elgin street diner

2018/09/30
we ate at the elgin street diner about 6 years ago, the last time swbmo and i were inottawatogether. since we liked it then, we thought we would give it another visit for lunch. we arrived around 12:30, all the tables were taken, and it was about a 10 minute wait. this is a busy place and it’s open 24 hours.

swbmo decided on the cheese burger. there were five different cheeses from which to choose, and she picked cheddar. when the plate arrived, her eyes widened when she saw the massive pile of fries with the burger. good burger, good cheese, good slaw, good fries.

i opted for the reuben club. thinly sliced montreal smoked meat, piled high between three slices of toasted rye bread, just the way i like it. along with the usual swiss cheese and sauerkraut, it made for a very good reuben.

given how busy it was, service was very good.

my wife and i moved out of downtownottawaa few years back-- esd was a place we frequented regularly. we were downtown tonight and decided to place a take out order--two chicken caesar salads and a piece of chocolate layer cake. this was my treat meal for the week.

we got home, i opened up the packaging and found what looked like a half-eaten piece of cake.

i emailed them about it--obviously upset.

their response:

"with only the picture to go by, i am assuming you are upset that the cake got jostled either going into the box or during transport and a piece broke off?"

yeah, no-- i'm upset because your served me what looks like something someone else left behind after their meal!.

while they've offered me a gift card, they did so without apology (honestly all i wanted) as service goes, i'd say this ranks about as low as i've seen in recent years. they've had the chance to make it right and chose to take the low road-- oh well.

anottawastaple. elgin street never disappoints at 2am! hobble your way over after a few pints. don't be surprised to wait in line (it moves fast though!).

i remember living just off elgin and going here with friends after drinking or studying all night. nothing, and i mean nothing, beats their esd poutine when its 2am, -20 outside, and youre drunk or exhausted and super hungry. the sentimental value esd holds for myself and a lot of young folks living in downtownottawaprobably eclipses how good the food actually is lol.

ive been a few times during regular hours and its pretty good as well. especially for a 24hr diner.

my first time back inottawaafter a 38yr hiatus and the first restaurant i try is the elgin street diner. saw it on ygeh and knew i had to try it. great atmosphere, excellent service, huge food portions! all four of us had something different...burgers, wraps, etc and none of us were disappointed. found it a tad pricey for diner food but you can't beat scratch made burgers and real gravy (even though it is steak sauce based and not beef broth). i would definitely go back though. saw a few people eating the meatloaf and it was calling out to me so...

i would recommend a visit to the elgin street diner. i had the meat loaf which was great. i was inottawaduring the new years and nothing was open, which is how i ended up there. the food and service was better than expected

ok so let me just say, i don't understand why anyone would ever eat here on their own will. my friends and i went toottawafor bluesfest and were super hungry after a long bus ride so we decided to eat at esd, ok what a mistake that was. pardis parhizgar and i always share dishes so we decided to get this chicken sandwich.. first of all, the chicken was literally white, no seasoning.. no nothing. tasted like nothing.. was it even chicken? i guess we'll never know. it was disgusting. i had to drench it in mustard to even feel like i was eating something worth the effort of lifting my hand to my mouth. anyways, our friends ordered breakfast dishes.. khaleel washington had some omelette that was pretty decent despite the fact that esd must have been short on eggs that day cause the omelette was basically one egg and 4 cups of milk.. or water. he said the french toast was bomb so i can give them that at least. overall, once we were done eating.. nobody's plate looked like we were done eating.. because nobody's plate was empty. maybe if i ever go back to ottawa, i'll get really drunk and try this place out and see how i like it.

sorry to say this about a belovedottawadiner, but this place can only be decent late night after a looooot of drinks. 

stopped by for late brunch after arriving inottawaand ordered a few different plates. i shared a club sandwich with aleesha and i can confidently say that the chicken was like a piece of microwaved rubber. we had to take it out and eat the sandwich without it. khaleel washington had a yummy potato hash thing going on on his plate but his omelette was too big and fluffy, it was obvious it had been watered down or something because it almost didn't taste like eggs and was drowning in green peppers. french toast was decent, fries were sad but essentially everything was so meh it was obvious there was minimal effort in all dishes here. no of us finished out plates or left feeling full/satisfied.

esd is another one of those places inottawayou need to visit at least once in your life. it's always good in a pinch and has quite a large menu, so there's something for everyone. all-day breakfast is always a plus too, but don't expect anything out of the ordinary by any means.

