Smile Diner

Kept wanting to try this place as I was always going by. Really wanted a good club sandwich and figured diners do them best.
Waitress couldn’t have cared less about me, even with the place almost empty. Chicken was just barely cooked, sandwich a far cry from the tasty club I’d been anticipating. French fries were obviously re-​cooked from earlier, whether left over from another customer or yesterday’s french fries.
All in all a terrible experience. I left disappointed and would not go back.

Went here the other day for some breakfast. Place is not very updated but the 80s atmosphere gives it some character. The server was very nice and the food was o. k for cheap diner breakfast. The reason I am not very happy is I asked for a receipt as i always do to write off the meal for my business. I paid cash. The receipt i received had a date on it from March 2003 and no gst number. Leaving me to believe that they are not claiming my meal and I can not write off this fake receipt.

You go to a diner like this to soak up the ambience, not to rave about the food. Greasy spoon fare, prepared quickly – no organic eggs in sight. BUT – the waitress is awesome, the clientele are varied and interesting, the people-​watching through the window is great, and the décor is delightfully tacky.
Plus you won’t spend an arm and a leg.

Definitely left smiling, but it wasn’t because the food or coffee was good. This place is as cheap as it gets and I think the owners are hilarious… It’s like the opposite of what people in Vancouver think is a good restaurant, and that’s why I love it.

Go here for the décor, the ambience, and the ridiculously cute couple who run this place. The food was just alright, diner quality. I might try the Chinese food here next time. :)

Mystery meat in the pancakes, eggs were very plain. Terrible décor. #fail
Do not go here. Everyone I asked warned me a out it, but I gave it a chance, and that’s one meal I will never get back.

It is an old style café — make you feel like going back to the eighties… iron bar stools… booth seating… mediocre on everything…
But I liked their everyday breakfast… bacon, toast, egg, hash brown… for about $ 6, where do you get this now?
Food: ⁴⁄₅
Service: ³⁄₅
Value: ⁴⁄₅
Environment: ²⁄₅

Well, relatively low quality food here in my experience but its handy to have a quick seat and fast service.

THEY GOT INSTAGRAM: D

Owner is very friendly and personable. The barbecue pork chow mein is superb!

I’ve been coming to this place for years and I absolutely love almost everything about it. Specially the fact that they will make me breakfast with broccoli (don’t judge). There was actually one time when I came by like always on my way to (at the time school) with my friend and I guess they over heard me talking about how my student loans hadn’t come in and how I was tight on money… The older guy that works there (he’s there occasionally just to help out his friend the owner), he actually wouldn’t let me pay for my meal and took the money out of his wallet and put it in the till.
I love how every time I walk in no matter how long it’s been their still the same, «hey red, long time no see where ya been?»
:) you just can’t beat it!

This diner is average across the board in my opinion, not good, not bad. Everything is mediocre: booths, tables, food, very thin cheap napkins (I hate, but not critical), cleanliness, service, atmosphere, menu, etc… My Denver omelet and hash browns were fine, adding salt and pepper did wonders to this bland dish. My friend said his BLT was good. I don’t have much positive or negative to say, A-​OK, that’s it.

I come here strictly for its old diner atmosphere. Don’t ever change, Smile Café! And those who want you to, just don’t get you.
The emerald marbley leather booths, the patterned wallpaper — it is the Value Village of restaurants to all the Urban Outfitters of hipster diners. And don’t get me wrong, I love me some Acme Café and the flux of faux retro diners. But Smile Café makes all of them look like teenagers playing dress up.
There is no shortage of shiny new restaurants, but few age as well as Smile Café.

One of the many local diner-​style restaurants in this city. It serves all day breakfast and all the other diner foods.
I found myself stranded on this side of town and feeling very hungry. The overall appearance of the diner told me that it was old, and maybe a good old? We were the second table to dine in that morning. The lack of customers took away any trace of confidence I had in this diner.
The owners were very nice people. We were joined by another table shortly after. They seemed to know the owners quite well, so I think that they do manage to keep a set regulars.
I ordered a breakfast plate, thinking it would the safest thing to get at a shady-​looking place like this. It came with two eggs, two sausages, and ready-​made hash browns — the type that come in shreds. Refer to the business photo album.
The sausages were sliced in vertical halves, which made the sausages look unappealing because they were not nice and thick to begin with. So, by slicing them in vertical halves, the sausages looked thin and soggy. The ready-​made hash browns speak for themselves… gross.
I didn’t have the heart to tell the owners that my meal sucked. They were really quite friendly. When they came to check on me, I just said everything was OK.
Don’t get me wrong, this place is cheap. So cheap. Unfortunately, the food reflects the cheapness… It didn’t even feel like a $ 5 well spent.
Now that I’m reading all these shining reviews about this place, it makes me wonder. As I’ve said before, they seem to keep a set of regulars, so their food must jive with some people. As for me, it’s over. I won’t go out of my way to come here and I doubt I’d catch myself so hungry in that part of town again.

