Welcome to Groupon, Hamilton! For our inaugural deal, $12 gets you $25 worth of hearty diner fare at The Harbour Diner, located at 486 James Street. Since this is everyone's first Groupon, allow us to briefly explain how it works.

How Groupon Works

Groupon is a combination of the words group and coupon. Each day, we offer an unbeatable deal on the best of Hamilton: restaurants, spas, sporting events, theatre, and more. By promising businesses a minimum number of customers, we get discounts you won't find anywhere else. We call it "collective buying power."

If you want to get the deal, just click BUY before the offer ends at midnight. If the minimum number of people (25 for today's deal) sign up by the end of the day, you'll be emailed a gift certificate the next morning. You can print your Groupons or redeem them with our mobile app. Use them whenever you want until the deal expires—today's expires in one year. If not enough people join, no one gets the deal (and you won't be charged), so invite your friends to make sure you get the discount!

Today's Deal

A diner's oversized booths and oversized pies have long been a beacon of hope for teens dumped after a formal and frowny clowns looking for new novelty-sized props. Take refuge in the crispy crust of an old-fashioned eatery with today's Groupon: for $12, you get $25 worth of hearty diner fare at The Harbour Diner, located on James Street. This deal is only valid for lunch and dinner; the diner is closed on Mondays.

The Harbour Diner boasts a menu stacked with substantial servings made from scratch with fresh, local ingredients. Starters run the gamut from a crab chowder ($5), composed of roast tomato, red peppers, and fresh chunks of crab, to a pulled-pork poutine ($9), built with baked potato wedges, creamy cheese curds, and pulled pork and warmed in the tender embrace of a roast-beef demi-glaze. Appease antsy appetites before your digestive tract goes on strike with a sandwich such as the classic Reuben ($7), the marinated roma tomato and mozzarella ($6), or the roast turkey club ($7), a monument of fresh roasted turkey breast, smoky bacon, crisp lettuce, tomato, and black-pepper-chive mayo humming in hunger-fighting harmony between two slices of honey-oat bread. The Harbour Diner meatloaf ($10), a brick of juicy meat, sizzles next to the attractive pull of mashed potatoes and sautéed mushrooms, and the roast-turkey dinner combines stuffing, mashed potatoes, peas, mushrooms, and cranberry sauce to create a meal more comforting than a Tempur-Pedic pillow. Daily specials also rotate regularly, adding an element of delicious unpredictability to any victual-seeking visit.

Intimate seating, whimsical yellow window treatments, and cheerily patterned walls lend The Harbour a friendly, cozy feel akin to a talking cottage. A helpful and attentive waitstaff are on call lest you have any questions about the menu or need support during your first-ever appearance in public.

Reviews

Restaurantica reviewers and three Yelpers give The Harbour Diner a 3.5-star average:

• Basic diner stuff, but done to a high culinary standard; and the prices are fairly reasonable, particularly considering the quality. I'm certainly going to be returning. – Jeremiah, Restaurantica
• A little Gem in the North End. – foodgeekgirl, Restaurantica