Kara Mia — Restaurant in Markham

I don’t write reviews, but I had to for this place. They say their cuisine is “Italian inspired”, but I’m Italian and I can tell you that nothing they offer is even close to any type of Italian dish. I’m actually offended that the owners here would use my culture in this way. Wanna talk about cultural appropriation? How about this place.

I knew the Italian food was going to be bad from the pics, so I ordered the Hot Shot burger, and it was probably the worst burger I’ve ever had in my life. It was made with pure hatred. Slathered in a horrid red sauce and way too much nasty cheese. The burger itself was overcooked and dry. It says “homemade” on the menu but I’d put all my money down on “frozen”. Absolute travesty of a burger. And the fries. These guys can’t even fresh cut fries. They’re the absolute cheapest of cheap French fries. I’d rather get them from Costco. What does it take to cut a potato and fry it??? That takes me 15 minutes at home. Absolutely unacceptable for a $20 burger.

My wife got the Saffron Chicken, which the server said was their best item. It’s dry chicken breast drowning in a radioactive yellow cream sauce that has absolutely zero flavour on top of mushy basmati rice. The presentation looked like vomit.

My father in law got the seafood pasta. He said it was alright. He didn’t finish it.

None of us finished our meals. And the worst part? The server didn’t ask how it was even once. There was no one else in the restaurant, so they weren’t busy. She brought us our food, then never came back. When she took away my burger, she didn’t even ask why I only took two bites. So it’s obvious that:

The service staff don’t care The back of house staff don’t care The owners don’t care

I would avoid this place like the plague until the owners try and actually offer edible food.

Anyone who enjoys this place, I question your sanity!!! I don’t even write reviews, and look at this absolute unit I wrote. That’s how moved I was by their food, and not in a good way.

We spent $100 for three people.

Absolute madness for the quality of product we got. These owners...

I'm revising my initial review because of my experience from yesterday and I'm taking away 2 stars because of the service due to a new server. The food quality was still quite good.

I came here yesterday for my birthday and we had a different server. I believe she was filipino. She was probably the WORST SERVER I have ever had at any restaurant and this is the reason why I'm taking away stars. First she got my order wrong and tried blaming me!! I asked for the pasta special and she got me the steak special and kept insisting the order mix up was my fault. I was so shocked by the accusation I couldn't believe it. I supported my argument with specific examples from my initial conversation with the server, and she knew she did something wrong but still wouldn't admit it. She clearly forgot and it was her mistake but didn't want to admit it. I didn't tell her to take the food back because I didn't want to waste it but I was incredibly unpleased, barely touched my food because I really wanted the pasta, not steak and sausage. Oh and I paid more for something I didn't order. Great.

Anyway, while we were there, she never brought us water. I had to get the attention of the other server after 25 minutes from ordering who told our server who was behind the counter most of the time! After that we kept flagging down other servers to get the attention of our own server because she was nowhere in sight! The worst service ever! There weren't even a lot of people in the restaurant!! She also didn't check up on us at all or apologized about the order mix up. She made my birthday slightly worse and I can't believe my husband still tipped her. Management, please provide more training to your new server because she clearly does not know what she's doing.

The food however was still the same quality as last time and my husband enjoyed his meal. I'll come here again as I usually do but I will insist that we have a different server. The server we had last...

Quality has gone down hill. Always come here for our anniversary dinner. This year the steak they put in my wife’s pasta was all fat chunks (to me it’s delicious to get those from time to time if they are rendered. But these were hard rubbery chunks…the ones you spit out.

As we had reservations for 9pm and they close at 930 my wife didn’t want to send the food back and quietly ate. It’s only at the end of the night when I eat her left overs I realize she was given the doggy bag treatment for her steak pasta.

My steak pasta was fantastic and came out in big strips, hers was diced. I thought it was just the presentation style for the two different pastas we ordered but clearly I was mistaken.

We order the same thing Everytime, we know what it tastes like and can spot out the difference. I was ashamed their chef would even put that out.

The servers felt bad Becuase they could either remember us or tell from the sincere manner I brought the concern up. They were attentive all night and fantastic and for that a full tip was delivered . $74 for two pastas and a garlic bread order. One of the pastas was sincerely inedible and my wife was an angel for simply eating around the protein .

I am truly dissapointed beyond belief because I only give 5 star ratings as I like to uplift small businesses and Kara Mia was always a recommendation of halal consistency even where one could take their non Muslim co worker or friends and understand a top notch product would be delivered with stellar service.

The manager and servers and are all sweet people. Could hear the chefs words coming out the back and the audacity to put that out to Paying patrons. For that a decade plus of family business and anniversary/milestone dinners will be shifted to another restaurant.

Hope the owner/operator takes this as sincere feedback as the lack of consistency has clearly made an impact, it was half as busy as it usually was, I now...