Billy’s diner feels like it’s been around forever, but actually opened in 2018.

Specializing in no-frills classics like all-day breakfast, burgers and shakes, this place is a 50s-themed wonderland. 

Formerly home to Icy Spicy Fusion, the space is decked out in retro memorabilia like hubcaps, vintage ads, postcards, and even a pink rotary phone in the ladies’ room. 

Buttermilk pancakes come in varieties like blueberry and banana Nutella ($8.50), with lacy golden crusts and fluffy interiors. Blueberries are huge and juicy, actually squirting when you cut into the cakes. 

The Colossus ($13) is your usual good value lumberjack breakfast, with three eggs, three sausages, two pancakes, and two slices each of strip bacon, peameal, and ham. 

The Billy B ($13) is the house take on a benny, buttered toasted English muffins laden with sautéed spinach and onion and a puffy poached egg smothered in a thyme hollandaise.

The double double ($17) is the appropriately Canadian-named most epic of six-ounce beef patty burgers. Otherwise only available in original, cheese or banquet styles reminiscent of Jumbo or Square Boy, this style has double the meat, chewy bacon and cheddar. 

The works includes lettuce, onion, tomato, pickle, relish and mustard, the patties cooked thoroughly with a strong crust, five minutes a side for a big beefy flavour. The bun for this is buttered and toasted too, and accompanying fries are golden, crispy, bubbly, fatty and nostalgic.

Shakes ($6.50) are made with Kawartha ice cream, iconic vanilla fragrantly sweet, flecked with vanilla seeds and topped with picture-perfect whipped cream and a neon red cherry. The all natural ice cream is made with pure bourbon vanilla and egg yolks.

Other flavours on offer might include cookie butter, strawberry, moose tracks and salty caramel truffle.

A tiered serving tray of home baked goods is always stocked with items like butter tarts.

Billy Truong, a former employee of the neighbouring Donut Factory where all the donuts come from, co-owns the diner with partner Axelle Compte.