Best Diner

Ardmore Tea Room, 6499 Quinpool, 423-7523

After 52 years a little thing like a fire wasn’t going to end the Ardmore; it recently reopened after a nine-week clean-up and refit. So now, when insomnia won’t let you sleep past 4am you can suit up and head down to the Ardmore where the taxi drivers are already up and at plates of beans, fish cakes, fried bologna, eggs and steak with sides of toast and fries. The wait staff is top-notch: professional dolls of indeterminable ages who rustle up grub with a manner that’s both stern and motherly.

Runner-up: North End Diner, 2776 Gottingen, 455-0856