Had breakfast here at 9 AM on a Saturday morning. Note that they only take cash and local checks. Filled with locals, we scored a table at the back right away. Remember to pick up your menu from the bin on the wall. We ordered quickly and the food came out in a reasonable period of time. Meal was cheap, straightforward and satisfying. The portions were appropriate, not overly generous. We all cleaned our plates. Breakfast for 2 adults and 2 kids was $25 and that included the tip. Friendly service, local color & good food. Go!
Review Source:A tasteful step backwards in time, for price, cuisine and ambience.  We regularly send our clients from the Luray KOA to eat here because everyone wants to sample local fare and avoid fast food.  Well this little unassuming café is the essence of country diners.  Every guest we send here comes back raving about the experience AND the delicious home-cooked meals.  The staff is very friendly so get used to country style service, the way it used to be.  Remember this is where all the locals eat... including us.
Review Source:Really old school place and a delicious one! The boy and I were in the area for a long weekend and had two breakfasts here. The staff were super friendly and remembered us when we came back the second day.
We had a little bit of everything from the breakfast menu cuz we're hungry hippos. Highly recommend the homemade sausage patties and pancakes. The sausage patties were thick, fresh, perfectly seasoned and greasy - everything you'd want from an old school diner. They were easily some of the best sausage patties I've had. The pancakes were fluffy with varying sizes - the first day they were the size of a dinner plate and the second day slightly smaller. Coffee is decent for a diner in the middle of nowhere.
Prices were just like what you'd want to pay for a diner in the middle of nowhere - very reasonable. Even with the amount of food we had, we walked out of the restaurant each day having paid less than $15 for both people. What a delicious bargain by DC standards!
What a great hidden gem! Â The locals know all about it of course, but if you want the best breakfast in town, this place is it! Â Freshly squeezed orange juice, friendly staff, quick service, and great prices - it just can't be beat! Â Wish I had a place like this near my house back home.
Review Source:Came here yesterday for dinner with our neighbor and her grandchildren. Â Have been here many times, and decided to give it a review.
Food is always good. Â Like many of these reviews mention.......seafood may not be their specialty. Â But then it is a roadside diner. Â Hamburger steak with onions is very good.
Service is always good and very friendly. Â Kids enjoyed the meal and the jukebox.
The inerior is nothing to write home about. Â It is your typical "diner" decor, however, it adds to the personality of the place and it wouldnt be the same place if i got "redone". Â Although a bit aged, it is always kept very clean and tidy.
I come her every couple of months or so and have never left dissatisfied.
When in town, head south on 340 and enjoy a little true Americana!!
I took my extended Charlotte family to experience Americana rather than Uptown. Hawksbill was a hit again.
If you love a diner, love Hawksbill. Like another local reviewer, part of me wants to keep it secret and sacred. But all should enjoy this lost slice of America.
I am lucky to have lived here all my life and lived this life each day. Visitors, enjoy it and take this spirit with you.
As well as a belly full of country fried steak. Enjoy!!!
For the sake of argument, imagine this is your first time to America. I'm going to channel some Jay McInerney here, to get you in the scene. You're driving down these country routes like 340 - or whatever it is - in and out of the Shenandoah range and its low-hanging fog. You're used to a the crowded cul-de-sac that is Western Europe or the Middle East and have come Stateside to find sprawling land and picturesque farmhouses, dilapidated but functional. Cows in pasture, horses by the river. And here you are cruising in your rental car, maybe still adjusting to the "wrong side" of the road, and you find yourself parked in the lot of Hawksbill Diner.
This is America, Americana at its best. Old men enter wearing three-piece suits; women in church clothes and floppy hats, despite it being a Tuesday; a farmhand in stained overalls. The waitress - because there's really only one for the restaurant - is eager and patient, a hard worker as most are in this part of the country. And the food, it's down-home Southern cooking. It's a question of expectations, though. I agree with  Stephen S.'s analysis of the less positive responses to the diner. Why would someone order the seafood platter? No idea.
I ordered the double cheeseburger (for $3.50, mind you) and an order of curly fries. I'm sure the grease is a reused batch, I'm sure the burger was cooked on a hot grill with bits and pieces of other entrees burnt to the surface. It's a roadside diner, in all its wonderful cliche and delicious predictability. The club sandwich came with turkey breast and ham shaved thick, the bacon far from crispy, which isn't a criticism in my opinion. The chicken and dumplings, the daily special, seemed to be popular among the locals, who upon entering asked questions like "Who's cooking today?" Apparently, their orders depended on the chef.
For those passing through the Shenandoah, perhaps staying in nearby Luray or Stanley or Culpeper, this is a stop worth making! Luray has its own charm and a few restaurants; the same for Culpeper. However, none of these places have quite the same atmosphere as the Hawksbill Diner. Order the whole menu and you'll still only spend $10/person, less than a cocktail in my current Philadelphia home. Take the country roads and you'll stumble upon gems like this one.
Simple country-style at its best! Â During our Shenandoah family adventure recently, we stopped for lunch at a good old fashioned country diner... excellent food, service and ambience - not to mention clean and nifty! I had an old standard of Liver & Onions, mash potatoes and a side of pickled beats - terrific. Seven of us ate full meals for just under $65! Don't look for 5 stars here, it's something better - real folk, real food, real talk and a real relaxing country feel. Enjoyed everything about Hawksbill... We'll be back... the area's got a few reputable wineries we look forward to visit. When you're in the area, we highly recommend this local gem - - we're coming back here next time we're in the area!
