NextDoor Restaurant — Restaurant in Markham

TLDR: Made a reservation for 6 people ahead of time only to be seated at the bar counter. When we asked the staff why we did not have a proper table despite our reservation, the staff said it's because we did not specify that we wanted a "TABLE" when we called to make the reservation.

Hugely disappointed with the service from the staff in how they handled our situation. Made a reservation way ahead of time for 6 ppl and mentioned it was for a bachelorette party and got a confirmation from the restaurant. On the day of, my group was running late and couldn't get there on time. I decided to call as soon as they opened to let them know we were running late because we're coming from far, and asked if it would be possible to push back the time of the reservation. To which they said it was fine, and I even got a confirmation for the new time.

However, once we got there, they showed us to our table, which was the bar counter. This did not sit well with us, because there were 6 of us and sitting at the bar counter would make it difficult to interact with one another. We declined, decided to find somewhere else to have brunch instead, because we could tell it was packed, there was nowhere else to sit, and they clearly did not have a table ready for us. My friend then confronted one of the staff to ask why do we not have a proper table despite having a reservation, to which the staff replied because we did not specifically mentioned that we wanted to be seated at a TABLE...

I've always made reservations at restaurants to avoid wait times and especially when coming in with a big group, and I have never been asked to SPECIFY and MENTION that my group and I would like to be seated at a literal TABLE. This response from the staff was just terrible. We did everything right; we made reservations ahead of time and called to let them know we were running late, to which they agreed was fine. Yet, the staff still implied it was our fault for not asking for a TABLE.

The staff tried to get us seated, but we would have to wait an hour for another table to free up. They offered to sit us at their patio, but it literally just rained, so everything was still wet. We declined their offers and decided to leave and go somewhere else. I personally no longer wanted to stay after; I thought it was unacceptable to ask a customer who made a reservation to wait for an hour for a table, plus the staff’s response was unprofessional.

The restaurant called us an hour after we had left to apologize and offered gift certificates, inviting us to come back in the future. But, after this whole interaction, we have decided not to come back. This ordeal has left the whole group, and especially the bride, disappointed and disrespected of our time, especially by the curt and unempathetic response from one member of the staff. We made a reservation ahead of time for the convenience and to have a seamless celebration. Instead, we were inconvenienced and had to look for another brunch spot on short notice that could accommodate our group, pushing back our plans several...

The holidays are amoung us, so it's time to get together and enjoy one another. As such, the lovely folk at my gym rented a room at NextDoor restaurant, for an evening of food and drink.

NextDoor is a very new restaurant along iconic Main Street Unionville Markham. They opened this past summer, with an obvious desire to serve dishes with non-traditional twists. The room that we rented, which included the bar, was large enough to seat approximately 30 of us, with room left over to walk around and mingle. For visualization's sake, there is a second main room in the restaurant, which I would guess can seat at least just as many, maybe more.

Since we were such a large group, we had a reduced menu available to us. I chose to start with the duck wings, because... well come on... DUCK wings. I had a bit of a roller coaster of emotions with this dish. At first my anticipation was embarrassingly high, which probably contributed to the slight bit of disappointment when I found that they only serve you two wings. You're not going to All-Stars, so don't expect wings by the pound. The wings are served with kewpie mayo, Japanese barbecue sauce, fried shallots, and red chili peppers. I'd summarize the wings as interesting. Duck is apparently much gamier than chicken, so don't expect succulent meat. Secondly, the flavours were very unique. Not quite something that I was crazy for, but those around me quite enjoyed them.

For the main, Nashville Fried Chicken was the easy decision. You'll be served two pieces of fried chicken, atop a bed mash potatoes, corn, and greens, with a spicy brown sauce to top it all. Aside from my minor complaint of not-so-special mashed potatoes, I really enjoyed this dish. The fried chicken is well cooked and crispy, and the corn/greens combo is welcome addition. Things really get adventurous with the spicy brown sauce. I couldn't tell you what the sauce is made with, but it adds a genuine amount of spice to the dish that scoffs at the regular Canadian standards for spicy. Think more Indian food mild spicy. It's not crazy, but you're not left guessing whether you ordered the spicy version or not. (clap clap)

The meal finished with some strawberry shortcake. Not much to say here. It was nice.

The staff are welcoming and sociable, and the food steps a little out of the norm. If you're looking for something new, NextDoor might be...

Been wanting to come try their new fall/winter menu since it switched over, and a friend of mine went with me one day after she finished work! Between the two of us, we got two appetizers, and two mains with still plenty of fries for my friend to take home after we ate the rest of the food.

-[FRIED BRIE SANDO] $13 🧀 Double cream brie, truffle mushroom duxelle, dijon aioli, truffle honey all on shokupan milk bread 🍞 Personally, I really enjoyed how the sando was entirely deep fried but I think it could have used more of the duxelle or a hot sauce to really give this dish a tad more flavor 🧀 This dish is a vegetarian one that I would happily order again haha

-[HAMACHI CRUDO] $21 🐟 Kimchi rapini, whipped tofu cream, yuzu ginger and scallion oil, buttermilk fried onions 🐟 Hmm, so the execution of this dish was really awkward? The tofu cream was good but didn't really make sense taste-wise in this dish 🐟 The buttermilk fried onions also were extremely stale which made me question the freshness of their food even though the hamachi was quite fresh

-[CARAMELLE] $30 🍝 Duck confit & foie gras filled, herb oil, duck cream sauce, roasted radish, hand rolled pasta 🍝 My goodness, each pasta was filled with duck confit although I will say I didn't taste any foie gras 🍝 Additionally, the radish didn't seem to add anything to the dish but I would order this again to treat myself because it was really good

-[FRENCH ONION CHEESEBURGER] $23 🍔 7oz beef patty, swiss cheese, iceberg lettuce, caramelized onions, mustard aioli, double smoked bacon, buttered bun served with hand cut fries 🍔 A bit sad to report but the onions were basically just panfried and not even close to being caramelized meaning that although it was overall a decent burger, it did not taste anything like being a french onion one

-[LATTE] $4.25 ☕ Needed some caffeine and their latted have never let me down yet!

📝 Overall, their food has always been good during brunch so maybe their new menu was trying a bit too hard to push the envelope because a few dishes fell short for me 📝 I will still happily come back because I always like to see what kind of dishes they can...