Poached Dreams Diner — Restaurant in Aurora

So very disappointed. I was excited about the space being used again and looked forward to some of the fresh options. Neither the homemade soup nor harvest bowl were available so I went with what I thought was a safe option, Caesar with chicken. The food was mediocre (lumberjack sandwich and Caesar salad with chicken). The attitude from the management was condescending. I’ll start with the positive to provide balance. The server was pleasant and attentive. She filled up water without being asked, was apologetic for delays, admitted there was excessive dressing on salad ( heavy when scraping plate ) and offered to get management to discuss issues. Very clean. Floors gleamed. Space is beautiful, mostly due to previous businesses but now it looks unfinished. It seems there is a dream yet unrealized. Shelving units sit with shelves not up. Random boxes at the sides making things look messy and if there wasn’t as much open floor space it would be cluttered. It seems they were understaffed in the kitchen which lead to a cascade of issues that could have easily been addressed by management if at any point they admitted they were falling short. It took 18 minutes (I am told by management) for them to realize I could not get the original salad with quinoa (harvest bowl?) that I ordered. I should have been getting my food at 18 minutes not having them start it. I ordered a Caesar with chicken instead. We did not get our meal until 45 minutes after being seated. This is unacceptable given what was ordered. The restaurant was not full. There was no lineup. The food coming from the kitchen was intermittent not constant. My mom’s lumberjack sandwich (peameal bacon and cheese on a bun) looked sad on a squished, partially burnt bun with a slice of pickle on a plate (had a side of coleslaw that looked like it was out of a jar). My Caesar did not have croutons or bacon just lettuce and globs and globs of dressing. At this point I was frustrated from the wait and asked for some plain lettuce so I could “dilute” the salad. This seemed to be an issue because saw a server speak to the female owner. When she asked what was wrong I started to explain I was very disappointed with the wait and the food. I asked for a bowl of lettuce so I could make use of what was given already. She went to kitchen then came back and wanted what I had been given to make a new plate. I had eaten some chicken (it was fine). There was no reason to waste the whole thing all I needed was lettuce because there was not one piece not drowning. I did not want to wait again. I just wanted to eat more than the chicken. I had to push hard to get this. When the bill came I was shocked that absolutely not adjustment had been made. No management came to follow up while we were eating. I spoke with the server asking her to pass on my displeasure and offering some suggestions like having a more limited menu until staffing and supply issues could be fixed. She offered to have someone come speak with me and this time a gentleman came out. He felt strongly the time to get food out was justified and reasonable. He seemed to feel he did me a favour by supplying a bowl of lettuce. He said I should have asked for light dressing and suggested I got 2meals because I did not let them send out a new plate! I ate less than 1/8 of the original lettuce. At no time were any of my concerns acknowledged nor was there any apology for the experience falling short of my expectations. Before this last interaction things could have still been resolved. Bad days happen. Good help is hard to find. Obviously we did not order the best items on the menu. BUT LET ME BE CLEAR. YOU ARE NOT DOING ME A FAVOUR BY...

For a new restaurant, you’d think customer satisfaction would be a top priority — but that wasn’t the case here. I ordered the pasta primavera, which unfortunately tasted like it came straight from a tomato can and was topped with what seemed like no-name parmesan. The meal was supposed to include a house salad and garlic bread — I didn’t order those separately, they came with the dish. We ate the salad first, then the pasta came out, which was disappointing. When I mentioned it to the server, she offered to bring something else, so I ordered the Greek fries. When the bill arrived, I was shocked to see a charge for the salad (which was included with the pasta) and for the garlic bread. When I asked about it, the owner came over and was extremely rude. Instead of apologizing or trying to make things right, he argued that because I ate the salad, I should have to pay for it. For an owner, that’s such an unprofessional response. A good restaurant would have handled it with grace — apologize, comp the meal, and move on. He eventually removed the charge, but with attitude, which just made things worse. We work across the street, and I’ll be letting my entire office know not to come here. Sadly, this place lost a lot of potential repeat business because of poor service and attitude, not because...

Finally, the Newmarket-Aurora area has an authentic "go to diner" Reminiscent-of those found in the city, & usually run by a grumpy old Greek guy, who cooked amazing food from the heart from dusk til dawn. So far the other diners I've stumbled into in the area have been establishments purchased & run for immigration purposes and to me that just doesn't cut it. Apparently PD Diner is run by a husband-wife team who grew up in one of those famous neighborhood diner & they seem to know the winning formula. Our table with my daughter's family including my 3 grand-boys fell silent as our order arrived. We haven't seen this food scene in years. Omg! Generous portions, fresh, all quality food that was just out of this world delicious. This place will be lined up all day long very soon. The facility is still a work in progress but it's large, clean & airy & our waitress was great. ( I think it was Nino Daversa before) Get...