In lieu of watching the Royal Wedding of William and Kate, Polly and I decided to go for an English breakfast for our cake meet. We found an English diner at West Point Grey with 53 years of history.
The English diner is simply called The Diner. You will not miss it as the Union Flag decorates the front of the the diner.
There is a scale model of the Tower of London bridge complete with a state coach and horses that decorates the front of the diner.
The interior of the diner is decorated with lots of photos of the Royal Family and memorabilia like plates and cups featuring the Royal Family, red English telephone booth, etc. The moment you enter the diner, you will be struck by the royal blue booths and tables cloths. You can click on the photos to view them at larger size.
Of course, the recent addition to the decor are wedding photos of William and Kate.
Back to food, we must have … the Traditional British Breakfast. It is $8.90. I think what differentiate English breakfasts from other American/Canadian breakfast is the baked beans, back bacon and fried bread. In addition to that, we were not asked how do we like our eggs done like what is practiced in American/Canadian diners.
The above photos are clickable to view them larger. From top left, back bacon, sausage, hashbrown, fried tomatoes, sunny side up eggs, fried beans and fried bread.
As most of you readers already know that I’m not a big fan of egg. But for this meal, I have to have my share of the egg. So, I placed the egg on top of my fried bread as a topping to eat it. The fried bread was very crispy and the egg yolk kind of like a spread. Not too bad. Ben would love this.
The English breakfast also comes with some buttered toasts that we can enjoy with jam.
Just want to point this out that even their table mats are made of laminated London Tube map.
Besides the English breakfast, Polly and I also shared a Mushroom Omelette. The Mushroom Omelette comes with thick cut fries, unlike the skinny ones we usually get. This is $10.35. There is too much food for the two of us and we had the fries and some leftover toast to go for Polly’s kids after school snacks.
We had coffee with our breakfast. Refills are free.
When we decided to go for English breakfast, I was hoping to get to try Yorkshire Pudding. Unfortunately, it’s not available during breakfast. The bill came up to $22.95 before tips. We noted that the price is inclusive of HST.
BUSINESS HOUR
7 days a week
Monday to Saturday: 10:00 AM to 7:00PM
Sunday: 11:30AM to 6:30PM
I am a Brit, and no stranger to the English breakfast. I was so excited when we went to the Diner, but sadly very disappointed….My husband’s Monte Cristo was nearly raw and runny, my daughter’s fish and chips (which came 10 minutes after our meals) was half raw – and my traditional breaky was less than stellar….service bordered on rude but not quite. There was such potential, and it could have been an off day…..but unfortunately our experience was not a good one.
Cool that The Diner is still around.
We ate there many times in the ’90s and early ’00s. While the food itself was nothing to write home about (average quality, higher-than-expected prices), it was more the kitchy ambiance and experience of being there that was the appeal. The owner lady (forget her name) is a dead-wringer for my mother-in-law, so it was rather amusing when my wife and I were there, haha. I’ll never forget the very first time I ate there and the owner lady took the napkin, snapped it in the air and laid it over my lap just like that, catching me by total surprise.
The food …… sigh, it’s not impressive, and yet it’s such simple homey fare that can so easily be improved upon. The Diner has such potential to really make the place a destination attraction with all their royalty paraphernalia, but sadly they haven’t.
But like the royals, it’s good to see The Diner prevail so steadfastly all these years (decades). So maybe a ‘hip, hip’ is in order 😉
BTW, a “real” English breakfast would also include black pudding and pan-fried leftover potatoes mixed with veggies (bubble):
Mmmm, black pudding 🙂
Where are the mushrooms??? I always have fried mushrooms with my breakfasts!!
I agree on the black pudding. I make my own.
Oh … just a quick note to everyone that Ben is still alive and in one piece. Sorry for the lack of update and new posts. I had been dealing with some pretty exciting stuff at work and spending 11-13 hours in the office. If things pans out, me gonna have some pretty exciting stuff to share with you too!! So for now, those long hours at work pretty much leaves me little time to deal with anything else. Will be back in action when the work excitement tapers off, hopefully sooner than later! 🙂 In the meantime, hope everyone eats well. Ben
Sounds exciting. They sold the company to you ? [wink] Whatever it is, we’re happy for ya, can’t wait to hear what it is.
When you’re not online as much we just:
Love the owners (meaning, the lady owner) of this place. My friends and I got chided for not eating enough! Great ambiance; my friend is a Brit and commented that this place definitely reminds him of home.