Hilltop Café Diner.  Fraser Highway.  Langley.

I realized I made a big mistake, today.

It didn’t occur to me until I finished writing about the restaurant but once it hit me, there was no going back.

I was loving visiting some of the hidden gems of Langley but many of the gems I’ve visited have been the same type of restaurant.   Family-run.  Old fashioned diners.  Simple but delicious fare.

Without realizing, I’d fallen into a rut.

My bad.

Tomorrow I’ll do something different, something a little more out of my comfort zone.  Until then, a quick look at where I went today.

The Hilltop café, a classic diner.

See ‘classic diner’ again!  Doh!

The Hilltop is located right on the Fraser highway, heading southeast towards Aldergrove.  It was monsooning outside so bad that I nearly drove right by the restaurant but I did my best Vancouverite sudden and unexpected right turn and hurtled into the parking lot.  I got out and rushed to the entrance but by the time I reached the door, I was drenched.

I stepped inside, and as I wrung myself out, there on my right was a wall of pictures of people eating the Everest Burger.  Now, this isn’t a burger for the faint of heart, it’s a massive triple patty meal that, after yesterday, I knew I couldn’t eat, not this time, not with this damn cold.

So I shrugged off the last droplets of water and went into the restaurant proper.  It was exactly how a diner should be.  A chalkboard menu above the cooking window.  Pictures of old cars in the far corner.  Fresh pies in a display case on the counter.

Now this isn’t one of those places you have to dress up for.  This is like coming downstairs to your mom’s kitchen.  Baseball caps, ok.   Dirty jeans (that was me), no judgment.  T-shirts and sweats, come on in, you’re family.

I took a seat and ordered something simple.  Eggs.  Farmer sausage.  Fried potatoes.  Coffee.  It arrived so fast, I had only just loaded up my laptop and started to write.  It was decent food, well-cooked but nothing special.

What was special was the service.  Oh, how this is becoming more and more important to me.  It was fast, attentive and friendly.  It’s the type of place where the owner sits with a group of friends, chatting.  It’s the type of place where I am called love.  Or hon.   It’s the type of place where my coffee cup is never less than ½ full.  Like Cheers, this is a place where everyone will know your name.

You know what, I like these kind of places.  I like decent food for a decent price and I like being called Hon.  It’s like all the diners you see in the movies, especially the movie called Diner.  It’s like the ones you see in sitcoms where friends met but never eat.

Now, as I sat there eating my breakfast, someone came in and ordered the Everest Burger.  This actually looks larger in person and it took three people to eat the damn thing but their pictures were duly taken and the photo soon to be posted on the wall.  (This is their picture of the burger as mine was terrible but it’s pretty accurate.)

Say what you want about flash and fancy food, sometimes a good place to eat is where you feel like it’s home and you’re treated like family (except here, you don’t have to do the dishes.)

Tomorrow, though, a new adventure.