Mel's Diner

Chili cheese fries and tuna sandwich was good

Victor Lim

Jumped into Mel’s Diner for lunch at Universal Studios Hollywood. Not much expectations for a diner inside a Theme Park location. Turned out to be pretty good. Expensive but at least it is tasty and filled the stomach. Prices are before taxes. Mel’s Classic Burger @ US$14.99 | 7.0 out of 10. Nothing fancy. Typical cheese burger. Tuna Melt Sandwich @ US$14.49 | 7.5 out of 10. Tastes good but a bit on the smaller portion. Chilli Bread Bowl @ US$13.99 | 8.0 out of 10. Surprisingly it was good. 👍🏻 Regular sized Fountain Drinks are US$5.0 Hope this helps you decide which diner to have your lunch when you next visit Universal Studios Hollywood.

Michael Myers

Chili cheese fries and tuna sandwich was good

Definitely worth a visit for the fries and shakes. I had the Slider trio as pictures and food was passable. Staff was courteous although not on point. Definitely worth a visit for the quarter table jukebox and fries with a shake. Enjoy!!!

Only ate the food because I was starving, waited 49 mins for a seat and overpaid. Look at this chaos - this is the “ready for pickup” line. Fries were dry. Spicy chicken made me feel like I was going to sink to the bottom of the ocean.

Mediocre food and mediocre service, probably not worth a visit unless you’re really craving a burger or a diner experience. First, we couldn’t find anyone at the cashier to order our food, but luckily once we ordered, the food came out pretty quickly. We ordered the hot chicken sandwich. The sandwich was very greasy and the fries lacked taste so we slathered on the ketchup. They have these special machines but drinks did not have free refills unless you get a special cup. It was so strange that at such a busy part of the restaurant, the person decided to mop it right between tables where people were eating their food. Try to find another less busy time to mop, or mop another section first and come back when it is free. Overall, an underwhelming experience and if it weren’t that we were hungry, it isn’t worth it to try.

This Mel's Diner is right in the Universal Park. It has a 1950's retro Americano diner theme, not really sure if it is connected to the Original Mel's Diner. But would make sense since Universal Studios distributed the movie American Graffiti which featured a Mel's Drive In. To order, you place and pay with the cashier or via mobile to pickup your food at the counter. They call out order numbers, and ask to see your recipe for pickup. My fried chicken order took 30 minutes. The person right in front of me ordered the exact same dish. His order had no wait time, he got it within minutes. As I waited for my number to be called out, I stood by the pickup counter watching life. There was a young woman that asked about her order. She did not wait as long as me. I saw her order her food after me. The young man handing out the orders gave her a $12 milkshake for free for her "wait". He didn't ask, he just gave her one. He was very apologetic. But for me, he only offered a free fountain drink which one already came with the meal. I asked for a bottled water instead which he provided. But no milkshake for me. The fried chicken was served in a retro aluminum tv dinner tray. I was told the trays are not reused but were recycled. Not sure what if that was accurate info, sure hope so. Anyways, the pieces were a wing and a breast served with a , scoop of mashed potatoes n gravy, peas n carrots, and a frosted brownie. The chicken was ok. It was not bad tasting nor great either. Same with everything else. The brownie was chock full of HFCS. If they were aiming for a tv dinner taste and flavor, they nailed it.

unique tweek

Definitely worth a visit for the fries and shakes. I had the Slider trio as pictures and food was passable. Staff was courteous although not on point. Definitely worth a visit for the quarter table jukebox and fries with a shake. Enjoy!!!

Frankie B

Only ate the food because I was starving, waited 49 mins for a seat and overpaid. Look at this chaos - this is the “ready for pickup” line. Fries were dry. Spicy chicken made me feel like I was going to sink to the bottom of the ocean.

May Zhagro

Mediocre food and mediocre service, probably not worth a visit unless you’re really craving a burger or a diner experience. First, we couldn’t find anyone at the cashier to order our food, but luckily once we ordered, the food came out pretty quickly. We ordered the hot chicken sandwich. The sandwich was very greasy and the fries lacked taste so we slathered on the ketchup. They have these special machines but drinks did not have free refills unless you get a special cup. It was so strange that at such a busy part of the restaurant, the person decided to mop it right between tables where people were eating their food. Try to find another less busy time to mop, or mop another section first and come back when it is free. Overall, an underwhelming experience and if it weren’t that we were hungry, it isn’t worth it to try.

