Allen's — Restaurant in Toronto

After seeing/hearing so many rave about this Danforth institution for so long, I decided to finally stop in and give it ago, hopes naturally high. While the service and atmosphere were perfect- truly could not ask for more-, the reason I was there-- the food-- could not have fallen more short, nor underwhelmed more. Not sure whether this was an isolated instance or representative of how it always, but the chowder bordered on inedible for me due to how vastly under-cooked all the veggies inside were... I mean, they were pretty much "raw", the potatoes especially hard as a rock; not very appealing in the context of a chowder. I was shocked by this, to be honest. And while the broth had decent enough flavour, it was to thin/watery for my preference. At least the fish was decently cooked- hard to mess that up. Then arrived the highly-acclaimed burger, which simply could not have underwhelmed more if it tried. Perhaps nowadays that smash burgers are all the rage, people see the fatness of the Allen's burger as a welcome departure from that new norm, but... where is the flavour, man? This thing had absolutely no flavour/seasoning to it, and while the beef is decent enough quality, it's not quite 45-day dry-aged prime, which is to say, I wouldn't rely solely on the beef to do all the heavy lifting. The butter chicken was fine enough, though you'll find about 100 better ones elsewhere- the rice which accompanied it was tragic. The crab-stuffed mushrooms, about the saddest-looking and most uninspired app I've had in recent memory. Parsnip soup, which I stole just a spoonful of, similarly forgettable. The highlight for me, hands down, was the amazing thick-cut fries. I would genuinely travel back just for two helpings of those and a pint of Guinness. The fries are stellar, and a real throwback which I crave. Next time, I'll be sure to go heavy on the salt (seems under-seasoning is a common theme here) and give a dash of malt vinegar- truly stupendous chips... a bloody simple thing, yet not done anywhere else quite like this anymore. Again, service + atmosphere, both stellar- it's not their fault. Especially disgruntled considering it's really not the best value proposition in general, but especially when considering what you get for your dollars- I was remarkably underwhelmed (except for those amazing...

I have been eating dinner here infrequently for over 15 years and the food is pretty good to average--not many choices on the danforth beyond greek so I end up here by default...However,was here about 2 weeks ago with my son and was so turned off by the rudeness of the host it is highly unlikely I'll return. My friends mentioned they also stopped eating and drinking here because of the rude service but I had only experienced poor service a few times over the years and it wasn't bad enough to stop me from going until now. Notes:waiter was good ,food not bad but host extremely unwelcoming. --We walked in and after waiting for 10 min to be seated were told they were very busy as they were celebrating beef for the month of February and he wasn't certain if he could seat us.Ok, I understood even though there were many empty tables. He decided to squeeze us into an awkard corner seat as "that's all he could manage" I looked around and asked if we could take a table at the back; there were 6 tables which were empty AND remained empty for the duration of our meal,an hour and half in total!? To fuel the fire further he only presented us with the celebratory menu containing only beef--he didn't ask if I was interested in the beef festival. When I asked for the regular menu he flung only one menu ceremoniuosly on our large round table and mumbled something about a reduced menu.I guess my son was meant to share and order from my menu. I read it and noticed it wasn't missing any of their regular dishes but it was missing the higher priced beef dishes from their special menu. In future, I will go elsewhere where my patronage is actually...

I was surprised to see servers in white dress shirts and black ties, having gotten a very pub-y feel from Allen's website and their frontage. When you crack open the menu, you're hit with some very high-end looking entrees (specials), but at very high-end prices...which made me a bit nervous about what the burgers - which I was excited about - would cost. Surprise! The burgers are all right in the $15-range, what I consider a standard non-fastfood burger price.

We picked up the Goat Cheese Dip with Garlic Toast to start - while the dip was fantastic and the bread was great, they really didn't give you enough bread to fully enjoy the dip. But that's pretty nitpicky.

I'd say the burger itself lived up to its reputation. I got the one with goat cheese - it came with a chunk of goat cheese the size of the burger patty itself, crisp lettuce, pickles, fresh-looking tomatoes, and this potent horseradish mustard that I loved. Plus, since they prep all their own beef, you have the option of how you want your burger cooked. I ordered mine medium and it was perfect - juicy and flavourful.

Despite the awesome burger, the REAL thing that will bring me back is the patio in the back. The decor gives it a really cool vibe, and you get a decent amount of sun into the evening. I also REALLY appreciate that it's not overcrowded. Even with all the tables full, you're not shoulder-to-shoulder with every other customer.

Our service was slow, but as I mentioned, they were completely full. We weren't in a hurry, our server was really nice, and everything came out perfect, so it didn't...