Dick’s Drive-In & Dairy-Dip

Great service and food. I was able to customize the burger, side (poutine, chilli fries, onion rings, etc) as well as the drink (pop, coffee/​tea, milkshake). I would recommend the avocado milk shake and the lamb burger. Excellent portions as well. Will visit again.

Our favourite burgers in Ottawa, and the best onion rings I’ve had anywhere. Burgers are available in a variety of meats as well as the traditional. The Alberta Bison is very tasty. Great food, good prices, friendly and attentive staff.

This is a fabulous update– I realized on a more recent visit is that they now have an accessible bathroom! Very important to me as I find stairs difficult and use a cane. Way to go Dick’s you did something great! Your food continues to be great, on a visit last week with a friend he had the kangaroo burger and said it was really tasty, I of course had my favourite Montréal burger with cream cheese, sautéed mushrooms and fried onions which was bang on! Thanks for another great burger and adding an accessible bathroom on the main floor.

This place is great. One of the best Philly Cheese Steaks and Club Sandwiches in Ottawa.
Onion Rings are definitely worth trying too. Everything seems to be made with care.

Thank you fellow Unilocalers for this jewel of a place! The family and I really enjoyed our lunch here. I had the cheeseburger and fries and wow, I was blown away! The rest of the gang enjoyed their Philly cheesestake, chicken fingers and club sandwich. Very good, served nice and hot, and fresh.
The service was outstanding all the way from the server who served us to the cashier who took our payment. Next time we are in this area, I am going to have to make space for their milkshakes. They looked awesome!
TIP: using the Unilocal app, I was able to purchase a 40% off voucher.

One of the best place for burgers in town. This is a family run business that uses old style charcoal grill to make its burgers. they pride themselves in serving local fare including buns and icecream. Everything is good and now with the new renovations there is a lot more seating.
Great place to get a milkshake anytime of the year.

Burgers at their best. & healthiest w best floats and shakes around.
Check out pic if girl squirting mustard on her dog!

I’m disappointed we missed out on what all the reviews say below! We were really disappointed with our experience. For the past 5 years I’ve been hearing about how amazing this place is for its ice cream and burgers.
First of all, what’s with the name? This is not a drive in, nor does it have a drive-​thru. There is what is obviously a very old drive-​thru window on the side of the building, which has since been blocked by a shaky, unstable deck. Secondly, they don’t use fresh, homemade, or soft serve ice cream, so this isn’t really a «dairy» place.
(The menu says they offer «hand-​dipped» milkshakes. How do you do that?!)
The atmosphere is a 1950s deli/​diner, but it’s dirty and in poor repair — not the way to do that ‘50s feel. Half of the restaurant is a sitting bar area, like an old diner, and the other half is booth seating for larger parties.
As soon as we walked in we were barked at «go sit down!» by an Asian woman behind the counter. «Uh, we’re ordering ice cream…» we replied. «Oh, okay» she said.
We ordered two small sundaes: one triple chocolate and the other chocolate-​peanut butter cup explosion. Both come with a sauce (chocolate, butterstoch, or strawberry), whipped cream, and peanuts. They were $ 5 each.
Both sundaes were one scoop of hard ice cream, not soft serve. The ice cream tasted like your typical store-​bought Chapman’s ice cream — not what I would expect from a place that supposedly specializes in «dairy» items like sundaes and milkshakes. I must have missed the «explosion» part of my peanut butter cup ice cream since there was just one — yes, just one! — tiny piece of a peanut butter cup.
For this price, this atmosphere, and this service go 200 metres up the road and go to Dairy Queen.

love love love love love this place!
Kangaroo, ostrich, bison, alligator burgers. Sweet potato fries and their shakes are a must. My only reason its not a 5 is because the burger itself is pricey and very dry

I love this place!

