Didn’t read the room, did she? LOL
I love love love LOVE the duck with berry sauce! So much so that I learned to make duck breast at home, since I don’t go to Dali often enough. Also learned to make a saffron cream sauce to go with seared scallops, like they have. 
I desperately miss their Fresones - giant strawberries dipped and fried in batter with a soft crema catalan sauce. They took those off the menu years ago. 
But as I noted upthread - it’s comfy shoes.
As well you should be - New Jersey has the BEST freakin’ diners! I miss them.
No argument from me.
WANT!
I love being a regular at a diner / coffee shop.
I also like trying diners when I’m on the road.
Ditto. When you visit NJ be sure to post for diner recs on the NJ board.
So sorry I never got to try those amazing-sounding strawberries! And I love crema catalana, the duck with berry sauce, and saffron sauce! The servers are so friendly and it really feels like being in Spain. The last time we went, the American server really enjoyed my question about if they have the automatic churros machine that drips the batter into the hot oil like at the street festivals in Spain I experienced decades ago.
We’ll try again Dali soon. If our now young adult son had liked the bravas, we’d have been back many times. We’ve learned to cook bravas “his way” at home with a combination of canary island potatoes boiled in salt then roasted at very high temp so crispy outside and creamy inside.
The gazpacho is good! I prefer tortilla with slightly undercooked eggs, but their version is very flavorful. The olives and baked goat cheese fantastic, as are both arroces available in the tapas sizes.
The other really really great thing is that the servers and other diners seem to genuinely enjoy small children as guests. Just like in Spain where strangers genuinely treasure small children instead of wincing or glancing at parents critically in anticipation.
My son asked me years ago, do people in Spain like children in general, and I said, yes! Children feel acknowledged and welcome, not feared and they know it! My adopted son is Hispanic (born in Boston), not from Spain, and he fully intuited cultural differences in attitudes to children at a very young age.
So now I am wondering…hey guys here at home, my birthday is coming up soon!
Any recs to become a regular?
You and me both. I mentioned it the last time I was there; Julio said something about a “maybe” but that didn’t happen that night.
:::hint, hint, wink, wink, nudge, nudge:::: 
Working on it…I have some time…a couple of weeks!!!
We don’t do anywhere near high-end, both because we are conserving economic resources for our son and because we are senior citizens and at least one us, me, can’t eat much at a single sitting. So prix fixe and several courses are out.
We have gone to a lovely casual place near us, Semolina Kitchen in Medford, MA, just outside of Boston for years quite often since they first opened a long time before COVID. We usually went for weekend lunch at first. We ordered takeout for pick up often during the worst of the pandemic, and now return less often.
We just keep going. The staff usually recognizes us now even with huge turnover after the worst of the pandemic. We order some of the same things, ask questions including such as “we really loved that fried olive appetizer, will it ever return?.” They remember us consistently and without trying to up sale, say, oh, do you want x, which we usually order, or do you want that on a separate plate as we often ask for the fries.
We usually don’t order much food…it’s lunch, not two courses…tip 25% at least no matter what the service, and offer compliments and recognition. They always bring an extra bottle of tap water for our young adult son and extra napkins because they know he likes those. We also ensure we aren’t taking up space that parties who would spend a lot more would want…late lunch usually these days, and we are often one of only several parties there and lots of empty seats.
It’s endearing on both sides and comfort, without us ever expecting anything extra or free.
The pub half a block from us is our community center and has been for a couple of decades. Mediocre food we go for when need to get out of the house and have a bit of fun conversation with the servers we’ve known forever. I think they give us extra portions from time to time, but that’s not the point for any of us. They’ve seen our adoptive son (with food trauma history) grow from a 7 year old to a now 6’4" 24 year old and expand his food choices first to a non McDonald’s cheeseburger and then fish and chips. New flash: early teen boy will order a cheeseburger!.
No judgement, always friendly, don’t mind when we order minimal food when they are not crowded and they are eager to recover after covid.
I tip 30% at least, because, and often add some cash. My husband always tips 20% and if he leaves before I do, I sometimes add cash. Because they are our community center and they work hard and we want them to stay open.
We went today around 2:30 for lunch at son’s request to an almost empty pub. Server we’ve known for a long time engaged with our son about his just finished parkour training session. She was genuinely interested in hearing about it and said she wanted to hear more the next time we come in.
So this doesn’t answer the question about becoming a regular at a “nice” restaurant, but does attempt to answer the question about becoming a regular and developing community.
I haven’t read most of the responses because I would have to respond “no” to most of the premise in the OP, but I wanted to mention that I once wrote a heartfelt review about a family favorite on OpenTable that the owner thanked me for privately, and apparently recognized. He and the staff have greeted us like family ever since, although they were pretty amazing anyway.
It probably helped that our “crew” is somewhat unusual in this establishment. Among other things, we always get extra olive oil cake to-go.
I enjoy being recognized as a “regular” in many places, even in Asian restaurants in NYC where little English is spoken, like Little Pepper, and Sripraphai 20 years ago. It’s nice when you get a smile and a warm greeting at the door and they don’t have to ask “Spicy?”
