Dottie’s Diner

I decided to try the new Dottie’s location in Woodbury recently, having been to the previous location a few times in past years. I was redirected at the front door by a sign saying to use the side door. When I went in there was a female staff member working on something in the first room. I said hello and she did the same. That was it, so I continued to the main room looking for a hostess. When I didn’t find one I went back to the first person and asked if I should wait to be seated. She told me to go in and sit wherever I wanted. I told a waitress on my way back into the main room where I would be sitting (a quiet booth in the back where I could decompress some from a recent big stress in my life and work on a few things on my tablet while waiting for my order).
I was comfortably settled in when a waiter came up and asked me if I was alone. He then asked me if I would move to a table out in the open. I politely said I’d rather not, but I offered to leave. He replied that it was their policy that booths are reserved for two people (the table he wanted me to move to had two chairs, but I guess those aren’t reserved for two people…). I could see I wasn’t being given a choice so I said I’d leave and go somewhere else.
I left quietly but more than disappointed, and knowing I’d never go back. I went to Woodbury Diner instead and was greeted warmly upon entering and allowed to sit in a spot I knew I’d be comfortable in. The waitress was friendly and helpful, as was the rest of the staff, and the food was top notch as it had been other times I’d been there. Woodbury Diner, 10 out of 10. Dottie’s, a big ZERO.

Great place, Great prices, and Great serving staff.
If you haven’t been, I recommend you visiting soon. The donuts, are AMAZING, especially when warm. The service is super friendly. the food taste great! When my family comes to town, I take them straight to Dottie’s.

Used dotty for catering my wedding. Food was unique and outstanding at a comfortable price. Highly recommend them for catering !

I love Dottie’s. From their donuts to their omelets! Her chicken pesto sandwich is a must!

I came in yesterday, with 2 friends for breakfast. It was my first time here, it was a busy Sunday morning and we had to wait a few minutes. The food was fresh and good. I ordered the banana nut French toast on the side of my eggs and sausage links breakfast. Delicious! A good cup of coffee as well.
I also took home 2 pieces of pie, 5 cookies and 2 donuts.
I will be back soon to try other items.

Good food in a comfort atmosphere. A nice surprise. We were going by and decided to stop in and see what they had. Will come back again. Diner type food, quick and good service.

Went for lunch with a friend and was very disappointed. Perhaps I ordered the wrong thing, which was the mac and cheese. It wasn’t very good and the portion was extremely small. We had donuts for dessert and they were nothing to scream about. I was not happy with my meal and would never return.

Worst service ever. Wow I’ll never go back. The staff was completely rude! I was surprised bc of all the positive things people told me.

Excellent staff great food and the best doughnuts in the state. Quick service clean and neat always a smile on the faces of the staff

I love going to dotties! I often bully my sister into going! Their pancakes have a really good flavor. They have great French toast and awesome specials. This is a place I like to eat for the sweeter side of breakfast foods! I like that they offer a fresh fruit cup on their menu.
Definitely get there early! They are always busy for breakfast!

We looked into the diner and although there wasn’t a line, we weren’t attracted to enter, so this is a review of their donuts, which were the reason we stopped by in the first place. We found Dottie’s donuts well executed; the texture was pleasantly light (for a doughnut!) and distinctly not greasy. Unfortunately, there was only a very limited selection (left?) at 9:00 AM on a Sunday morning: plain, cinnamon, vanilla or chocolate iced and literally a single powdered sugar! While we took one of each and enjoyed them, their failure to maintain an inventory or much diversity during such a prime hour wouldn’t lead us to make a special trip given that we don’t live in the area. As others have commented, the door is somewhat hidden around the left side of the façade.

Get to Dottie’s early if you want the donuts, because they seem to sell out fast and we didn’t get a chance to try any. This would easily be a 5-​star review if they chose to keep their world-​famous donuts in stock all day!
Food was great — ordered a turkey club that’s as good as the best I’ve had anywhere else. It was good enough that I didn’t mind sitting at the crowded counter because the place was so busy. Even the loud, obnoxious, Connecticut-​riche lady across from us wasn’t a bother. I don’t know why people down below are complaining about «soggy bacon» because mine was perfect, and if you like crispy bacon, I really think that we need to have a long talk, and it’s going to take a lot of fancy language to convince me that you aren’t a demon. Go burn something else, hellspawn.
Maybe we’ve just been to a lot of TERRIBLE diners, but this one is easily one I’d return to if it weren’t at least 90 minutes out of our way. But come on — if you’re famous for donuts, keep them around!

