| rev:text
| - The personification of unremarkable. In other words: I expected much better.
We were a party of six adults, professionals, parents, and looking forward to nice evening out sans children. What we received was the antithesis of a nice evening.
The one star I give is for the bar staff upstairs. The highlight of the night by far.... Four of us arrived early to enjoy cocktails on the rooftop patio while we awaited the final couple. The staff upstairs were friendly, attentive, and easy to be in the company of.
That all ended when we went downstairs for dinner.
Our server in the dining room was, for lack of a better term, unprofessional. That's not to say he didn't look the part, he simply lacked the refinement one expects from a restaurant of this nature. We had to flag the waiter down to get our order in--not good. We ordered wine for the table, but he brought only four glasses--there were six of us, remember. We asked two more wine glasses, he brought the wine list...? It was puzzling. He was also argumentative when one of us said their Mojito was bitter and asked it to be remade.
Now the food: For the prices, not good. I had the lamb--it was cooked right, but the balance of the plate was pedestrian at best. Four boring fingerling potatoes and some micro greens. The berry compote was a one-note bore. I actually longed for a bottle of A-1 sauce just to give the plate some life.
Others at the table said their meals were, well, blah. The waiter had to ask two members of the party to cut into their steaks to makes sure they received the right one. Are you kidding me? This place masquerades itself as a high-end restaurant, and yet the chef and waiter can't communicate which steak is which?
The pouding chomeur for dessert was good, but the accompanying ice cream was flavorless.
Of note: if you order green tea, it takes them a good half-hour to prepare it. We'd all received our cafe au laits and desserts before our friend's tea arrived. Bizarre.
The night was capped by one final idiocy. No bill. We sat there, wallets out, credit cards in hand, but our waiter simply never came back. In fact, I finally got up walked around the corner in front of the kitchen's pass and braced a server's assistant, gave him my credit card and said, "We'd like to leave." We never did see our waiter again. Perhaps he vaporized--more likely he retreated upstairs for a break with the cool staff on the patio. Or something.
My wife and I had been there before on a fund-raiser, and although the food was just okay then, we chalked it up to a small budget for the fund-raiser and vowed to give the place a second chance for the ambiance and location. We know enough now not to go back.
It's a shame, there are very few nice restaurants on the east side of Toronto. I've had better food and better service at The Roy, Frankly Eatery, Lady Marmalade, and The Green Eggplant.
As a restaurant owner, when you recognize a party of six as being "new faces," ordering cocktails, bottles of wine, apps, entrees, desserts, coffees, would you not make certain these people are having a pleasant experience? Ensuring they return again and again as couples, with others, etc., etc., should be a core focus, oui?
Le Papillon on the Park did the precise opposite--they did everything possible to ensure we didn't return. And we won't.
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