But there are two memorable restaurants where I’ve been treated especially well. one was an Italian restaurant in Forest Hills, Queens that is long gone. If you treated them nicely, they returned the favor. this restaurant was particularly good as a “date night”. if they knew you’d be ordering drinks, they would often offer a complimentary glass of champagne. But they would save the best for the end and bring a tray of off-menu chocolate covered strawberries.
Now, here where I live in Chiang Mai, there is an upscale restaurant where every dinner is a 6 course event. the first time you go everyone is always served the identical dinner. For repeat guests, it omakase (taking all dietary restrictions into account). The chef/owner knows what he has served me for every one of the 100 times I’ve visited. We’ve become friends and we’ll chat occasionally online, but rarely in the restaurant as he is too busy. In addition to getting what I think is slightly higher quality/cost ingredients in my dinners, I’ve gotten two perks. During covid lockdowns, my wife and I were invited to eat at the restaurant. They rent out rooms as part of the business so guests were allowed to eat in the restaurant, though there were never any guests. The rules here were always vague so we weren’t putting anyone at legal risk. He was paying his staff anyway and we were the only guests when we ate there. The second perk is the extra “course” I get. The owner knows that I take care of many street dogs around the city. He always sends me home with a literal doggy bag of (commercial) dog treats. The goody bag is usually worth about half the cost of dinner. I’ve repaid the favor by always bringing as many friends as possible and by tipping the staff slightly above the high end of the normal range. Win-win-win-win-win for the owner, the staff, me, my friends, and the dogs!
Last night, we went for dinner at the place I mentioned upthread. This was one of their Sundays when they offer a tasting menu of regional Indian food alongside their normal menu. It’s Goan this month which we ate when it was on last year and didnt fancy a repeat. So, we ordered from the normal menu. But, even so, the owner brought us samples of a couple of items on the tasting menu and was very insistent that we have more. So we picked the dessert. Then a takeaway bag arrived of two dishes and rice “for lunch”. It is lovely of them to do this but, in truth, it was so much that started to feel a bit embarrassing. It’s not as though we go there to get freebies
They are obviously very appreciative of you and Mrs. H and want to feed you! You noted upthread “simply put this down to the restaurant’s really good sense of hospitality (as we see similar relationships with some other customers)”. So just go with it and enjoy the lunch!
That’s the only time I’ve become a regular in a place, well known enough to be recognized and called “Mr. Keyrock” as I entered. It was a Persian restaurant owned by Iranian immigrants; the recipes are all from the wife and her mother and MIL, and everything on the menu was really great.
I used to have 2-3 lunches out a month when working and I dragged everyone who’d consider the place over there for lunch, and also my small team (6 people) loved it so a lot of our quarterly staff lunches were taken there, and also my family of 6 several times a year. Pretty much the same waitstaff over about a 4 year period, which helps them get to know the regulars.
Mostly being a regular got us offered free small tastes of desserts, or complimentary upgrades on the rice dishes (regular saffroned came with the meal, fancier rices were an upcharge), and extras of the bread/olives/cuke/tomato/hummus plate they used as their regular starter.
Once I retired I quit going so much because it’s kind of out of the way if I’m not at work, and it got to be about a once-a-year thing with the family and maybe twice a year with an old work friend or two. Then when we went last year all the waitstaff had changed, and the new guy (or another person there(*)) stole our credit card info and tried to buy some Persian Healing Crystals. We haven’t been back since.
(*) I hadn’t used that card in months, and the purchase attempt happened later that same afternoon. So it either came from someone at the restaurant, or the thief was playing a very long game and coincidentally made his play on the same day.
My wife and I used to like a Turkish restaurant that had really nice food, so we used to go there often, and I also went there often with people from work. A plus was that it was directly across the street from my workplace.
It was owned by two guys who were always there. After a while we had a “regular” table meant for four, in an alcove, a great location. The more hospitable of the owners used to occasionally give us free Sambucas with dessert.
On one occasion we went there late in the evening, and were told by that owner that the kitchen was closed. But on our way to the door he stopped us and asked us to come back and order anything from the cold appetizer menu; they couldn’t do anything hot. So we ordered a few things. When we were done eating he brought us Sambucas and told us there was no charge for the meal.
Unfortunately it’s long closed.
Some of our Sichuan jours fixes basically take over most of the (small) restaurant 
I doubt you are an abrasive person, but I tend to sneakily call out brag meister assholes. It’s become a passion of mine. I’ll listen to the names of places he brags about, and any details. My voice carried very nicely compared to most. So, I’ll just use the resto nsame Chez Quid (from movie). Do dudes braggin how great Chez Quid is. I’ll act like spirited chat with my wife. " Dang this place great! I went Chez Quis last week, Christ what a disappointment! App sucked, service? Weak at best. Main was about as French as Arby’s and I crushed a roach into their fancy floor.The kicker was the clientele: self righteous assholes with enough money to fool themselves they were eating something French. Love those pretenders. This place whips that place… Nothing pretentious."
