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| - My partner and I were pretty excited that a "British" pub was going into this location; we live very close and were hoping it would be good enough to become our "local". When it finally opened, we were pretty disappointed - the atmosphere is not what we'd hoped. Too modern, and missing that warm and friendly character traditionally associated with pubs.
Let me be clear: we've given this place a fair shake, despite the fact that the atmosphere doesn't suit us. We WANTED to love it, and we've eaten here 4 or 5 times, at various times of day. The food is never terrible, but it's never very good, either.
The service varies somewhat between casually negligent and hostile. My impression, reinforced with each successive visit, is one of swarms of aloof servers, whose attentions are rarely directed towards their customers. Never bad enough to complain to a manager, but not good enough to make me feel like the tip paid was actually deserved, either.
This afternoon's brunch was pretty forgettable. We were seated right away (that was nice) but then waited....and waited...for someone to come take our order. Once our server got around to visiting our table, we both ordered the British fry-up, figuring it would be pretty hard for even an indifferent bar kitchen to screw up. When our meals arrived, the sausage was unappealingly lukewarm, and everything else was merely okay; definitely below our standards for a Saturday brunch in a food-centric city like Toronto. The final eyebrow-raiser was when we were finally offered coffee refills - after we'd asked for the bill and it was clear that we were leaving.
From now on, we'll wait in line for brunch at the nearby trattoria, which has never let us down. (I don't think the staff at the Firkin will miss us anyway.)
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