Review Source:What a jewel!!! My husband and I had breakfast there this morning on our way from Loft Mountain to Hedgesville WV...some of the best pancakes we've ever had, generous serving of sausage and the poached egg was perfect. We had never heard of the restaurant but saw a pretty full parking lot and that's usually a pretty good indication that the food is good, so we decided to stop. Both the food and the service were very good. Seemed authentic to the area.
Review Source:Here is a real American classic with simple regional specialties served in an unpretentious setting. My wife had the country steak with white gravy and I the chuck wagon steak with brown gravy. Both were tender and flavorful.The mashed potatoes and green beans were good. I was not happy with the red beet pickled egg but that is because I am from Central Pennsylvania and know how they should be made. Service was pleasant and efficient. The menu has a lot of simple basic food as served in diners through the 1960s. Not like the sterile gussied up cuisine served in modern fake diners. Stop here if you are traveling along US 340 and would like to eat like Americans used to eat.
Review Source:I'm not going to tackle a review of my diner-style breakfast at the Hawksbill other than to say that the eggs, bacon, etc. breakfast was exactly what I needed and exactly what I expected from this local greasy spoon. Â Probably a four-star but I'm giving five simply to average out what I see as an unfair attempt on the part of "Elite" reviewer Zachary H to blame the Hawksbill for his own mistake.
Let's say you're an Elite reviewer, which I assume, without any research, means that you've reviewed a lot of businesses -- many of those being establishments where food is eaten. Â So here you are, an experienced eater who has taken on the responsibility for reviewing eating places for others and you find your eliteness out in the mountains of Virginia, an approximately 4 hours' drive and 200 miles from the ocean without accounting for crushing traffic. Â Why on Earth would you order the seafood platter!? Â Fried Calamari! Â Fried Oysters! Â How can that possibly seem like a good idea? Â If nothing else, the Hawksbill should be giving HIM one-star for poor judgment. Â
There's a good chance I was there at the same time fellow-reviewer Brian was there this past weekend and he's spot on (he shied away from the frontal attack on Zachary H. for a more "there's some things you just don't order (i.e., seafood)" strategy), but the gist is this: Â When you look at a menu, you have to know some things are good ideas and some are not. Â When you're at a more-or-less ramshackle, cash and in-county checks only diner in the middle of rural Virginia, biscuits and gravy are a good idea, Oysters are not. Â Country ham is a good idea, calamari is not. Â I suppose he tried to redeem himself with the country-fried steak order (a generally good choice), but by the time you get to that in his review, he's just lost all credibility.
Go to the Hawksbill with good judgment and you will not be disappointed.
Friendly staff, good southern cooking, small town flavor. If you want sweet, salty, and/or fried ... this is the place. We went twice in 3 days and I would return if I go back to the area. I tried fried chicken one day and eggs with bacon the next. There are some things on the menu (ie seafood) that just do not seem right to order there. However, if you stick to the basics and this type of food is to your liking ... enjoy.
Review Source:Wow. Could not disagree more with the first reviewer. I wanted to love this rustic American diner that serves up $5.00 entrees, but I absolutely hated it. I love American diners, but Hawksbill is aweful. Our seafood platter consisted of fried calamari, fried shrimp, fried fish, and fried oysters. Everything tasted of the same deep fried overused oil. We couldn't finish it. My country fried steak was incredibly salty, though did come with some decent macaroni and cheese.
Needless to say, we will never return. Stanely and Luray have a number of other options that I trust will be better.
Half of me says not to write this review because I don't want to expose my secret place. Â The other half says that my love for it should be shared with others. Â So here goes.
If you ever find yourself way out near Stanley (probably because you're visiting Luray or Shenandoah National Park), and you have a hankerin' for quick, cheap, yummy down home country cookin', you have to stop in here. Â Be advised, there will be regulars here who have been coming in for oh, say the last 50 years of their life, and they may look at you strangely because you obviously "ain't from around here." Â But these folks are friendly so fear not.
I have been eating at this diner my whole life, and on visits home I started taking my out-of-towner boyfriend to eat here. Â Nowadays he pretty much requests that we stop in every single time we're in town.
Getting to the point.....the food here is what you might expect at a country diner....hearty and filling. Â Their menu always has an insert with the "vegetables" of the day, a list which can often include such things as macaroni and cheese, cole slaw, and rice pudding (because of COURSE those are veggies). Â My elder kinfolk swear by the breakfast plates in the morning and country fried steak for lunch or dinner. Â And don't leave before scarfing a slice of cherry or chocolate pie.
They only accept cash, but a typical dinner should pretty much never cost you more than $10, including a drink. Â Can't beat that!
The 5 best restaurants in the 2015 Denver Restaurant Week
3,611 Views | Category: Denver
The complete list of 2015 Denver Restaurant Week businesses
1,972 Views | Category: Denver
The tourists' guide to Portillos: 5 must have dishes
3,318 Views | Category: Chicago
Pho = Pronounced "fuh" not "foe" for pho-king sake
2,915 Views | Category: Denver
Indulgery selected to exhibit at Collision Conference
2,987 Views | Category: Press Releases
Not Logged In
BUSINESSES
Local Businesses
Near Me
My Favorites
SOCIAL
Blog & News
MY ACCOUNT
Login
Register
Contact Us
Add Your Business
