Ottawa Foodies

Breakfast and Poutine.
the combo you hate to love. :P

my friend likes bacon...can ya tell?

I am not a big fan of ESD, but my friends are. They enjoy the poutine, the milkshakes and the Buffalo Chicken Buger.

I find the veggie options a little boring. The roasted veggie sandwich lacks a subtle something to make it yummy, and the veggie burger has an extremely overcooked bean texture which is simply disgusting.

If you love a greasy bacon-n-eggs breakfast with stale coffee and lots of sides, this is the place to go. Otherwise, there is nothing special about this place, other than its hype and 24-7 service.

Umamiman: Sorry,You must have misunderstood my post. I didnt say I went on a monday morning. I posted my comment on a monday. Regardless of the day I went there, if they can afford to hang out talking and ignore customers then i would rather not go there and waste a morning.
At least i have been there and done that. We'll be sticking to our regular breakfast spot.

The Elgin Street Diner is in a simliar boat as Al's Steakhouse, in that they had a great reputation that can be hard (for a restaraunt) to uphold. Part of their reputation was earned (their bagels used to be AWESOME), and part I think was nostalgia and experiential. Many people frequented the Diner after a night of drinking (open 24 hours) and it was a really good place to unwind and get some chow. This lends to peoples fond recollections (including mine.. mmm.. poutine and milkshake at 4am...) but do not necessarily mean the reputation was based purely on quality of food or service. Either way, they have this currency of reputation (earned or not) and it is theirs to spend it wisely, or waste it.

Foodie Chick: though it's not really an excuse, service at most restaurants is going to suck on a Monday morning, one of the slowest times of the week for any resaurant.

I recall their breakfast to be typical diner: bad coffee, lots of grease and plenty of ketchup and Tabasco required on everything.

Ok i am completely confused by the ravings of everyone about how great the elgin street diner is. I finally caved in adn went for their breakfast.... and really wish i hadnt. We got there just as the supervisor was trying to kick out a homeless woman. We were seated and had to wait for a server for quite a while and there was no one in the restaurant but another couple. After we placed our order the food was fast to arrive. It was far from anything i would call amazing or the best breakfast ever.
The restaurant looks dirty and the food is mediocre. I cant say that i will ever want to go back.

If I can save one person from eating at this filthy diner than I've served some purpose on this site. Every time I've visited this place I've found a hair: in my water, my food--you name it.
The last time I went I found a hair in my potatoes and my friend found a hair in her eggs. I also had little bits of who-knows-what stuck to the inside of my glass of orange juice. I don't know how my waitress had the gall to serve me that!
I fully understand that things happen and no establishment is perfect but this place is a complete sty and for your safety and health I strongly urge you not to go!

Just stopped in here for lunch yesterday with a couple of friends. The menu makes me wish I wasn't horribly lactose intolerant. Service was good, the place was nice and my hamburger was fairly average. I did like the slaw, though. Not heavy and creamy like some places. Nice, light and slightly zesty.

Love it because it is VEGETARIAN! That's right, apparently it's a mushroom based gravy!

The poutine here is way too salty and I find it has an aftertaste. The fries are often limp and get soggy too fast.

I'm a hardcore poutine nut, and every time I go to ESD (at the request of my not-so-French spouse), I order the poutine; not because I enjoy it, but because I forgot how lame it was the last time.

Their fries are just too small and shriveled to adequately serve as a vessel for the gravy and cheese. If only they'd cut them twice bigger, it would be pretty darn decent.

I had an underwhelming smoked meat poutine last Friday. The meat was not the problem (fairly average yet tasty), but the poutine itself just wasn't up to snuff. The skinny fries were off-putting, and it didn't feel like there were enough cheese curds. Still, where else is an inebriated person going to get poutine after midnight?

I like it thin and salty - you can better eat it with a knife and fork. The gimmicky experimentation also kind of charms me. But really it's just the fact that they celebrate poutine and give it special billing on the menu that urges me to celebrate alongside. I think my fave for the actual food is the light blue fry truck that parks(ed) along Slater near Kent and Bank Streets.

Count me in that camp too. I found it way too salty (and I like salt) and with the skinny little fries it's nothing like real p'tin. But... it's still better than no poutine!!

I am in the camp of people that don't get the "love Elgin Street Diner Poutine" mentality. Give me Sasha's or give me death!

mmmmm. OKAY so I waited for almost 45 minutes for a poutine at 2:30 in the morning, BUT, IT WAS WORTH IT! It was amazing.

Crazy poutine 24 hours a day. They've got something good here. I've walked out of here wondering what inspired me to order the smoked meat poutine. But then I've had a poutine in smalltown Quebec covered in shredded BBQ chicken! Awesome (stomach ache!)

the sheer variety of poutine is amazing.

The banana chocolate milkshake at the diner is quite possibly the best diner shake out there. Pass on the poutine, go for the milkshakes.

Sorry - I just can't get down with the fried mashed potatoes instead of homefries. I've tried to like this place, but there's much better value and food out there as far as breakfasts are concerned. The 24-hour breakfast special used to be ~$4 and it's probably twice that these days.

This restaurants thrives on it's reputation and location (OK the poutine is good, I'll give them that)