By any definition, Steak Queen is hardly regal.

The Rexdale restaurant is a fast-food joint serving souvlaki and burgers, the type of hybrid Greek diner that has long flourished outside the downtown core.

Gus and Toula Housseas opened Steak Queen in 1979 and it remains a product of its time: backlit menu board, plastic plants and four-person booths made from red vinyl flip-down chairs and fake wooden tables. Open 24 hours since 2011, the bordello-worthy red light fixtures are easy on bleary eyes.

It’s a time warp and a cheap bar, serving domestic beer from noon to 2 a.m. At $3.25 a bottle, customers order two at a time, or so I observe after midnight one night this week.

And then there is the matter of Toronto mayor Rob Ford, filmed earlier this week incoherently ranting in front of the counter. Steak Queen has since erected a makeshift shrine out of the ensuing newspaper articles; Ford campaign magnets are behind the counter.

“I was in the video. I’m mini-Ford,” Karim Ahmad Nassini tells customers. He’s one of four brothers who have owned the restaurant since 2010.

(That’s him, face out of frame, patting Ford on the back and saying he should be prime minister.)

During one late hour, 20 customers trickle into Steak Queen; most sit down, the rest get take out. Woodbine Racetrack and slots are nearby. The mayor comes up in almost every conversation.

“He’s getting stupid. I backed him but now I won’t,” says Mr. Chicken Wings.

“It’s not him. It’s the media. I’ll vote for him even when he’s in jail,” counters Karim.

It’s not rowdy. Customers are largely young men in baseball caps and hoodies, with the occasional airport limo driver.

“On the weekend it’s sometimes crazy because of the drunks coming from the clubs,” says co-owner Fazel Ahmad Nassini said later on the phone.

The frisson about the mayor is far more exciting than the bland food.

Chicken souvlaki ($9.50) is a loaded plate heavy on the carbs but light on flavour, save the oregano-accented grilled breast meat. The iceberg-based Greek salad is topped with an indeterminate white dressing; grated feta and raw white onions are a welcome boost. Homemade tzatziki is closer to mayonnaise and the rice mixed with frozen vegetables is to be avoided, especially the part covered in brown “homemade barbecue” sauce that tastes of flour paste and vinegar.

A banquet burger ($4.95) isn’t much better. The eight-ounce patty looks homemade and tastes of oregano, but is rubbery. Smoky bacon and processed cheese do what they can in a sesame bun.

That said, Steak Queen has a few key points in its favour. It’s clean, having passed every City of Toronto Health Department inspection since 2010. It makes decent onion rings ($3.25), neither greasy nor salty. And since it never closes, it provides a viable alternative to McDonald’s for middle-of-the-night munchies, if you go for that sort of thing. And we know at least one Torontonian who does.

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Steak Queen, 345 Rexdale Blvd. (at Highway 27), 416-742-5806, steakqueen.ca. Open seven days, 24 hours a day.