Ralph & Sons Diner

My wife and I have patronized Ralphs for many years and up until lately had always greatly enjoyed the food quality and service. Our last two visits, however, have proved lackluster, especially today’s (Dec. 5^th) visit at noon. Our server (tall brunette with the big eyelashes) wasn’t paying attention to our order. My full breakfast arrived quickly and was great as usual. However, for some reason the cook and our server dropped the ball on my wife’s meal. Half of it arrived with mine, with the server saying her pancake would arrive shortly. That never happened. Halfway through our meal, our server strolled by, noting that it shouldn’t too much longer.
I noticed that while we were waiting (by then we had finished eating) our server was ignoring what was going on in the kitchen, preferring to flirt with some good looking young guys sitting by the window. She came over to our table finally to say that the cook was finally putting on the pancake to cook. What???
Our server was indifferent about the problem, saying she’d take the pancake off the bill.
Unbelievably bad service from this server, who we’ve noticed before has a very casual attitude towards her work of serving customers. This may be the last time we visit Ralph’s & Sons.
Finally, I wanted to talk to one of the owners but my wife just wanted t get out of the restaurant.

Good food, friendly service, and they serve breakfast ’til 3 on the weekends! Highly recommend you check it out. Don’t let the appearance of a gas station diner distract you.

A diner tucked into a gas station. Makes pretty much perfect sense. Breakfasts seemed a little expensive compared to similar establishments however the food was good. I didn’t have the baked beans but they looked scratch made on someone else’s plate. The home fries with fried onions sold me most though. Definitely good. Next time I’m at Connaught Ranges I’ll go back.

i’m definitely a fan of this little spot, it’s tucked away in crystal beach but it serves a great little breakfast, friendly staff, nice and bright — definitely will repeat — they know how to poach an egg… so that’s always a good thing… btw that means free floating in water and the egg still runs… because way to many restaurants kill it.
give it another shot Coy — i think they fixed their issues… i did go for the beans… pretty interesting… sweet flavour.

When we arrived we were a bit confused as we were unaware of the «seat yourselves» policy. Once seated we were immediately greeted by the waitress. We looked at the menu and realized that as vegetarians looking for an egg breakfast, it would prove to be a bit challenging as every plate contained meat– and lots of it! We decided to share a mushroom, tomato and onion omelette as well as French toast. The home fries were very different, sort of like super thick crinkle cut potato chips but somewhat cooked, if at all and very, very soft. The home fries were tasty, but just not what I am used to. Omelette was good, but incredients (I.e mushrooms are not fresh, they were canned… Yes canned, greyish and a bit rubbery). French toast was excellent though, perfectly cooked and covered in cinnamon sugar goodness! Glad I experienced this place, but I don’t think I’ll be returning– upwards and onwards!

Got here sat ourselves cause I think that’s what you do. Server took our orders and offered coffee right away.
I’ll echo most of what Coy said. The eggs were great and done well. The home fries were not what I expected. They were barely fried and look raw still (no char marks) and tasted like nothing. The bacon was a bit crisp and stiff like a plank and the sausage tasted good. They offer rye toast here which was buttered just right
Wife had the French toast and said it was ok and there was nothing special about it.
They could switch to a better coffee though
Not a bad place for breakfast if you’re around the area but I wouldn’t go out of your way to try this place.

We come here almost every weekend and alway leave happy. Best breakfast in town

This place has so much potential…
The Good!
Awesome quality eggs and one of a handful of places in Ottawa that consistently cooks bacon as close to perfect as possible which is just crispy so you can hold it in your hand it it doesn’t wilt over and isn’t burnt.
The Bad!
The home fries are weird… not in a good way either. They are sliced and looks… possibly tastes, like they were grilled on a radiator. Honestly, they’re just extremely bland with char marks on them.
The Ugly!
Sometimes the food tastes like it was cooked in leftover oil that didn’t come from bacon, eggs or possibly breakfast related items so it leaves a weird taste in the meal.
If they fix the bad and the ugly it might become the best greasy spoon breakfast in town!