| rev:text
| - TLDR: Food was average, Service was abysmal.
Saturday night, party of 10. Yes, my expectations for service for such a huge group is set quite low, I sympathize with servers that have to deal with such big table and yet I was completely let down and disappointed by Folco's that night.
Reservations were made and we were seated the moment we arrived, left alone for 15 minutes, no menus. Asked for menus when someone finally came to our table and another 10 minutes passed before we got them (by that time we had decided on what to order based on the menu online via our phones and the one menu that was left at the table when we were seated).
Food was late, when asked about the wait times, we were told very coldy that it would be another 15 minutes (ended up being about 30-40) and that they were out of bread (that came about 15 minutes after our inquiry). I'll say that the bolognese I ordered was good, but nothing impressive and to be honest, i've had better and cheaper at other Italian restaurants.
The entire night, I watched the tables around us get tended to with baskets of bread, refills on water, and even heard apologies from the staff about the long wait for food as the kitchen was very busy. We did not get any of the same courtesies, instead our inquires were met with cold responses and defensiveness (it's standard to wait that long, our pasta is fresh made, etc. etc.).
Food arrived and was slapped onto the table loudly by some of the servers, I'm going to sympathize here and say the plates were quite heavy but it was loud enough for me to notice it at a loud and busy restaurant. Requests for parmesan was met with a quip of "it's already on it's way" so fast that they did not even hear our thank yous before they had walked away. The quickest and most prompt service we got was the clearing of our plates.
At the end of the night the bill came with service charge already included (understandable as we were a big group), but it felt real unreasonable that we were paying a mandatory 18% service charge for the cold, microagressive responses we were given. We were met with defensiveness when questioning the service and explaining to them that we honestly did not think it was fair given the service we were given, we were told that the service charge was written on the menu as a policy for large groups (well, guess they should have given us menus) and that we had to understand that their pasta is homemade and authentic. The server ended up calling their manager to discuss our concerns after our insistence and a 20% discount was given. I have to say the lines that the manager fed through our server were quite impressive and they were quite apologetic that our experience at the restaurant was so disappointing, and I have to give kudos to the waitress for keeping a smile on her face the entire time. I really would have been alright with that, but the waitress tried to defend the restaurant again and that really dampened the sincerity of their apology and felt like they were just trying to cover their bases and get us the hell out of there.
Overall (hey if you're still reading this review, congrats!), I was extremely put off by their defensiveness, my friend who spoke on behalf of our group was very polite and understanding (probably a lot more than I would have been to be honest) and we were met with hostility, defensiveness and an overall condescending tone. If not for our insistence at speaking with a manager, I would have ended up paying more than what really was given in our circumstances.
There are better restaurants on main street and even more amazing Italian restaurants around the rest of the GTA. Save your money for a friendlier neighbourhood restaurant.
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