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| - I'll start with some context -- there isn't a lot of restaurants to speak of on Gerrard in the area. Nestled between Gerrard Square and Little India, there's very little competition in the area. You could get fast-food at Gerrard Square, head down to Chinatown East, Little India, Queen Street, or the Danforth, but within a five minute walk, there's very little else worth eating. That's a promising start.
On my first visit, I had checked out the menu in advance and brought my wife, a vegetarian who doesn't like mushrooms, only to discover that their non-mushroom vegetarian burger is still getting refined, and they're not ready to sell it. Awkward first visit. The second visit was better, my mother came along and we had two Riverdale burgers and split a Montreal Poutine, all of which was enjoyable. The fries tasted like they'd be good without curds and gravy, but I'll have to try them straight before I can really comment. Basically, we enjoyed the food, an above-average burger and fry.
I find the decor pleasant, although it's a pretty spartan place. It's small, with a little bar along two walls, could probably seat 10-15 comfortably. The area in front of the counter is open and spacious, but can get crowded. We arrived at 11:30 on a Friday, ordered in peace, but shortly thereafter the restaurant was swamped by students for half an hour, ordering their food to go. This is good for the restaurant, but does encourage you to consider taking your food to go if you might find yourself in a waiting room shortly.
They have a menu of preconfigured burgers, fries, and poutines, as well as a fair amount of flexibility in configuring your own options. It seems like they're still working out the kinks in the ordering process, it's still a little clumsy and error-prone, but it's still early days, so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.
In summary, I think this is a promising new entrant in the neighbourhood, good food, reasonable prices, but they're still definitely working out the kinks.
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