Lillian

This Mel's Diner is right in the Universal Park. It has a 1950's retro Americano diner theme, not really sure if it is connected to the Original Mel's Diner. But would make sense since Universal Studios distributed the movie American Graffiti which featured a Mel's Drive In. To order, you place and pay with the cashier or via mobile to pickup your food at the counter. They call out order numbers, and ask to see your recipe for pickup. My fried chicken order took 30 minutes. The person right in front of me ordered the exact same dish. His order had no wait time, he got it within minutes. As I waited for my number to be called out, I stood by the pickup counter watching life. There was a young woman that asked about her order. She did not wait as long as me. I saw her order her food after me. The young man handing out the orders gave her a $12 milkshake for free for her "wait". He didn't ask, he just gave her one. He was very apologetic. But for me, he only offered a free fountain drink which one already came with the meal. I asked for a bottled water instead which he provided. But no milkshake for me. The fried chicken was served in a retro aluminum tv dinner tray. I was told the trays are not reused but were recycled. Not sure what if that was accurate info, sure hope so. Anyways, the pieces were a wing and a breast served with a , scoop of mashed potatoes n gravy, peas n carrots, and a frosted brownie. The chicken was ok. It was not bad tasting nor great either. Same with everything else. The brownie was chock full of HFCS. If they were aiming for a tv dinner taste and flavor, they nailed it.

Do not order the tuna melt, the tuna we had was bad. Everyone who ate it went straight to the restroom 🚽

Hector Granados

Do not order the tuna melt, the tuna we had was bad. Everyone who ate it went straight to the restroom 🚽

Literally the worst food I have had in a long time. The bread is harder than rock, soup tastes worse and softer than purée. Chicken nuggets cold and obviously frozen. Fries were cold and stale. Honestly it seems like they don’t care about quality. I’d avoid and listen to the reviews.

Wow. This place was terrible. I don’t even know how they’re still open. We order the spicy chicken sandwich and it was awful. Flavors terrible oily just all around a bad sandwich. It definitely wasn’t worth the $12. Shoot it wasn’t worth a dollar off of McDonald’s value meal. The burgers were burnt and dry. This may be the worst restaurant at a theme park I have ever tasted around the world.

The worst place I've visited. Very overpriced. You have to stay in a line about 15 minutes. And you will be disappointed after. The Cesar salad is just greens and croutons. That's all for $13. The burger has cold bun and burnt meat. The fries is cold. The drink costs $4.5 and you can't refill it. Their machines are only for ice. If you want to get refill, you must stay in the line again 15 minutes. And they even don't have information display to see what orders are ready. So all people stand near the counter and interfere each other, fear of losing an order. And they don't have a restroom. You are not able to wash your hands.

This restaurant was the most terrible restaurant ever in my life. If you are reading this, feel lucky that you found out this review. It would save your life. This is an 100% real review of what we experienced. The service was horrible. When we were ordering, I literally was shocked about the cashier's attitude. But after, I realized that was just a bit. When we were waiting for the food, we saw the chef making the food. But he was literally like the sloth in zootopia! We were actually so mad. After 20 minutes, we asked them about how many minutes do we need to wait more. They said they are still making the food and there are 3 teams in front of us. We were kind of mad about that because we waited for so many minutes. When it has been 30 minutes, our food finally came out. We ordered 3 hamburgers and 1 hotdog, but they only gave us 3 hamburgers. So we asked them where is 1 hotdog. Cashiers asked to the chef and they said that they were out of hotdog. And we are finally so mad and frustrated. We said “Then, give me other burger or something. We have waited for 30 minutes and you are not giving the food.” We said to give other burger since they didn’t gave us the hotdog. Then, the cashier said “It would have need better to say ‘Please’.” You would have noticed about how we were so mad about this restaurant. The food was so bad too. The burger’s patty was black at the outside part and it was uncooked in the inside part. Also, the onion ring was to soggy and greasy. The only best thing there was coke.

This sorry excuse of a milkshake is probably 5 ounces of actual shake. It’s so skinny that they have to warn you about it tipping over which says a lot. I’d rather pay more for a proper shake or not get one at all. Took 3 sips and it was nothing but whipped cream left. It is definitely not made with ice cream. The fries were cold and tuna melt was way over cooked. Most other places in the park were fine. This place is a disappointment.