Stopped by for dinner.
Cute retro décor — except I’m pretty sure it’s authentic retro, not new retro! *Love* the big Milk Shake in the middle of the room. It’s perfect! They are doing construction (so the patio will be no-​longer) to enlarge the space. I hope that part of that plan is to preserve the current décor — it’s got a lovely patina that makes this really wonderful to sit in and absorb.
Waitstaff were great — smiling, helpful and timely.
They lost a few points on the food. The wholewheat bun (automatically came with that, without asking) was on the dry side. The burger is an old fashioned burger, which I usually enjoy — but the bun really detracted from it.
Onion rings are made from scratch in house. They have more of a bread crumb batter and I’m not a huge fan of that style — however, they were good — and we ate them. Fries were good.
The milkshake was the best part of the meal — it was *perfect*.
This seems to be a neighbourhood favourite — and if I lived around there I’d likely end up there once a month. It’s A-​ok!
Would I return: Yes, if I was in the area.
Would I recommend: If I was sending someone on a drive, there are other burger joints I might send them first — though I loved loved loved the feel of the place, and that has some bearing on decisions too. :-)
P. S. — they appear to have a take out (drive-​thru) window — but currently closed for construction — not sure if it will be there or not in the future.

Dick’s is fantastic. I’ve been coming here for many years since Kelly, the owner, took over the place. Despite its burger love this place is very friendly to vegetarians.
I’ll try to help give people some perspective on this place because some people don’t seem to «get it.»
The handmade onion rings are the best in Ottawa. Because they’re not placed on a pole (Ah-​hem, The Works) they don’t cool off quickly.
Great veggie burger and veggie dogs (although the dogs aren’t made in-​house like the burger). The delicious fries are cut in-​house. I do have to request that they get cooked more as I like them really crispy.
The ice cream is from Traceys so it’s very high quality: rich and creamy. You can order a drumstick with ANY flavour. One milkshake is really two and great for sharing. **THIS IS NOT** soft-​serve. If you like cheap «ice cream» from a bag, walk up the street to DQ.
Dick’s definitely isn’t *slick* but it THANKFULLY avoids the pretence other places go for… No peanut butter on your burger here!
Lastly, this place isn’t fast food. It’s cooked fresh so be prepared to wait a bit. Same goes on typical peak hours.
It has earned its reputation through great word of mouth. Heed my advice and give them a try! Support local!

Oh, Dick’s — is there anything you don’t do well?
Not only are the burgers delicious, not only are the fries fresh and hot, but the onion rings alone are worth crossing the city for. Fast and friendly service, and they’re more than willing to cater to particular tastes — low salt burger? No problem. Kangaroo meat, or Bison, or ostrich? They have it. Fantastic sandwiches, too — the California Club is a favourite in our family.
But it’s the burgers that make this place stand out. I say they’re as good if not a tad better than The Works, always cooked perfectly. Burgers come with their homemade aioli, which is delicious. And as a special treat, their homemade shakes with real ice cream are almost a meal onto themselves.
My only hesitation in giving 5 stars is because I don’t want the whole city to discover my special little place. But now the secret is out — Ottawa, you’re welcome.

Dick’s is great. Not hard to park. Flexible seating (i.e. counters and stools when tables not available). Great service and a hard working kitchen. Everything coming out looked fresh and well prepared. French fries and milkshakes are excellent. Menu of burger combos is clever without being cute. It is a place you could take Grandma or the kids.
Why no fifth star? Like a relationship break-​up, it’s not Dick, it’s me. I am just fed up with dry hamburger patties (and I blame this on the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, not any one restaurant). The clever restaurants try to cover this up with juicy, drippy toppings but pickle juice and aioli don’t disguise the absence of moisture in the overcooked meat.
So, I’m retiring from Canadian burgers. I will save my appetite for the juicy, risky, medium-​rare beauties available in the U.S. See you soon, Ray’s Hell Burger (DC).
** And, lest you think I am overly critical of Cdn food, I love our portion sizes. I hate that I can’t get a «small» cup of coffee in the US and that I have to throw out gallons of extra java that I just can’t finish.

I view this place as the best or one of the best places in Ottawa for burgers.
The burgers are a good size, they are full of flavor, and they have a lot of choices (maybe not as much as the Works or Burgers on Main, but loads more choice than Hintonburger and others). Plus, you can try out different types of meat if you so prefer. And the price is comparable to the other places (cheaper than The Works which I find overpriced anyways).
What can I say, I don’t think I have ever been disappointed, well, maybe once out of 20 times I have been there and that was trying out a different burger than normal which just didn’t suit my tastes.
I generally always order a burger but the last time I went I tried one of their sandwiches which was also really good. A friend of mine ordered one of the hot dogs once and wasn’t too impressed but I’m not a big hot dog eater so it doesn’t matter to me.
In terms of the locale, well, it’s a bit average with nothing outstanding but I don’t go there for the ambience.
It’s definitely on my list of regular places to eat at (though ‘regular’ for me is 2 – 3 times per year since burgers can be pretty darn good on the Q at home as well).
Some practical information:
1) making your burger or sandwich a combo is a good way to go. I’ve tried splitting a ‘large’ fry with a friend instead of going for a combo but for the price of a large fry you both can have a combo added to your burger, you get more fries on the whole and you get a drink. So point is don’t split a fry as it isn’t worth it.
2) Dick’s always has coupons in the local free coupon books, but you can also download them from their web site so I’d always bring a coupon with me for a free burger. Plus they have been on Groupon twice so far (still have two left to use myself).

