Ontario Bistro

Nice family-​run diner. Food is accurate, quick, and has amazing value. There’s nothing particularly interesting or unique on the menu but that’s not why we go. The specials are always nice though. They’re even licensed… I’m pretty sure you can get a shot of grey goose vodka for $ 6 (who would bother… but still). The server who is usually there is really friendly and on top of her game. I’ve never seen someone manage that many tables during a busy lunch service. She always manages for refill my coffee many times. Our go-​to meals are the big breakfast with pancakes and and a BLT with Greek salad. Anyone who complains about this place just doesn’t understand value for money or how restaurants work… it’s not fancy but what do you expect from those prices? Go to origin and pay $ 30 a plate for brunch if you expect more.

Excellent neighbourhood restaurant, friendly service and good comfort food.
Try the Greek salad, and Nancy’s yoghurt fruit crunch. It’s a complete meal!

Came here thursday evening for dinner. We were the only customers, makes sense because their menus are mainly breakfast items. But they have all day breakfast so I got the pancakes! It was three large but thin pancakes, served with a plastic syrup bottle, butter in a tiny plastic container, and orange pekoe tea (or coffee). The lady asked nicely how I like my tea and brought honey and milk. My friend order pasta which looks good.
A bit old and dim, and empty (at the time) to be honest, but if you just want food, this is a reasonably cheap place :)

The Ontario is a little gem in the Cabbagetown area. The service is friendly, the food is always yummy and the prices are great. Deffiently a traditional spot

It’s a pretty good sign when you walk into a diner and see that the cops eat there. Decent diner food, heavy on the starches, at a very reasonable price point – service could have been friendlier, but the food was tasty and filling so I expect I’ll be back the next time I need a hangover breakfast in the area.

I guess Unilocal is good for business. I would never have gone here for breakfast until I read the reviews and decided I had to try it for myself. The place is very uninviting because of its location and exterior. I’ve driven by thousands of times and never felt the urge to go in. But once inside, the place is actually quite nice for what it is. Very clean and friendly. One waitress for 70 seats and she handles it well and is very friendly. The food was better than expected, I like that they offer rye bread as an option, that’s important to me, and the service while a bit slow was better than most places of this ilk. I would go back although I am not comfortable with the location. If you like the Tulip restaurant, which I don’t, you will love this place. It is like the tulip but refined lol. The tulip has a dozen waiters and you wait forever and they have rye bread in house but won’t substitute.

Walked by this place while staying nearby and went in for breakfast. Great breakfast for a good price, and the staff were lovely. Highly recommend.

I’ve only been for breakfast, but it immediately became my favourite local breakfast place. Tasty, cheap, relaxed, etc. Ontario pops the brunch bubble.

A perfect neighbourhood diner with friendly, family-​run service. The fried saganaki is great.

They’ve changed their name (and signage) to «Ontario Restaurant», which is good, ’cause this ain’t no bistro. That being said, it’s interior is a bit of a pleasant surprise when judging by the exterior, and stretch of Dundas St. where it resides.
The breakfast specials (which two of us had — eggs, bacon, home fries, toast AND coffee) were a deal at 5 bucks. My veggie omelet, which was decent and included the same sides, was 7. Eggs Florentine got the «thumbs up». The coffee was above average, the home fries (sliced) were well cooked if a bit bland, and the eggs and toast were standard fare. Comparing the quality and price with MANY other diners, this is a deal.
Why only three stars? The meal was definitely worth 4, but the service was slow, the waitress was dour, and the coffee was refilled only upon request. Every Unilocaler knows — it’s ALL about the service.

ahhhh … i love how all three reviews have commented on the sketchiness of this neighbourhood! Yes unfortunately, I live just down the block from this breakfast joint (we subletted via craigslist while overseas!). so we wandered in on a random weekday.
the menu they have posted online seemed regular enough. it’s super CHEAP (i.e. steak and potatoes for $ 17 something), so after testing it out … it really wasn’t bad. i’ve paid way more to have way worse steak! i also had a burger of some sort … super yummy!
the place is a super low-​key, non-​fancy diner place. Our server was nice, being straight up about the mashed being out of a can! There’s a super old cook in the back, who looks like hes about 100 years old and been there forever. and we often saw regulars (or just random stranger i guess) waltz in from the street, head straight to the coffee machine, poured themselves a cup, and then left some change on the counter and left lol. Is that a normal thing to do around here?

We were just going for a walk when we found Ontario Bistro on Dundas East. It is not the best of areas, but we were looking for anything better than just a greasy burger place to satisfy our hungers. What caught our eye more than the round windows out front which gave the building an inviting entrance, the menu outside the front door is something that I always love. The inside of the restaurant was very unexpected. Clean, fancy, and just really casual looking.
Dressed in our usual clothing, we caught a few looks as we entered as if we did not belong there. That of course never stopped me before when I have money in my pocket to burn and a hunger in my belly that needs to be satisfied. Even though busy, we were seated promptly by a very friendly hostess.
The first thing we noticed when we started looking at the menus were how low the prices were for such a nice looking place. This raised the beginnings of a red flag because when prices are that low it usually means quality is too, we decided to still give it a shot though. I ordered the lamb chops and my friend ordered the chicken Parmesan.
The food did not take too long to arrive, although we were waiting longer than we had hoped (about 25 minutes). At first glance the food looked really good even for the price. The lamb chops were a little fattier than I am used to but were cooked quite well. They were quite tasty indeed. The mint sauce they came with was not my cup of tea though. The chicken Parmesan on the other hand was not quite as good. The chicken was a little dry and the sauce tasted like it was just heated Ragu. The roasted potatoes that came with our meals were actually really good. They were baked nicely and the spices were just impeccable. They were probably the best part of the meal, even though there were not many on the plate.
We should have listened to our half-​raised red flag that we had when we first sat down. Not that the meal was horrible, we have just both had much better. While the service was friendly and the atmosphere was quite nice (other than the looks from the other customers), it just didn’t make up for the lack of overall quality. «Dining well is the best revenge» is written on the menu, just don’t end up here if you really want to get back at someone…