Who can wait to tuck into this decadent flapper pie at Hilltop Diner Cafe in Langley, B.C.?

It’s 11 am, and we’re just finishing a fine breakfast: Thick slices of cinnamon-swirl French toast and bacon and eggs with beautifully crispy hash browns. Burgers and hand-cut fries are just starting to appear from the kitchen.

Thick slices of cinnamon-swirl French toast

But the real show is just getting started at Hilltop Diner Cafe, in Langley, B.C., just east of Vancouver. Six-inch-high slabs of pie—lemon meringue, pecan, peach, strawberry-rhubarb and a fabulous flapper—are being loaded into cardboard takeout boxes, lifted onto plates and shoveled down gullets. Eleven varieties in all, plus some cheesecakes.

Sisters Andrea Zaiser and Sandie Parley are carrying on the operation of a diner that dates back to 1945, when the Fraser Highway was a major thoroughfare. It’s now a little off beaten track, though not far from the busy Trans-Canada east of Vancouver and along the way if you’re going to or from the Tsawwassen ferry terminal via Highway 10. It’s a good place to step back in time and enjoy a home-cooked meal, finished, of course, with a generous helping of pie.

Hilltop Diner Cafe is a good place to enjoy an old-fashioned, home-cooked meal

Hilltop Diner Cafe
23904 Fraser Highway, Langley, B.C.
Daily 8 am-2:30 pm