The Diner House 29 — Restaurant in St. Catharines

*I’ll update with a picture of our food the next time we visit The Diner House 29… I honestly couldn’t wait to dig in to such fantastic, imaginative, beautiful and delicious food… but if you want to look at their food, go to their Instagram page!

First of all the menu is INCREDIBLE - very diverse and there are so many cool things that we want to try on their menu… Plus, they have daily specials!

My partner has had one of the daily specials on both occasions, and I’ve had “The Hot Mess”, and today I tried the Spicy Crab Fried Rice - a Szechuan inspired rice power bowl topped with perfectly crispy, piping hot and delicious poached eggs.

The ingenuity and creativity for this menu - is fantastic, and the service is second to none.

They have take-home hot sauces, jams, and other pantry items, and it’s quite obvious these folks love what they do.

Every single detail of their menu is home grown and authentic - even their hot sauces are in-house made, and DIFFERENT!!!

PLUS? The service is attentive, heartfelt, enthusiastic and friendly.

For the reviews that complain about the price point? Those people have to be a bit insane… or they’ve literally never tried to cook their own food or had an authentically cooked meal in their life.

This is definitely not your cookie cutter, run-of-the-mill greasy spoon.

This is not a place you’re going to get generic jam in a packet slapped on your table… they served HOUSE MADE JAM… with a perfectly moist, crispy-crust, HOUSE MADE WHOLE WHEAT TOAST.

It literally tasted like my Grandmother would have baked.

And for the portions?? I’ve always left happily full… and I’ve always brought home a small goodie-box of leftovers that I’ve dug into later that day!

GO THERE. You will have a new culinary adventure, plus a cute and cozy diner experience when you visit.

This place? Is literally how food SHOULD be served. REAL, INVENTIVE,...

A real hidden gem. Disguised as a plain Jane diner attatched to the Avondale but once inside… there’s culinary passion at work and it’s clear to see once you take a look at their menu.

The food was amazing and the decor was fun. I like the mismatched chairs and the Pyrex.

The lamb breakfast bowl is an explosion of flavor and we could have both ate off one plate and been full.

I ordered the special which was a sausage, egg and cheese sandwich with a delicious aioli and green tomatoes. (Picture is the half sandwich I took home) The sausage and the bread both looked to be homesde and it was VERY good. The potatoes are some of the best breakfast potatoes I’ve had. Everyone at my table agreed that the chef truly has a passion for food and we loved that we were able to experience that through our plates.

Taking off one star because we waited a loooong time to get seated and there were tables open but uncleaned for 10+ min because all of the servers and host was so incredibly busy. Need at least one more person working in there for sure. In addition, even when we were seated the service was very slow. Once we ordered the food it came out in a timely manner but we probably had been there for an hour or more by that time. Again not the fault of the servers they were doing the best they can but they need more...

I went to Diner House 29 expecting a standard breakfast offering and wow was I mistaken! When the hostess gave me a menu at first glance I assumed she had given me a lunch or dinner menu by mistake but when I had a closer look the magic of this place started to show. Does that say crab and rice and deep fried eggs?? For Breakfast?? BBQ Pork Hot Mess?? What have I gotten myself into here!? One of the super friendly servers came over and asked if I had any questions (no doubt seeing the bewilderment on my face). He went on to explain that the chef personally curates this menu and changes it up every few months. He told me about the specials and although they all sounded amazing and pretty non standard I went with The Savoury Special of the day. I'll call it a wild take on a breakfast poutine because describing everything in it would take too long. (Corn Bread, sundried tomatoes, ham, cheese potatoes, green onions to name a few) This meal turned out to be one of the best Breakfast surprises I have ever had. It was absolutely fantastic start to finish. In Addition the servers were all amazing, my coffee was kept full and relaxed conversation along with the decor made me feel like I was having breakfast at a friend's house.

Go to Diner house 29. I'm ashamed it took me this long. PS - TRY...