Chicken-fried steak
Not a thing in Canada.

Salisbury Steak
Good, but only if the mushrooms aren't canned and the gravy isn't powdered.

Meatloaf
Only if there's no ketchup involved.

Western Omelette
Always a favourite -- either as an omelette or a sandwich.  I still make these.

Sheet pan hash browns
Never seen them in Canada; our hash browns are either tiny potato cubes, loose grated potato, or in patty form, all fried (the latter deep).  In any form they're nice.

Cheeseburger with secret sauce
This is old-fashioned?  I mean, burgers go way back but it's not like this is one of those things that "takes me back."  This sort of thing is still everywhere all the time.

Jersey Disco Fries
"You won't find fries like these outside the Garden state!" it says.  They're "NJ's rendition of" poutine, which links to a recipe that is just poutine.  Not Jersey's rendition of it -- it's exactly the same as the poutine we have everywhere here in Canada.

Corned beef hash
Puritain still sells this stuff canned, but otherwise you'd be hard-pressed to find this on many menus around here.  It's not bad though.

Tuna melt
Not a terribly popular thing here.  I hate cheese on fish.

Club sandwiches
Still a popular thing here.  Who doesn't love a good club?

Gyros
Still available everywhere around here.  Just some of them add that sweet garlic sauce and dare to still call it a gyro instead of the more appropriate donair.  Gyros have tzatziki, end of discussion.

Patty melts
It's just a hamburger on toast.

Pancakes
Look, if you're gonna make a list of diner items that "take you back" stop listing things that are still abundant everywhere and aren't just things you're more likely to find in a diner than elsewhere.

French Toast
See above.

Malt Milkshake
They call it "All-American" which I guess is appropriate, as they aren't a thing here.

Carrot cake
Okay, this is more a popular diner item than others, and yes, it's great, especially if it's made with cream cheese icing.  I just had a carrot muffin this morning, in fact.

Apple Pie
I mean ... it's apple pie.  The vanilla of the pie world.  Great, but not exactly nostalgic.

Chocolate Cake
It's farking chocolate cake, come on, now.

Coconut Cream Pie
Meh.  Not bad, but I'm not a big cream pie type of guy.

Root beer floats
More a carnival thing here.  Still good though.

Oneiros: Psychopusher: Jersey Disco Fries
"You won't find fries like these outside the Garden state!" it says.  They're "NJ's rendition of" poutine, which links to a recipe that is just poutine.  Not Jersey's rendition of it -- it's exactly the same as the poutine we have everywhere here in Canada.

I think they use grated cheese instead of cheese curds in New Jersey.

Yeah, that would be in line with the Jersey way. Mind you, there's not a hell of a lot of difference once it all melts.

... but I didn't bother to look at any of the recipes.  I saw the pictures, and can say that wasn't an omelette.  It looked more like a casserole of some sort.  It didn't even have color on it like a frittata.

I gave it a pass just because I couldn't sure if they were using stock photos representative of what they thought an omelette looked like or pictures of the actual dishes as they remembered them.  Either way that's more crustless quiche than omelette.

Also, I have no idea what diner does their hash browns in the oven.  Yes, it's easier to get them crispy that way as you have the surface area to work with, but diners make them on large griddles usually.

/prefers home fries to hash browns
//but either one is usually better than toast
//unless they use a thick cut slice and cook it on the griddle

I always go for home fries over hash browns as well.  But if I'm being served it anyway, I'll eat it.  It's much better fried than baked, though, just like regular fries.

SoCalChris: This is where you're wrong. A good patty melt has caramelized onions. And it's more like a grilled cheese with a burger patty in it than a hamburger on toast. Preferably served on rye. They're greasy and not something I can eat very often, but every now and then it's great.

We don't really have them here so I was going by the picture, so I'm sure you're probably right.  Most places around here don't do caramelized onions though, probably because of how long they take to make properly and how many onions you need to make a sufficient quantity for a diner's use.  Most will just sautee until soft enough and leave it at that.

That said though I'd probably try one, but one would probably be enough.  I like grilled cheese, and I like cheeseburgers, but too much cheese just makes me feel uneasy afterwards, delicious though it may have been.