Santo's Italian Cuisine — Restaurant in Markham

Attended on Sunday, June 15th at 5:30PM with my best friend. I wanted to support a local restaurant and my best friend had been having a very hard time of late, so I wanted to treat her to what I thought would be a fine dining experience. The reviews on Google were quite good - seems they are being doctored by the restaurant! My friend ordered the veal parmgean and she said it was not worth the $29.95 - it was very bland. I ordered the $59 beef tenderloin with gargonzola. I asked for medium rare to rare. It was cooked at medium. The piece of meat was of poor quality as it was chewy and tough. If there was supposed to be gargonzola on it, there were only a few specs - it's a very strong and flavourful cheese, and I could not taste it at all. The mashed potatoes were soupy and runny. The veggies (broccoli, greenbeans, peppers) were mushy. All of it was tasteless and very bland. The only dish we liked was the Santos bruschetta. I was very unhappy with my meal, especially for $59! We were seated on the patio, so I went inside to look for our server (the receipt says his name was Tony), but he was busy serving another table. I waved to a server whose name is Liliana (I was told by Tony), and she came over to assist me. I very calmly and quietly explained that I was not happy with my meal and that I wanted to order something else. I was worried about the other patrons hearing me. I had intended to pay for it anyway, and was trying not to make too much of a fuss. I have never in my life ever returned a meal and I was very uncomfortable. Liliana wanted to come to our table look at my steak, she argued with me that it was medium rare, snapping at me ''You don't know what you're talking about!''. She continued to snap at me that ''You shouldn't order something and decide to return it just because you don't like it!''. Liliana continues to berate me in front of my friend, raising her voice at me, saying ''You don't know what is good food because the girganzola sauce is very good and you don't know what you are talking about!''. Liliana took my plate, stormed off yelling as she got to the door that ''You shouldn't order something and change your mind and be a bitch!!!'' At that point I was so appalled and disgusted at her exceptionally rude and abusive behaviour that when Tony came outside to our table, I told him that I did not want to order anything else. We asked for the bill and for a to-go container for my friend's meal as we could not stay there one more second. The male server did not apologize at all for the poor service after I told him that Liliana called me a bitch. He was shocked, but just walked away from us to bring the bill. He did not want to get the manager for us when I asked before leaving.

I left very hungry and as a diabetic, that is a serious problem as my blood sugar was already very low and I was not planning on going home hungry. They did take the beef tenderloin off my bill, which is the only reason that I did not further demand to see the manager. I implore everyone to read all the 1-star reviews and see that this horrifically overpriced, sad excuse for a restaurant has a long history of abusing their patrons, of bland food and prioritising their cruel and abusive staff over their paying customers! I will be warning everyone I know not to...

Four of us went on a Tuesday which was extremely busy, probably due to about four large birthday groups (who all had Happy Birthday played to them by the Jazz trio and cakes delivered to their tables). It's best to reserve a table, which we did, in advance. First, the food. We ordered from the 'special' four course menu, which also provided free bruschetta if we ordered a bottle of wine. We had the 'prosecco', which was actually Asti Spumante, as it was our friend's birthday. It was ok. We had delicious, warm, garlicky bruschetta - probably the best I've tasted. It was followed by Caesar salad, which was a large portion and very tasty. For the mains, we ordered tilapia on mashed potatoes with vegetables, salmon in cognac sauce (same accompaniments) and I had a steak in gorgonzola sauce. Except for my steak, which was slightly overdone (I asked for medium, but it turned up well done), the food was outstanding, arrived in good time and had large portions. We all struggled to finish this course, which is unusual! To finish we had tiramisu (light, fluffy and beautifully presented) and my husband had the spumoni ice cream, which he really enjoyed. The meal was timed very well throughout, although three out of four of us found the waiter to be rather brusque and impolite, however, to be fair, the restaurant was full and there were only 2 waiters for around 90 people, so they were bound to be quite stressed. They also had to work the bar. I think this is something that needs to be rectified by the restaurant itself, more waiters are needed, for everyone's sake. The jazz trio provided very pleasant background music, but, even though we were at the other end of the restaurant, we found it very loud and hard to talk to each other at times. The volume just needs to go down a bit, so if you're going on a Tuesday, please take that into consideration. We looked at the menu online before visiting, but it's out of date and more expensive (steak was $38 online but $42 in the restaurant). I would say that, even though the food is slightly more expensive than The Keg, the quality of food is better, so, although not the best value for money around, we really enjoyed the meal. Our friends are regulars, and we will definitely go back...

We went to this restaurant with three of my friends, and I can guarantee that I have never had such a disrespectful experience in the food industry ever. First, they asked us why we didn’t have a reservation, but they let us sit anyway. If they didn’t want to, they could’ve said they didn’t have tables, and we could’ve gone somewhere else. I was so excited to try this new place since it was also my birthday, but they truly ruined my night with their awful attitude. There were three servers and hostess people there, and ours was a lady whose name I don’t even know. They didn’t come to get our order, and when we called them to order, they avoided and ignored us. After 30 minutes, they finally came to take our order. The lady came and said, “You didn’t say you wanted to order,” and I was explaining that I did, but she said in the rudest tone ever, “I’m not arguing with you because we are busy,” which was the most shocking thing ever. They kept giving us side eyes, and they only started to get a bit better closer to the time we were about to leave. The food was truly amazing and the only good part about it. I also loved the atmosphere of the place, but the worst customer service I’ve ever had didn’t let me enjoy it. When it came time to pay the bill, it was my first time ever not tipping in a restaurant and the reason was clear! I didn’t get any service worth tipping for, but instead got the worst attitude and had my night ruined. So I didn’t tip, and then the server the same lady said, “Oh, I’m not gonna forget that you didn’t tip; I’m gonna remember for next time.” Like, excuse me? Are you teasing me? I’m never stepping foot in a place with that kind of staff, first of all. Second of all, what is this behavior?! My friend even told her sorry, which was unnecessary, but she still did. I’m really...