Denny’s is the latest fast-casual restaurant under fire, with new and former customers slamming the diner for raising the price of a popular breakfast platter by 200%.
Last month, Reddit user Front_Usual_2884 shared a photo of a popular Denny’s menu item on the platform’s inflation subreddit.
“18 dollars for this,” they captioned the post, which showed the price of the chain’s Lumberjack Slam breakfast platter as $17.99.
The Lumberjack Slam is a fan-favorite meal at the chain, which specializes in breakfast platters aptly named “slams.”
Denny’s offers a variety of slams, which typically include several breakfast items, such as eggs, sausage or bacon, hash browns, and toast.
The Lumberjack Slam includes:
Two buttermilk pancakes
One slice of grilled ham
Two bacon strips
Two all-pork sausage links
Two fresh eggs made ready to order (over-easy, poached, sunny-side-up, or soft-boiled)
One serving of crispy hash browns
Two slices of white toast cut into halves
Customers can also upgrade the meal’s buttermilk pancakes to the chain’s premium pancake options for $3.09.
Premium pancake options include double berry banana, cinnamon roll, or “choconana,” a mix of chocolate chip and banana.
On Denny’s website, the price of a Lumberjack Slam is listed as “starting at $16.29,” plus tax, and reportedly varies by location.
Reddit users were immediately outraged at the cost, citing the diner’s former prices to justify their anger.
“Dennys is trash. The most basic breakfast for 200% markup on portions. I will happily see them go out of business,” one user wrote.
“DENNYS: where you can order an $18 plate for one person instead of making it at home for 4 people for the same price,” another user commented.
“Used to go there and pay 5.99 for the slam. Unreal!” another former diner commented.
One former employee even shared how much prices have increased at the chain over the last few decades.
“I worked at Denny’s for 5 years from 1993-1998 and it was still $1.99 grand slams,” they wrote.
“We used to have old people come in all the time for two coffees and two grand slams and would leave with under a $10 dollar bill,” they added.
Another Reddit user pointed out how, despite breakfast food being relatively cheaper for restaurants to make, diners have started paying almost as much for a breakfast dish as they would for lunch or dinner.
“Breakfast costs the least to make for a restaurant,” a user wrote.
“If you’ve noticed these days, breakfast costs almost the same as lunch and dinner entrees,” the Denny’s customer added.
Some users seemed indifferent to the price, having gotten used to paying more for food and beverage items over the last few years.
“It’s fast food. It’s a luxury,” one user wrote.
Another former diner agreed, writing, “It’s an OK price, considering that a McDonald’s meal will cost you $15 these days.”
Still, some users weren’t willing to blame inflation and cited the chain’s “greed” instead.
“This isn’t inflation, it’s stupidity,” one user commented.
“That doesn’t cost them that much to make and sell for a profit. Just overt greed,” another user added.
Despite increasing its menu prices, the restaurant chain’s sales – and profits – have continued to fall.
Sales dropped down 0.6% while company-unit margins fell to 13.2%, down 2.2% since July 2023, according to Restaurant Business Online.
Denny’s first opened its doors in 1953, operating under the moniker Danny’s Donuts in Lakewood, California.
After opening a few additional stores, the chain, then called Danny’s Coffee Shops, officially changed its name to Denny’s in 1961.
The franchise now has over 1,600 restaurants worldwide, with over 1,400 locations in the US.
In July 2024, Denny’s Corporation, the company’s parent company, announced that 15 Denny’s locations permanently closed in the last fiscal quarter.
They added that they expect “as many as 15 more to close by the end of the fiscal year.”
Denny’s Corporation also revealed that Denny’s would be bringing back a discontinued “traffic builder” that helped boost sales in its past: a value menu.
