‘The Overall Vibe Was Total Chaos’: Los Angeles Tesla Driver Pulls Up to Tesla Diner. Then She Tries To Order From Her Car
‘If Toyota or Nissan or Honda opened a restaurant I would steer clear.’
A travel enthusiast who runs the TikTok account Let’s Go (@letsgo.travelguide) tried ordering from the Tesla Diner in her car. She calls it “one of the worst food experiences” she’s ever had. The author, whose published 7-day vacation itineraries for Tokyo, Los Angeles, New York City, and Seoul, probably won’t be updating her West Coast list to include the automaker’s drive-in theater and eatery (theatery?).
In a video that she posted to TikTok, she first shows herself interacting with her Tesla’s infotainment system, scrolling through a food menu. Hot Dogs, fried chicken and waffles, club sandwiches, tuna melts, Tesla burgers, grilled cheese, and other options are instantly visible on the menu screen
As she shares snippets of her time at the recently opened charging station/movie theater/restaurant, she recaps her experience in a voice over.
“Tesla Diner turned out to be one of the worst food experiences of my life,” she says. After scrolling through more of the menu to reveal the diner’s offerings, her clip cuts to an exterior shot of the newly opened establishment.
A Rocky Start
It appeared to be packed, with numerous EVs from the manufacturer parked out front and juicing up at charging terminals. A valet can be seen monitoring an entrance point, as patrons can be seen ambling both the lower and patio levels of the diner.
Let’s Go stated that since the diner was mobbed, she thought rolling up in one of the brand's EV’s could make the food ordering process a bit more manageable.
“We didn’t want to wait in the massive line out front. So we brought a Tesla since it was advertised that you could order food straight from your car while plugged into a supercharger,” she said.
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Initially, she said that she didn’t need to idle for too long before finding an available supercharger. “The wait for a charger wasn’t too bad, about 10 minutes,” she tells viewers. However, ordering her food was a different story entirely. From the get go, she had problems even getting the application to order food to work. “But once we plugged in, the food ordering feature in the Tesla app didn’t work at all,” she relayed in her clip. Furthermore, she said that an employee at the diner said this was a common occurrence. Which meant that they couldn’t get drive-in service and would have to enter the queue of all non-drivers wanting to try out the Tesla Diner’s wares. “A parking attendant told us this happens a lot and that unfortunately we’d have to join the regular line,” she said.
Long Line At the Tesla Diner
Following this, her video cuts to footage of a myriad of folks standing on a sidewalk wrapping line outside of the EV-charging eatery. “So we got in line and after 15 minutes it hadn’t moved. A security guard casually mentioned that the line usually takes about two hours,” she told viewers. At this point in the clip, Let’s Go intercut scenes from inside of the futuristic looking restaurant. It sports a black and green illuminated ceiling above the bar, stainless steel counter tops, and white, concave bar stools. Other parts of the ceiling featured domed white and grey design accents softened by pale white and multi-colored lighting, as well.
However, Let’s Go did discover a silver lining, and it’s that folks who own Tesla vehicles aren't beholden to the long-line wait times. Her video then cut to an order counter where multiple Tesla Diner workers, all decked out in black, were fielding patron questions. Menu touchscreens facing the customer deck the counter to help folks who own a Tesla to more quickly place their food requests. “Then we found out that Tesla owners actually don’t need to wait in line. There’s a separate entrance,” she said.
Afterward, Let’s Go focuses her camera on one of the menu touchscreens, where someone is placing an order for a Tesla Burger. Akin to many restaurants, diners are able to customize their food to their liking, with a variety of different add-on fixings. “We finally got in and placed our order. Feeling lucky to have skipped the worst part,” she said.
Then, she records her dining companion sitting on a half-circle dining booth. He waves to the camera and through the window behind him, several other folks can be seen waiting outside on the sidewalk for their turn to enter the diner.
More Tesla Diner Glitches
Let’s Go said that after a standard lunch wait time at a restaurant, she received a message that her meal was good to go. However, this was not the case. “About 20 minutes later, we got a notification saying our food was ready. But it wasn’t, that was a system glitch. We waited, and waited,” she said.
Let’s Go said that it didn’t look like her food was going to arrive any time soon. “After an hour, we were still nowhere near being served. And the order numbers being called weren’t even close to ours,” she told viewers.
Her video went on to show more inside fixtures of the diner: A model of an Optimus robot prototype stood in a recessed fixture in a wall. Next, she shows a white staircase in the diner that leads up to the patio area. According to her, the Tesla Diner’s design aesthetic is one of the only good things it’s got going for it. However, what she saw during her time there painted a picture of a disastrous opening for a crew that probably didn’t anticipate how many people would want to visit the new always-open food spot. “The interior of the dner is cool, very sleek and futuristic. But the overall vibe was total chaos, orders were late, food was coming out cold. Staff seemed overwhelmed and mistakes were constant,” she said.
Let’s Go did provide footage of what the diner looked on its ample upper patio area. Moreover, she directed her camera to one of the large movie theater screens, which displayed a Tesla Cybertruck ad that was visible, even in the sunlight. Ultimately, the wait was too long for the travel blogger, so she requested her money back. “In the end we gave up and asked for a refund without ever getting our food,” she says.
Commenters Sound Off
Many folks who replied to Let’s Go’s video didn’t sympathize with Let’s Go’s video. But there were others who expressed confusion over the hype surrounding the Tesla Diner. “I’m confused why anyone wants to eat at a car brand diner?” one said.
Another replied, “You went to the Tesla diner what on earth did you expect?”
Someone else wrote, “HA! Nerds.”
Whereas one person sarcastically wrote, “An electric company opening a restaurant. What could go wrong? Smh.”
This TikTok user also said that the thought of eating at a diner opened by a car brand was strange. “If Toyota or Nissan or Honda opened a restaurant I would steer clear of it. Because food isn't their business model,” they wrote.
But there was one person who thought the reason why the Tesla Diner was so mobbed was due to a regional demographic predilection for queues. “People in L.A. love waiting in pointless lines,” they wrote.
InsideEVs has reached out to Let’s Go via TikTok comment for further information.
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