I don’t even know where to begin. I’ve eaten gas station food at 2 a.m. that was more satisfying than what we were served at the Manchester location. We’ve had consistently great experiences at the Londonderry branch, so we came in expecting a solid dinner.
What we got instead was an overpriced, borderline offensive mess disguised as a meal.
Four people. Four waters. Four plates of food that ranged from barely edible to is this a joke? $119.00. One very expensive culinary crime scene.
The only reason we stayed was because we were dining with my elderly, handicapped mother, and moving to another restaurant would have been a logistical nightmare. Otherwise, we would’ve walked out the second the food hit the table.
Every single meal ordered was subpar—from the chicken parm with soggy pasta and flavorless sauce, to the meatloaf “special,” served ice cold with a disgusting-looking bowl of brown goo they tried to pass off as gravy.
But the crown jewel of this disaster was the turkey dinner. Oh, we’d loved it in Londonderry. Here? It felt like a cruel prank. What we got looked—and tasted—like dried-out rotisserie scraps from someone’s fridge five days after Thanksgiving. I received a plate of lukewarm food, with a chunk of frozen mashed potato in the pile the size of my palm—no exaggeration. The “gravy” was a sodium bomb in gelatinous form—bland, goopy, and slightly threatening. The stuffing? Like they poured Stouffer’s out of the box and forgot to cook it. Think dry, crunchy croutons.
The salad? Calling it a salad is generous. It was more like a random assortment of vegetables found at the bottom of a grocery bag: limp iceberg, a lonely tomato chunk, two sad cucumber slices clinging to life, a few shreds of cheese, and two pieces of raw onion large enough to qualify as a hate crime.
And then—oh, the mac and cheese. I don’t know what we did to deserve it. It had the texture of paste and the flavor of despair. Every one of us tried a bite. Every one of us instantly regretted it. It may honestly be the most vile thing I’ve ever encountered in a restaurant.
Truly the worst meal ever.
The only redeeming moment? Two slices of pie—chocolate and lemon blueberry—that were actually delicious. But even those felt like an apology note at the end of a hostage situation.
Never again.
In short: this wasn’t just a bad meal—it was an absolute trainwreck. We paid fine dining prices for food that wouldn’t pass at a middle school cafeteria. I left hungry, disappointed, and honestly, a little insulted.
Save your money. Save your taste buds. Save your soul.
Do yourself a favor and steer clear of the Manchester location—unless you’re looking for a memorable story about the worst meal of your life.
Update 11/5/25 - responded to the management with all the information they requested, and guess what I got - no reply. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Just in case you wondered… yup. Says all.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 2
RJ
Best diner in NH.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Gayle Hathaway
Street parking only. Tiniest diner I have ever been in. Only 5 tables, but 10 or so counter seats. No reservations. They will only seat you once your whole party arrives. We were a party of 3 adults, 1 child. Saturday at Noon, very busy. Arrived 10 mins to Noon, and seated by 12:10. Waitress was pleasant, but busy. We ordered kids chicken finger meal and a side of bacon. No dipping sauce came with this, luckily ketchup is on the table and loved by kids. Adults ordered turkey club with fries, the cook put a little mayo in the center of the bread, didn't even look like there was mayo on the sandwich. We requested mayo and the waitress brought it right over. We also ordered buffalo chicken Mac and cheese....it was spicy enough to break a sweat! Last meal was fish and chips, 86'd the coleslaw and subbed in onion rings. Perfectly cooked. Dessert was a chocolate finger, which they make, it's like a chocolate Twinkie, and a slice of Reese's cream pie, flaky pie crust, small layers of thick peanut butter with a similar sized layer of thick chocolate, topped with delicious whipped cream. Everything was good. Huge menu, typical Diner food, can't go wrong.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 4
James Follansbee
(Edit) Best Steak n eggs in town... Recently the Food quality has been affected by the people cooking it. 3 Nights in a Row same meal, burnt. 🤷🫶
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 3
Service: 4
Tiffany Lemire
This place is a staple in the city of Manchester. Always has a full house with a wide verity of people. You will also come across famous people here as well. The only down fall to this place is the size. I wish there were more places to sit in the restaurant? However it may be small you will not wait long as they move people in and out. The waitresses and wait staff all have a wonderful personality as well! The food is always amazing as well as great serving sizes as well!
