Good diner food with friendly staff. Another plus is this place is always open which is not always the case with other restaurants in the area. read more

Horrible service. Usually not the wait staffs fault but the entire establishment is managed poorly. They never have what you ask for, twice they've made substitutes without talking to me. I've never had to wait so long for someone to take an order and you can see and/or hear the staff chatting while we sit and wait. Our table and another table waited over twenty minutes for a cashier to come up so we could leave. The food is pretty good when they have what you want but expect a wait no matter when you go and no matter how few people are there. read more

Looking over prior reviews. Get the impression that this place has been sold and is under different management, or they are having trouble finding good cooks and/or managers as Alpine is losing population. Older reviews are better than later ones. Our experience was not a good one. Worst part is that I ordered a shake and this diner was out of milk. Also I inquired about the "blue plate special" and was told that they could not make it and it was the special from a few days ago. Yes, bad management. As for the food, my chicken fried steak was about average, nothing wrong with it. Fries were all right. Not a memorable meal for me. My girlfriend had a burger and fries and it was also not memorable. For this, the price was a little too high. An unmemorable meal should be served at a discount or on sale. Waitress was pleasant. No wait and the food arrived quickly. read more

the waitress and cook moved at molasses speed - it took 10 minutes for her to ask for drinks, another 10 to order. We finally got our food after 55 minutes (there were 3 customers ahead of us). so much potential here, but the staff has 0 understanding of the business model. read more

I thoroughly enjoyed my dining at Penny's. My favorite menu items is breakfast. You do not leave hungry. Everything is made to order and the staff is great. Good place to stop at after a night at the bars or for lunch before heading out of town. Highly recommend this restaurant! read more

We waited 30min to even get an order in and a couple that was seated after us got their order and food before us. The food in general was okay, but they had terrible service! read more

Small place that is understaffed. I ordered the BLT. I had expected for $11 that I would at least get bacon cooked that day. The menu offers a nice variety, unfortunately most of it is no longer available and hasn't been for some time we were told. It's not bad, just don't go in with high expectations. read more

Cook made everything fresh however taste lacked a lot. The best thing on the plate was the gravy lol. Cook waited on us served us and cooked meals. There was a girl lady sitting behind the counter doing I don't know. Don't go if you help it read more

Eating at Penny's Diner was an act of desperation. Our two hungry, cranky daughters were tired of riding in the car and desperately needed food like, now. Penny's Yelp score didn't encourage us to go, but Alpine is a town of wildly varying restaurant reviews (both in levels of taste and levels of incoherence). So, desperate for something, =anything= to get us out of the car and into a meal, we turned into the Penny's parking lot. It quickly became apparent why Penny's has its reputation -it's one a chain of mediocre restaurants trading on the trappings of diner nostalgia (gleaming chrome, a long line of barstools, and milkshakes). Unfortunately, Penny's misses the boat on the reason those greasy spoons were so beloved: the food in the diners of yore was fast, delicious, and made fresh. I don't know whether it's because the Penny's franchising requires them to adhere to particular "standards" or just that the proprietors are simply taking the "easy way" out, but everything at this diner is pre-prepared, pre-packaged, and frozen to within an inch of its life. The burgers are perfectly round 1/8-inch thick gray slabs on a factory bun, the fries clearly go straight from a plastic bag into the fryer, and the brownies are made by Sara Lee. As far as I can tell, the only food made "fresh" here are the milkshakes and a few breakfast items like eggs and pancakes. It's sad. Making the food from fresh ingredients would probably be more economical, and it would justify the $10 per plate for diner fare so much more. I completely understand that Alpine is the middle of nowhere and prices are up in all of the town's restaurants because it's really expensive to truck in the supplies. But honestly, I would have happily paid a couple bucks extra per plate for a burger that didn't taste like it came from the Sonic Drive-In down the road. The service was adequate, if uninspired. The cashier was friendly and funny when we walked in the door, but our waitress and the rest of the staff just seemed to be trying to make it through the day. One of the more charming features of an open diner grill is the chatter around said grill between the wait staff and the cooks. (If you've ever been to Camellia Grill in New Orleans or even a Waffle House you know what I mean.) Penny's was deathly quiet. All of these minor disappointments aside, Alpine is lucky to have Penny's Diner. It's the only place in a college town that's open 24 hours. (The joint must hop on a Saturday night during the school year.) Even a bit of manufactured nostalgia with so-so food is better than nothing. read more

