At the Times Square Diner in North York, the owners, the Roubos family, can measure the passing of time in regulars. One longtime diner has been coming for more than five decades — so often she would call if she couldn’t make it. Now, 57 years into her run, health challenges sometimes keep her home; on those days, they bring the food to her.
Opened in 1949, the diner has seen generations grow up in its booths. Some regulars keep maple syrup or hot sauce behind the counter; a couple even keep their own bread for perfect toast. One 10-year-old already asks for “the usual.” A server who grew up coming here as a toddler — insisting on being lifted to watch the cooks — now works the floor.
Diners are unique in how they act as a constant. You go as a kid, a teen, an adult, and you return with your own children. You keep coming — especially as you get older, when a familiar face and a coffee poured just the way you like it can feel like steady comfort.
In an age of faceless corporate chains and trendy restaurants that vanish after a year or two, diners offer a rare continuity: a place to linger over coffee or enjoy a full meal without spending a fortune. They remain democratic in a way few spaces are today.
But they are under pressure. Over the past decade, stalwarts like Flo’s Diner in Yorkville and the Coach House downtown have shuttered. Most recently, The Patrician Grill — a Toronto institution for 73 years — announced it would close in May after accepting a real estate offer.
Food prices are rising. Hours are long. Margins are slim. Children don’t always want to take over the family business. So who keeps a greasy spoon alive in 2026?
Across the city, it’s the families who run these diners — along with the regulars who treat them as a second home — keeping the lights on. We asked readers and locals for their favourites, and after hundreds of responses poured in, we went to see five of the most recommended for ourselves. We found not just eggs and bacon, but places where everyone is remembered, everyone is welcomed and, at least for an hour or two, no one feels alone.
Did we miss your favourite diner? Comment below and let us know who we should have featured and why.
1. Times Square Diner
531 Wilson Heights Blvd.
Visiting the Times Square Diner in North York feels less like going out to eat and more like coming home. Framed photos line the walls of patrons’ first dates and weddings celebrated here. Soccer memorabilia reflects the owners’ passion for the game. A small stand holds a flyer for the co-owner’s music show. Another wall bursts with colourful artwork made by children who visit each week.
The moment you step inside, the chaos of the city fades. Everything is in its place: the black-and-white checkered floor, the shiny chrome coat racks at each booth, the bouncy red seats. Many regulars arrive daily, and the staff greet them by name.
The diner opened around 1949, and the Roubos family took over 28 years ago after closing their previous establishment, Bo Peep’s Tummy Ticklers. Papa Peter Roubos still cooks everything from scratch, from carving halibut fillets for fish and chips to rolling his own turkey and gravy. Retro staples like prime-rib dinners remain sacrosanct. (He still remembers visiting another diner that lacked an open-faced hot beef sandwich and apple pie with ice cream. “The menu is what makes the restaurant,” he sternly declared.) Breakfasts are equally indulgent, with eggs Benedict stacked high and meat cut sinfully thick. Order a hot chocolate, and it arrives overflowing with whipped cream.
Peter’s father worked in the kitchen into his nineties, while his mother rolled silverware with arthritis-dulled hands until the day before she died. His wife Sandra, a teacher, still spends evenings and weekends at the diner simply because she loves it. Even now, an 84-year-old diner veteran comes by a few hours each day to wash dishes.
Their son George is learning the ropes, introducing specialty coffee and a few local beers, but he prefers to keep the diner’s heart intact. “A lot of it is just being simple, I think… I don’t want to change the core of what the restaurant is,” he says. “I think that’ll keep it around for a while.”
2. The Donlands Diner
417 Donlands Ave.
“You want something with roots,” says Michael Dodds. He’s been coming to The Donlands Diner once a week with his husband for 10 years. “It gives you a sense of belonging.” He’s one of the many regulars who adore this East York stalwart. A glance around the diner shows the neighbourhood’s history: old photos line the walls under the playful slogan, “Nostalgia, our East York, our past.” During a busy lunch service, you might see a raucous family gathering in the corner, a PSW helping an older patron to the washroom, a young plaid-clad couple, or two friends chatting over coffee.
The devoted regulars are part of what sold co-owner Majuran Chandralongam on the diner. “We know what they order and what they want, so they don’t like to complain or anything,” he says. “They like the food, so we like the place.” Chandralongam and co-owner Mayuran Arichandran started at the diner as cooks, then agreed to take it over in 2019 when the previous owner wanted to sell. The following year, COVID forced a two-year shutdown. But once they could reopen, they did, with Chandralongam cooking five days a week and returning another day to shop and stock.
And the regulars came back. Some were so devoted that when they died, family members wrote to the diner, the same way they might to close relatives. “I used to have customers,” Chandralongam says, “a couple, who could barely walk (due to age), but they’d still walk over for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, three times a day. Every day.” Staff are just as loyal: one server has worked there for 28 years (she met her late husband here), and her best friend, who just retired, had been working there even longer. “These people,” Chandralongam adds, “they know some customers from when they were babies.”
The diner’s massive, double-sided menu offers everything from roast turkey, hot hamburger steak and meatloaf to a full page of all-day breakfast. Chandralongam takes particular pride in their burgers, ground fresh in-house. People have been eating this food for 70 years, and the diner’s eager new stewards hope it will be many more.
