Rudford’s Restaurant

Rudford’s would remind you of a typical TV diner. Service is always friendly, food comes out quick, menu is large and has a lot of variety. However, it doesn’t offer a ton of flavor and I would venture to say it’s a little pricey for diner food.
I will say, I think that they have the best crinkle cut fries in SD and their chicken noodle soup was very good as well.

An authentic classic diner that opened in 1949 and is open ²⁴⁄₇. The red leather seats are plush and comfy. The food is good quality and come in large portions. For example, the fried chicken filet that comes in the chicken and waffles is really tasty, with nice breading, seasoned with fried garlic and cracked pepper, and is not too oily. The waffles, on the other hand, are super fluffy with a good solid exterior. Their milk shakes use fresh tasting whip cream and ice cream. I love the ambience of this place and how it can make you feel like you walked through a time machine.

Server was very hard working and sweet but the food just sucks :-(very greasy and bland bummer.

This place is like a fancy Denny’s. Sounds like an insult, but that’s not the case.
I grew up eating at Denny’s. It was a quick, inexpensive way to have a group social hour. This extended into my college years until one day I realized the food was simply horrific.
I have grown to love family style dinners and greasy spoons. I love the ambiance, ordering options and price points.
Enter Rudford’s.
Located in a busy residential area, the restaurant visually sticks out. Open 24/​7, it is a warm welcome.
We drove by in the afternoon and were instantly attracted. A quick view on Unilocal,and I bookmarked it.
We were seated for a meal only seven hours later.
I enjoy Rudford’s for its quintessential diner essence. It’s home grown and worn. I can see jazz musicians and their roadies dining here decades ago after a set.
The food is ample. Inexpensive. And quick. Service is attentive.
The eggs Benedict is simple. The hollandaise sauce has a strong tinge of lemon, which was unexpected, but not offensive.
The BLT is neat and clean. Not too much mayonnaise. And served with thick cut onion rings.
The biscuits and gravy had begun to spill off the plate. Ginormous serving.
I highly recommend a visit, whether at 10 in the morning, or 3 a.m.

So I have to say that this restaurant is as good as they say. I have been here twice and had a great experience every time. From the service to the food I have no complaints.
I tried their burgers the Philly steaks and onion rings, all were delicious.
The service here was great and surprisingly full for 2:00 in the morning. They are quick to ask what you would like to drink, and never leave you waiting. They constantly come to your table just to make sure your food is great and if they can help you with anything else.
What made me give this restaurant 5 stars was the fact that they had a regular there that was in pain & they called a ambulance to help him get to the hospital. They did that in a calm fashion way, instead of kicking him out they helped him in every way possible! For that they get 5 stars.

Customer service and food was okay. Nothing out if the ordinary, but also nothing memorable.
I came to this diner for breakfast with several friends. We were greeted, seated, orders were taken and breakfast was served promptly. I ordered scrambled eggs, sausage, toast and orange juice. Everything was cooked as requested.
Overall, this was a typical diner experience where you can order basic dishes.

Kool place after a long day at work around 11:30pm lol loved the buffalo chicken cheese fries!!! My fav! :-)

3 or 4 stars? I gave them 4 because they’re open ²⁴⁄₇. I like this place. The first time I went, I went I ordered T-​Bone steak eggs. Not bad at all for a Diner. The toast however was stale.
The 2^nd time I went I ordered the Chicken and Waffles. They cover the chicken and waffles with bacon which is a plus. You can’t go wrong with bacon. The chicken though is a flat chicken breast. It’s wasn’t bad but when you serve a piece of fried chicken breast like this, you really need some type of gravy on it, and Syrup doesn’t really cut it. The waffles were pretty good. I ended up ordering two eggs with it just to top everything off.
I will return because I like these type of places… just keep in mind it’s on El Cajon Blvd. what happens on El Cajon Blvd. stays on El Cajon Blvd. IJS!
NOTE: Their parking lot is right next to some apartments, some lady had nerve to to yell out her window for us to keep it down when we were leaving. Really Lady. you moved right next to a Diner on El Cajon Blvd?

