I booked this restaurant for dining on Halloween night through Open Table simply based on the location. My wife and I were attending the CPO's performance of Nightmare Before Christmas and we wanted a nice dinner before the show. ONE18 Empire is nice and close to Art Commons.
Our reservation was for 6:00pm and we arrived nearly 15 minutes early. We expected to wait but they greeted us immediately upon arrival and sat us right away. It wasn't very busy at the time so I'm sure that helped. All the staff were wearing stylish masks for Halloween. It was a nice touch and added to our Halloween experience.
We got water and menus almost immediately after sitting down and our server greeted us with the drink specials. I took her up on the Old Fashioned, it was delicious and made me feel like Don Draper!
After a short while the drinks arrived and she took our food order. We went for the calamari and hot pretzel as starters. For our mains, my wife ordered the portobello mushroom dish and I got the ribeye steak.
The food all came out as expected and we were both very impressed with our main dishes. I have to say the steak was pretty darn good! The mushroom dish was very flavourful and would be something I'd order for myself the next time. Dessert was equally awesome.
All in all, this was pretty much the perfect dining experience except for a minor mix up on our bill which was rectified quickly and easily. Our server was super friendly and efficient, giving us just the right amount of attention.
Our bill was just over $110 which was very reasonable for 2 appys, 2 mains, 2 desserts and four drinks. Very affordable and we got more than our fill for the price.
I highly recommend giving these guys a try, we'll certainly be back when looking for a nice, affordable dinner downtown.