A place that talks about great Chinese food also advertising all day breakfast? How good could it be? We did kinda debate it before we stepped in, but thought we’d give it a try.
We each ordered off the breakfast menu, and we both left stuffed. Portions were really good. Prices were pretty decent, and the food, as breakfast from a diner-​style place, was pretty decent.
Service was reasonable. Food made it out pretty quick. No problems, no issues.

Yes, you read that right – just simply for their incredible chocolate milkshakes! And the value, the 2^nd tin literally serves as a second full serving – unlike with White spot, where this would only be half-​full. Then again, maybe this would be a better thing for my waistline lol
Also ordered the everyday breakfast, again, great value for under $ 6: 2 eggs, hash browns and bacon… mind you, the bacon didn’t have much meat to it, and pretty skinny too. Also came w/​toast, buttered up, just like diner style ;)
It’s not in the trendiest places of dt so if you can get by that, parking’s alright along the side streets forget parking right on pender b/​c of rush hr traffic.
btw, this is the only diner existing in dt apparently to owner. She actually makes more $$$ renting it out to the movie sets, $ 15K per!
will definitely come back again for the milkshake…
Love the décor, just like the old days, even w/​the iron cast bar stools… plenty of booth seating… and the crowd was just normal!

I’ve walked by many times and a few days ago I finally went in lunch time. I had ordered simple hamburger, fries and coffee. Price is approximately $ 7. Taste is not so special, but not so bad. Stuff is always friendly. Couch is comfortable for relax.
They have a free wifi. This place is better for relax. I will come again for purpose of reading book or something like that.

I’ve walked by here a couple times and I finally went in. What attracted me to it was the name, the fact that they serve Chinese and Western food, and the old décor. Okay, most people hate the outdated décor, but I never care about décor, just the food and service.
BUT you’re an 80s fan like me, you will appreciate their décor. Walking in, I felt like I went back to the 80s. There was even a very old poster of Sylvester Stallone on the wall lol! Plus, the radio station they were playing just happened to play an 80s song (although it wasn’t an oldies radio station). It was fricken awesome.
I was greeted and served by a very friendly Chinese woman. She was the type of friendly person where you just can’t say anything bad to them because they’re so nice and hard-​working/​efficient. Anyways, I ordered the hamburger steak with mashed potatoes and onions. It was $ 8.95, which I thought was a good value. The server later came back with complimentary soup minutes later. Almost directly after that was my entrée. With my entrée I also got a little bit of salad and toast. Really fast service, great value, and very delicious! Seriously, the cheapest eat I’ve had in a while.
You can’t help but feel so optimistic in this diner… there’s happy faces all over the menus and the workers are just so nice.

I’m adding at least half a star for the service, the amusement-​park façade of the place, and the homey, oldtimey diner décor – which is marred, (or perhaps made more winningly unpretentious) by ‘80s-​vintage hotel-​style framed posters of flowers in urns and one naughty picture involving lowered panties (?).
Our waiter – I want to call him «host’ actually– was a tall, distinguished, white-​haired gent in a suit with a big purple pocket square. This talkative fellow, a friend of the owner who was helping out, was very nice and boasted on the place in the way one can when a thing is not one’s own. People in Canada frequently put me back in time to where strangers would chat with you a bit, and our host was of that type. He got my order wrong, but he was moonlighting, filliing in, and a really nice guy.
The grilled cheese sandwich was made from cheese spread rather than slices. But aside from that the meal was fine. Shake, burgers and fries were all tasty, neither a bargain nor overpriced.

The Smile Diner is an all-​day breakfast diner in a great location above pidgeon park that is never really crowded. There’s always a nicely upholstered booth available, and plenty of window seating. The staff are quite attentive and will address your party as soon as you walk in there. The waiter was a slow but happy old man who explained to us that they have all kinds of good things at smile!
My girlfriend and I ordered the breakfast special and a soda. It was served quickly and without flair, but still some enthusiasm. The food was well cooked, you could actually stick your fork in the bacon and the eggs were really yolky. The hashbrowns were nothing special. The overall portion was large enough to be a filling breakfast, but nothing better than my home cooking.
The only reason this is a 3 star place is because it definitely seems like one of those restaurants where you pay more for the décor. It’s stereotypical greasy spoon food and décor, but the prices can go higher than $ 10 for a meal (not very greasy spoon like in my opinion!). Even the breakfast special was $ 5, and coffee almost $ 2 without a single free refill! In my opinion, diner’s should be the kind of places where the waiter offers to fill your half full cup up if theyre bored. And they dont offer any kind of bread but white and brown. The washrooms are tiny and have no soap in them, which annoyed me as I like to wash my hands after I eat. Bleh.