Route 401 Diner — Restaurant in Toronto

A quiet, hidden-away local diner with adequate food and old-time atmosphere.

NOTE: Under new ownership as of Dec 2017 - my review below took place before that, and apparently the new owners are a BIG improvement according to reviewers who have been to Route 401 since I was there.

When visiting Toronto in mid-2016, I wanted to ensure that our busiest day started out right with a good breakfast, so that meant searching the local area for good eats, and Route 401 came up on a few lists.

Parking wasn't so great, but we still managed to squeeze into the small lot with some effort, past a big, deep pothole filled with water. The place isn't much to look at from the outside, but that's not why we try out new diners: it's what's inside that counts.

The interior is the original 50's diner decor, which is in surprisingly good shape and kept quite clean if a little worn from time. We sat in a corner booth and enjoyed that the morning sun didn't fry us through the windows, giving us a chance to take in the diner in all its retro glory.

The food was all right. If I had to describe it in a single word, it'd be 'serviceable' - neither good nor bad. The portion size was decent, enough so that the waitress gave me a 'You can't finish that?' look with her best mom-face on, which I appreciated. It's just unfortunate that the bacon, sausages, pancake and eggs weren't inspired in any way. I've eaten at hundreds of different breakfast places over the years and in my experience, the food was moved out of the kitchen without any real TLC apart from making sure the food was cooked to modern standards.

Overall, I'd probably go back again, as there wasn't much else available for breakfast in the area, but I'm sure that if a new, modern place opens up locally that has truly inspired kitchen staff, then the 401 is going to be in a run for its money. That upsets me, as I'd hoped for better for my first( and likely last )visit, because from the look of the place, the food should practically stand up and shout that there's a long history of true diner food here waiting to...

Today I went to have breakfast with my family. We had eaten at this restaurant before, more than a year ago, really good. The restaurant is nice, very retro. The service of the first waitress was so so. But the food was not the same. The club house comes with fries. The fries were greasy and cold, we didn't eat them, we called another waitress, with black hair in braids, and she said "OK" with a sour face. The sandwiches had no mayonnaise, they were very dry. Then the waitress asked us if we wanted the bill, without us having asked for it, and we told her that we wanted to order something else, and she showing her bad manners told us: Just ask, she is rude. We ordered 2 vanilla milkshake, so good, really, from the first waitress and she asked the other one to make them for her. I watched her prepare the vanilla milkshakes because I had doubts about how she was going to do it, after her attitude. When she served it she kept the rest of the milkshake for herself, she didn't serve it all, I know what I saw. It's not fair, because the first time we ate there, they gave us the rest of the drink in a separate glass and back then the food was very good but they are not the same people. As we are very educated and cultured and this is what we like to give, we gave the first waitress 20% of what we spent in cash. We give what we have left over, and always in a good and positive way. But, we would have preferred to spend the money on OLG! I am sorry, but something we think is good, needs to be corrected. That's why I edited it. Because it wouldn't be fair either, that for one day, something is categorized as bad. Thanks Milan for reading and responding. The...

401 Diner is the reason we (3 regular customers plus a couple of irregulars) don't go to chain restaurants for breakfast, and sometimes other meals. The prices and individual attention are what we expect from a small restaurant, and they serve good food as well. For example, we are not fond of deep fried potato cubes (which are not real "home fries" in my opinion) so we often ask to have a couple of fried tomato slices instead, and we are never disappointed. Try negotiating something nonstandard like that at a chain restaurant.

Although the retro decor feels a bit contrived (when does it not), it is still relaxing and amusing. The staff are lovely. The restaurant itself is just slightly off the pedestrian path in an industrial area, so it comes by its unpretentious appointments honestly in every other respect. The new owner seems to have understood that a bit of updating does not signal an opportunity to go upscale. We find him an altogether pleasant chap.

I would call this a restaurant for families of voting-age people. It is not "accessible" unless your companion can climb three porch steps with your assistance, but it is otherwise friendly to adults of all ages. My rating would have been five stars, if they'd had a ramp for seniors with walkers. For children, I'd suggest you bring your own paper and crayons to amuse them, and tell them not to expect...