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| - Initially this was a tough review to write as there are enough stories involved with this space and its inhabitants to fill at least a few Yelp pages... I won't get into any of them! If you are ever interested to know, for whatever weird reason, feel free to ask me at a Yelp event and I'll tell you all about the saga of Arbor Room!
To begin, this is still one of the better places to eat within U of T. If it was anywhere else, I probably would not give it more than 3 stars as there seems to be a serious issue with consistency. A lot of items on the menu, from the Shawarma to the Pizza could be absolutely amazing and fresh on some days and make you question your taste on others! In addition, to reaffirm another reviewer's experience, I also remember finding a bone or two in Shawarma a while back! The issue of consistency also exists in terms of the portions you receive, and they can vary ridiculously day by day!
On the bright side some of the staff are quite nice! This is particularly true about the people who greet if you visit earlier in the day! Hart House serves up a pretty decent breakfast, and I would recommend the cinnamon French toast with eggs and sausage! Most of the ingredients are very fresh and in fact the syrup is produced at the Hart House farm (this was at least the case back when I was in the 'know')!
For lunch and dinner, I would recommend the 'chickens of the world' items. If you are getting something from the baked section, I would go for either the Pizza or the patties! The calzones, Greek cheese pockets, etc are not too impressive at Hart House!
Another great point about the Sammy's is the seating space; For one, Sammy's/Arbor Room has become a pretty good space for watching sport events within campus and you can usually find a good crowd gathered for the major games. Even better, you can still walk in to find the stage occupied by a comedy/hip-hop or some other cool campus group, and enjoy a free show while you eat! Finally, if you are in the mood to read in a noisy place, the Arbor Room is a great option and you know you can grab something at the same time. That being said, it's probably not a good idea to show up at lunch for casual reading as I have seen the manager get a bit aggressive with students in the past (even though technically Sammy's does not have control over the seating space).
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