Nations Cafe

I love this place. The diner style food is good and the wait staff is attentive… but as some others have noticed, they sometimes add a dollar or two tip without you knowing and hoping you won’t notice when you review your bank statements. I’m guessing the cashier or ownership is stealthily doing the tip con job.
I’ve stopped using credit card for this reason.
uPdate: Recently, I noticed mouse droppings ON the dining table behind the salt and pepper shakers and ketchup bottle. Eeeew. hope the health department doesn’t shut the place down… since it really is a nice diner otherwise.

Overpriced and just awful food. Seriously the worst, if you end up in this area just starve, you’re better off. The food is old and seems like its all been re-​heated.
Its terrible quality and very overpriced.

We had the basics, scrambled eggs, pancakes, orange juice, grapefruit juice and toast. Hard to mess that up. Service was friend and fast. It was close to our hotel and we got to see the UN building. Good music, window seat. It’s expensive, it’s NYC.

The food is ok, staff horrible, and ridiculous pricing. I ordered an oatmeal with a sliced banana and it costed me $ 7. The banana was $ 2 — on the bright side, they gave me a whole banana in a separate container.

Ordered a Ruben and sweet potato fries from this place. The order came quickly. Unfortunately the Ruben was probably the worst I have ever had. Could only get through two bites. The sweet potato fries were fine until I had almost finished them and found a hair. Avoid this place.

The biggest thing this place has going for it is that it is exactly one block from the entrance to the United Nations building. Tours of the UN are scheduled on very tight timeframes, and if you come early you have to stand outside and wait for your time slot… this is all thanks to the ⁹⁄₁₁ terrorist acts and the resulting increased security. All to say if you really do show up early, walk down the block and cross the street to this little café to while away the time. That said, don’t be in a hurry.
The food here was basic diner food… not great and not terrible. You could get an egg sandwich or something a bit more intricate or simply a bagel and cream cheese… but it all comes out on its own time. Really my only complaint is the slow service. the peeps were very nice and the food was passable, but the service was glacial.
We had eggs and bacon — nicely done, and a bagel — decent enough for New York. Coffee was good, if not plentiful… breakfast juices were the usual. We would return, but make sure to allow enough time. It is a great place to kill some time, but make sure they don’t trash your schedule.

Best chicken Caesar wrap I’ve ever had. I can’t say I’ve ever gotten excited by those but I’ve ordered it twice now and both times it really was great. Chicken is very flavorful, not just plain and tasteless, and the chicken is delivered hot and the lettuce crisp and chilled. Very good.

This is one of the best diners in New York City. Seriously. The food is always delicious. They deliver quickly. Service is great.

The food is ok. I ordered the Belgian waffle which was ordinary. Not good, but not bad. A little over priced though, so make sure you don’t get surprised by how much you spend on food here.

I walked by this place everyday and decided to stop for breakfast. pleasantly surprised that the food was fantastic and the prices are amazing. it is refreshing not to pay $ 20 for breakfast…

It’s warm and a cute little café. I ordered an omelet and when I received it the omelet was burned and smelled like egg foo yung. I was starving so I decided the ingredients inside would be good so I started to eat. Second bite in I found a short black hair strand which I had to pull off my tongue.
The staff was very friendly and offered to bring me something else and they handled it well.

If you’re looking for a nice place to eat some Great breakfast then this is your place

I admit, this review goes back ten years, but I haven’t been back not because of the food, service or prices. It was because the damned toilet overflowed after I used it, and I didn’t want a vengeful employee doing anything unpleasant to my food.
Now with that awful image in your mind, Nations is great diner quality food and affordable, which for Midtown on one of the Avenues is not easy to find. I had a pasta dish, and it was nice just to be able to sit for an hour away from the cacaphony on First Avenue.

Expect nothing other than diner food quality.
BUT THEY ARE SHADY!!!
However, I had called around 2AM on a Friday night to see if they were still open. And if so, my boyfriend and I would have placed an order to satisfy our midnight munchies. We called. They answered. So naturally, we placed an order that added up to a lump sum of $ 25 or so. My bf lives just down the street, so we decided to pick up the order instead of waiting 30 – 45 minutes for the delivery. We were so shocked though to see that the diner was closed! We called the number back and lo and behold, they pick up again, and I asked them to credit me back for the food that I will not be able to pick up. They did so compliantly but they probably only did so because they assumed that I would be too drunk to make my way over to the diner. I am sure they have gotten away with this exact scheme many many times before.
Please be careful.
Go to Madison Restaurant (also a typical diner), just a few streets up on 1^st Avenue. I believe it’s on 54^th street.

THIS PLACE STEALS FROM YOU
They add a $ 1.00 «credit card processing fee» to every meal that is paid with a credit card. This is added even if the bill does not meet a minimum as many places have. A $ 1.00 fee should not be added to a bill of $ 30.00.

Whenever I’m in the city, Nations Café is my friend’s go-​to-​place after a hard night of drinking. Its close, convenient, fast, and (relatively in the context of New York City prices) cheap.
They’ve got a good assortment of food. burgers, fries, breakfast foods like bagels/​lox, eggs, etc. There isn’t anything horribly notable about this place other than its location though.
Whenever I’ve come around to Nations Café in person on the weekend around noon, its relatively busy with only a few booths and tables available. Nations Café is pretty quick about delivery via seamless.

Basic diner food, really nothing special. My chicken souvlaki was dry and had no tzatziki as advertised, much less the extra that I requested. Fries were bland. Turkey club wrap didn’t look bad. Wait time for delivery was over an hour.

We were running to Open House New York at the United Nations. It was about 10:00 AM, and we had to be there by 10:30. Fellow Unilocaler, Jason C., and I were ultra hungry and we needed to find some grub for breakfast. We saw this little hole in the wall. I would’ve never went, if I wasn’t that hungry. So we ran in, ordered breakfast quickly. They had a bunch of different breakfasts on the menu — I had myself the western omelette the first time; and yes, we went the second time, I had myself the normal two eggs and a sausage kinda breakfast.
Possibly because I’m comparing the breakfast to places in Toronto, but I found this little hole in the wall to be pretty awesome. The coffee was really good and they ALSO gave us free orange juice which was impeccable as well.

What a charming diner near the UN. This diner is covered in beautiful murals by an artist named Flynn. My service was quick and friendly just the way I like it. I ordered a Monte cristo for brunch. Just what I had hoped for. A giant sandwich filled with hand carved turkey and ham. And good quality Swiss cheese. Yum! This is a great place to grab a quick bite.

We were tourists from the west coast looking for nourishment near the UN building. The food here is fair, but we found a hair in the pasta salad we ordered. Euw!
Points for having an ATM inside the door.