By: Adriana Duarte ’27
The Riverdale Diner in Shelton, Connecticut opened for the first time in 1991 by a man named Chris Bargas. Chris Bargas originally bought the land to build the restaurant in 1987. The Riverdale Diner, located at 521 River Road, Shelton, Connecticut is a family run establishment and has been since the early 90’s. They have a wide variety of a classic diner menu accented with Tex-Mex influences and seasonal changes. The diner’s hours of operation are Sunday-Saturday 8AM to 8PM. It currently has a 4.4 star review and prices typically range from $10-20 per person, so I decided to give it a try.
When I finally went to complete my review of the diner, I was accompanied by my mother, father and sister. We went on Sunday 11/16/25 during the evening around 5:30 P.M. It was a comforting environment, good lighting and a traditional interior design. When we walked into the diner there was already a host welcoming us with warm, comforting arms! They immediately took us to our booth, no wait needed. We got a server right away who was prepared to take our drink orders. My mother ordered a hot chocolate, my dad ordered a coke, I got a Shirley Temple and my sister ordered water. Our server took our orders down quickly and was good about making sure all orders were confirmed by each of us. The wait for the drinks was not long at all, 5 minutes max! Additionally, after we ordered drinks, another waitress came and gave us all a cup of ice cold water, for free.
After a short wait for drinks, our waiter came back and took our food orders. This wide variety of options in the picture above is only a portion of their whole menu! This side of the menu was for the savory lunch-dinner time options. My dad ordered a bacon egg and cheese sandwich with hash browns on it, my mother ordered an original burger, no cheese with mushrooms and caramelized onions with a side of fries, my sister ordered buffalo chicken mac and cheese with a side of fries and coleslaw and I ordered a bacon avocado cheeseburger with fries as the side.
The wait time for our food was longer than the wait time for the drinks but not excessively long. We waited about 20 minutes.
The picture above is my meal–the avocado bacon cheeseburger with fries and my Shirley Temple. Once all of our food came the waiter made sure to ask us if we had everything we needed and made sure that we were all set and satisfied with what we had gotten. All the food was hot, fresh, and visually appealing. My mother and I both had burgers and we think that the burger was cooked medium well as we had requested. It had an amazing charred grill taste! My sister enjoyed her mac and cheese and even took some home! My dad devoured his sandwich and enjoyed all of it!
We continued eating and our waiter continuously checked up on us to make sure nothing was wrong and that we were enjoying everything. We finished shortly after that and the waiter came around quickly with our to-go boxes. It took us about 5 minutes to pay the bill, pack everything up and leave.
Their goodbye was just as warm as their welcome. The service was amazing, they were very kind and accommodating and wait times were immaculate. I would rate this restaurant 5 stars out of 5! I would definitely recommend this diner to other families to come here for holidays, brunches and any other special occasion.
The Raider Press 