‘The overall vibe was total chaos’: Tesla Diner goes viral for long waits and mixed reviews

In case you’ve been living under a rock and haven’t heard, the Tesla Diner opened its doors in Hollywood last week, and online reviews have been pouring in.

While some raved about the food, others were left underwhelmed. One TikTok user said her family waited five hours to get into the retro-futuristic spot—a common complaint among reviews.

Sampling the entire menu, which is served in Cybertruck-shaped boxes, she gave the spicy chicken sandwich a 10 out of 10 and called the tuna melt a “sleeper hit.” The imaginatively named Tesla Burger, however, was “giving overcooked smash burger,” she said.

Another popular food reviewer, who posts under the handle @1hrlunchbreak, ordered $100 worth of food, including the hot dog (7.8 out of 10), the cinnamon roll (8.4), and the buttermilk biscuit with chorizo gravy—minus a missing egg—which still earned a 7. “Overall the food was good but I wouldn’t put anything in the 9s,” he concluded.

The online menu, created by Le Cordon Bleu graduate Eric Greenspan (who also helped launch MrBeast Burger), features items like a grilled cheese, Wagyu beef chili, fried chicken and waffle, breakfast taco, egg sandwich, fries, and a variety of drinks.

Rolling Stone reporter Miles Klee went viral on X after sharing an expectation-vs.-reality photo of the $12 “Epic Bacon” (now removed from the menu). “I mean quality of the meat and cooking aside, if you want to serve bacon like fries you might at least get the right size container,” he wrote.

Alongside the diner, the venue includes a drive-in movie theater (R.I.P. the neighboring apartments’ view), a charging station, and, often, gatherings of Tesla Takedown protestors. “This feels very dystopian,” one reviewer wrote.

Tesla owners can order from their cars and receive priority in line, but one Tesla-driving reviewer still described the visit as “the worst dining experience of my life.” Their Tesla app’s ordering feature didn’t work, which is reportedly a common issue. After joining the regular line and waiting more than an hour for their food, they eventually gave up and requested a refund. “The overall vibe was total chaos,” the reviewer said.

The diner has long been a dream of Elon Musk’s.

In 2018, the Tesla CEO tweeted, “Gonna put an old school drive-in, roller skates & rock restaurant at one of the new Tesla Supercharger locations in LA.” Seven years on, he declared the finished restaurant to be “one of the coolest spots in LA!”

That depends on who you ask. “The last place I want to end up is a parking lot full of Tesla drivers,” one TikTok user said. “I’d rather eat at an Applebees.”

https://www.fastcompany.com/91377388/tesla-diner-goes-viral-for-long-waits-and-mixed-reviews?partner=rss&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=rss+fastcompany&utm_content=rss