Great service and I have my favorite dishes here. The benedicts are all gooood! The Mexican benedict is my boyfriends favorite one I love the classic and corned beef beny.
The mozerella sticks by far are my favorite here.

I can remember it like it was yesterday…
I came in late with the munchies and ordered a burger. Took a bite and it tasted off. It tasted like an old patty salvaged from someone else’s plate and used for a new order. I lifted the bun to take a closer look and HOLY HELL! THESE GUYS HAD THE NERVE TO USE HALVES OF TWO DIFFERENT BEEF PATTIES TO MAKE UP ONE BURGER PATTY.
I can’t talk about this anymore.

Been going to Rudfords since I was a kid, eggs Sunnyside
up toast with hash browns and a hamburger patty, doesn’t get better than that!

This place is awesome! It’s delicious for breakfast, lunch, dinner & late night whatever!!! We have now tried the dinner & late night snack menu! I had a bacon cheeseburger with avocado & it was sinfully delicious paired with a strawberry shake! My friend had the buffalo cheese fries… Apparently they’re a thing & well they are a Delicious Finger Licking Thing!!! I just can’t stop recommending this place & am enjoying making my way through the menu!!!

My bf loves breakfast… so on the weekends, it’s a must! I have such a hard time finding a breakfast place that he would like. Nothing foofoo… just your all American traditional breakfast. I love sleeping in on the weekend and I only really get to on Sundays. It was getting late in the day… so it was more like a late brunch. Most places stop serving breakfast and brunch around 2 or 3 pm and he was starving! Where to go, where to go… that is also close by. Unilocal to rescue, and came across Rudford’s, and all American diner, open ²⁴⁄₇ serving breakfast all day. Done!
I’m horrible with directions and almost passed this place up! I scored amazing parking right on the street in front of the restaurant. The restaurant was not packed and we got a seat right away. Olga was our waitress, she was quiet, but really nice. My bf was so happy to see they served breakfast all day long. I’m the kind of person that only likes breakfast in the morning, but I make some exceptions to something I love eating, and that is breakfast pork chops!
Breakfast pork chops is like my unicorn. It’s so hard to find delicious perfectly cooked chops. In my mind I was really wanting some amazing hash browns… but when I saw pork chops on the menu I had to try them! Honestly I was dreading my worst fear… a ruined overcooked sad piece of leather that resembled a pork chop. When my dish finally arrived, my pork chop glistened. I was excited to dig in! It was better than I hoped for! My dish was a single chop with two eggs over easy with hash browns and a side of wheat toast. (Yup, that is my typical pork chop order!) The hash browns were not great, but wasn’t horrible. Nothing special about the eggs, but that pork chop… OMG! It was the best breakfast pork chop I had in a very long time. It was slightly breaded and perfectly cooked. It was tender, juicy and so flavorful. It was so good that I only gave my bf a small piece to try and that was it. I really didn’t want to share, and I didn’t even want to try his dish. He ordered sausage and eggs with a pancake side. He also ordered the JFK Bacon milk shake. I tried it… and its better separate. Bacon and a vanilla milk shake… separate.
I was genuinely surprised by how much I liked my dish and the only thing I was bummed about was that I didn’t get two chops! It was not pretty but it was finger licking bone gnawing deliciousness! (Sadly…Juan E. has pictures!)

The food was moderate, not the best but fine. The service wasn’t that great & we caught our server stick her hands on our food. Not really sure we’ll ever be back.

This place is a legendary spot. Not just for its historical significance (Kennedy!), but because it has good vibes and very classic food. Always order the House salad, but daaaaaaaaaaang if the eggs Benedict variations aren’t all equally amazing. If you love a good, delicious, decadent breakfast ANY TIME!!!, go for rudfords… I seriously have no idea how Dennys even stays open being in such close proximity to this place!

Definitely worth checking out to get your diner fix. I’ve done breakfast here a few times. The coffee is always topped off in a timely fashion and the servers are pleasant. This place is a staple on El Cajon Blvd. It has been here for 65 years and shows no signs of closing anytime soon.

