Bistro Stefan — Restaurant in Ontario

Going on a bit of a rant because I found the experience at this restaurant startlingly excellent.

Hard to express what a pleasant surprise every moment of our time was at Bistro Stefan. It’s a kind of a weird step back to a simpler time… like going for dinner with your grandparents in the late 80s. Remember when restaurants had like themes, it wasn’t all another take on stark Milestones decor. They were warm and welcoming. They had stuff up on the wall collected by the owner while on a civil war battlefield trip. Each restaurant was different and felt different.

This place has a feel to it, it has personality, stone and wood, a fire is going, it’s warm and friendly but professional. Guests are laughing and celebrating. Everyone is having nice wine and seems happy. Their is ambience, but when you are seated, you are in your own little world. It is comfortable.

It takes it self just seriously enough to put out A+ food that is interesting without being pretentious. It’s perfectly clean but doesn’t feel sterile.

Then staff are well dressed and professional but also, like the space, have personality and are warm and friendly. It was my first time but I felt like a regular. We were made to feel special. Some great starter bread with Asiago. A bit more bread, a surprise small bit of cucumber with salmon pate. A surprise strawberry chocolate at the end.

For food, everything was excellent. Fresh, flavourful, beautiful. Started with the thin sliced beef tenderloin, fresh, with delicious aioli. Absolutely brand new, picked that day baby arugula. Just pulling the best out of each ingredient. You know when you eat a piece of meat and it tastes like an enhanced version of the flavour you were expecting. That’s what happening.

The lobster salad come out and your like woah, okay, I’m going to have to fight this thing. It’s a huge head of lettuce, and covered in bacon, sharp cheese, and a bunch of other stuff. It’s maybe seared. It huge and great and you’ve got to cut it up and mix it like a pot pie. If you want the best Caesar salad your mom makes, go to Chez Piggy. If you want to do battle with an ascended salad god, go to Bistro Stefan.

My wife had the seafood resoto. Flavourful, butter-like scallops, just delicious. We did have the desert. My wife had some sort of crepe cake deal, it sounds heavy but is light and sophisticated, a bit jammy. The chocolate cheese cake is intense. Only get it if you want to eat a brick of chocolate. It’s good but wow is it chocolate. It’s like the rest of the food in a way. It delivers on flavour in a way that is more than expected.

Anyway, this is probably the longest thing I’ve written in my life but really needed to say how thankful my wife and I are for such a lovely experience. We will be back when we can afford it. Until then we will be...

Breakfast that came with my hotel (best western fireside inn) attached was not good. The potatoes weren't cooked, the eggs weren't even egg but I think powdered egg and very dry. There was no toast. No gluten free items. Yogurt was watery, no flavor ( should have been in seperate containers not from a machine like water ) Beans were the dregs of some long forgotten slop left over from World War 2. Don't even touch the water it was foul. ( no idea what they did wrong there but it was like sewer water) I thought we were the only ones who had a problem but we found in the hallway on a cart (room service) on our way back to our room, people who had left their breakfast outside. Low and behold what had they not touched? Potatoes and egg. Second day the potatoes were cooked but swimming in oil. Egg was the same. I know companies are trying to cut corners and such but seriously, if you were to serve up a good breakfast i would give you a glowing review. It's time to up your game as serving up this in the morning is not good for business. All it takes is a little care. No one is expecting bells and whistles here but attention to detail. The fireside inn says the breakfast is free but we all know its not, its included in the...

I agree with the previous poster, not a place to go if your hungry. Portions are very slight, I thought newvous cuisine was old school. My companion diner had the filet mignon @ $40.00, Again not much on the plate. My daughter had the mushroom risotto, there might have been 7 ounces of risotto and that was considered an entree. Both times we visited, we were told that they were busier than expected, so our food would take longer to come out of the kitchen. It did take a long time. I had their “gourmet” poutine, it arrived 40 minutes later, cold, made with frozen fries, a lot of fat, that I suppose came off the beef brisket, but there was more fat than brisket, no gravey or sauce to speak of and like I said the whole plate was so cold the cheese would not melt, even after I put it under the fries and brisket. Very disappointed. At the price of $19.00 plus tax I expected something outstanding. I have eaten much better poutine from a chip truck, for a lot less. If your hungry I would suggest trying “The Cavalier Room” at the Lasalle hotel, upper Princess Street, They have excellent food and plenty of it, very reasonable prices. The decor will take you back to the 70’s, but I...