12 Tables — Restaurant in Toronto

I hate giving such low stars when the food was incredible, but the service was not good, in particular with one instance. I took my mom here for Winterlicious and also for her birthday. It's a small place and it is pretty loud. I prefer it to be a more relaxing ambience, but it's not due to the volume. It was warm and cozy, however, and that is not a reason for my rating. The food was incredible. I highly recommend coming here for the food. While I appreciate most food, I really have to be impressed to say this about this. 5/5 for food. There was one actual server, although there were other people helping her and she was also responsible for making drinks, so this did create delays with ordering and with requesting certain items. There was a lack of professionalism in the waitstaff. This did not apply to the young female Asian server who was great, but the rest of the "helpers." My soup was brought without a spoon and I had to fetch someone to ask for the spoon. There was a small complimentary app that was brought with no explanation even of what it was - one part of it was incredibly spicy, and guests do need to be informed about that sort of thing. I cannot tolerate anything too spicy. At one point I asked the gentleman who comes around with the water for a take-out box, and 10 mins later there was no take-out box. My main issue was in how the gentleman with the small ear spacers responded to our complaint about the tea. I always order tea, everywhere, with no issue, but the water tastes so strongly chlorinated and so bad, that I could not drink the tea at all. I have never actually experienced that before. No one offered to take it off the bill, okay no big deal. But when we mentioned to him the water tasted bad, not allowing us to have the tea, he was like "I have never heard of such a thing, I think Canadian tap water is amazing." What a rude and inconsiderate response. Very unprofessional, completely undermining and ignoring our concern. It's like well you think its a problem, but I don't! I know he has worked there for a long time because he knew the customers, but he has no sense of how to respond to a complaint and he was very superficial. I would return for the food, but I would not have any good expectations for the service. Sometimes staff ask how everything was, but when you proceed to complain about something, they really do not care for it, and clearly this gentlemen felt that my complaint was not valid or worthy of mention. Too bad about the service, because with more sincere and caring staff, this place would be perfect. While we were leaving, another table asked us how our experience was, and they also found the service...

Our night started off fine but when we got there we were told we have a two hour limit. That is something that should be told when booking the reservation. We sat with dirty plates in front of us for almost 20 minutes until I had to mention it to someone. I had wine before my dinner and requested another glass with my meal which never came. Our desert took long to come and when they did get around to it we had no cutlery. One person ordered coffee which came 10 minutes before our two hour limit. Then we were told the other party was here for the table and we reached our max time. So NO! Ma'am ...we explained that was poor communication to walk up to our table and make that announcement in that fashion. How about starting with "how was your food" first. We then explained we were not ready to leave someone just got there coffee after waiting so long and we had to remind them about the coffee. We spoke to our server 3 times about the bad service with no acknowledgement about me having to eat my meal with no wine. NO Manager came over although he seemed to be at other tables bouncing around the restaurant. We watched the party at the door waiting for our table get a bottle of wine served to them at the door by the owner, she also took their coats and made them comfortable. While paying for our bills party of 6 people forced to pay 18% gratuity with poor service. When it was my turn to pay I reminded her again (4th time) about how disappointed we were with the service but only on this 4th time explaining the reasons again she finally offered shots. I mentioned that even that was a problem I had to mention how bad the service was 4 times and only NOW you want to compensate us with shots? NO THANKS your poor customer service and bad communication was duly noted for how you treat customers or certain customers. All this time still no manager or owner who were present came over. There was another table of two ladies that look like they were not happy with the service either. We spoke to them and asked what there issue was. These two lovely ladies cited bad communication also and poor service. The lesson...learn how to communicate with your customers in this line of business. Bad things happen sometime.. that's ok it's how you deal with it that matters. I wouldn't normally mention this but we also had a bad rocking table that was tended to after we pointed it when we got our drinks. Check tables before your guests arrive. And have 15 minutes in-between reservations to clean tables and prepare for...

Despite 12 Tables’ informal atmosphere, dinners start with an amuse bouche and end with a lemon sorbet to cleanse the palette between the mains and dessert. The amuse bouche changes, on one visit a tasty bite of roasted beet with a creamy avocado mascarpone dressing and another a piece of seared beef. Both arrive with warm soft bread that they bake daily in-house. All this makes for a labour intensive day, no wonder they’re only opened for dinner! l Save some bread if you order the beef tartare ($19) as it doesn’t arrive with crostini. Even with the bread, the dish takes getting used to as the soft tartare against soft bread isn’t the greatest combination (even with a slight crunch from the raw onions). Aside from having something crunchy to spread it on, I’d also prefer the beef cut into bigger pieces so it doesn’t resemble pulverized meat. Regardless, the flavours were spot on and the onions a great addition.

For a crowd, the signature antipasto for two ($27) is a good option with a changing assortment of cured meats, cheeses, and vegetables. The salty cured meat and cheeses are good, but what really stood out were the hunks of grilled eggplant slathered in a garlic dill sauce, juicy sticks of marinated beets, and the large pieces of pickled artichoke. In fact, I wish they offered a vegetarian version of the antipasto platter as the vegetables were definitely the highlight.

12 Tables calls out on their menu, the fact the carbonara ($19) contains no cream. I can understand why, with all the aged cheese, bacon, and parmesan, it tastes like a really rich creamy pasta. Personally, I would have liked more black pepper to help balance the flavours and a splash of stock to thin out the sauce. But, I guess most people who order carbonara craves a dish that’s sinful and hearty, this definitely fits the bill.

On the other hand, the arrabiata ($19) is the complete opposite. The dish is filled with al dente penne tossed with a thick tomato sauce that has such a delicious angry bite. Given it’s a smaller portion and lighter, you’ll want to add on a heartier appetizer if you get this as a main. The baked eggplant ($16) is a great choice. Two big thick slices of grilled eggplant sandwiching gorgonzola cheese studded with grape tomatoes and smothered with tomato sauce. All together it’s a creamy combination and the lighter blue cheese, which normally isn’t an ingredient I enjoy, pairs well with the earthy eggplant and tangy sauce. Although, if I had the option to substitute the gorgonzola for mozzarella or ricotta, I’d still...