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| - The location of the restaurant is easy to get to but parking was a joke. $40 flat rate for valet parking? Are you kidding me? And of course the hotel did not offer parking which I found surprising as most hotels in Toronto do. I had to drop off my 90 year old grandmother at the doors and then went to 3 different lots to find parking (all which were either $15 or $20) and then had to walk all the way back in my high heels. So far not a good start. What I thought was odd as well was that the restaurant called me literally 30 minutes prior to my dinner reservation to confirm that I was coming. Odd. I would think they would call to confirm earlier in the day or the day before.
When we got to the restaurant we were seated right away and had a view of Lake Ontario (very nice view). The service was prompt though I found the waiter to hover a lot while we were dining. We ordered some drinks and the Blue Hawaiian tasted like it had no alcohol in it and the Peach Cobbler was so strong that you already felt the alcohol halfway through your drink! The red house wine was average.
Now on to the food. The Summerlicious menu sounded amazing and we were drooling over the descriptions of what the dishes included. For the appetizers we had ordered the Grilled Tiger Shrimp, The Atlantic Smoked Salmon and the Toula Grand Tagliere Misto. The Grilled Tiger Shrimp only came with two shrimps. The Atlantic Smoked Salmon was served missing the lemon rubbed crostini and the Bermuda onion jam. When we mentioned this to our waiter he had to get the Summerlicious menu to double check and then said he would bring out the correct dish. When they brought out the second dish it had a plan crostini on it and was STILL MISSING the Bermuda onion jam (we didn't bother send it back for the 3rd time). The Toula Grand Tagliere Misto stated it was served with Artisan Cheeses from Italy so I had expected more than one kind (there was only one kind of cheese and not that appetizing). Also, this appetizer was MISSING the caramelized fruit preserves which were stated on the menu it came with. I didn't bother to send it back since the Atlantic Smoked Salmon couldn't come out of the kitchen right after the second time.
For the main course the Grilled Certified Angus Center Cut Beef Tenderloin was great. The Handmade Canadian Atlantic Lobster Ravioli was great but looked like a dish you could get at East Side Mario's. The Seared Over Roasted Mediterranean Sea Bass Branzino Filet "Aqua Paza" with a Tomato, Caper, Chilli Caponata was not served as described. There was no tomato and no chilli caponata. Instead it was served on a bed of watery risotto with corn in it. The Provimi Veal Medallions I had ordered medium well and then had to send it back as it came out medium rare. The Veal was also described as Provimi Veal Medallions, Topped with Fontina Cheese Fondue, Black Truffle Norcia Slices, Prosecco Risotto. Well, my veal dish was missing the fontina cheese fondue and black truffle Norcia slices and was served on the same watery bed of risotto with corn as the sea bass was served on so I don't think I got the Prosecco Risotto.
Finally dessert. The Tiramisu was excellent, the Chocolate Paradiso Torta was a rounded shaped piece of cake (not a slice of tort) but still delicious. The Courvoisier Pear and Rhubarb Crumble was another disappointment. The crumble was cold, missing rhubarb entirely, the pears tasted like pears from a can and the gelato was more like vanilla ice cream.
We were truly disappointed with our experience at TOULA. If you aren't going to serve as dish as stated than don't bother serving it. It may seem like no big deal to some if we were missing the Bermuda onion jam or black truffle Norcia slices but to us it was a big deal as we had never tasted these things before and were looking forward to doing so. Also, it was described in detail on the menu they were offering. Also, I couldn't believe that they had to check they Summerlicious menu to verify if the Atlantic Smoked Salmon came with what we said it was supposed to come with. Then after verifying it they brought out the dish incorrect and still missing an item!!! I don't know what was going on with the kitchen staff but they were obviously not paying attention to detail.
When we left I thought the restaurant was quite busy but I noticed that they were seating everyone on the side with the view of Lake Ontario and there was no one on the other side of the restaurant.
I'm glad we tried this restaurant during the Summerlicious menu and not on their regular menu because I would have been even more upset with the way dishes were served. I can see now why the restaurant gets poor ratings. In my opinion it was not worth the drive from Oshawa to Toronto to experience Toula.
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