Ted’s Range Road Diner

If you’re ever in the Blue Mountains area you have to visit Ted’s!
If you love weekly specials, a variety of new meats & the opportunity of trying local beer to wash it all down with you will love Ted’s. On the menu they have everything from Ostrich to Elk & from Crocodile to Kangaoo.
My girlfriend & I enjoyed Ted’s seafood bake which was loaded with crab, lobster & scallops, as well as the tastiest beef ribs.
The only reason it got a 4 out of 5 for me is that the restaurant is a little cold & the furniture felt like it may fall apart. Just got to be honest here :)

Teds is an interesting place full of character and music and loyal regulars. And of course Ted and his staff are a ton of fun. It is worth a visit just for the décor.
The food though is not that great. The menu features «exotic» meats and countless other items. A good rule about diners is that the more items on a menu the poorer each one is. There are too many so so items and you rarely see an eating establishment with as many different meat items. There is a reason for that. I think they would do well to concentrate on fewer items.
Overall the presentation and preparation of dishes is sloppy. You kind of get the feeling that nobody in the kitchen has ever actually worked in a real kitchen before. Some dishes are frankly unappetizing. The short of it is that the food is passable at best.
Teds has a bar so go see the blues jam and have a beer and meet your friends its a great place to hang. But until Teds stops being a hangout for friends and takes its kitchen seriously it will be liquid lunch for me.

Alert: I’m a local. However, we used to go to Ted’s 4 – 5 times a year about 10 years ago. Usually, we’d bring up friends to the place for a funky meal. Then, a kid, a new job and driving every where but up the Mountain. We lost our way.
Now the child can stay home, so friends invited us up for dinner. Wow, the place hasn’t changed much… the choices on tap have as well as the choices of ciders.
It was a Saturday night and I had the Prime Rib special. The appetizer was escargot and they didn’t disappoint. Rather than 6 mushroom caps with an escargot and covered in butter, garlic and cheese, Ted throws a pile of escargot, mushroom bits, a lot of garlic, cheese and butter. Nice change of pace as I really prefer the escargot and not the mushroom caps.
The Prime Rib was wonderful. Nicely done, good veggies and I ordered it with the rice. Others at the table ordered Ted’s potatoes — like a latke — golden fried and good, but I like rice.
The Yorkshire pudding was also quite good. The horseradish cleared out the sinuses — just like it’s supposed to.
Cider: Duxbury cider was available. Named after a local side road/​village. Nice and crisp and dry. Not the sweet stuff, so it worked well with the prime rib.
My wife had the bacon wrapped seafood skewers. A little too much bacon for her liking but it did provide a second day’s worth of leftovers.
As other reviewers have posted… The place looks like a dive. In the winter, expect to bring along a sweater because it can be chilly close to the walls. Do not expect linen napkins etc. This isn’t that kind of place.
Time line note: This isn’t a fast food place. Don’t expect speed as Ted doesn’t do speed… just good food.
Dessert wasn’t an option. Way to full.
Go and find this place as it’s a nice way to spend an evening without huge t.v. everywhere and I’m almost positive there isn’t a wi-​fi signal in the joint. Nice.

Unilocal found us another winner! The girlfriend and I were out on a motorcycle cruise exploring some backroads and hiking some trails. It was getting late, and we were hungry. Where to go? Not much in the area, but what’s this? Hmm, interesting. After a couple wrong turns because it appeared incorrectly on the map, we finally arrived at Ted’s Range Road Diner… yep, just like the photo. Let’s check it out!
The menu on the wall chalk boards was an interesting touch, but my distance vision is horrible in low light, so I ended up walking back and forth a few times as I explored the options. We ended up ordering: kangaroo medallions with rice, bison ribs with Ted’s «special shredded & grilled potato» (a.k.a. hashbrowns) and for dessert, butter tart pie.
It wasn’t too busy of a night, but it felt like our order was taking forever to arrive. The amazing sights and smells from other people’s orders was only making it worse… Finally! Our plates arrive… MMMM! I had to pace myself to not scarf it down too quick. The bison ribs were excellent, the kangaroo delicious. The stir-​fried vegetables were almost as good as the protein! I wasn’t a huge fan of the potato, but the rice was very tasty. The butter tart pie was a tasty end to the meal, but nothing special compared to what we just ate. It was a great meal, in an interesting setting, in an area you would not expect…
Now, how am I going to convince my family to make the drive out here? This is a place that needs to be experienced. Thanks Unilocalers for helping me find it!

My boyfriend and I were in Collingwood for the weekend. Although we had credits for dining at the hotel we decided it would be a lot more fun to be adventurous and find a local place for somewhere to eat. I came across Ted’s while looking on Unilocal and after reading the reviews we both decided it would be worthy of investigating. Literally, in the middle of nowhere, you have to keep going north past highway 26 and up the hill (if it’s dark look for an orange light. Let it be your beacon because that’s where it is). We drove around for quite a while looking for it in the dark and GPS not being very helpful. However, we got there and had just missed the rush so we were the only people in the diner at the time. Serving staff were very friendly and because they closed early they were nice enough to stay open for us so we could order and eat. I (on recommendation) had the seafood bake. Beware, it’s a lot of food! But probably the best I’ve ever had. We also ordered the crocodile schnitzel and elk stir fry for appetizers which were out of this world. My first time eating game meats and I was pleasantly surprised! My boyfriend had the kangaroo medallions which were bacon wrapped. Delicious! I highly recommend Ted’s for a local and interesting spot to eat.

