Rockin Johnny's Diner - Kanata

Well, we needed to visit Dollarama this morning and decided to have a late breakfast at Rockin Johny's Diner on Hazeldean road first. We walked in and joined a cluster of 3 groups waiting for a table. Despite it being very quiet, no one acknowledged any of us for at least 5 minutes and continued to clean up all the tables before moving onto the waiting customers. We were directed to a booth with menus dropped on the table and she quickly walked away. There was no friendly greeting, offer for high chairs, drink orders, colouring pages brought, or any sort of chit chat. We thought, oh great.. this is going to be fun.

After about 15 minutes she came back for our order. My husband was choosing off of the all day breakfast but reading the full descriptions on the breakfast page. The waitress actually pushed his hand off of the menu and turned the page to the full day breakfast for him, saying "You're on the wrong page" with a condecending and frustrated tone and then stared at me expectantly for an order. I ordered the fritata with coffee and my daughter chose the grilled cheese with cooked veggies. My husband chose the 2 egg breakfast.

She kept giving us dirty looks and touching Toast Boy's face (something I really can't stand). We were still holding him and asked for a high chair. It never came and we eventually went to get it ourselves.

Toast Girl quickly found a small watch battery which freaked us out and we handed to the waitress. There was also a ton of gross food under the table so she really had to stay put on the bench. Any noises that our kids made were returned with angry looks from the staff. I really felt unwelcome the entire time. The waitress came back to re-take our order because she forgot what it was.

When our coffee came, it was alright coffee, but it was an extra $2.25 or so and she never returned to refill it except when she brought the bill and we asked for more coffee. The waitress also made no effort to keep it out of the baby's reach and my heart jumped when she swung it right by his face. The kids milk came in a glass cup with a straw and was spilled all over the table. Luckily there was a napkin dispenser on the table because there would have been no help from the staff.

The food came it about 10 minutes. There was an add on the table saying that they proudly serve mcCain fries.. Im not sure why they are proud to serve them out of a bag, but even so, they were mushy.

The frittata was a greasy mess of sausages, tomatoes, onions, and eggs hidden under way too much cheese.

The 2 egg breakfast was so so. The eggs were cooked over easy instead of over medium, the sausage was very greasy, and the homefries were a fail.

The grilled cheese and veggies looked good. Real cut and cooked veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots). But they were served on a piping hot plate. Im not sure why they would heat the plate of a toddler but it is not a good idea. We had to remove her food from it and put the plate out of reach so that she wouldn't get burned.

Even with the poor service and food quality, our total bill before taxes/tip was over $30. Coffee was not included.

Two eggs over medium, white toast, and sausage with homefries

Grilled Cheese with a side of veggies

Frittata with toast

 

The menu is available here

 



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Graffiti's Restaurant- Kanata

This morning, my mom treated us to Breakfast at Graffiti's inside the Holiday Inn, located in the Kanata Centrum. When we arrived we were seated in a big round booth. The hostess gave tOAST girl a kids menu and some crayons.

Our waiter came to take our drink orders and brought back 2 coffee carafes (decaf and..not decaf) and a milk for Toast Girl (with a lid! Thank you!). It was very nice to have the coffee pots right on the table.

The menu sounded delicious! I ordered the "Italian Toast" ($11.99) which was a french toast panini stuffed with mango puree and topped with almonds with a side of farmer's sausages . Toast Man and Toast Grandma both had the "Graffiti's Breakfast Special" ($5.99) with 2 eggs, toast, homefries, a tomato, and a choice between bacon, capicola ham, or farmer's sausage. Toast Grandma had the ham and Toast Man ordered the bacon. Toast Girl ordered (can't you guess by now?) the pancakes with a side of ham ($4).

It took a long time for the food to come (over 20 minutes) and the kids were getting grumpy. Toast Gril started climbing all around the booth and ended up hitting her head. During this time, the waiter didn't come to update us on the food status at all.

When the food finally arrived, it looked great! Each plate was laid out nicely. The pancakes were brought with real Ontario maple syrup. The mango Italian Toast was great. The sausage was better! Toast Man and Grandma loved the homefries which were served with pesto. The meats were all great. We were very impressed with all of our meals, except for Toast Girl. She took a bite of pancakes and said she didn't like them. That is the first time that has happened.

There weren't many kids there and when ours started to get antsy we got a few looks. There were no washroom inside the restaurant but there was one in the hotel lobby. There was a change table there as well.

Their menu is available here

"Italian Toast with Farmer's Sausage

Kids Pancakes served with ham

Graffiti's special with bacon

Graffiti's special with ham

 

 

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Eggstyle

On Saturday morning we headed to Eggstyle in Kanata Centrum. We had been there a couple of times before and were hesitant to visit again because the service had always left something to be desired. However, on our previous visit, we had a friendly waiter, so we gave them another chance.
I am very happy to say that have gotten their act together and hired some great staff. Our experience has changed drastically, for the better.

