Chef Jeremy Ettinger (l) and line cook Ryan Oldeheuvel, put the finishing touches on a couple of juicy burgers.

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Red's Diner

Like its fellow downtown breakfast nooks, Red’s Diner on Fourth Street S.W. is lined up out the door on Saturday and Sunday mornings. For the perennially underserved weekend breakfast crowd, this new restaurant, which opened in March, is a welcome morning-meal option.

Friends and I dropped in at noon on a weekday, seated ourselves and were immediately handed menus and ordered drinks. Though the place has a casual, comfortable glow, the staff was hoppin’. A good sign, as speed is of the essence for the daytime working crowd.

Though lunch is available from 11 a.m. on, we were drooling for breakfast favourites. Our entrée order was promptly taken as our drinks arrived. It would be only about five minutes before our food arrived.

My pals remarked on the restaurant’s sunny southeast corner location — formerly Renfrew Furs — and the pleasant Sunday-morning feel of this diner’s brick-and-tile interior. Seating just 58, it has plenty of tables for parties of two, but also has a long bar for loners and several bigger tables. The breakfast menu includes a concise list of classic western-breakfast assortments, wraps, Benedicts, omelets, pancake and waffle platters as well as vegetarian meals.

My Red’s big breakfast ($11.79) was indeed big; the packed platter held three over-easy eggs, hash browns, a pancake (with mini maple syrup pitcher), two pork sausages and two slices of bacon. Canadian bacon or beef sausage can be substituted for $1.79. The plate was garnished with wedges of orange and grapefruit.

Now, I’m a guy who likes to see a pancake — not three, not zero, but one pancake — served with my morning meal. So Red’s big breakfast and I were off to a happy start. I have yet another pancake confession to make: I smear peanut butter on the things. Always have. This day, I was so taken with my meal that I just plain forgot to apply it. Despite the presence of a rack filled with those wee Kraft peanut butter and jam condiment packs. The cake was hot and fluffy and perfectly delicious with syrup.

The eggs were just right and deliciously flooded half the platter with yolk. The meat was above average; the bacon on the lean side, the breakfast sausages juicy and flavourful, a little crisp on the skin. The whole-grain toast was crunchy, but moist and substantial.

Again, my hat went off to a single component of this dish: the hash browns. They were the thick and roughly cubed kind that restaurants so often serve undercooked. These were just crisp on the outside but not quite browned, yet they were steamy soft inside. The potato serving was large, yet I ate the whole magnificent pile.

While my head was down hoovering hash browns, my friends were making short work of their own meals. Guest No. 1’s breakfast sandwich ($9.29), which consisted of a fried egg, Canadian bacon, cheddar, lettuce and tomato between slices of whole-grain toast, was all but demolished before I’d even tasted my meal. Cheeks chipmunked with the last of his sandwich, he simply gave me a thumbs up when I asked how it was. Our server had thoughtfully warned him that the egg would be over easy, thus likely to run with molten yolk when bitten into. Forewarned, Guest No. 1 was not injured.

Guest No. 2 wasn’t fast enough to avoid me sampling one un-munched half of his traditional farmhouse Benedict ($9.89). The toasted English muffin was topped with Canadian bacon and two saucy eggs. The Hollandaise sauce appeared slightly broiled on top, a bit bubbly as a result. It was particularly mild, making the bacon do all the flavour work. Thankfully, the bacon was up to the task.

Despite being the new kid on the breakfast block, Red’s appears to have its act together. It’s got good food, a happy Sunday-morning-all-week atmosphere, and the speedy, efficient service expected of a great breakfast spot.