Wow, was expecting great stuff but it «sucked», total disappointment. It should be a kept as a secret. Meat was dry, buns for burgers were stale, fries were so so. Service was beyond slow, came with a group with a reservation, everyone else in the restaurant (2 tables of 4) was served and out the door (they came in after us) before we got any of our food. Arrived at 12:45, out by 2:30 as food began arriving at 2. Not a place to eat for those that are looking for a meal.

I was looking forward to eating at Ted’s… as the menu looked very interesting and the place had great reviews.
Our scooter club went for group ride leaving from Guelph to Meaford and made reservations for lunch at Ted’s… We made a reservation for lunch informing them we were bringing a large number of people (13).
We waited for over an hour for our food to be served other patrons who came after our groups were served first. Most people ordered burgers and fries. The burgers were over, over cooked and the fries were cooked in very old oil.
The website welcomes invites bikers and sledders. Well, our treatment says otherwise, I think they only want locals as customers. I will not be recommending this place to my biker and sledding friends. The food was beyond terrible. Many of the scooter club members agree. BTW the owner was cooking.
This is a place that has seen better days and is definitely on a downward spiral to oblivion.
WHAT A TERRIBLE MISTAKE TO EAT HERE. I will never go to this Restaurant again!!!

This place is FREAKING AWESOME!!!
Yes it is in the middle of no where and you would never think to get 5 star food in a run down barn like restaurant but this place is no BS and is all business when it comes to food, specifically wild game.
Intrigued with alligator that was our appetizer, although a little disappointed that it was fried like cutlet so we couldn’t really get a real sense of how alligator meat tastes like. But it was still good and as you can imagine the meat on alligator is a little tougher. Definitely worth a try just so you can say you did. Ordered the Seafood Bake as recommended by other reviews and yes it was very tasty and loaded with seafood. The dish that blew me away was the Caribou, never had it and after this meal I just fell in love. It is one of the most tender piece of meat you will ever have and just enough gaminess to satisfy any man’s desire for meat.
We had a fantastic meal and the service (family ran and operated) was impeccable and down to earth. Prices were extremely reasonable for the quality of food and service you get. Make sure you do reservations as the place was packed when we went on a Sunday night at 5pm and I believe they only do two sittings a night, 5 and 7.
And yes, it’s worth the drive if your in the Collingwood area and not as hard to get to as you would imagine.

Ted’s, as the locals call it, is one of the best kept secrets in the Blue Mountain region. Years ago, I spent much time in Collingwood, and driving to Ted’s for dinner was always a treat. However, I’ll never forget the first time we drove up to this little Quonset hut in the middle of a cow pasture, in the middle of nowhere. I wish I was joking. I couldn’t believe that we’d driven all that way for a place that looked like it was right out of a Wes Anderson film. The curved walls inside are covered with chipboard, and the chipboard is covered with chalkboards scribbled with the menu. The menu is the first part of what makes this place special. Ted’s offers items such as venison, quail, caribou, elk, musk ox, and even alligator. The second part, is that the food is prepared perfectly. It’s 100% 5-​star first class cuisine. The first dinner I had at Ted’s was the veggie stir-​fry, which was done just right with lots of fresh ingredients. Later, when I began eating fish again, my favourite was the seafood bake. I swear, as I typed that just now, my mouth began to water. The flavours and the presentation are always spot on, and delightfully original.
Most of the clientele comes from Thornbury, Meaford, Collingwood, etc. Occasionally, some cottagers or tourists in-​the-​know will show up. As a vegetarian, I only know from my companions that the elk chop and prime rib are incredible, but I trust their taste. And the prime rib is always served up with yorkshire pudding in cuts like: Regular Cut, Jimmy Cut, Mikey Cut, & Captain Ron. Don’t ask me what they mean. Ted’s has been featured in the Globe and Mail, Toronto Sun, Toronto Star, the National Post, and other respected publications (ok, so maybe The Sun isn’t respected). According to one article, private helicopters have landed in the field next to Ted’s so that their passengers could stop in for a bite. If you don’t have a helicopter, and don’t like taking hostages to get one, you can get there by car, bike (if you’ve got the energy), motorcycle, and snowmobile (there’s a trail that goes right up to the diner!). The bottom line is that Ted’s is a family owned, reasonably priced restaurant where you can enjoy a gourmet experience like no other.
I highly recommend going on jam nights. And if you’re going during peak tourist season, or for a special holiday, try to make a reservation in advance. We tried to do Mother’s Day there once, and couldn’t get a seat.