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Got a take out order that was all sorts of wrong and disappointing. We assumed since they weren't busy the food was be correct and prepared properly but were wrong. Missing condiments, a strange sausage egg thing that wasn't ordered was randomly thrown in and food was undercooked. Would not recommend the grilled cheese or cheese sticks since the cheese was not melted at all. I hate complaining on Yelp but it was such bad quality I felt the need to warn other potential customers. read more

my mom & I passed by this restaurant on the way to Big Ben & decided to stop in to grab a bite. The service was SO amazing and friendly!!!! And then the food was DELICIOUS!!! Such big portions for not even that much $$. For 2 meals it was $14. Would definitely stop by here again on a road trip. read more

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Zero stars if it were possible. We waited to be attended for about 10 minutes before I decided to just get up and go order at the front. The waitress apologized and claimed she was busy, even though there were only 2 other people there not even eating anything anymore. Got our order wrong, and waitress never refilled our drinks. Waffle was undercooked (how do you mess up a waffle????). Food was edible i guess, but extremely overpriced for the quality. While paying we noticed a sign on their kitchen door..i'll let the photo speak for itself. read more

Penny's Diner - Diners Near Me - Alpine, Texas

I have been to this restaurant twice in the last six months. The first time was with my husband and we enjoyed it very much. The second time was with my daughter on a mom and daughter trip to Big Bend. Both times the food was excellent. I had the bacon lovers cheeseburger, which was huge with a lot of fixings and several slices of bacon. It was served with french fries that have some sort of coating on them that makes them extra crispy and tasty. My daughter had the Philly cheesesteak. She said it was delicious. All the servers were friendly and we received our food in a timely manner. They have milkshakes that look amazing but we were both too stuffed to order one. read more

Penny's Diner - Bacon lovers cheeseburger. - Diners Near Me - Alpine, Texas

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Horrible! First thought was disgusting, the place was dirty and felt dirty. Save your time and your money, not worth supporting this local business. Felt ripped off with a $36 bill as the total after the food was tasteless and the scrambled eggs that were ordered were just diced up fried eggs. Service was terrible, the girl serving us was not kind at all. The only reason it gets one star is because it cannot be given zero stars. The place is just a pile of . read more

I wish I could review the food but, after an hour, we left without. There was one guy working the griddle and we could tell he hadn't stated our order. Have no idea where the waitress went. Not one refill of coffee in an hour. At least the cook comped our drinks when we asked to pay for them because we had to leave. The table next to us left too. There was a table of four waiting for food that I assume they eventually got cold. Saw it sitting plated, ready for at least 10 minutes. Again, missing waitress. ‍ read more

Where else can one get greasy diner food and chocolate malts/shakes at Midnight in Alpine? Was the food 5 star gourmet? No. But you don't go to Penny's for gourmet. You go for greasy burgers, crispy tater tots, all-day breakfast. The staff was quick and efficient. The food was hot, greasy, cheesy, fried, grilled, and sweet right where they were supposed to be. Great place. Great service. We ordered: Cinnamon Roll Kids Grilled Cheese w Fries Monterrey Chicken w Tater Tots Chocolate Malt Chocolate Shake read more

It was an overall terrible experience. An hour and a half for food that was just not very good. The coffee wasn't even good. In a diner at the least the coffee should be good. I recommend you avoid this place and just stop at McDonald's up the road. read more

Too bad no stars isn't an option. If you like cold food and enjoy being ignored, this is the place.

Their wasn't anything open and we were starving so we stopped at pennys and it was sucked. The staff all had a attitude and the food was disgusting. My friend got a cheese quesadilla and And said it was sour. read more

I hate to give a bad review but as I sit here 45 minutes after I placed my my order and they still have not started cooking it yet, I strongly feel like I should share my experience. We were told there was a shift change with the cooks. The people are nice and it's a clean joint but don't come in hungry!!! read more

Greasy spoons never swoon. Keep your gratitude high and your expectations low. Everything'll be all right. Ya want eggs, they got eggs. read more

Penny's Diner - Slow as the west tx sloth - Diners Near Me - Alpine, Texas

The only place in town open late. Classic Diner choices: breakfast, burgers, blt, etc. Food was OK. Service was slow.