Oh baby Jesus please help me…
For some reason I was up very late last night so me and my «friend» decided to go grab some food. Rudfords is open 24/​7, and I have never been so I thought we might give it a shot.
Well… let’s just say the food is… umm… edible? The food here tastes like something you would get from a hospital or school cafeteria. The food is very basic and bland, the desert tasted rancid and the whole experience was less than acceptable.
I would not recommend coming here… even if you are craving crappy late night food, go to Dennys or IHOP.

The food was absolutely incredible!
Big portion for a reasonable price.
The waitress late at night seemed as if she didn’t know what was going on, nonetheless she was still nice and brought us all that we needed.
We will 100% be back!
Definitely somewhere if you need comfort food, or somewhere quiet to sit and write, draw, ponder your thoughts. You know the shpeel.
SOOOOOO gooooood!

Very delicious. We had a club and a bison burger. Salad is yummy and fresh. Family friendly.

I haven’t gone to breakfast in years. For some reason I was craving some chicken fried steak. On my way to Denny’s, a classic, I passed this place. Living in the area for 5 years now thought it was time to give it a shot.
Regrets.
The service was good. And the food came out fast. It was clean and a nice spot.
The food was disgusting. It even had a weird odor. I have never refused to pay for food or asked for something else before, but I contemplated it. The steak looked sick and my jaw is sore from chewing on the rubber it. Ate my toast and mediocre hash browns. Two bites of the steak was enough.
Back to Denny’s.

We were in the area for a soccer tournament. The girls wanted to find a place they could order milk shakes. Of course, I hopped on Unilocal and this place was close and it had above average rating.
There is private parking in lot plus street parking with meters. Either way, we didn’t have any trouble finding spot in the lot.
The ambiance is retro diner casual. The menu is a huge two sided glossy page with tons of options crammed on both sides.
They serve breakfast all day here with lots of breakfast dishes.
I ordered the veggie burger with onion rings, my husband ordered a buffalo burger and my twin ordered a regular burger, the other twin had breakfast. They also ordered chocolate milk shakes.
The food came out surprisingly fast. It was hot. The server kept our drinks filed and was on top of everything!
They have a special offer to anyone who can eat the Big Nick, a four layer burger with an egg and hash browns on top of each layer with a side of fries, a free meal on the house and a T shirt plus your picture on the wall of fame. All within 30 minutes. If you snooze you lose and you pay $ 20 and your picture goes on the wall of shame.
It’s a huge order but if you’re hungry and can tackle a portion that big, it seems like a great deal and fun too!
We will be back.

First time here and I ordered the Mexican style Eggs Benedict (Don’t remember the actual name…) It was AMAZING!!! Looooooved it! Oh the rest of the gang liked their meal as well, I wasn’t expecting much but it meet and exceeded my expectations ;)

I LOVE Rudford’s breakfast! I’ve tried a few things so far and my top two favorites are the chicken and Waffles (Seriously better than Roscoe’s) and the breakfast croissant. Check out that picture, you can’t deny it, this sandwich is SEXY.
The staff is awesome, there is always parking in the back and they have the fastest service! It’s my favorite local breakfast spot. I can’t wait to try their dinner too, the menu was recently expanded and the new items are SO alluring. I’ll be back with an update!

Delicious! My party of 6 came here on Christmas morning at about 830 am and there were still enough seats! I forgot what each of us ordered but I remember trying them all and it was good! It’s just your average American/​Mexican breakfast and I love breakfast. First time in San Diego so I can’t wait to try other food places!
Also the people and service were nice and helpful. No complaints about anything whatsoever.
Last note: if you want to use the bathroom, you have to ask any of the waiters and they’ll give you a token where you insert the token at the door dangle of the bathroom to get in. Super unique!

Definitely a SD GEM this old diner has satisfied my soul on many occasions.
The machaca con huevos is the best in West, I promise.
Great staff that has been there for decades a solid 5!

