I work pretty close to here. As in "I could leave my building and log roll to it in under 30 seconds". Yet hadn't tried downtownfood until today. Bad Lauren, bad.
I went for lunch with a coworker. We made reservations but it wasn't too busy inside (12:30) so maybe we didn't need them. We were both really impressed with the décor - clean, nice lighting and warm without being too cozy that it was awkward to be dining with a co-worker.
The service was very friendly throughout the meal. Lots of great recommendations that seemed very genuine. We were asked about our experience by several people, throughout the meal, without it being overbearing. They had a nice wine list including decently priced "by the glass" selections (the Riesling was lovely).
I had the house burger which was a great size - not grossly huge but well put together bursting with flavours of bacon, kimchee and other things. It was served with yummy homemade fries and house ketchup which was also good. My friend had a vegetarian smoked mushroom curry. She said it had kick and was delicious but wished there was more of it. She actually ate my burger bun too lol.
We opted to go all out and share a dessert. After the server's loving tale of the hazelnut chocolate dessert, we were sold. Unfortunately she had to come back and tell us they were sold out. We opted for a lemon desert instead (other than the gelato it was the only option). It was good...very fresh and tart but it wasn't chocolate.
Downtown Food is a real Gem. I like their philosophies on food (farm to table) and their flavour profiles. There is really nothing quite like it in the area and it's a great change from having pub food for lunch.
They did have two weird things though. One, the bench seating is a lot higher than the chair seating. So you as the bench seat user will be looking down at your dining companion. The other thing is that their credit card machine tries to auto-tip 18%. You do that the option of changing it to a lower or higher percent or a dollar amount, but I am thinking a lot of people hit "okay" and pay 18%. Is that the standard now? Especially for a table for two? I think not. It just seemed a little presumptuous.