No written menu. No menu on the wall. Waitress said to scan code on wall but she also said it didn't work. Asked her how we were supposed to know what they served and she just shrugged and suggested we call corporate. We left read more

Was skeptical of this place but it's your typical American diner, not bad food at all and a lot of options on the menu. Looking for a late nite bite then this place is a go to. read more

Food is cooked to the staff's liking not the customer,would not recommend.I know there isn't much around but I would try marfa or marathon instead for food. read more

Unusual to see a 24 hour diner in a town this small, even a tourist town. Stopped in for breakfast early. Service ok. Coffee ok. Wheat toast maybe a little stale. Only have grape and strawberry jelly. But on the plus side, the bacon was perfect, and very few places get hash browns right, where the individual sticks of potato are crisp yet done without excess grease! So not a first choice, but the hours are convenient! read more

I have no idea why everyone is hating so hard on this place. I visited in the middle of the night, when nothing else was open. There were a couple of groups of people all having a good time. The waitress was so nice and checked on us pretty frequently. She asked every single question possible to make our visit great. We had decided on what to eat until we saw another table being served and wanted what they got hehe Coming from San Antonio, I'm used to different kinds of service; this was a genuinely nice experience and can't wait to come back. read more

We settled into Penny's after scouring Alpine one Monday evening and not seeing much open that interested us. Not the best choice. It was open. The waitress was friendly. Hmmm. What else is nice to say? It was well lit. After asking about the blue plate special (the cook hasn't been inspired recently we were told), he ordered a dinner of grilled chicken with mushrooms and jalapenos. It came with an iceberg lettuce salad with 'your' choice of dressing that was served in a foil package. Chicken was not grilled as advertised but was cooked on the hamburger cook top. Advantage of the diner concept is that we could watch the cook. Fries were greasy. Utensils were served to only one of us. We had to ask for another fork. Rolls? None. But there were small packets of saltine crackers. I had a BLT on 'wheat' that was only slightly darker than Wonder bread and tasted the same. It was merely OK. Bacon tasted good, but was skimpy as was the tomato and lettuce. Not a lot for $7. We will likely not return. read more

The food was okay. Restaurant is clean and Service was friendly but the kitchen was slow. We ordered a club sandwich and two chili cheese fries "baskets." The picture shows what they considered a "basket," which was a plate of about 30 fries with some chili and cheese. The food tastes okay, but they charged us $5.99 per plate for these fries. read more

Penny's Diner - What they call a chili cheese fries "basket," and charge $5.99 for... - Diners Near Me - Alpine, Texas

Well that was unfortunate, didn't even get to try it but I think the service said it all. Coming in with my family of four, and she checked to see if there were any tables for us, after standing there for 10 minutes, nope sorry no tables.... That was it. Wow Where is your southern hospitality? Your Texan kindness or customer service? That was ridiculous, not even to let us know if there's a wait or where we can wait. Won't be coming back here anyhow, not to this diner. read more

Crunchy dry burgers/bun, undercooked fries, very long wait time, unswept floors, and cold food. It seemed like they were understaffed. The food seemed to get out quicker once two more employees came in. The waitress was nice but dang... that wait time. I love food. It's not hard to make me happy. Maybe we came on an off day. read more

We ate here twice during our stay in Alpine over the Thanksgiving holidays. Penny's is a classic American diner, a prefabricated structure just like the ones in the northeast. It's even open 24 hours. Our first meal there was a late Saturday night dinner at which we both ordered breakfast (we'd had burgers for lunch). The food was very good with large portions, but the prices were a bit high. That is common in Alpine, where everything has to be trucked in for hundreds of miles. The eggs were properly cooked as ordered, and the hash browns were nice and crisp. On our second visit, we only had dessert, my wife a huge cinnamon roll and I a milkshake. Both were very good. The milkshake even came with the steel container filled with a second portion, like they did when I was a kid at soda fountains. But again, the prices were higher than, say, at Denny's. My wife was disappointed that they don't serve cherry pie, even though there is a picture of one in the menus. Service both visits was decent, but not remarkable in any way. Still, it's not often in Texas that you get a chance to experience a real diner, and that alone was worth the price of admission. read more

On the plus side, this was one of the few restaurants open on the evening of January 3 because of an ice storm knocking the power out, so I'm grateful that we got an almost-hot meal. On the down side, we sat at the diner counter to get faster service, which didn't happen. The place was full, but not with a line waiting. Still, 1.5 hours for eggs, hashbrowns, and toast was a bit extreme. Nothing is made fresh as far as I could see - just frozen meat and potatoes thrown on next to the eggs. The other problem with sitting at the counter is that we saw "behind the curtain." The kitchen was disturbingly dirty, beyond what I expect even from a "greasy diner," and the cook didn't wear rubber gloves, which might have been ok had I not seen him touching his face, wiping his hands off on his jeans, and then touching food. Eventually we got our food, it was warmish, and cheap, and we didn't get food poisoning. I'd eat there again if nothing else was open. read more