I took the time to read some reviews before I headed out to this place tonight, and I wanted to like this place– I really did.
I want to start off this review by saying this was BY FAR THE WORST SERVICE EXPERIENCE I HAVE EVER HAD.
When we arrived no one greeted us, although there was a woman standing at the counter. The sign said to seat yourself, so we did. A busser (I would assume) came over to get a drink order. There was no formal introduction or welcoming process– the man just said «you want something to drink?». My boyfriend asked for a Pepsi and the guy said yes, but went over to the Coca-​Cola machine and filled a glass. He didn’t even look at me for a drink order, he just walked off. He returned with my boyfriend’s drink and at this point I had to place my drink order. We would have appreciated being told that they didn’t have Pepsi, not just being served Coke. So I order a milkshake, I ask the gentlemen TWICE if they have Oreos and he says yes. He repeats back to me an Oreo milkshake in broken English. At this point our server, Tiffani, enters the equation. She doesn’t introduce herself or say «hey guys” — she just asks us if we are ready to order. We place our food orders and she snatched the menus from our hands and walks off, without saying thank you or acknowledging us AT ALL. The man returns with a chocolate milkshake– which is definitely not what was ordered. He also walks off, before I even have the chance to tell him that’s not what I ordered. Our server, was pacing behind the bar and doing useless things. Like playing around at the front register– no customers, no tickets– just messing around. She’s not talking to tables at all, and seems to be avoiding tables. I wait for a couple of minutes because my boyfriend says she looks frustrated.
Let me just add at this point– my boyfriend and I both serve tables in a high-​stress environment. Not some Denny’s wannabe on El Cajon Blvd. We know what being weeded as a server looks like, and it’s NOT having only 5 tables in the entire restaurant and messing around at the register.
I finally find the heart to walk up to the counter (with no hope of her coming from behind it any time soon to check up on her tables) and tell her that my milkshake was incorrect. She doesn’t apologize. She tells me «we don’t have Oreos». So with all the kindness I have left in me I tell her «okay, I’ll just take a strawberry milkshake whenever you have a minute– no rush». She puts her hands on both sides of her head and let’s out a huge «HUHHHHHHHHFFF» while she walks off from me. No acknowledgment. Guys, I kid you not– this lady just grunted in response to my request. She walks across the bar and approaches the busser and starts reprimanding the man (who barely speaks English) in front of the entire restaurant.
I return to my table– feeling disrespected and the need to dart for the door. I wait a few minutes and the busser returns with a strawberry milkshake and I thank him as much as I can. Feeling sorry for him that he made the mistake of trying to help this Grinch-​of-​a-​woman, Tiffani.
Tiffani brings out our food and offers my boyfriend some ketchup for his burger, but gets annoyed when my boyfriend didn’t hear her and says in her most aggravating voice «DO YOU WANT KETCHUP” — like he might be mentally retarded.
My boyfriend’s burger looked good, but was mediocre at best. My waffle was ok but all I could think about was Tiffani grunting at me.
I cut into my sausage and its RED in the middle, not pink– RED. Like I said, I also work in a restaurant and I know if the pork is a pure-​cut like ham– it can be pink. But if it’s something like sausage, which is ground pork– it should have absolutely NO pink tinge.
I make the mistake of waiting for Tiffani to return to check on us, which she obviously never does. So again, I have to get up from my booth and approach her at the register-​where she plays with a pen. Upon walking over, I make eye contact with her and instead of taking the initiative of asking me if everything is «ok». She rolls her eyes and looks the other way. I approach the counter anyways and explain my dilemma. NO APOLOGY. She doesn’t ask what I’d like to do about it, or if I’d like a replacement. She instead looks me directly in my eyes and grunts. Not once, folks– but twice already. She walks off towards the kitchen and returns to my table with a side plate. She doesn’t take the initiative of grabbing the plate and bringing it to the kitchen, she expects me to scoop the undercooked sausage on to the plate she has presented me with. She doesn’t say a single word. After a couple minutes of waiting, she flings a plate with new sausage on to the table as she walks by.
At this point, there is quite a few upset guests. We get our bill and pay.
Tomorrow I will take the time to call the restaurant and speak to a manager directly. I have never felt more disrespected and I will see to it that Tiffani does not serve another table at Rudfords.

