๐ UPDATE โ April 5, 2026
Elon Musk has now officially weighed in on the Tesla Diner debate, putting any lingering doubts to rest. In a post on X, Musk acknowledged that the diner "is obviously not something that matters financially to Tesla," but framed it as exactly what many defenders of the project have argued all along โ a passion project designed to enhance the Supercharging experience. "It is one of those small delights that bring joy to life," Musk wrote, racking up over 652,000 views. The comment serves as direct confirmation from Tesla's CEO that the diner was never meant to be a profit center, making criticism rooted in financial metrics largely beside the point.
@elonmusk ยท April 5, 2026"The Tesla Diner is obviously not something that matters financially to Tesla, but it is one of those small delights that bring joy to life"
โค๏ธ 5,555 ย |ย ๐ 553 ย |ย ๐ 652,038
30-Second Brief
The News: Forbes contributor Brooke Crothers visited the Tesla Diner on Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles and published a positive review directly refuting widespread claims that the venue is failing.
Why It Matters: The Tesla Diner is the first major Tesla-branded dining experience, and its success or failure signals how far Tesla can extend its brand beyond vehicles. The narrative around it has been distorted โ this review corrects the record with firsthand observation.
Source: @SawyerMerritt on X
Tesla Diner Is Not Failing โ Forbes Review Sets the Record Straight
If you've been following coverage of the Tesla Diner since it opened in July 2025, you've likely encountered a steady stream of takes declaring it a flop. Slow foot traffic. Overpriced burgers. A gimmick. The narrative has been persistent enough that it's started to feel like consensus.
It isn't. And now Forbes has the receipts.
What Forbes Actually Found
Forbes contributor Brooke Crothers published her review on April 5, 2026, under the pointed headline "Is The Tesla Diner A Flop?" โ and her answer, based on firsthand visits, is a clear no. On a recent Saturday, she found the diner "busy if not packed at times." On April 3 around noon, the 80 V4 Supercharger stalls were "pretty much full."
Her core argument reframes how the diner should be evaluated: it's not competing with McDonald's or In-N-Out. It's a Supercharger destination that happens to have a restaurant attached โ and by that measure, it's working exactly as intended.
"On Saturday, the Tesla Diner was busy if not packed at times. And obviously not failing, though some blogs and reports want you desperately to believe otherwise."
๐ Key Figures
| Metric | Value | Context |
|---|---|---|
| Opening Date | July 21, 2025 | ~8.5 months old |
| Supercharger Stalls | 80 V4 stalls | "Pretty much full" at noon, Apr 3 |
| Seating Capacity | 250+ seats | Two-story restaurant |
| Burgers Sold (as of Oct 2025) | 50,000+ | ~700+ per day average |
| Operating Hours | 24/7 | Matches charging demand |
| Location | Santa Monica Blvd, LA | High-traffic corridor |
The Right Way to Measure a Tesla Diner
The criticism of the Tesla Diner has largely come from food and car blogs evaluating it as a restaurant first. By that standard, a 250-seat diner on Santa Monica Boulevard competing against decades-old fast food institutions is always going to look underwhelming on paper.
But that framing misses the point entirely. The Tesla Diner is, at its core, a 80-stall V4 Supercharger station. The restaurant is the amenity that makes a charging stop worth lingering over rather than rushing through. Tesla owners aren't choosing the diner over a burger joint down the street โ they're choosing it because they need to charge, and the diner makes that stop genuinely enjoyable.
Measured that way โ charging utilization, dwell time, repeat visits โ the numbers tell a different story than the critics suggest. Over 50,000 burgers sold in the first few months of operation, averaging more than 700 per day, is not the output of a failing venue. That's a functioning business embedded inside a charging hub.
๐ญ The BASENOR Take
Timeline: Opened July 21, 2025 โ Early criticism peaks late 2025 โ Forbes firsthand review, April 5, 2026
Impact Level: ๐ก Medium โ Narrative correction, not a business pivot
Confidence: ๐ข High โ Firsthand visit by a named Forbes contributor, corroborated by Tesla's own sales data
Analysis: The Tesla Diner narrative war has been running since before the doors opened. Critics wanted it to fail as a restaurant; Tesla never built it to be one. The Forbes review matters not because it changes anything operationally โ the diner was always doing fine โ but because it introduces a credible, mainstream counterweight to the "flop" storyline that has dominated coverage. Expect this review to be cited frequently as the diner debate continues into 2026, especially as Tesla's Optimus robot (Gen 3, expected to take on food-runner duties this year) adds another layer of novelty that will drive fresh foot traffic and media attention.
What About Optimus?
One element the Forbes review doesn't fully address โ but which will become increasingly central to the Tesla Diner story โ is the Optimus robot integration. The Gen 2 version, nicknamed "Poptimus," served popcorn during the diner's early days. According to previous Tesla announcements, a Gen 3 Optimus is expected to return to the diner in 2026 with expanded duties as a food runner.
That's not a gimmick layer on top of a struggling restaurant. That's a live deployment testbed for Tesla's humanoid robotics program, embedded in a real-world commercial environment with genuine customer interaction. The diner's 24/7 operation and high throughput make it an ideal proving ground โ and it gives Tesla a controlled, branded setting to demonstrate Optimus capabilities at scale before broader commercial deployment.
๐ฐ Deep Dive
The persistence of the "Tesla Diner is failing" narrative is worth examining on its own terms. It reflects a broader pattern in Tesla coverage where anything that doesn't immediately dominate its category gets labeled a flop. The diner opened in July 2025 on Santa Monica Boulevard โ one of the most competitive dining corridors in Los Angeles โ and within months was being written off by outlets that never visited it. That's a credibility problem for the critics, not for the diner.
What Crothers' Forbes piece does well is apply the simplest possible test: show up and look around. On a Saturday, it was busy. On a Thursday at noon, the chargers were full. These are not the conditions of a failing business. They're the conditions of a venue that has found its audience โ Tesla owners who need to charge and want something better than a parking lot to do it in.
The broader implication for Tesla owners is straightforward: if you're planning a trip through Los Angeles and need a charge, the Tesla Diner on Santa Monica Boulevard is a legitimate stop. Eighty V4 stalls means you're unlikely to wait long, the 250-seat restaurant means you won't be eating standing up, and the 24/7 operation means it works for road trips at any hour. The food is traditional American โ burgers, hot dogs, fries โ nothing that will win a Michelin star, but solid enough for a charging stop.
Longer term, the Tesla Diner is a proof of concept for something Tesla has been quietly building toward: a branded physical ecosystem that extends the Tesla experience beyond the car itself. If the diner model succeeds โ and the early data suggests it is โ expect Tesla to expand the concept to other high-traffic Supercharger corridors. The question isn't whether the Tesla Diner is failing. It never was. The question is how many more are coming.