I’ve been meaning to try Dick’s Drive-​In & Dairy Dip for some time now and finally did yesterday. I had the bacon cheeseburger with a side of half fries half onion rings and a pop (combo). The cheeseburger was excellent. It was well done (no salmonella for me thank you very much) yet juicy and tasty. The bun was whole wheat and without sesame seeds or poppy seeds (I love a plain bun). It came with fried onions, lettuce and tomatoes. It was a really good solid burger.
I was a little disappointed by the half and half side order though, as it only came with 4 onion rings. The half-​and-​half side combo price is the same as the onion rings side combo price ($ 4.79), the fries side combo is only $ 3.59. I saw other people’s plates who only ordered fries and they had a huge heaping mound of fries. I only got a small pile of fries and 4 onion rings. Next time I will just order fries or maybe just onion rings (although I don’t know how many I would get). The onion rings were good though, nice and crispy (I just wish I got more of them). The fries (skin on) were good too even though they were just regular cut and not shoestring or curly (I do love my shoestring and curly fries!).
The place does not have air conditioning, but they have lots of fans, so it wasn’t uncomfortably hot, but just so you are warned, they don’t have AC! Décor is stereotypical 50s diner, which is kitschy but cute. This would be a really cute place for a first date. Service was excellent. The wait staff are really young (students) but very sweet and polite, and completely competent.
I am definitely going back. Maybe I will even try one of their «Specialty» Burgers like ostrich.

Simply love this place! It’s a favorite summer hangout for me and the boyfriend. It’s got great ice cream, outdoor enclosed seating and a diner vibe which I’m always a fan of. I also love that it’s family-​run and they employ students — and not annoying angsty students but more the debate team-​honor-​role kind (no joke — we saw one waitress cramming for her finals on her break!). The staff are always super friendly and attentive.
We usually stop by Dick’s for fries and ice cream, but this time we went all out and actually had a meal. I ordered a Greek salad which was surprisingly fresh and delicious. It was a litter pricier than we anticipated, but I enjoyed my salad, and the boyfriend devoured his burger.
I always notice this place seems to be a bit of a hang-​out for local teens, which I love. They need to have a fun, family-​run place to hang out that they can afford. It’s super cute for a first date as well.
They have some crazy burgers on their menu including kangaroo, ostrich, veal and bison. Since I’m not much of a meat eater I doubt I’ll try these, but the serve said they’re quite popular.
I must mention their ice cream… TO DIE FOR. The banana split is amazing, and they always have lots of hard ice cream flavors to choose from. Their milkshakes are also kind of awesome. And by kind of I mean totally. Go, eat, and buy a t-​shirt. They have some awesome merchandise.

It’s kind of a nice place. The food is pretty average, but good-​sized portions. It’s also kinda pricey for what you’re getting. But the staff was very friendly! I just don’t think that there’s anything really that would draw me back, especially when there are many other burger joints to try out!

The hamburgers here are great.
I usually skip the fries at most places, but they are great here too.

This is one of those old-​fashioned burger joints that are inspired by the 1950s era diner’s and became all the rage during the 1980’s and early 1990s.
This place works because they don’t try too hard on the frills and glamour of being nostalgic, and instead focus on the quality of their product. While the burgers are big and greasy, they are definitely tasty, and presumably, this how they were back in the day. Interestingly, they are cooked over charcoal, not broiled or fried, and you can taste the difference that makes.
The fries are the same, though perhaps a little too greasy. What I really enjoy about this place is the Milkshakes and Ice cream selections, which are, from what I’ve, the best I’ve had in all of Ottawa. The prices are somewhat more expensive than you’re standard fast-​food joint, but then again, the quality is higher.