Bad restaurants

[dt_toronto_geek]

Somehow about every two or three years I end up with a friend or friends at the Pickle Barrel and every time I go there the food goes all wrong. Back in the 80's when I worked up at Yonge-Eg. the Pickle Barrel there had pretty decent food (namely their deli sandwiches and I liked their beef knish) at decent prices. It's not Yitz's but it used to be pretty good for deli sandwiches back in the day.

My mom comes to town once a year to visit for a few days so I like to take her out each night to middle of the road type restaurants that she's comfortable in. She spied the Pickle Barrel in the Atrium on Bay as we walked past on our way to the EC to do some Christmas shopping so I thought that would be a good place to take her for dinner afterward. You think I'd have learned by now. To be fair, the hostess and waiter were really friendly and efficient but the food suuuuuuuuuuuuuucked. My mom had one of the fresh fish specials, I stuck with the safety of a corned beef on rye - what could go wrong? My mother won't complain about anything but I could see she wasn't enjoying the meal (she did say it wasn't "the best" after we left) and my simple corned beef arrived with cold fries (which I could really care less about because I don't eat them, I forgot to substitute them with an alternative), warm coleslaw (how do they do that?) and dark rye bread that was so hard and chewy that it took me 3 glasses of water to digest and as I almost finished, a broken tooth to get through. I've always had good healthy teeth, I get them cleaned, descaled and checked three times a year because my benefits offer it - I just had them done in early November now I'm off on Monday to have 1/3rd of a rear molar repaired.

The Pickle Barrel is now dead to me.

 

[CDL.TO]

The Pickle Barrel Atrium has a decent take-out only soup/borscht and sandwich special. I used to get it on occasion when I worked at Yonge and Dundas.

However, getting it was always an ordeal. The take-out counter staff were often not at their post and were always surly and unhelpful. It always took far too long for take-out, around 15-minutes of standing around for it to be prepared. It didn't leave a good impression.

 

[Tewder]

Ridiculous. NYC, Paris ok fine. Never been to Tokyo or Hong Kong so I cannot really comment. But Toronto blows L.A. out of the water and just nips San Fran in my opinion. My favourite part of San Fran's cuisine was their excellent wine lists (I'm a big fan of Californian Cabernet Sauvignon). They have great Chinese, obviously, but so do we. Their thai places beat ours in my opinion and I'll say sushi is hit or miss in both towns. As far as European cuisine goes Toronto beats out SF handily, though they do have some excellent looking locations that we just can't rival because we just aren't that much of an art-deco, flatiron building city the way they are.

San Fran was the birthplace of a new cuisine, one that revolutionized the way many eat and dine, and given its proximity to the ocean and vineyards and its year-round access to the bounty of California it is probably one of the greatest epicurean cities in the world. As in Paris food is part of the culture in San Fran in a way that is just not comparable in Toronto.

 

[gristle]

Absolutely! That's the Old York Pub. It's a great neighbourhood place. Best of all, it's not all faux-Irish.

I'll second that!

Friendly staff and a solid, inexpensive menu. Great Pub fare.

 

[Tacoma]

Surely we should be judging cities by where real people eat ... not these fake 1-star restaurants that cater to plastic people. The foodies have normally got the le cornichon stuck so far up their arse, that it's coming out their mouths trying to impress ...

Who are these plastic people? I don't disagree that there are food and wine snobs in this world, but sometimes I don't know who's more real, those plastic foodies or the righteous people who mock and label them as if somehow they are better.

I dunno about fine dining in LA or San Fran, but the Michelin guide doesn't even publish in Toronto...

And it's not published for Omaha or Minnesota either. There's a reason for that...

There were too many great restaurants to fit into one book, so they cancelled the whole thing.

Yes, that's it.

 

[Mustapha]

Frans hasn't been too good lately, food wise, at the College location. Service is good, but the food is uninspired. This is a place I've been going to for 50 years.

