Lou's is a nice old-style diner right in the heart of Hanover. It gets crowded in the morning and its kind of a fun place to be. The food is nothing exciting, just normal diner fare. But the prices are reasonable and the service is good.

The restaurant, the bakery ... the Best! It's just an all around great asset not only to the customers but to the community! What would Hanover be without Lou's!

Great pastry and great breakfast but be prepared for a wait on the weekends!

An Upper Valley Staple. Great food and great people.

I don't know if it is just a summer thing, but the woopie pies are out of this world.

corned beef hash & poached eggs is where its at. love that they serve la pancieta bread -- which makes the best toast & sandwiches. jam is great here too. pies are also to die for -- the pumpkin pie & mile high apple pie ROCK! we always have to bring them home to our family in PA.

Yes, the corned beef hash is the best in the Upper Valley. Yes, it's often too busy and hectic. But it's worth it. The food is always great, the menu varied. Lot's of pros & only a few cons: Extra $$ for real maple syrup, coffee is only OK (they need a good French Roast).

Lou's is an institution in Hanover. One of the best breakfasts in town. I have to agree with kaszeta that the hash and eggs are my favorite dish to get there. The pies and other bakery items are mouth-watering though I've only "window shopped" the bakery case. If you want a great breakfast, get there early. It can get to be a long wait since the seating is limited.

Lou’s is quite the institution in Hanover, having opened in 1947. And it obviously has quite the following with both the Dartmouth crowd and the tourist traffic, since the place is universally packed after around 9am every morning (and generally, forget about going there on a saturday). Some would call it small (but by Upper Valley standards it’s pretty roomy), and having a long queue of folks waiting for seats gawking at you while you eat your meal is part of the charm.

However, the reason I try to make it to Lou’s at least once every two months or so is that the food here makes for one of the best breakfasts in the area. My particular favorite is the corned beef hash and eggs breakfast, especially since they make their own hash which is noticeably more chunky and spicy than your average canned hash. Other good items include the cruller french toast, the waffles, and the porridge.

It’s also just about the only place left that makes decent crullers, and I find that I kinda miss the days when I got my mail at the Hanover Post Office, since that was often an excuse to grab a cruller. The rest of the bakery items are excellent as well, but I usually only indulge on special occasions.

Pros:

1. The food here is top-notch diner fare, and there are quite a few gems hidden in the menu (one of the few places I get can halfway decent gyros, for example).

2. They use McNamara Dairy milk in their milkshakes.

Cons:

1. The crowds can be stifling at times, and once the line reaches the back of the restaurant, it pretty much becomes intractable. So I try to go early.

2. Real maple syrup is extra.

3. This is Hanover people watching at it’s best. Nothing like seeing Ivy League professors, hungover students, and red-flannel clad Vermont hunters all next to each other at the counter.

So, in summary, I really like Lou’s, although usually I’m not in the mood to wait in line. If I find myself already in Hanover around breakfast time before the major crowds hit, I usually go.

(originally from http://www.uvscene.com/wordpress/index.php/2006/11/26/diner-day-lous/)