn’t some posh spot with fancy chairs an seating but the food is pretty alright if you crave diner food once in awhile like I do.

I’ve lived near this place my entire life and I finally came! One less thing off my bucket list! =P
Alex M. and I came for a Friday breakfast. The first thing we notice, this place was poppin’! Move over Dennys, the Carriage is giving you competition! Lot’s of seniors dine here, with a few younger folk scattered about.
We were seated quickly and given menus. Perusing the menu, the egg rancheros caught my eye. I haven’t had egg rancheros in a long time. I ordered the dish with the eggs over easy and it came with rice and beans on the side.
Alex M. asked me «Why would you order a Mexican dish at an American restaurant?! =P He had a point. The eggs were cooked perfectly, but the rest of the dish left a lot to be desired for. The beans were fine, but the rice was very dry and it was rice pilaf. There was no Mexican rice in sight. The other thing was that the eggs were served over the corn tortillas, which made the tortillas soggy right from the beginning. I would have preferred the tortillas on the side. But the portions were very generous.
Service was very nice and efficient. Waters were refilled often and we were checked up on frequently. Overall, 4 stars for the good service and 2.5 stars for the food. But I do want to come back try more.
Although next time, I’ll stick with AMERICAN food. =P

I don’t remember much of this meal because I’m pretty sure I had a near death experience here.
SUGAR, CREAM & A LITTLE COFFEE
The coffee was just a vehicle for me to feed my sugar addiction… y’know.so I wouldn’t look like a complete lunatic.
EVERYTHING OMLETTE WITH CRISPY HASH BROWNS
Personally, I don’t really mind if they swept up the kitchen floor and threw all the scraps in my omelette. It tasted pretty damn good… well cooked egg, gooey cheddar cheese, onions, peppers, tomatoes, sausage, ham AND BACON.
BISCUITS AND GRAVY
I think I had a choice between this or a side salad. I almost slapped the waitress when she muttered salad as an option. How dare she. Hot sausage gravy with a warm fluffy biscuit. I even shared a biscuit with the wife cuz I’m a caring mahfu*ka like that.
SIDE OF BACON
This is where I lost track of the meal… I think I ate half of the bacon and then my heart stopped. When I regained consciousness I’m pretty sure I put the rest of the bacon into my last biscuit and dunked it in the gravy… then I passed out again.
Eating oneself to death has never been so much fun.

Boy I’m glad there’s good old comfort food close to my hood… for emergencies ofcourse… haha :)
I came with my family during Memorial weekend and had the works.
RIbeye steak with biscuits and gravy for the lil sis… Bread pudding for my older sis… Order of strawberry waffles and an order of short pancakes for the madre and the Monte Cristo for me! :D
This is actually just your typical comfort food in your hood type of joint… I mean that as a compliment.
The Monte Cristo and the bread pudding isn’t on the menu but they seem to serve it all the time.
The MC was average. I’ve had better… at Disneyland! haha. Nothing beats disneyland!
There were sliced ham and chunks of dry chicken breast. the bread was not juicy and sweet enough. Sprinkles of powder sugar…
The sw was a bit on the dry side.
The onion rings were bomb though!
The bread pudding was pretty good although i wouldn’t mind my bread pudding warmed up a tad bit…
The ribeye was sliced very thin so you can’t have this rare/​medium rare… why bother to ask how you want it when your only choice is medium or well?
The thinness was very disappointing but not unexpected at a typical diner.
The hash was the best part of this dish imo.
Mom’s strawberry waffles were purty good, but it’s not my type of dish.
The strawberry purée was the best part.
I honestly didn’t like the whipped butter (I like solid white butter if I’m having real butter).
The gravy for the biscuits weren’t all that good either.
The short stack was ok… as well.
There’s room for improvement but other than that, it was good experience.
Arthur’s Coffee is next on my list! :)