elgin street diner

i think it's a bit overpriced but the food, ambience, and service was good. and it's open 24 hours which is really nice for a late night meal.

not very impressed. we had wanted to visit this diner as we saw it on the show 'you gotta eat here' on the food network. we walked in and was greeted promptly by the host, who also turned out to be our server. he told us that we could sit anywhere we wanted. we chose the booth near the back of the diner. the diner's decor was okay, seemed sort of outdated. there was a huge sign on the wall that said 'now accepting debit', i wonder how long ago that was put there. the bathrooms are really small and dirty, not the type of bathroom you want to go to after eating. we ordered our meals; the cheeseburger and poutine. apparently the poutine is the best in ottawa, as it said on the menu. after waiting about 8 minutes, our meals came. it seemed quite quick for the meals to come. the cheeseburger was good, the meat was very juicy and chewy, i liked it. the poutine however, disappointed me. about 3/4 of the plate was filled with french fries, way too much! i probably only ate about 1/4 of it. the gravy was very oily, and the cheese curds didn't melt, they were still huge chunks on top of the fries. to be honest, kfcs poutine is way better than this one. the coleslaw had too much vinegar, it didn't taste like the type of coleslaw that is typical of diners. i was hoping the food would be exceptional considering it was on tv but, it was just average. the service was okay, only the basics were done, nothing out of the ordinary to impress us. would certainly never return!

regular at this spot for many reasons.
1.fast service 
2. cheap 
3. very good food no matter what it is on the menu you order.
4. friendly staff. 
i wouldnt order the veggie club but aside from that this place is great.

comfort food gem!. loved the place! found out about this place by watching the tv show you gotta eat here! and tried it out for the first time. i loved the food and i went back the next day. my servers were incredibly polite, reasonably fast service and awesome home-cooked-like food. the chili (i ate it on the the chill fries and the chill dog) was personally my favourite thing there and my boyfriend really enjoyed his cordon bleu - fresh cut fried, perfectly seasoned chill, juicy chicken breast and fresh ingredients.
great comfort food at this diner!
try the apply crumble when you get a chance!

love this place! my fave is a toasted tomato sandwich on brown with a side order of poutine. a chocolate shake to wash it all down makes for a perfect night. the staff is fantastic and really good at dealing with potentially rowdy groups.

our home fries looked and tasted more like yesterday’s stale mashed potatoes, we got an order of the eggs benedict, and it came with no hollandaise sauce. we called to make the complaint and was told we would have the sauce within 5-10 minutes. it’s been about 30 minutes and still no sauce. we spent 60.00 on 2 breakfast and honestly i could have taken that 60 dollars and went to the grocery store and went home and made a better breakfast for 10 people. the food is now cold even more stale and disgusting. i can't believe that no discount was offered. that they thought that sending sauce 30 minutes later is acceptable. how about a new plate? fresh? that didn't cross their mind? in my opinion this is the worst customer service.

i ordered an omelette which was advertised to come with "home fries".  i was served a dollop of mashed potato.  asked why i had received mashed potato instead of home fries, i was told that "that is our version of home fries".  mashed potato is not fried.  and it's a very odd thing to serve with an omelette early in the morning.  i won't be back.

the quintessential diner, open 24 hours and offering a wide variety of popular diner favorites. the blue plate special remains one of the biggest sellers, and their poutine is worth trying simply on its own. a little pricier than you might expect, but the food is very good and the service is always friendly and accommodating.

not!! the best poutine. over done, thin fries that lost the benefit of being fresh cut. dark packaged gravy with no flavour. curds were ok, but not enough.
a real dissapointment in my quest for the best poutine in ottawa.
at least there was good service.

worst food i've had in years. wow... if you want to waste $10 on a small disgusting breakfast, well this place is for you !!! the toast are ok, te eggs not great, cheap little sausages, the worst is that patato mush they serve, i personally think it's a mix of mashed patato grilled on the flat top... i dunno worst food i've had since being to summerhays...

swag swag

after watching this restaurant being featured on the food network's 'you gotta eat here', we decided to come give its signature dishes a try! overall, the experience was good, but it started off quite poorly.
we were welcomed to sit down, and figured out our orders quite quickly. my parents, who immigrated from hong kong over 20 years ago, are still used to raising their hands to flag down waiters when we are ready to order. it's a subtle culture difference that i did not quite notice until we came to elgin street diner, when they were called out by a waiter who came over and made a snark remark, "what do you think you're doing, calling for a taxi?". it was completely unnecessary, and made my parents somewhat uncomfortable when i had to explain the situation to them. 

apart from that one incident, the meal was quite decent. the waiter turned out to be extremely friendly and cheerful (it was likely just a comment that slipped out of his mouth, where he did not mean to be rude but it came off as such). my ice had some dirt in it, but i did not expect clean water, to be frank.

we ordered the big plate breakfast and their chili poutine, to share among four people. surprisingly, the fare wasn't as greasy as i thought it would be. they were very generous with the cheese curds on the poutine, although the gravy was slightly overly salty. i loved the baked beans and chili though! :)

once is enough for us, but this is definitely a good place to check out with friends when you have time!

we picked this place because it was on "you gotta here" and it was also recommended to us by a local. it wasn't bad, but didn't really live up to the hype. the service was good, the food about average.

the breakfast would be just ok for a normal breakfast location, but it's great for a 24 hour all day breakfast diner. service is great, wifi didn't work when we were there but they do offer free wifi. portions are fairly large and they are willing to make breakfast options pork free and give a discount, which is awesome !!! the beans are also pork free.

asked for just a smoked meat sandwich to go and came as only a platter according to the server. got a sandwich and literally ba pound of fries that i did not need. got charged $17 and with tip to $20. not really impressed ... won't be back.