i don’t often eat a full breakfast when i am on culinary adventures toottawa(or elsewhere, for that matter) and this mostly because i prefer to only have something light in the early morning so as to save myself for lunch. on this particular occasion, i was up very early and, having spied this place on a tour of the neighborhood, i decided to give it a try…

just terrific!. for families travelling to theottawaarea, the elgin street diner is terrific!

feeding a family of 4 can be expensive but this diner is very affordable and extremely delicious! we had the poutine, philly steak poutine, chili dogs, and the fish and chips (which was the special of the day).

our waiter was very attentive and extremely courteous.

the next time we are in ottawa, this is the first place we will go to eat.

p.s. we went to another diner located in the byward market (earlier in the week) and were very disappointed.

amazing. i was incredibly so surprised reading some of the reviews. either these people went to the estreet on a particularly bad night or they are trying to find something wrong with a super popular place. i moved away fromottawafor a few years and thought about the poutine a little too often. when i moved back i was not disappointed. my family loves the estreet. i strongly recommend their blts on a bagel, chilli dog, poutine, and breakfast.

poutine and montreal smoked meat sandwich. i went here on the recommendation from the tv show "you gotta eat here" but was unimpressed. i had the montreal smoked meat sandwich with poutine but wouldn't recommend it because the sandwich was small and the fries were cold. inottawathere are a lot of better restaurants to try for this meal. the service was really good.

last night we found ourselves in downtownottawaand decided to review our dining options on elgin street.  the lieutenant's pump looked quite busy.  pancho villa had space, but i wasn't crazy about last times food when visiting in august.  we continued down elgin street and stopped off at the elgin street diner ( 374 elgin street,ottawa).  we were seated righted away by, what would turn out to be, our waiter.  the place was moderatly busy and grew busier as time went on.  however, this better known for their breakfasts which we have attended before where the restaurant was packed. we reviewed our menus and placed our drink order (2 waters).  2 waters? yes, bottomless fountain pop is now $2.99 at this location.  thus, i'm reviewing my options as quite frankly i usually only drink about 2 glasses at most restaurants.  so $1.00 plus per glass now seems a little much.  our waiter quickly dropped off our 2 glasses of water, swung around to another table to drop off their drinks and retur

not family friendly. i'm pretty disappointed with the esd right now and i'd like to share why. after living inottawafor 5 years while completing a post graduate degree i decided to move to bc for the warmer climate and people. some good friends of ours from school were getting married back in o-town and my partner was a best man in their wedding so we made the trek back last week after being away for over two years. naturally, we wanted to hit all our old hang outs, which, not surprisingly if you knowottawaand are (or have been) a hungry twenty-something prowling the streets at two a.m. with some serious hunger after a night of alcohol induced fasting, included going to the esd for some grub. we decided to go in the morning, because now we have a baby. what a different experience it was to go there as a family. we have a very compact stroller because we like to travel - it's not one of those "uber strollers" that take up huge amounts of space. despite our socially responsible stroller choice, the snotty twenty something hipster wasn't at all impressed by our decision to bring our 4.5 month old baby to the joint and promptly informed us that strollers aren't allowed in the restaurant. it was pretty busy and given that there appear to be more booths than tables i understood what he was saying a bit - i mean they don't want their servers tripping over strollers. but, even when i suggested that we might wait for a table and replace a table chair with the stroller, which would create only a minor inconvenience if any, he appeared visibly annoyed and simply restated that there aren't any strollers allowed in the restaurant. so, we parked it precariously at the front of the restaurant, where just anyone could have stolen it quite easily (or done anything else to it), and begrudgingly took our seat at a booth. needless to say our baby was also displeased at this arrangement and started to fuss, which caused the servers to roll their eyes and just look generally annoyed (that's what happens when you go to a restaurant that greatly prefers men in the hiring process, i guess). anyway, no sooner had we sat down and started to respond to our babies need for reassurances in this somewhat already hostile environment than did we hear our little take a poop. i asked the same snotty hipster where the change table was and was informed that the change table was removed as the drunken twenty somethings were doing lewd acts on it. so, there you have it. mediocre food that tastes great when you're hammered. an environment that openly admits to catering to the drunken twenty something crowd. a place that apparently hates babies. we obviously won't be going back to esd on any future trips to ottawa. we love babies and kids, and think its sad that our north american society has such disdain for the little ones. plus, as a mom who simply can't stay at home like some kind of breeder-leper lest i inconvenience the rest of society with my little ones sometimes noisy needs, i can't bring myself to support establishments that display such overtly unfriendly behaviours towards families. on the plus side, the experience confirmed that i made the right decision in moving to bc, where things are much more laid back, and restaurants generally welcome families.