Our featured restaurant story is about Jenny’s Diner at 45 Forum Shopping Center, Chesterfield, MO, which has served the community since 2011.
CHESTERFIELD, MO (USPress.News) To our surprise, this family-owned restaurant, which claims to serve the best breakfast in Chesterfield, actually does serve the best breakfast in the community based on our experience on Saturday, August 10, 2024. Everything on the menu is made from scratch, using only the best ingredients.
Jenny’s Diner was started by Jenny in 2011, but she sold it to the current owner, Betty Phiri-Chibwe, her husband, and two friends. Betty and her husband migrated to the U.S. from Zambia in 2000.
Betty may own part of the Diner now, but she started as a customer and became friends with Jenny and the staff. Later, she worked at the restaurant for 1.5 years to help them and then agreed to purchase it from Jenny in November 2018.
Under UndeBetty’s ownership, Jenny’s Diner has seen minimal changes. The same staff, menu tweaks, and a fresh coat of paint have kept the restaurant’s charm intact. They expanded the dining area to accommodate more seats. The business model, proven successful under Jenny’s reign, remains essentially unchanged, a testament to its enduring popularity.
In addition to Jenny’s Diner, Betty is a partner in Stango Cuisine, which offers Zambian cuisine in Champaign, Illinois. She continues to seek new business opportunities in the region. Her primary objective is to provide Zambian cuisine, but probably from a different location.
The owners purchased Jenny’s Diner slightly before the pandemic, which made it difficult, but the local customers strongly supported them, hoping the restaurant would survive. Betty is humbled and gracious for their support, and their resilience during such challenging times is genuinely inspiring.
During our conversation, it was evident that Betty’s heart and soul were poured into Jenny’s Diner. She is intimately involved in every aspect of the restaurant and shares a personal connection with most customers. Her hands-on management style and personal touch make customers feel genuinely connected to the Diner.
Customers come for the food but stay for the conversations and friendships developed with the staff and other customers. It is a local favorite that locals rely on for food and friendship.
Another admirable feature of Jenny’s Diner is that it is immaculately clean. The most recent Health Inspection Score by St. Louis County was conducted on February 15, 2024, and it was 98%. We love high customer reviews and high health inspection scores because they illustrate ownership pride.
Some of the popular dishes at Jenny’s Diner are:
- Farm Skillet – a bed of fried potatoes topped with onion, green peppers, sausage scramble, and two eggs of any style
- Tom’s Stack – Named after a customer – bed of fried potatoes, biscuits, sausage gravy, and two eggs any style.
You might consider trying fried beignets from Betty’s Zambian background.
The location is great: It is approximately ¼ miles west of 141 and Olive Blvd, making it an easy destination regardless of where you might be driving from in the region.
You will love the food, but more importantly, you will love the atmosphere, Betty, and the staff.
But don’t take our word for it. We always focus on a restaurant’s online customer reviews because, with over 420 online reviews, that means more than my/our opinion.
Jenny’s Diner online customer reviews are as of August 9, 2024, at 2:00 pm:
- Google – 4.3 Stars with more than 420 online customer reviews
- Facebook – 4.1 Stars with 103 votes – 1.4k likes – 1.5k followers
- Yelp – 3.8 Stars with 136 online customer reviews – we disagree with this rating
- TripAdvisor – 4.5 Bubbles with 39 online customer reviews
- GrubHub – 3.9 Stars with 7 votes
- DoorDash – 4.6 Stars with 50 votes
- Uber Eats – 4.7 Stars with 3 online customer reviews
- STL.Directory – 5 Stars with one online customer review
As noted above, we strongly disagree with the Yelp rating. However, it is common that Yelp is frequently the lowest rating for most restaurants. Yelpers are very harsh with their reviews and ratings, and we believe that their rating does not accurately reflect the quality of Jenny’s Diner.
The Diner is open six days a week from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. and is closed on Mondays.
Jenny’s Diner is a “Recommended Restaurant” by St. Louis Restaurant Review and has been added to our restaurant directory as a Featured Member.
Address, phone, and website:
45 Forum Shopping Center
Chesterfield, Missouri 63017
Phone: +1 314-548-1001
Website: JennyDiner.com
Additional resources:
EDITORIAL NOTE: This article is not sponsored or paid for. It is unbiased and published with permission.