When we arrived we were greeted with a warm welcome. The hostess acknowledged both us and our kids and sat us in a booth immediatly. They brought Toast Girl a placemat and crayons and offered us highchairs or booster seats. Our waitress was very friendly and made a happy fuss over the kids, which they always love. She brought out our coffees and a chocolate milk for Toast Girl. The milk was in a glass cup with a straw and no lid. I do wish they would switch to more kid friendly cups with lids because it took only seconds before there was chocolate milk everywhere. Our coffees were refilled frequently and well before our mugs were empty.

There was a kids meal with options like chocolate chip or blueberry crepes, french toast, bacon+eggs, cereal and fruit. They were about $7 and included a drink. On this particular day, Toast Man decided to order a meal that included a pancake so that he could share with her. For a buck extra they added chocolate chips. The food arrived in less than 10 minutes and it all came together. Our meals were around $15. Because we shared with our daughter instead of ordering the kids menu, we saved some money. It is not a cheap breakfast, but you get a lot of bang for your buck.

I ordered the portabello and brie eggs benedict with dill holandaise and it was fantastic! It came with an impressive display of fresh fruits as well as homefries. The homefries were cooked with green onions and were also quite tasty. It also came with a small bowl of cinnamon apples. They are really tasty and were quickly confiscated by our daughter. Toast Man's breakfast, "The Giant", included 2 eggs, toast, bacon, ham, sausage, pancake, homefries, beans, cinnamon cooked apples, and capers, and fruit.  The sausages were the flat kind, and were pretty good. Everything was really tasty. Toast Girl's chocolate chip pancakes were again "the best pancakes ever".

The washrooms have change tables and were pretty clean. There were also lots of kids in the restaurant so we weren't too concerned when ours forgot to use their indoor voices. The staff was all very friendly yesterday and overall we found the experience very enjoyable and would be happy to return. I am really happy that the service improved so much as it made our experience great. Overall, this is a great restaurant to visit with kids or without!

Portabello mushroom and brie benedict with dill holandaise served with homefries, cooked apples, and fruit. Delish!

The Giant breakfast

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Colonade Pizza

This morning we dined at Colonade pizza in the Farm Boy Plaza, off Hazeldean. We we arrived, we were greeted with a "Good Morning" and a smile and told to sit wherever we liked. We found a table for 4 and sat down, despite it being dirty still. After about 10 minutes the waitress came by to offer crayons and a sheet torn from a colouring book to Toast Girl and asked her to keep the sheet on a placemat so that she doesn't get crayons on the table. It was a little straight forward, but the placemat had princesses on it, so it was welcomed by my little girl excitedly. As she wiped the table, Toast Boy was woken up by the waitress' loud voice, and she didn't seem to notice that this was the case. She did smile at him a lot and seemed to enjoy the kids though.

It took another 10-15 minutes for the waitress to come back again to take our orders because she was chatting with another customer who seemed to be friends with her. She took our drink orders at the same time as our meal orders. We both ordered coffees (the menu specified 1 coffee per meal but she didn't charge us for refills) and a milk for Toast Girl. There was no kids meal so I ordered the pancakes and added the "fresh fruit" for an additional charge, to share with Toast Girl (About $10). Toast Man ordered an all meat omelette (about $10). Sorry, I can't remember the exact prices. I will update that later. Our total bill was $23 before tax/tip for 2 breakfasts and a $3 milk.

The food took about 10 minutes to come out and we had to find our own cuttlery, ketchup and creamers for coffee. Our coffee came out but the milk didn't. We received Toast Girl's milk AFTER she had finished her meal and we were still charged $3 for it. It was in a small plastic cup with no lid and it was filled to the brim. The chances of not spilling it were slim to none. I was not impressed.

The pancakes were thick but tasted like instant pancakes from a box. The "fresh fruit" was brought out afterwards and was actually a fruit cocktail from a can. I was disappointed since I pictured pancakes with fresh fruit as pancakes topped with berries or bananas. Instead, they were in a bowl with a spoon next to us and Toast Girl didn't eat any of them since she is not used to canned fruit.

Toast Man ordered a meat omelette that he said tasted alright if you add ketchup. I tried it and had to agree that the ketchup is a must, and I don't like ketchup on my eggs. The homefries were bland. Nothing special. Just deep fried home fries. Ketchup was added there too.

The woman's bathroom had a change table. There were several high chairs and booster seats, However, the one they brought us had a broken seatbelt buckle and I noticed that others were the same when I went to help myself to a second high chair. For an older baby/toddler it is alright, but for a small one, a broken seatbelt is a safety hazard that ticks me off.

Meat Omelette

Pancakes

Fruit

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