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
Esteban Caraballo
Tiny place! Buttt mighty the food was great had a soda, the cookies an dcreme pie i had was 10/10 highly suggest if its in rotation. But the servers were wonderful i forget his name but hes there practically everytime i go in so that guy kills it with customer service and personality lovely person!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 5
John Tedesco
Awesome little diner that's been there over 100 years.
PR
Great food
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 4
Doris Bain
⭐ 1 Star I went to Red Arrow Diner Manchester to sit down and eat by myself. The restaurant wasn’t even that busy compared to other times I’ve been there, but I sat for almost 20 minutes without anyone coming to my table. I saw a male server walking back and forth and he never even asked me if I wanted a drink.
Finally, a female server came and asked for my drink order, and I asked for a hot chocolate. I looked over the menu for a while, but my drink still wasn’t brought out. It started feeling uncomfortable — even a lady sitting nearby seemed to notice.
When I finally spoke up and said, “Hello, I’ve been here a while and no one has helped me,” the male server just said, “That’s not my table, it’s hers.” What really bothered me was what happened next: I heard him go over to the female server, and they laughed about the situation and made comments. I even heard something like, “I was busy, she could leave if she wanted.”
That level of disrespect and lack of care is unacceptable. I’ve been to this diner before and never experienced something like this. I left because of how I was treated. Horrible customer service.
GREAT SURPRISE ...MENU WAS GREAT STAFF WAS GOOD & SEATING WAS GOOD & THERE WAS 5 OF US ...THIS IS A LIL HOLE IN THE WALL PLACE BUT WILL BE BACK AGAIN ...PARKING ON ST WAS EASY & THE PARKING METERS WERE EASY TO OPERATE...( P.S PAY THE METERS THEY PATROL THE ROAD ALL DAY )
Joe Messier
Classic piece of Americana.
Matthew Seavey
Just amazing first time today
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
C_J Dukette
My favorite go to diner in Manchester. Excellent food great service. 7 years later and this is still true. Absolutely love this place.
I don’t even know where to begin. I’ve eaten gas station food at 2 a.m. that was more satisfying than what we were served at the Manchester location. We’ve had consistently great experiences at the Londonderry branch, so we came in expecting a solid dinner.
What we got instead was an overpriced, borderline offensive mess disguised as a meal.
Four people. Four waters. Four plates of food that ranged from barely edible to is this a joke? $119.00. One very expensive culinary crime scene.
The only reason we stayed was because we were dining with my elderly, handicapped mother, and moving to another restaurant would have been a logistical nightmare. Otherwise, we would’ve walked out the second the food hit the table.
Every single meal ordered was subpar—from the chicken parm with soggy pasta and flavorless sauce, to the meatloaf “special,” served ice cold with a disgusting-looking bowl of brown goo they tried to pass off as gravy.
But the crown jewel of this disaster was the turkey dinner. Oh, we’d loved it in Londonderry. Here? It felt like a cruel prank. What we got looked—and tasted—like dried-out rotisserie scraps from someone’s fridge five days after Thanksgiving. I received a plate of lukewarm food, with a chunk of frozen mashed potato in the pile the size of my palm—no exaggeration. The “gravy” was a sodium bomb in gelatinous form—bland, goopy, and slightly threatening. The stuffing? Like they poured Stouffer’s out of the box and forgot to cook it. Think dry, crunchy croutons.
The salad? Calling it a salad is generous. It was more like a random assortment of vegetables found at the bottom of a grocery bag: limp iceberg, a lonely tomato chunk, two sad cucumber slices clinging to life, a few shreds of cheese, and two pieces of raw onion large enough to qualify as a hate crime.
And then—oh, the mac and cheese. I don’t know what we did to deserve it. It had the texture of paste and the flavor of despair. Every one of us tried a bite. Every one of us instantly regretted it. It may honestly be the most vile thing I’ve ever encountered in a restaurant.
Truly the worst meal ever.
The only redeeming moment? Two slices of pie—chocolate and lemon blueberry—that were actually delicious. But even those felt like an apology note at the end of a hostage situation.