Was hoping for something really special, especially for 3 meals totaling over $50 dollars...but my daughter's chicken strips were dry and not edible and the bread crust on my very salty tuna melt was brick hard...unfortunate because the vibe was cool.

This price for this meal was a rip-off. To cut costs, it appears the restaurant didn't even offer fries. All orders had "tater tots?" What is the deal with that? I took a picture of the chocolate shake - tasty but so chintzy. These parks wonder why people bring food in! It is so expensive to eat and the food is poor. If the owners of Mel's saw how poor and overpriced the food is I'm sure they would move out of there!

Rawan Tahan

Literally the worst food I have had in a long time. The bread is harder than rock, soup tastes worse and softer than purée. Chicken nuggets cold and obviously frozen. Fries were cold and stale. Honestly it seems like they don’t care about quality. I’d avoid and listen to the reviews.

John K

Wow. This place was terrible. I don’t even know how they’re still open. We order the spicy chicken sandwich and it was awful. Flavors terrible oily just all around a bad sandwich. It definitely wasn’t worth the $12. Shoot it wasn’t worth a dollar off of McDonald’s value meal. The burgers were burnt and dry. This may be the worst restaurant at a theme park I have ever tasted around the world.

Nikita Bakli

The worst place I've visited. Very overpriced. You have to stay in a line about 15 minutes. And you will be disappointed after. The Cesar salad is just greens and croutons. That's all for $13. The burger has cold bun and burnt meat. The fries is cold. The drink costs $4.5 and you can't refill it. Their machines are only for ice. If you want to get refill, you must stay in the line again 15 minutes. And they even don't have information display to see what orders are ready. So all people stand near the counter and interfere each other, fear of losing an order. And they don't have a restroom. You are not able to wash your hands.

Yijia Zhang

This restaurant was the most terrible restaurant ever in my life. If you are reading this, feel lucky that you found out this review. It would save your life. This is an 100% real review of what we experienced. The service was horrible. When we were ordering, I literally was shocked about the cashier's attitude. But after, I realized that was just a bit. When we were waiting for the food, we saw the chef making the food. But he was literally like the sloth in zootopia! We were actually so mad. After 20 minutes, we asked them about how many minutes do we need to wait more. They said they are still making the food and there are 3 teams in front of us. We were kind of mad about that because we waited for so many minutes. When it has been 30 minutes, our food finally came out. We ordered 3 hamburgers and 1 hotdog, but they only gave us 3 hamburgers. So we asked them where is 1 hotdog. Cashiers asked to the chef and they said that they were out of hotdog. And we are finally so mad and frustrated. We said “Then, give me other burger or something. We have waited for 30 minutes and you are not giving the food.” We said to give other burger since they didn’t gave us the hotdog. Then, the cashier said “It would have need better to say ‘Please’.” You would have noticed about how we were so mad about this restaurant. The food was so bad too. The burger’s patty was black at the outside part and it was uncooked in the inside part. Also, the onion ring was to soggy and greasy. The only best thing there was coke.

Eric Choi

This sorry excuse of a milkshake is probably 5 ounces of actual shake. It’s so skinny that they have to warn you about it tipping over which says a lot. I’d rather pay more for a proper shake or not get one at all. Took 3 sips and it was nothing but whipped cream left. It is definitely not made with ice cream. The fries were cold and tuna melt was way over cooked. Most other places in the park were fine. This place is a disappointment.

Jassy Dallas Morton

Was hoping for something really special, especially for 3 meals totaling over $50 dollars...but my daughter's chicken strips were dry and not edible and the bread crust on my very salty tuna melt was brick hard...unfortunate because the vibe was cool.

Absolutely do not go there during busy times. They are very unorganized, charge you first before making you wait for 30 minutes. The food is prepared in advance and is just sitting there until cold before they give you your order.

Will Thomas

Absolutely do not go there during busy times. They are very unorganized, charge you first before making you wait for 30 minutes. The food is prepared in advance and is just sitting there until cold before they give you your order.

HW Y

Chicken pot pie is a joke. You're going to regret getting it. Costco Hot Dog and any frozen chicken pot pie is better than this. It opened at 1030am on the day of my visit.

Noreen Gurule

The food was good the first time we went the second time ..my fried chicken was so gross I only ate the chicken pieces in the crust. Very disappointing because the plate was $28 The service was good and the other people I went with they said their food was good . One had the turkey dinner and the other had the BLT salad. I don't think I'll be back though.