Kanata Family Diner

This morning we wound up at the Kanata Family Diner. It's a small place located in a strip mall and wedged between a Mac's and a learning center. The place isn't much to look at with it's outdated decor and leaky ceilings, but the regulars rave of the affordability, food and service of this family run eatery.


The restaurant is a sit where you would like kind of a place where the owner is the waitress and the only staff working out front. It was quiet and she welcomed each customer with a smile as she set their table. We were brought a high chair while Toast Girl parked herself on the bench. I only saw a single high chair and a booster seat, though the high chair was a real home-style type with a tray. There may have been more somewhere, but I recommend calling to check first if you have several little ones and possibly bringing your own seat. We were able to place our order as soon as we decided and our coffees were kept full. The child sized drink were brought in a glass cup with a straw. The menu was quite large with many different option. There was a section of it devoted to kids with options including bacon and eggs, French toast, and pancakes. We decided on the kids pancake with fruit, the vegetarian benedict, and the one egg breakfast with ham.


The food arrived in 10 minutes and looked surprisingly tantalizing. The benedict's ($10) English muffin was perfectly toasted and topped with melted cheese and spinach, an egg, and hollandaise sauce. It was served with home fries. I wasn't a fan of the home fries, but that is personal preference. They are slightly sweetened and I can't wrap my taste buds around that one. The one egg breakfast was cooked well and with a $5 price tag, who's to complain? The kids' pancake with fruit ($6) was painted with rows of berries, cherries in syrup, and bananas. Our child was wild afterwards from the sugar, but it was a delicious treat.


I would recommend avoiding the washroom. It has no change table and the hall leading to it is littered with stuff.


Overall, it is a friendly, affordable place to eat. Not many bells and whistles but the food is good and we left happy.

One Egg Breakfast with ham

Kids Pancakes with fruit

Vegetarian Benedict

Toast rating
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Barley Mow - Kanata

I had some awful experiences here in the past. To be fair I was pregnant on nearly all of those occassions so I may be been harder to please. Either way, this visit ended well and and we will return.

This pub is located in Kanta North and you need to pass through big double doors to enter. These big dark pub doors are contrasted by a little basket of toys and puzzels on the floor. If we hadn't had our Superstuffed Toast Pack of toys, that would have been a great contribution to the sanity of our meal.

We were seated "anywhere" we wanted and we chose a table for 4 by the window. The waitress brought us 2 high chairs and a kids menu with crayons. Toast girl requested some milk and we got our usual coffees.

The coffees and a small plastic cup of milk were brought quickly, and we barely had time to decide what we wanted before the waitress was back to take our orders. Toast Man ordered a 2 egg breakfast, I chose the mushroom and swiss benny and Toast girl surprized us with an order of waffles.

The food arrived in about 10 minutes or so. The homefries were very nicely seasoned, the eggs were cooked to perfection and our food tasted great. The only comment that Toast Man had, was that the cheese on my benedict wasn't melted. It still tasted great though. I had a hard time only eating one side of it because it was so delicious. The plate included a salad, which, the exception of the tomatoes, was pretty good. I got it with a balsamic vinegerette. Toast Girl's waffles were pretty bad, though. I think they may have confused the word lemon zest with lemon juice in the recipe. They were actually sour. Stay clear of these. Her ham was good though.

Our bill ended up being in the high 20's. However, there was a note on the receipt that said you could bring it back the following Saturday for 2 for 1 breakfast. Of course, we accidentally forgot ours. Oops!

Overall its a pretty good place to go. The layout is unique with a bar in the center, tables on the right side and cubby-like tables on the left side. They have doors that close so that you are in a little room. This would be a great spot for people who want to contain their monkeys or a new mother who is still nervous about nursing in public.

The menu is available online here

 Toast Rating

 

Affordability
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Gabriel's Pizza - Kanata

Saturday morning, the Toast family headed over to Gabriel's pizza in Bridlewood. We were seated right away in the back of the restaurant and were provided with high chairs, kids menus and crayons. Our waitress was quick to bring the coffees and a small (toddler-friendly) juice. Seriously, I can't stress enough the importance of lids! Sticky and wet clothes can turn a good morning sour. Thanks Gabriels, You did it Right!

The menu had some unique options like breakfast pizzas. They had a kids breakfast menu that offered pancakes, french toast, eggs and bacon, cereal, and grilled cheese! All kids meals cost $5.

The waitress was quick, friendly, and good with kids. We were happy.

I ordered the vegetarian breakfast pizza and Toast Man ordered the 1 egg breakfast. Toast girl had pancakes.

The food came out in about 10 minutes. Toast Girl's pancakes were average, but she enjoyed them. Toast Man was thrilled that his eggs were cooked perfectly over-medium like he asked. His ham was decent and we were please that there was some fruit slices on his plate for Toast Boy to gum while we ate. He felt a little cheated on his homefries, however, because it seems as through they were regular, plain, deep fried home fries, but they mixed cooked onions in AFTER. That kind of defeats the purpose of using onions to flavour them, and he wasn't impressed with the taste. The vegetarian pizza was delicious and a could barely finish half of it because it was so filling. It was like a regular pizza but with hollandaise sauce instead of tomato sauce and also a thin layer of egg. It was hard to stop eating it, because it was so good.

The place overall was pretty kid-friendly. There were change tables in the washrooms, plenty of high chairs, and several kids in the restaurant.

Our bill was just over $20 which is fantastic compared to recent breakfast excursions. Coffees and the kids milk were all included in the cost of the meals. The kids meals were $5, the pizza was $10 and the 1 egg breakfast was $6.


Toast Rating

Affordability
Food Quality/Taste
Family Friendliness

Speed of Service


 The menu is available online here

Luna Crepes

Today we went for breakfast/lunch at Luna Crepes on March Rd with a friend and her 2 year old boy.

Luna's is more of a fast-food restaurant as you place your order at the counter and they bring it to your table for you. We've been here several times before, but not with the children.

The first thing we noticed was that there were only two highchairs, so that meant that Toast Girl had to sit on a chair. This isn't a big deal, but it also meant that no more families could sit down to eat with their little one.

Not particularly feeling like breakfast, I (Toast man) decided to have the chicken parmigiana on a panini with a ceasar salad. It was around 10$ from their (all-day) lunch menu. This was unfortunately a big mistake; I should have stuck with breakfast. The panini bread seemed really stale and the tomato sauce made it really soggy. The chicken was pretty decent though and the salad was OK.

Toast mom had the vegetarian omelet, which was on the (all-day) breakfast menu for around 10$. She wasn't very impressed either; the crepe was fairly rubbery and that the omelet was pretty bland.

Toast Girl had the eggs and cheese crepe (though Pancakes was on the kids menu) for 4.99$. It didn't include a drink. This was by far the best of all our meals; it was actually really good and fair sized for a kid’s meal. Toast Girl really enjoyed it! We also ordered her a "blue" gelato for dessert, which she just loved. They had an amazing selection of Gelato.

One thing that really stood out was their coffee selection; which included cappuccinos, espressos, lattes, cafe au lait's, etc. Toast Woman and I both got a Latte (despite her ordering a cappuccino), but we were really impressed! It was around 4$ each for a large.

Our bill was around 35$.

If you're sticking with sweet breakfasts (crepes+fruit) or coming for the coffee you won't be disappointed, but I wouldn't recommend straying from their specialties.

Affordability: 2

Food Quality/Taste: 2

Family Friendliness: 2.5

Speed of Service: 3

Vegetarian omelette crepe

Lattes

Kids Pancake

Kids Egg and Cheese Crepe

Chicken Panini with Caesar salad

 

View the menu online here