I am giving this place 2 stars — 1 for the donuts and 1 for the service. They are very friendly and attentive. I ordered an omelet and they don’t know HOW to make an omelet. They make a scrambled egg cooked in a circle and folded it over a pile of ingredients that were to be part of the omelet. I ordered ham peppers and onions which were fried together then placed in the center of a folded egg (like it was a wrap) and the egg didn’t even look like a real egg. It was awful. They don’t have any gluten free bread or pancakes — I asked for 2 eggs over easy and they took the omelet off the bill. They need an intervention. Someone needs to evaluate the menu and the output. It is very mediocre at best. The donuts are great. The coffee is pretty good but they fall short as a diner.

It’s ok! I remember when it was better. I found a piece of hair in my nieces scrambled eggs and it wasn’t from my niece since she doesn’t have long hair or the same color. Yikes! The toast is good, the eggs are good, otherwise but nothing special.

I went on Father’s Day and there was a 40 minute wait… And I’m not sure why.
The food was awful. Two people at my table ordered omelettes and were convinced it was an egg supplement called Egg beaters. They said the taste of the egg was watered down and it tasted «funny».
I ordered the eggs florentine (they have it on the menu as eggs Benedict with spinach) and the hollandaise sauce on top was disgusting. It tasted like chemicals.
My entire table also ordered coffee and we constantly had to ask for new cups of coffee because we would put creamer in and realize the creamer was spoiled. It was large chunks in the coffee cups. (This happened four times for each person at my table!!) it was ridiculous to keep asking for new creamer and also new cups of coffee. Eventually they just gave us a cup of milk.
We did get donuts and the donuts are definitely as good as they say they are.
The service wasn’t bad.
Overall if I return, it will only be for a donut and not for any food! The donuts are good but not the food.

This place is always busy and I’m not sure why. Their breakfast is just okay, but their donuts are amazing. I had eggs Benedict and my home fries portion was pitiful with less thank handful of them on my plate. I would say it’s just your average diner in terms of food, but their ambience is cute modeled with a 1950s diner feel.

So Dottie’s is on a list of one of the 25 best doughnut places in the whole country? Well, that’s all we needed to give them a try.
We were there yesterday (Mother’s Day) and it was pretty densely populated inside. But the names were called out quickly, and since we were one of the very few parties of two waiting to be seated, we ended with a small table pretty quick.
Dottie’s has counter space for 20, and quite a bit of tables and booths spread out. On the left side of the dinner is the bakery– where people queue up for the aforementioned holy donuts plus muffins and cookies.
Our breakfast was an order of coffee cake French toast and huevos ranchero. The French toast was literally a grilled slab of coffee cake, and was terrific.
I was absolutely thrilled with my breakfast– grilled tortillas, a layer of the very best refried bean spread I ‘ve ever had, plus scrambled egg whites and 3 good sized sausage links. I can’t tell you how good the beans were !! Bursting with flavor and a hint of heat, they were delicious, as were the tortilla and every morsel on my plate.
The variety of donuts available was severely compromised by the volume of the Mother’s Day crowd, so we were only able to try a cinnamon, a plain, and a chocolate. they were all cake-​type donuts and all had a nice crunchy crispy coating on the outside. Were they very, very good? Yes they were.
Dottie’s is definitely an old school sort of place, but we feel it lived up to our expectations. We got a great breakfast, friendly service, and some pretty tasty donuts.
At the end of the morning, what more could you possibly ask for?

