I was just going to add The Sheep Heid Inn. We ate there in 2017. Duck liver pate, fish and chips, steak and ale pie, with cabbage and mash.
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The George Inn and Punch Tavern were part of our pub crawl in 2017. We only had a glass of larger at The George but we had gin and lunch at Punch Tavern.
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Old in California means founded in 1849, like Tadich Grill in SF. Or as mentioned above Philippe‘s in LA. In any case Tadich got panned on a review last year. Old doesn’t necessarily mean good. Philippe’s is simple and honest fare that’s hard to screw up.
Otherwise Chez Panisse turned 50 a few years ago. I’m thinking it might stand the test of time.
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Old, good, and has curtained booths too:
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Tadich getting panned in a single review means very little. I haven’t been there for a few years, but I’d be really surprised if their quality has dropped much, if at all. That said, I’ve always preferred Sam’s Grill.
It’s hard to run anything, whether it’s department stores or restaurants, past the 3rd or 4th generation in most family-run businesses, as far as I can tell.
What do you consider old for a restaurant?
I ask, because there are probably a thousand or more restaurants that might have been continuously run in Britain. In Canada, relatively few restaurants survive beyond 25 years let alone 50 years.
Over the past 10 years, we have been watching dozens of family run pizzerias in Toronto wind down. Some were founded in the 1950s or 1960s.
In Toronto’s Little Italy, two of the oldest Italian cafes in business are Café Diplomatico (1968)
https://www.cafediplomatico.ca/about
and the Sicilian Ice Cream Sidewalk Café (1959).
Both are doing fine but are sort of more nostalgic and have pretty nice patios, rather than being worth a detour for the food delicious. I think Montreal has some nicer old Italian cafés that are still in business.
One of the oldest taverns in Toronto is the Monarch Tavern. https://www.themonarchtavern.com/
The food run through its snack bar is called Bindi Burgers. Modern Lamb and beef smash burgers. So, new food at the counter on the second floor of an old tavern.
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I’ve enjoyed at daiquiri at the White Horse Tavern in NYC, which has been around since 1880.
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This is one of my favourite blogs.
Russell Davies has added some new 2025 entries. He orders Egg, Bacon,.Chips, and Beans at historic cafes around the UK.
https://russelldavies.typepad.com/eggbaconchipsandbeans/
He is the person who got me interested in visiting cafes as well as historic tea rooms, as well as ordering, contrasting and comparing full breakfasts around the UK and Ireland.
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Chiming in from Providence RI. New Rivers is in one of oldest continuously run commercials buildings in the state (I think years ago, I’d heard “in the US,” but our sense of ego is inversely proportional to our size). It used to be 7 Steeple Street which I took my parents to when I was a precocious and adventurous high schooler a couple of times for special occasions and we all loved the cozy environs and the food. I’ve been to New Rivers a couple of times—it was always really good but it’s been a while.
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The Wikipedia list shows The Milleridge Inn as oldest in the US, established 1672. It’s a couple of miles from where I grew up, on Long Island, NY. The current location is near the original, but I couldn’t find out when it was established (the website says around 80 years ago, but it looks more like late 18th century).
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I won’t link the critical review from the SFChron but I will say it wasn’t the first pan in recent years. What I find more disturbing is the other weirdness, like the OSHA violations and some employees suing. Add the bad reviews with health code violations that required legal action and I’d say the bad reviews matter. Something isn’t right.
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I’ve always preferred Scoma’s. I only ate at Tadich Grill once.
Scoma’s isn’t old for San Francisco. Established in 1968. 1968 is old for most Canadian cities.
Tadich has also had some drama within the family that owns it.
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I liked this bar in Jackson, Wyoming.
That’s an interesting question. Would it be a restaurant that is operating continuously in the same premises for half a century or more? A restaurant with sense of history?
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I think how old is considered old will vary a lot depending on the region where you live.
Something like 80 percent of restaurants close within 5 years of opening in Canada.
In Toronto and in London, Ontario, where I spend a most of my time, apart from a few diners and pizzerias, few restaurants have been open more than 40 years.
Montreal and Quebec City are older cities, and a few of their good restaurants have survived longer. Different restaurants culture there.
I love the old restaurants you can find in the UK and in Europe.
I like staying at old hotels, too.
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I contacted my HS school buddy, with whom I visited the place, and she in turn contacted our host’s son. From what I gather, however, it was closed a while ago, and something else built on top of it — which kind of blew my mind considering how old the bldg was.
But perhaps there are enough near medieval bldgs in England that not every single one has to be preserved 
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It’s still the case that most “Indian” restaurants in the UK are owned by folk of Bangladeshi heritage. Many were opened by immigrants from the area of the city of Sylhet. Now, two or three generations on, many younger folk are better educated and have different career aspirations than the hard graft of the hospitality industry.
Manchester’s “Curry Mile” is in Rusholme, to the south of the city centre. Back in the 70/80s, this is where we went for Asian food. And what a choice - at least 40 restaurants along a short stretch of road. Or, maybe, not so much of a choice, as every one was serving the same Anglicised South Asian dishes - any protein with any sauce, so to speak. Nowadays, there are few “Indian” restaurants along the road. And every suburb now has its own Indian - some “new wave” ones actually owned by Indians. But all is not lost for the Curry Mile. As South Asian places have closed, new ones have opened - Middle Eastern kebab cafes or shisha bars. It’s still a vibrant area to visit. And there are still a few “Indian” places - the oldest surviving, from 1963, is the Sanam Sweet Centre and Restaurant.
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Here in Tampa, we have our gem The Columbia, which has been serving since 1905.
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