 

[grey]

Mill Street Pub in the Distillery. The beer is great, but the food is severely hit & miss. I don't recommend the brunch. They have some great servers, though.

The food at Bier Markt is nothing special, and their beer list is overrated (by Bier Markt).

If you're looking for beer and dinner, I highly recommend Beer Bistro on King close to Victoria, and Cafe Volo at Yonge and Dundonald.

As far as faux Irish pubs go, Fynn's of Temple Bar at King & Brant is surprisingly great. The place is packed many nights of the week and they always have some neat features. I think new management took over a couple of years ago, and they seem to be doing great ever since.

 

[Therion]

As far as faux Irish pubs go, Fynn's of Temple Bar at King & Brant is surprisingly great. The place is packed many nights of the week and they always have some neat features. I think new management took over a couple of years ago, and they seem to be doing great ever since.

I'll give your regards to the bar manager, who's an acquaintance of mine (he actually introduced me to my wife many a moon ago). I talked to him recently, he said they're really making an effort with the place, with plans to franchise it eventually.

 

[JasonParis]

I'll give your regards to the bar manager, who's an acquaintance of mine (he actually introduced me to my wife many a moon ago). I talked to him recently, he said they're really making an effort with the place, with plans to franchise it eventually.

Is it still George Halpern? If so, I went to college with him.

 

[Therion]

No, it's a dude called Robin. He started there about 3 or 4 years ago, if memory serves.

 

[Tacoma]

Mill Street Pub in the Distillery. The beer is great, but the food is severely hit & miss. I don't recommend the brunch.

The Broiler House at the Distillery District is pretty decent for Sunday brunch. Need reservations or it's a long wait.

If you're looking for beer and dinner, I highly recommend Beer Bistro on King close to Victoria, and Cafe Volo at Yonge and Dundonald.
...

The Monk's Table (formerly The Abbot on the Hill) pub in the Summerhill area (1276 Yonge) is pretty decent for beer and dinner. They have a (I think 5-course) degustation menu paired with select beer from around the world to match the food.

 

[the_yellow_dart]

I agree on the Pickle Barrel but not for the same reason. I like the food I've had there actually. I usually order something a little off-the-wall for that type of restaurant.

My complaint is with the service at the take-out window at the Y-E location. It's the only time that restaurant service has ever been bad enough to make me lose my temper.

 

[CDL.TO]

I agree on the Pickle Barrel but not for the same reason. I like the food I've had there actually. I usually order something a little off-the-wall for that type of restaurant.

My complaint is with the service at the take-out window at the Y-E location. It's the only time that restaurant service has ever been bad enough to make me lose my temper.

The takeout at Yonge and Dundas was consistently poor in my experience as well.

 

[Jonny5]

I went with a group of about a dozen to South of Temperance on Friday night for drinks. Their patio is really nice. It's surrounded by Trump, Scotia and The BAC; a wet dream for UT folk!
Our waitress said upfront she would split the bills. 2 hours later (about 8:30) she said her shift was ending and asked us to settle the tab (I assume so she could get her tips before going).
She brought the bills, but they were all mixed up. Mine had drinks from three different people on it. She refused to get help fixing it from other staff and instead spent 40 minutes going back and forth between us finding out who actually ordered what. Yes, it was actually well after 9 before she had it all sorted out!
She wouldn't take any more orders from us while correcting the bills and no one else would help us either because "this isn't my table". We had to walk inside to the bar, convince the bartender to stop trying to pick up girls and actually pour us a drink.
This place is just another downtown frat-boy party zone that is all style and no substance. South of Temperance is now another on the long list of places we won't go back to, which is sad as most of us work in ScotiaPlaza and we could have given them lots of money.

 

[Urban Shocker]

The Beaver on Queen West.

It was nearbye, after Opera 101 at The Drake, so we tried it ... more or less on a dare.

A dive too poorly lit for us to determine, with any certainty, what was on our plates. The bovine waitress couldn't have cared less when I drew her attention to the shard of broken plastic in my lamburger.