The Octagon — Restaurant in Markham

My wife and I dined here on July 30th to celebrate our anniversary. I had been to the Octagon once before (for a larger business dinner) and it was stellar, thus we were extremely excited. The experience, however, was lacking leading to some frustration, disappointment and a fair bit of confusion as to what happened to change the restaurant so. RESERVATIONS Called in a few days earlier, the man answering the phone confirmed time, date and my name - beyond that there was no question as to the occasion. It seemed like he was in a rush to get off the phone and took only the required information. Seemed incomplete. The day of the dinner, the restaurant called to remind me of the appointed time. This time I made sure to tell the individual it was an anniversary, not expecting a free dessert or anything but moreso that it was a special occasion. The individual said she would "write it down" - suffice it to say, no one cared on the phone or in the restaurant. THE EXPERIENCE We made it to the restaurant, no one said anything to us until we were seated. The server came over and lit the candle on the table and provided menus and asked for drink orders. We needed a few minutes and he replied with "ok" and left. He never introduced himself, never asked our names or make any type of conversation and left us to our own devices. The ordering process was straightforward, very casual. The individual taking the orders (which was different than the main server) replied to us with "cool, thanks", "sounds good guys", "thanks guys". We felt that we were overlooked, more customers coming to get fed rather than it being a full dining experience. When our esgargot arrived, there was less room on the table and instead of helping us to make room on the table, we were asked to "move the stuff" on the table so he could put the esgargot down. He did warn us that the plate was hot though. We ordered the table-side caesar and when it was being made by the main server, he seemed rather disinterested and was very quiet throughout the whole preparation. When our mains came, another server came to provide us steak knives and additional cutlery. At this point, the server could not get to my right side and casually tossed the steak knife there instead leading to a small clang as the knife hit the table. At the end of the meal we ordered a couple of desserts that were responded to with more "ok cool, thanks guys" and "what do you guys want" comments.

All in all, the experience was lacking, attention to detail wasn't there and those would be the types of mistakes that differentiate a lower priced steak restaurant with what the Octagon should be (a more fine dining experience).

THE FOOD Escargot - they came in a nice presentation, I had recommended this to my wife as they were stellar last time. They were lukewarm and very heavy on butter flavour. Table-side Caesar - nice garlic taste on this one, overall kind of bland though. Croutons were delicious but the overall dressing was thick and not as flavourful. 16 oz. Ribeye - this one was surprising as it was the more expensive of the two steaks we ordered. Cooked well but it ended up being dry and not seasoned enough. Peppercorn Steak - easily the best part of the meal, flavourful, juicy and cooked to perfection. Having the sauce there helped to elevate the flavour and prevent the dryness of the other steak we ordered. Warm Chocolate Cake - came out warm, served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream in its own waffle bowl. The cake was OK, not too chocolately, ended up mixing the cake into the vanilla ice cream as it was missing sweetness. Tartufo - my wife had this one. It wasn't stellar, a small scoop of ice cream dusted in dark cocoa. It was fine, not much more to say about it. THE VERDICT Overall, a disappointing experience for the $350 price tag attached to the meal. My last experience was well over 3 years ago, and perhaps it was because we had more people in the last dinner (6 diners as opposed to 2), but it was...

Our second visit (first one published below) resulted in a 4* rating, again because of the poor provision of food. Looking at my previous review, the food quantity was even worse this time, except we WERE given nice pickled starters and bread. My husband and I visited for our wedding anniversary, and were welcomed into a well decorated and presented restaurant, with quiet, private booths. Unlike some restaurants, here we were not placed next to everyone else just for convenience, but given space, both appropriate with regards to COVID, but also respectful of the fact that it was our anniversary. The service was second to none throughout, and the choice of food and wine good and reasonably priced. We both had steak, my husband the striploin and mine the filet, and they were cooked well. Unfortunately, they turned up with the most uninspiring accompaniment I have ever seen - one mushroom! We ordered fries on the side, which were nice, but when you're paying $70 for a steak, you expect a couple of vegetables of different kinds at least, whatever the season! I had also ordered 'peppercorn sauce', which was unfortunately of the grey and tasteless variety. Very disappointing. Dessert was much better. We shared a chocolate mousse cake which was delicious, but there was no acknowledgement of our anniversary, with a free glass of sparkling wine, or a candle, or a free slice of cake, something that has never happened before in all our years of living here.

