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| - A very disappointing night, but we made the best of it and enjoyed some fine company and good cheer together.
My review is quite delayed, though I have been meaning to write this for some time.
My elderly parents live in Bruce County and came to visit me and my husband to have Thanksgiving in the city. We were excited to host them here because we usually do it at their place up north. However, due to unforeseen circumstances, as the weekend drew closer, it became clear that we were not going to be able to host it in our home so we had to find another venue to enjoy Thanksgiving with my parents.
There weren't a lot of places open that weekend, so we wound up choosing to go to Toula. We thought that this would be a remarkable place to share Thanksgiving together. Living downtown, it had the added benefit of being able to park there, which was a very important feature for my parents who can not walk long distances.
It'd been years since we had all gone there, but we all remembered it very fondly, with it's revolving view of the lake and city, the wonderful food and that "X" factor you have when something has a special experience associated to it.
Toula is also connected to a hotel, which we thought would almost guarantee that there would be a Thanksgiving-oriented menu to choose from. I should have confirmed that in advance. You know what they say about assuming. In any case, that was one of our several disappointments for the evening.
So, we arrived, granted, with high expectations for a lovely evening.
Well, at least we had each other, and that was enough to be thankful for.
We arrived at the hotel to park our car, $25 right away for parking. Fine. We figured the night would be worth it.
We arrived at Toula and were seated right beside a not terribly exciting view of an old, brutalist cement condo building, which again we thought would be fine since the restaurant revolves and soon we'd be facing the lake or other more attractive parts of the city.
Nope. Not revolving. Hasn't in years. Brutalist cement condo views are all the rage now apparently. Welcome to the big city Mom & Dad. Hope you enjoy our finest views.
Fine. We know the food will be great. Bring on the turkey.
Nope. Not turkey. Not stuffing. No cranberry sauce. Not even mashed potatoes. No Thanksgiving menu to be found....in a hotel restaurant. Surprised, and disappointed, the blame is my own. Note to self, call ahead to confirm things for special occasions.
So, we find things on the menu that we thought we'd like. The sad truth is, even that too, priced as it was for fine dining, was anything but. We found our food cold and flavourless. Perhaps they gave the head chef the night off as well. Good for them if they did. Too bad for us.
Well, we had wine, and we toasted each other and decided to make the very best we could of this night because that is what it was about.
But wine has a way of travelling through you, so eventually, dad, unfortunately very frail, needed to use the facilities. When he asked someone where they were, they pointed him to a stairwell he could take to a restroom on a lower floor. He stressed that he was fairly disabled and asked if there was not a restroom on the main floor he could use. No, no restroom. Go downstairs sir. The restroom is downstairs.
I would have held it and stewed in anger myself. Not my dad. Fortunately, he had the wisdom to approach another staff member who was kind enough to escort him to a staff restroom on the main level (i believe in the kitchen), but beggars can't be choosers. I was just glad that he finally found an appropriate option.
I won't even get into the size of the bill considering what we had, but none of us felt the value was there. Weren't we thrilled that we paid $25 to park there to enjoy this night?
Whatever charm Toula held for us in the past, it is sadly not ever going to be part of our future. Good luck to you if you go. Ask for the lake view. You'll get it all night.
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