Never again.
In short: this wasn’t just a bad meal—it was an absolute trainwreck. We paid fine dining prices for food that wouldn’t pass at a middle school cafeteria. I left hungry, disappointed, and honestly, a little insulted.
Save your money. Save your taste buds. Save your soul.
Do yourself a favor and steer clear of the Manchester location—unless you’re looking for a memorable story about the worst meal of your life.
Update 11/5/25 - responded to the management with all the information they requested, and guess what I got - no reply. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Just in case you wondered… yup. Says all.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 2
Best diner in NH.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Street parking only. Tiniest diner I have ever been in. Only 5 tables, but 10 or so counter seats. No reservations. They will only seat you once your whole party arrives. We were a party of 3 adults, 1 child. Saturday at Noon, very busy. Arrived 10 mins to Noon, and seated by 12:10. Waitress was pleasant, but busy. We ordered kids chicken finger meal and a side of bacon. No dipping sauce came with this, luckily ketchup is on the table and loved by kids. Adults ordered turkey club with fries, the cook put a little mayo in the center of the bread, didn't even look like there was mayo on the sandwich. We requested mayo and the waitress brought it right over. We also ordered buffalo chicken Mac and cheese....it was spicy enough to break a sweat! Last meal was fish and chips, 86'd the coleslaw and subbed in onion rings. Perfectly cooked. Dessert was a chocolate finger, which they make, it's like a chocolate Twinkie, and a slice of Reese's cream pie, flaky pie crust, small layers of thick peanut butter with a similar sized layer of thick chocolate, topped with delicious whipped cream. Everything was good. Huge menu, typical Diner food, can't go wrong.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 4
(Edit) Best Steak n eggs in town...
Recently the Food quality has been affected by the people cooking it.
3 Nights in a Row same meal, burnt.
🤷🫶
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 3
Service: 4
This place is a staple in the city of Manchester. Always has a full house with a wide verity of people. You will also come across famous people here as well. The only down fall to this place is the size. I wish there were more places to sit in the restaurant? However it may be small you will not wait long as they move people in and out. The waitresses and wait staff all have a wonderful personality as well! The food is always amazing as well as great serving sizes as well!
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
Tiny place! Buttt mighty the food was great had a soda, the cookies an dcreme pie i had was 10/10 highly suggest if its in rotation. But the servers were wonderful i forget his name but hes there practically everytime i go in so that guy kills it with customer service and personality lovely person!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 5
Awesome little diner that's been there over 100 years.
Great food
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 4
⭐ 1 Star
I went to Red Arrow Diner Manchester to sit down and eat by myself. The restaurant wasn’t even that busy compared to other times I’ve been there, but I sat for almost 20 minutes without anyone coming to my table. I saw a male server walking back and forth and he never even asked me if I wanted a drink.
Finally, a female server came and asked for my drink order, and I asked for a hot chocolate. I looked over the menu for a while, but my drink still wasn’t brought out. It started feeling uncomfortable — even a lady sitting nearby seemed to notice.
When I finally spoke up and said, “Hello, I’ve been here a while and no one has helped me,” the male server just said, “That’s not my table, it’s hers.” What really bothered me was what happened next: I heard him go over to the female server, and they laughed about the situation and made comments. I even heard something like, “I was busy, she could leave if she wanted.”
That level of disrespect and lack of care is unacceptable. I’ve been to this diner before and never experienced something like this. I left because of how I was treated. Horrible customer service.
Very friendly, food was excellent
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Restaurantji Recommends
Great food and good energy.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
GREAT SURPRISE ...MENU WAS GREAT STAFF WAS GOOD & SEATING WAS GOOD & THERE WAS 5 OF US ...THIS IS A LIL HOLE IN THE WALL PLACE BUT WILL BE BACK AGAIN ...PARKING ON ST WAS EASY & THE PARKING METERS WERE EASY TO OPERATE...( P.S PAY THE METERS THEY PATROL THE ROAD ALL DAY )
Classic piece of Americana.
Just amazing first time today
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
My favorite go to diner in Manchester. Excellent food great service. 7 years later and this is still true. Absolutely love this place.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
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