Growing up not too far to the East from here, I remember having some memorable breakfasts here as a kid with my Mom. Haven’t been here in 20 years until the night before Thanksgiving, when my pregnant Wife and I needed some late night grub. This was the closest place to our Hotel that was open, and I am always down for some nostalgia when I come back home.
You can see this place from a block away, the neon lights are a bright fixture in the street, a gateway to University Heights. Parked in the back, and walked around to the front. Came in and it looks nicer than I remember. We seated ourselves, a made a jacket-​pillow for our kid that was still sleeping. Our Waitress came and took our drink orders. Coffee, water, and Lemonade.
My Wife saw the breakfast menu and immediately went that route. Forget that she wouldn’t shut up about sandwiches for the previous 2 hours before we got here, she now wants fecking freeeeench toooooaaast. Again. Pregnancy does this to her.
It came out as standard French Toast, not bad. COVERED in powdered sugar! I mentioned that our twins that she has in her womb might come out type1 diabetic if she eats all that sugar. She glared at me and gave me the death-​stare as she took her first bite.
I got a Reuben w/​fries. Not very good at all. The stale, processed Corned Beef and cheap bread put on less than a stellar sandwich, that’s for sure. Hardly ANY sauerkraut, and cheap, slimy pickles. I ate it because I was hungry, and it wasn’t horrible. It just wasn’t good. At leas the Waitress brought me out some «Grey Poupon» to douse it with.
The French Fries were better. Krinkle-​cut processed frozen fries. Cooked-​well, and at least I didn’t get all the nubs from the bottom of the bag, I got mostly long ones. That my Daughter stole off my plate anyways.
The Waitress was very nice, and refilled my coffee and water, even when it didn’t really need it. No harm in that. Coffee was OK. Prices were right.
Lemonade was tasty, good balance between tart and sweet.
I would like to come back and rereview, because I hate dropping a three-​star review on a place that is such a fixture in urban San Diego, and that has been a part of my childhood. Hopefully it will go better next time a come through the door, and it will be much sooner than 20-​years.

The food was so good that I forgot to take pictures, damn it! But on the bright side, this is one of the best places I have ever had breakfast at.
I had a crab, broccoli and jack cheese omelette with avocado, a side of four breakfast sausages links, toast and a short stack of pancakes (2 pancakes). A very delicious meal indeed, added some salsa and hot sauce to the omelette and pow! Sex in your mouth! The links were a good addition to the eggs with every bite. The pancakes were hot, fluffy and straight up melt in your mouth amazing!
Our server was cute and friendly. She made sure we had refills throughout our meal. And checked on us from time to time, it was also a busy Sunday so that was great.
This place is literally a diner and a pretty good one to say the least. This certainly won’t be my last visit here, so I’ll make another visit to try the burgers.

This place is a cool 24 hour diner… it’s been around for a long time (since 1949 according to the signs). Apparently JFK drove by the diner in his motorcade back in the day. The picture is enlarged and posted on the side of the building.
This diner is located on the corner of El Cajon and Kansas. It was late night (about 1:30am), so there was plenty of parking. I was greeted by my server. She was friendly and attentive, welcomed me to sit wherever I liked. The diner counter looked inviting, but I decided to grab a comfy booth.
My server brought me water and a menu. There is a lot to choose from, but I felt like having some breakfast. I ended up ordering blueberry pancakes, eggs (over easy), and bacon. As I waited for my food I sort of looked around. Place was nice and clean with some cool décor.
My food arrived in a timely manner and tasted alright. It was Denny’s-esque… not bad or good or great, just decent. I was just hoping for it not to be bad and my expectations were met.
So overall I’d rate the place 3.5 with the breakdown:
Service: ⁴⁄₅
Food: ³⁄₅
Décor: ⁴⁄₅
I wouldn’t mind returning and trying other items on the menu.