I’ve only ever had the donuts here but holy moly, they deserve 5 stars on their own. They’re crisp on the outside, tender and soft on the inside. The crumb is so fine that as soon as they hit your mouth, they dissolve and taste almost creamy. The first time I stopped by, I had a cinnamon sugar one at the end of the day, and it was cold from sitting out all day, but I could still tell how high-​quality these donuts were. The second time, I came around 1PM and the chocolate frosted donut I got was at room temp. It was divine, and I could totally see why they’ve won so many awards. I can only imagine how good they must be straight out of the fryer in the morning. Both flavors are great, but I think I like the chocolate frosted just a tad bit more.
At 95 cents, they’re also an amazing deal and one of the best dollars I’ve ever spent. I imagine two would make a really decadent breakfast for the average eater.
If you live anywhere within half an hour of this place and you’re eating a Dunkin Donuts donut instead of driving here, shame on you! You are totally missing out on what are truly the best donuts I’ve ever had.

This is my update: Dottie’s moved across the street to a new location and my wife, daughter and I stopped in to check it out today for lunch. Well, I have to drop my rating another star. I’m happy Dottie’s has a new location to expand in, but I would say the service was off, I was hoping a new location would be a reason for a full blown retraining and new level of enthusiasm.
For starters, the side entrance is awkard, you have walk all the way around the building to get into the restaurant. The parking setup is poor. I have no idea why the developer/​new owner didn’t add another row of parking in the front, there is plenty of room for another row to be added. Once we entered we came up a desolate white waiting area with a counter on the far end. There were no signs stating «Please wait here to be seated». The lobby area has two chairs in it, which quite frankly looks ridiculous in such a large spot. Next, we looked up and there were 3 older patrons waiting to be seated standing against the wall in the main dinning area. We stood behind them. We waited 10 minutes without an acknowledgement or greeting from the staff. Sorry but that’s poor customer service.
The final straw for me was when the snarky waitress behind the counter at 12:30pm on 12/​15/​2014 stated loudly to another customer «We have a wall in between the dining room and waiting room section for a reason, why are they all standing here, blah blah» with a look on her face like she smelled some Limburger. Well, let me help you: 1.) There are no signs stating «please wait here.» 2.) There are no chairs or seating and one of the patrons waiting was on crutches. 3.) In the 10 minutes we stood there awkwardly waiting we were never greeted nor were the people in front of us that were there 5 minutes longer than us.
It’s a damn shame, I’m hoping this was a blip and will give it one more shot. I can’t see how this level of service is good for a business in the long run. I’m very disappointed to say the least. I had rated Dottie’s Dinner as 4 stars previously.

Dottie, your doughnuts sure hit the spottie,
Fresh from the oven, they were nothing but hottie.
Melted in my mouth and then into my heart,
Your breakfast is how every day should start.
Came here on a Sunday it was jammin’…for an obvious reason. Dottie’s has some of the best donuts/​doughnuts (however you want to spell it) in Connecticut. These bad boys are made on-​site and brought out fresh, so you can actually eat a HOT doughnut with your breakfast. For an appetizer, I asked for one of every kind they had. I was brought one chocolate frosted, one powdered sugar, and one cinnamon-​sugar delight (they were running low, but they still managed to cover all the classics). WOW! A light, sweet, crumbly interior that melted in your mouth… A slightly crispy exterior… Sheer perfection. I couldn’t even pick a favorite flavor because they all had something going for them.
For breakfast I got a bacon, egg, & cheese sandwich. Their bacon is smoked locally right in Connecticut and it will whallop you with flavor. I also got the corned beef hash which was just OK. I tried my brother’s french toast and it was perfectly light and sweet.
For some reason our teenage waitress/​waiter changed 2 to 3 times during the course of our meal and none of them really knew anything about the menu or the pastry selection. Dottie’s needs to find some employees that are passionate about their offerings, because they should be! They also ran out of flavored coffee, which is kind of unacceptable at a breakfast restaurant.
A few logistics: If you want to sit at a booth, you need to wait at the front until you are called. If you want to sit at the bar or at one of the regular tables, you can seat yourself. The waiting area is in the same 10×10 foot space as the takeout area, so everyone was pushing everyone around for half an hour. It was awful. Luckily, Dottie’s is moving to a larger space down the street.
6 Stars for the doughnuts and food (Yes, 6!), 2 for the restaurant experience. Will be trying out the Waterbury location as soon as I can.