3. George Street Diner
129 George St.
Ash Farrelly comes from restaurant stock: back in Ireland, both sets of grandparents worked in food, as did her parents. After years of serving, she realized, “I’m running someone else’s place — so why don’t I just do my own?” Farrelly wanted to serve the big, hearty Irish breakfasts of her homeland.
She took over The George Street Diner in 2008, knocking on office doors across the street to drum up more customers. It took a while, but soon they came in droves, drawn to generous portions, no-nonsense service, and the diner’s small, train-car-esque charm. Eating there feels cinematic — like you could be a detective in a potboiler or a character in a Wes Anderson movie. The diner has hosted film crews over the years; little cards on the counter commemorate rom-com “The F Word,” shot there with Daniel Radcliffe.
The diner earned the most votes from readers and locals in our informal favourite-diner poll. On any afternoon, you might see a 25-year regular catching up with a friend after hockey, two youngsters sharing brunch nearby, or a father and young son chatting over pancakes alongside singles on old-school round stools. The Moss Park mainstay has been serving Torontonians for 85 years. One woman even recalled working there at 16, meeting her husband as a customer and now returning with their 50-year-old son.
Farrelly’s vision of a proper Irish breakfast lives on: mushrooms, baked beans, Irish link sausage, white and black pudding, Irish curry poutine and her famous Irish soda bread, which she sold by the hundreds during the pandemic to keep the tradition alive.
She still picks up produce herself and is in the diner most days alongside her long-serving staff. “We’re in this for a livelihood,” she says. “You’re not in this to make money.”
4. Skyline Restaurant
1426 Queen St. W.
Siblings Maggie and Jud Ruhl were longtime customers at the Skyline, coming back time and again for the tasty diner classics and warm service. When previous owner Louis Papadopoulos, who had run the place since the 1970s, was ready to step away, he considered offers from developers but ultimately sold it to the Ruhls, longtime customers with experience running Toronto institutions like the Dakota Tavern, The Ace, Wallflower and Three Speed. They took over in 2016, preserving much of the mid-century charm while making a few updates: custom banquettes in the back and Christmas string lights that give the space a warm, year-round glow. (Papadopoulos still came by occasionally to buy the new staff shots of Metaxa from a bottle they kept for him behind the bar before he died.)
Walk into Skyline today and it feels like a time capsule of 1970s America. Old tunes tinkle on the hi-fi, and booths are perfect for hunkering down with a beer or cherry whiskey sour. The menu features comforting classics: the Skyline special clubhouse (on the menu since the early ‘60s), a giant Greek salad, charbroiled burger and rotating daily specials. It’s a diverse crowd, fitting for Parkdale: older gentlemen cradling a beer at the counter, groups of friends gossiping over cocktails and families or couples enjoying a big brunch. Servers know patrons’ habits, asking if you want gravy with your fries or happily making a milkshake any time of day. And cream pies baked fresh by Maggie herself are always on offer.
Unlike many diners that close in the late afternoon, Skyline stays open in the evening, offering a relaxed spot for wine, live music or trivia. For the Ruhls, it’s about more than food — it’s a place for comfort, connection and a pause from city life. “It’s a diner thing… Our customers want comfort,” Maggie says. “They want to leave full and happy,” adds chef Mack Elo-Shepherd. Jud sums it up: “Especially in these unsettled times, I think we offer a force field. That’s what we hope.”
5. Ted’s Restaurant
404 Old Kingston Rd.
It all started with a little gambling problem. Randy Zhang’s dad loved the casinos, so the family fled to the small hamlet of Gananoque, Ont., mercifully free of gambling establishments — until a casino opened in town. Time to move again. About 25 years ago, they found an ad for Ted’s Restaurant in Scarborough, a diner that had been around since 1954. At first, the Zhangs had no idea how to manage a diner, but over time, they got the hang of it.
Peek into the kitchen and you’ll see Zhang still slinging breakfast a generation later — his specialty. He keeps prices as low as possible, even as food costs rise. “Diners come in, trying to save their money too, so I try to do the best I can,” he says.
Hand-painted signs advertise classic diner treats, like banana splits, chopped steaks with fried onions and gravy, and of course, the “best coffee in town.” Ted’s is known for its affordability: three eggs with bacon, sausage or ham for $6.75, or a full plate of eggs, tomato, sausages, peameal bacon, strip bacon plus toast and jam for $14.95.
Longtime staff welcome everyone like family — one server just semi-retired after 37 years. “People who come to the diner, they’re more friendly. It’s not the same like you go to another restaurant,” Zhang says. “People come in, they welcome you, they give you a big smile. It’s just warm, so warm. Like that’s how the diner feels like, right? I enjoy it.”
Diners contribute to the porcine shrine by the cash — bacon-themed snacks, figurines, and signs — and are greeted like family before sinking into the signature turquoise booths. Sheila Barnes has been coming for 35 years and now eats here with her daughter, Stephanie Brooks, once or twice a month. Brooks loves the consistency, quality, portions, and price — but mostly, she says, “it’s just comfortable.” Her famously picky dad loved it too; as he lost his sight, he knew the layout by heart, and the servers always looked out for him.
Ted’s slogan — emblazoned on the front window, the sign and the menus — was the same then as it is now, and rings just as true: “a great place to meet your friends.” Zhang remembers the seniors who eventually stopped coming, and the children who grew up here now bringing their newborns — the circle of diner life.
Did we miss your favourite diner? Comment below and let us know who we should have featured and why.
