Scotty's Corner Diner — Restaurant in Ottawa

I had the pleasure of dining at this gem of a diner on the 8th of July at a surprise birthday party for a guy who I grew up with but had lost contact with many years ago. He has been coming to this Diner for years and swears by it, as does his sister and brother in law.

Upon entering with my mother, we were greeted by a very friendly and welcoming hostess Kendra who although we were extremely overdressed, welcomed us with her warm smile and great hospitality. We mentioned we were part of the Doug Party and were seated at a table where two guests were already seated, I got the pleasure to meet one of the regulars there, Steve and his brother, who were part of the party.

Dinner was traditional home-cooked Canadiana, served up in my case, with a twist, as I ordered (at Steve's suggestion) the hamburger with some deep fried chillies on top and some kind of homemade sauce that defied the senses as the burger required absolutely no other condiments whatsoever, it was perfect as is. As I looked around the table, I saw Shepherd's Pie, my mother ordered the Corned Beef on Rye (Her favourite which reminds her of Nate's where my late father used to take her) and she said that Scotty's was the same if not better than Nate's. Now that's a compliment. Everyone finished up their plates and we were served store bought cake for dessert as it was a birthday party, but I was lucky enough to taste a portion of Steve's gargantuan warm apple crumble served up with ice cream that was to die for.

I will be returning, I will be tasting other things from the menu, I will be mentioning this place to my friends as jewels like this are...

First time customer. I saw some photos of the fries from other reviews and I was very interested to give the poutine a try.

In short, it was fantastic. Plentiful cheese curds, very fresh and lots of cheese pulls all over the place. The fries were also superb. Very crispy and freshly cut. No frozen fries here! There is some room for improvement, though.

For me, the big low point is the small portion and the price. $12 for a classic poutine is a bit up there, with no options for a large size. I would suggest to make this your small size and lower the price to $10, and then have a large size for $13.

The second issue is more of a personal preference, but the gravy is the weak point of this poutine. Clearly beef stock, it's akin to gravy for roast beef. Definitely not the kind of gravy I like to have on my traditional poutines. I kept thinking there was something about the poutine that was holding it back from greatness, and it was definitely the gravy. If there was a chicken stock gravy option, this would be dynamite.

So large poutine, slightly lowered prices, and chicken stock gravy, and then this poutine is a home run.

As is, I think people should give this poutine a try, it's very good! I'd like to try it again if any of the aforementioned changes are...

Took my Dad here for brunch last weekend when we couldn't get into Zola's and were desperately looking for another brunch place in the area that had good reviews. While the price can't be beat, I hate to say that the 4- and 5-star reviews (at least for us) fell short of our experience.

We waited for over 10 minutes at the "Please wait to be seated" sign before even being acknowledged by a server. Once we were finally seated, the server was very friendly and accommodating. However, the food left much to be desired. The coffee was lukewarm and tasted sour. The bacon was so barely cooked that at first, I thought it was boiled. Likewise, the sausage looked like it had just barely scraped by the minimum cook time for health and safety standards. The eggs and toast were okay, hence the two stars instead of one.

I get that you're not going to get a gourmet meal for $12.00 in this economy, but I've been to other breakfast places in the Ottawa area that offered a much better quality "classic breakfast" at a similar...