Updated Review: To be honest, the first time I went into Penny's with relatively low expectations given the volume of negative reviews associated with this casual diner. But after leaving dinner with a full stomach and a good experience, I said I'd give Penny's another shot in the future. At our first visit, my girlfriend and I were recent arrivals to Alpine still figuring out what eating establishments are open at the odd hours we seem to get hungry, so one of her local family members suggested we give Penny's a try. They stated it was under new management and that many of the past gripes highlighted in online reviews had been addressed. Tired of other basic late night choices in the city, like McDonald's or Sonic, we went for it. The first thing you notice is Penny's neat atmosphere, with its quintessential Americana diner feel. Booths and barstools line one side of the restaurant overlooking an open kitchen. The menu is very much what you'd expect, with burgers to breakfast items available at all hours. Service on that first visit seemed just fine at the time, with a single cook working the kitchen, a waitress at the tables, and a woman stationed at the cash register. It wasn't super busy, so no problem. However, during subsequent visits, even when the place didn't appear busy, the time from ordering to each person receiving their food has skyrocketed. Our last visit took two hours, and each member of our four-person party got their food one after another, despite ordering at the same time. By the time my food arrived (the last), the first diner in our group had long-finished eating, and the others were on their final bites (after having intentionally slowed their eating pace to be polite). The food itself is not anything super special or otherwise unique; it's comfort diner food served in moderate-to-decent portions at a normal price. I'd be happy to return to such eats whenever the mood strikes, if getting the food wasn't such a long drawn out process. Other reviewers complain about the cleanliness of the establishment, but we've seen nothing to gripe about on that front. Penny's isn't the height of fine dining in a sterile atmosphere, just like any other diner-like eatery of similar ilk. There is no discernible "chemical smell" others have mentioned, and we've seen no flies overrunning the place (even though our visits have coincided with the buggy summer months). Penny's is a simple diner with the benefit of being open 24/7 in a town where late-night options are otherwise nonexistent. Definitely beats going to the gas station convenience store for a 2 AM hot dog pulled off a roller machine... just be warned that a quick meal isn't necessarily going to be had on each visit. read more

Where do I begin???? Started out that they were out of lemon (for tea). Ok thats fine. Then the dishwasher guy was taking half-eaten bacon off of peoples dirty plates and putting them in a to-go box next to where they cook food. He saw me looking and he said it was for his dog. The cook was using his fingers to pick out egg shells out of scrambled eggs he was cooking. Waited 40 minutes and we never got our finger-picked food. Out the door we went, never to return. read more

This restaurant was disgusting! When we first got there we decided on getting a window seat. We sat down and by the time we got our drinks we realized there were bugs all over the window ledge! It was so bad that they were getting in our drinks. We moved tables on the other side of the restaurant in a different booth. I could see all the filth behind the counter. I would have left if it wasn't for my boyfriend saying give them a chance. We got our food my blt had more bread than everything else put together. I could only taste all the mustard and bread and my daughter had a hair in her food! Disgusting! Went to the bathroom and of course that was filthy as well! I won't be coming back!! Included pictures!! read more

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Truly awful. Burnt burgers. A terrible fly problem. A hungover grill man in a dirty tee shirt. Indifferent service. Should have gone to McDonald's. Penny's looks like it could be good. It is in an authentic diner car of gleaming aluminum. It's got that 50's look inside and out. But this attention to detail is squandered by failing to execute on the basics. Burgers should be cooked not incinerated. The flies should be gotten rid of. This is simple fare. Do it well and you'll beat the only competition in town--that McDonald's down the road. Do it the way you're doing it now and I'll spend my money elsewhere. read more

We sat down here and waited 10 minutes for someone to even come and attempt to take our order. When the waitress came over she just stared at us for a while then said it would take just a hour or longer to get our food. After waiting for 10 minutes to even get service, we gladly got up and took our money and business to Magoos down the street where we got service in a matter of seconds after sitting down. Don't go here!! read more

Have been here a few times with my family and this place is one of the worst in Alpine. The food is overpriced and the portions are small. The overweight Hispanic cook with the glasses should be fired. Half the time he doesn't clean the grill and charred pieces of food end up in your order. Also, he doesn't seem to be able to read the tickets because something is usually wrong with the order. Maybe we'll go back again if they change the staff and improve their management. read more

This place was an unexpected gem! Sounds like they have a whole new staff and menu and according to the older reviews, it is a complete 180. Food was good and super fast! The server (the woman with the purple hair) and cook (man with long hair) were both so friendly and helpful!! So glad we stopped for dinner- might be popping by tomorrow morning for breakfast too! :) read more