| rev:text
| - Really a "Meh!" experience here, bordering bad.
As you walk in, the atmosphere is quite nice, even though I feel it tries too hard to blend the "Persian Empire" theme with the "Roman Empire" theme but I suppose it's kind of cute to some folks. Floors, bar area and tables are all very clean and kept in pristine condition though so props to the restaurant for this, which is extremely important.
Moving on to service, unfortunately things went downhill from the get go. Our waiter, who seemed to hold some degree of management over at least a couple of other staff, seemed very relaxed, perhaps a little too relaxed! I'm pretty sure this guy has never had professional and proper training for waiting tables. It's all the small things that you notice, the way he puts down dishes and picks them up, handling cutlery or even how he addressed us. That would still be fine with me if he actually would come to check on us at least once during our meals but nada. Overall very unimpressed but to be honest he seemed like the worst of the wait staff as the other few seemed quite engaged with their tables and sounded much more pleasant.
On to the food, the "Persian Empire" strikes back again by mixing in to traditional Italian dishes. I'm not sure who told the chef here Saffron striped (Saffron water actually) white basmati rice, cooked in traditional Persian/Iranian style mixed with grilled fish makes for "Mediterranean Cuisine"! I love Persian/Iranian food on it's own but this mixture of stuff is bordering distastefulness. Worse, mixing "Shish Kebob" style meats with little flavour with (slightly undercooked) Pasta and calling it "Authentic Italian". Obviously there seem to be a market for this kind of cooking though judging by the fact that some other folks here seem to be in love with the dishes here, which is totally fine but my experience with the two dishes here are less than spectacular if anything. That said, the grilled fish was actually quite decent so if you're going here and like fish or seafood, stick with those dishes where possible as they seem to do a good job with them. The rest, and specially the Pastas, seem to be a haphazard mishmash of Persian food and Italian food.
And the last point for discussion: The prices! I highly suggest folks that before you go, take a good look at the menu for this restaurant and their prices. A party of 4 with just virgin beverages and conservatively ordering will be set back to approximately around $150 easily! (Pasta dishes easily in the mid $20s, although portions are generous so sharing is an option) Here is a tip: Take your money and drive in to town or at least Woodbridge and chances are you will receive far better value and perhaps "Authentic" experience.
At the end of the day poor service, lack luster food with no discernible taste or flavour combined with extremely inflated prices didn't really make it for us as we bid adios to this restaurant.
I'm pretty certain had this "Italian/Mediterranean" restaurant been located anywhere other than the Asian Food crazy Markham area, it would never make it through the month, not on these menu prices at least. However, given the location and the really clean and nice atmosphere I can understand the draw to this place for Markham residents who are sick of having Asian Food everyday, no matter how good, and would like a change of palate. So I guess it's true that more than anything in F&B business, location is the most critical factor, not the actual food.
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