Clarkson Mediterranean Bistro — Restaurant in Mississauga

I quite literally just left this restaurant minutes ago, so this review is as fresh in my memory as it can be. The restaurant has decent potential and the best of intentions, but execution just doesn't measure up to expectations. The greeting was professional and the service attentive, all around a good start. After placing orders were brought a nice plate of bruschetta and some fresh bread as well. As an appetizer I started with a plate of the fried calamari. It came with a very interesting fried basil much akin to lavered seaweed. It was tasty and an interesting garnish. The calamari itself was slightly overdone and a bit too salty. But the garlic aioli it came with was nice. For my main course I got Fusilli Ricardo. It was boxed fusilli that came in a rather heavy cream sauce with grilled chicken and prosciutto. Again it was far too salty and way too much sauce; the pasta was almost like a stew. A little disappointing, cream sauce should be put on sparingly. The flavor was okay otherwise. My son opted for the Linguine Pescatore. I was quite disappointed at the presentation. While the portion size was okay, neither was it great, and the plating was boring. As for flavour, the sauce was not much better than canned and the seafood wasn't great quality. I should also mention that for probably the first time in my life, I declined to get Parmesan cheese when it was offered. Rather than show up with a grinder and a fresh block, the server showed up with a ramekin and a teaspoon. In that ramekin was dried, powdered parmesan...much like you would find out of a Kraft can in the grocery aisle. There are just some things you can't cheap out on, and that's one of them. My wife opted for blackened salmon with some lemon butter cream sauce. The salmon was over cooked and dry. I guess that's why they used so much sauce. The salmon, were it still alive, would have been able to swim in the amount of sauce put on the plate. Even the vegetables were inundated with it. It was also excessively salty. She ended up abandoning the vegetables, they were almost inedible. Another put off right from the get go, was that the bowls and plates they were serving us with were very old, and the glazing was starting to wear off making the dishes look dirty even though they were clean. Again, the restaurant has the best of intentions but the execution is poor. I suggest that get a restaurant consultant in to help them clean up before things go the wrong way for them. As someone who lives a walking distance from this place, I don't plan on going back. I would much more recommend that you take a few extra steps and go to Michael's Back Door or Solstice. Either of these options, bang-for-the-buck are much,...

Unfortunately, what started out as a pleasant dining experience ended miserably for us. We were a party of seven being serviced by Laura.

After serving our ordered drinks and wine, Laura’s watch (so she claims) knocked over my wife’s red wine glass spilling its contents all over her white blouse, knit sweater and canvas pocketbook.

My wife immediately went to the washroom to try, with no success, to remove the wine stains.

Laura was sincerely apologetic throughout the evening.

After eating our food, which was prepared with great care and very tasty, our three checks arrived. Laura stated that she didn’t know which one of the three checks had ordered a bottle of San Pellegrino so she didn’t put it on anyone's.

I took my check and asked to speak to the manager. Laura escorted me to the relatively new chef/owner who came out of the kitchen to respond to my request.

I told him about the accident that left my wife with a ruined blouse, sweater and pocketbook and told him I don’t think I should be charged for my dinner since her clothing was ruined. He quickly agreed and took the check from me. Simultaneously, Laura proclaimed in a loud and agitated voice that she would pay the check. How it ended between owner and server I do not know since at that point I had returned to our party.

Laura returned to the table and as she started clearing away the finished plates, she asked me if I was happy now. I said I was.

This is when all hell broke loose. She asked if I liked my food. Again, I said yes. She said, you ate the food so you should pay for the food with an attitude of total disgust. I asked her why she was having an attitude since we are ones that suffered damage and must go home with ruined clothing, the total cost of which far exceeds the price of our dinner.

She was fuming and arguing until, what probably was the manager, came over and escorted her away from the table.

I blame the new owner/chef for not having been informed that there was an accident involving spilt wine and knowing how to handle this type of situation.

At a minimum, he should have immediately been told and expressed his sorrow for this unfortunate accident and that our dinner is complimentary, adding, to please try and have the clothing professionally cleaned at his expense. Furthermore, if the clothing was not salvageable, please purchase similar items and send me the bill. That is what insurance is for!!

Accidents happen, they are not on-purpose, they are accidents. The innocent injured party is the one that needs to be made whole and not be subjected to ridicule by an offensive and belligerent server who insults the customer instead of owning up to their responsibility and consequence of...

Attitude of our server made our 10th wedding anniversary miserable. My wife and I decided for our 10th anniversary that we would try out The Taste of Clarkson. We Chose Clarkson Mediterranean Bistro based on its reviews and appealing menu choices. I booked a reservation and was expecting a pleasant evening. We arrived on time for our reservation. I explained to the person at the door we had reservations and he lead us to our table. His demeanor was very off putting, not a single smile or word to us, and he stopped several times on the way to our table to speak to other staff and customers, as if we didn't exist. While he was never blatantly rude he definitely did not seem pleased to be serving us. A couple of more short interactions later and my wife wanted to leave because of his attitude. I talked my wife into staying and wish I hadn't. The other wait staff were friendly and we had to resort to asking one of them to bring us some bread, which they did. However our original waiter came back and tried to take if from us stating that the bread we were given was meant for a larger group and shouldn't have been given to us. (Even if this is true, and it very well might be, once you deliver food to the table it seems extremely petty, and cheap to take it back. He ended up leaving it since we explained we had already touched and eaten some of it. By the way we ended up finishing the basket of bread which we were given so it wasn't all that much). The rest of the evening we were visited by other staff who were friendly and helpful, but everytime our original waiter returned so did the attitude. I wish I was better able to explain what he did to make us feel so unwelcome but I can't. It was all small trivial expression, movements and behaviors which are hard to explain. His general attitude of I rather be anywhere but here.

As for the food: - We enjoyed the calamari salad the seafood chowder was a little thin tasting the seared halibut was slightly over cooked but tasty creme brulee was nice If not for the service I would have considered the night a success. But the service does matter and by the end of the night my wife was mad and upset and our evening was ruined.

You only have one chance at an initial impression and we will not...