First review: 2019: My husband and I cancelled a booking at another restaurant downtown because of the weather and decided to come to the Octagon at short notice. We were accommodated straight away. There is lots of free parking in the area so no problems there. Entering the place, I have to say it was a beautiful setting, and privacy was good (although you might want to sit one or two tables/booths away from noisy business meetings, which we did, celebrating our wedding anniversary). The service from all of the staff was polite, efficient and impeccable throughout the evening. Having considered the menu beforehand, but my husband having been there a few times before and knowing the manager well, I thought the food might be fairly special. It was good, but no better than somewhere like The Keg, which is marginally cheaper. I ordered a small Filet Mignon - which I asked for as a peppercorn steak, with peppercorn sauce, kudos to them, this particular steak was meant to be a NY striploin but they didn't turn a hair when I requested this. I also asked for fries. What turned up was a perfectly charbroiled and cooked medium steak, some sauce and two mushrooms as well as a separate plate of sliced potatoes. Not exactly what I was expecting from a so-called five star restaurant. No green vegetables at all (not even seasonal) so that loses one whole star for me. Although garlic bread and thirst-inducing olives, pickles and peppers turned up before the meal (which my husband particularly enjoyed), a good restaurant STILL needs to provide a balanced meal! Talking of my husband, he had a New York strip loin and a HUGE baked potato, which he was very happy with and, to be honest, both of our desserts (creme brulee, not sure if it was homemade, but if it was, it was delicious!) and 'French Vanilla' ice cream, were very good. OK, the background music was Sinatra etc so that probably needs a bit of an update. Overall, however, the service is what makes this place - every single person who greeted, served and tidied away afterwards was really nice. I do recommend a visit, especially for Canadians who love...

I would like to post my review of this restaurant to share my experience in the hope that it will be read by the appropriate persons responsible for its management, and the necessary corrective attitude that some staff members could take in carrying out their duties. Let me preface this by stating that dining at high end dining establishments is something neither I, nor my wife are unfamiliar with. It is my philosophy that dining enjoyment are one of the simplest, yet very pleasurable aspects of life. Having said that, I decided to splurge and indulge my wife by bringing her to this very fine restaurant in celebration of her 43rd birthday on July 2nd, 2022 at between 6:00PM and 6:30PM. I was extremely curious myself, after seeing advertisements numerous times on my Facebook feed, so I figured now would be an excellent opportunity to finally satisfy my curiosity. It wasn't until our arrival to the restaurant at the aforementioned time that the caliber of dining establishment became evident. Admittedly, my wife and I immediately began to feel slightly under dressed upon our entry to be greeted by the hostess, at which point it was too late for us to simply return home, and return in attire more suitable to this type of restaurant. From the moment we placed our order for our choice of beverages was when my wife and I observed an immediate shift in our server's attitude ("Jimmy" I believe his name is). We both chose to order Cokes for our drinks, as neither of us were feeling in the mood for anything alcoholic. Our server's response was, "no wine with your dinner?" as if to suggest NOT ordering wine was somehow inappropriate. Other than that, arrival of our food ordered was quick. And the food was very good, as to be expected of a restaurant to this standard and price point. It was during the time we were dining, was when my wife and I felt ignored. Not once did "Jimmy" check up on us after our food was served, to make sure our food was to our liking. We were also never asked if we would like refills on our drinks. Nor were we given glasses of water that other tables were provided with. As a matter of fact, the one person there who made us feel very welcomed was the person whose job it should not have been, and that would be the busser ("Max"). "Max" was the one who asked how our food was. "Max" was the one who cleared our table in a timely manner. When asked for a glass of water, "Max" had a confused look on his face as if to wonder why we weren't provided with it to begin with. "Max" was the one who asked if we would like to see a dessert menu. "Max" had even apologized for the long wait for our dessert menu to be provided to us, when "Jimmy" finally brought it to us. At the conclusion of our dining, I did still give a generous tip despite feeling somewhat ignored by staff (the final bill was about $327, $393 with tip included). So in conclusion, the food was fabulous but the service provided to us, left us feeling like we were less important than the other patrons, with the exception for the way we were treated by...