Stopped in late night after a long day. I ordered a Turkey Club with Onion Rings and a slice of cherry pie — for my friend. The place had a few guests and some SDPD in the back of the restaurant. The young lady who waited on me was cool and friendly.
The club was good, the turkey was a little on the cheaper side, but the bacon was good — B–
The onion rings, I think I found my new contender for first place, they were really good — A
My friend said the cherry pie was good, I took a bite, it was okay, but not worth the $ 4.25 I paid for it. C+

In an attempt to drive home from work around 4AMish in the morning, I decided it was necessary to eat some breakfast before going home to take a nap. While I was tired of Denny’s, I opted to try out a local twenty four hour restaurant. My first instinct was to head over to Studio Diner, but supposedly they had changed their hours recently, didn’t feel like dealing with that. Somehow Unilocal steered me over to Rudford’s off El Cajon Blvd. I wasn’t really expecting to be wowed by the food here or anything, I just wanted some simple coffee and breakfast food super early in the morning.
I ordered the simple pancake combo (
) with some eggs and bacon. The pancakes came out cold and from the picture you can see they’re pretty much flat, not much effort went into making those things. The eggs were okay, their salsa (
) was absolutely delicious on the eggs though, by far the best part of the meal, too bad I can’t fill up on salsa alone. Bacon was burnt beyond belief, I didn’t know bacon could become that crispy. The coffee here is rather gross, watered down and burnt tasting. I know I can be a big coffee snob, but it just wasn’t good to drink.
First off I know its early and most likely the waitress here has been working all night as well but service was incredibly lousy. I felt a serious «why are you here» mood coming from her and she didn’t even bother to bring my bill over. I just showed up to the register wanting to desperately leave after my bad meal and lack of refills in coffee. To my surprise, she had just closed out the register and wasn’t able to take card transactions (who does this when a customer is going to be leaving soon?) Anyway, I didn’t care for the service or the food here, Rudford’s was a horrible choice in my opinion, should stick to other places when craving breakfast food after late night work. Would have scored a one star in my book, but that salsa was mighty good.

5 stars for the wet salad, (side salad with a buttload of ranch… this is the only reason why I ever come back here, because of this RANCH that I crave ²⁴⁄₇)
I ordered
A hot chocolate,
Pork chops dinner
With the dinner i had Obv frozen carrots and powdered mashies, the gravy was too strong… if that makes any sense.
I also received a custard with my dessert, it was alright until I started eating the very bottom a very sour and off taste, more like an expired taste.(not how a custard is supposed to taste) it was WEIRD.
The food is bland, nothing special you have to add pepper to everything. My girlfriend had a grilled cheese, I asked Herif it was okay. She said you can’t really !#@ a grilled cheese.
Just come here for the wet salad.
Customer service… didn’t really check on us… but what do you expect there is only two people working the entire night?

A neighborhood favorite since 1949.
Whenever the question is asked about ²⁴⁄₇ American diners other than Denny’s around San Diego, the list is short and has dwindled. Old school diner restaurants and 24-​hour kitchens are an endangered species. Rudford’s continues on. The bright neon lights up the building façade, calling out to hungry, weary travelers throughout the night.
I’ve been here a handful of times. Whether bringing the family or transporting a group of pub crawl drunks, parking has never been an issue and probably won’t be since there are fast food and taco shop options nearby, but Rudford’s spacious dining room and open countertop seating never closes.
Service is friendly and efficient. The vibe can be mellow or a madhouse depending on when you visit. We usually sit near the plate glass window facing The Boulevard that looks like it got shot at by a BB gun.
The full menu is available anytime. There are weekday specials and daily entrée features. They also have a seasonal holiday menu including desserts. I’m not going to attempt their Big Nick Challenge. Kudos to those who have conquered that billion calorie beast in under 30 minutes.
I liked Rudford’s Little Nick burger. It’s a hearty breakfast cheeseburger with a single patty, hash browns, fried egg, topped with white gravy. This is all the fuel you’ll need for a long day of lumberjacking or plowing the farm fields. I appreciate that the hash brown potatoes are from the flattop griddle instead of the fried rectangles variety.
Trends fade and the neighborhood landscape may change, but I hope Rudford’s sticks around for many more years.