Almond Butterfly Bistro — Restaurant in Toronto

I’ve been to this location quite a few times over the years, however, I will no longer be returning. The service is horrible and keeps getting worse. Whenever I’m seated my servers without fail always walk away when I want to place my order.

Today, I watched my server walk away and chat with her coworker for nearly 15mins. I had to flag her down to take my order. The servers really need to start asking customers if they’ve been at the restaurant before to gauge how much time to give them with a menu. A regular will immediately know what they want to order.

After I placed my order my server once again did not return to bring me any water. She sat behind the cash register in front of my table and noticed a few minutes later I had nothing to drink. She finally brought something over.

Once my food arrived, a family arrived shortly after and sat beside my table. Another server came to take their order, only to stand right beside me. Her ass was inches from my food and face, it made me so uncomfortable. The other side of the table has so much space, I don’t understand why she felt like standing so close to me? Her train of thought made zero sense.

I asked for my bill right after. Another server that wasn’t my original brought me a machine with the final amount, she looked directly at it and placed it front of me. I noticed there was no tip option. I paid and looked at the receipt only to notice a 10$ difference. From there I realized the server pre selected a tip for me. Which really pissed me off, 10$ is a lot to tip and not earned when your service is terrible. When I brought this up, the cashier asked me what I would like to tip instead? I asked her to immediately refund my entire bill and let me select on my own with the machine. The server who originally handed me the machine apologized and said she accidentally selected the tip, which was hard to believe considering I witnessed her look at the amount when she first handed it to me. I no doubt believe she was hoping I would not notice and I feel this is a tactic they’ve done with many other customers unfortunately.

The combination of terrible service, poor table etiquette, and a forced tip has ensured I will never return. It's unfortunate because there are so few gluten-free and vegan-friendly options...

We have been here several times in the past. My daughter and I both being celiac, it is nice to have a place that is both completely safe and delicious. The great experiences we've had in the past is what helped inform our choice of Almond Butterfly as the place for my birthday brunch. We had a reservation, and do to unforeseen traffic we were running about 10 min late. Our fault; but we made sure to call well in advance to let them know, and we were reassured it was fine and our table would be waiting for us when we arrived. When we arrived, we were put at a table fit for two, even though there were three of us. Fine. The restaurant was busy and we arrived late, so I understand giving us the table they had ready to get us seated. My daughter is a server, we understand stuff happens. But do to where the table was (right by the front windows where it's pretty but the glass creates this greenhouse effect) we asked if there were any other tables open we would be able to move to. That is when things started going downhill. We were first told no other tables were available, then ignored for 40 minutes. Only managed to order one drink (before we asked to move), then nothing. When we were finally told there was an open table, we moved and thought everything would get better. Still waited another 20 minutes to even be acknowledged. When we were, there was no apology or awareness to being ignored for the last hour. If the restaurant was still busy we would have understood more, but it had emptied out in the last hour and a half of us waiting. After the food was ordered, we waited another half an hour to get it. The wait would be fine, but my daughter raised the point the food was cold, dried out, over done and the plates hot - an indicator that they were most likely sitting under the heat lamp for a bit too long. Would have said something at the time but the server didn't come back to check in on us till the end of our meals. We were hungry, we had waited almost 2 hours to finally get our food from when we arrived, and at a certain point you have to pick your battles. Over all, just really really disappointed in a...

I really really wanted to like this place. I had such high hopes and was so disappointed. Few things I noted:

Pro -good ambience -great service- that is the main reason for my rating; the servers were really friendly -great variety in their menu

Con: maybe it was the items I ordered but I don’t think the price was remotely worth what I ate.

-smoked salmon toast- I paid $20 for this and it was two pieces of bread (thick pieces) that came with two eggs and smoked salmon. There was not enough cream cheese on the bread; it was spread thin like butter, and I did not taste much of it. The smoked salmon, again, two thin slices, didn’t get much taste. Most of the taste was overpowered by the bread to be honest.

-Cajun home fries - additional cost of $7.50 were ok. The canjun sauce was good. Fries were over cooked; one of them cut the roof of my mouth

I got two cupcakes and a cookie and that came up to $15. Blew my mind… like, is this a magic bakery? Is their a back door to Hogwarts there? Being gluten free is not a justified answer; gluten free is relatively the same cost. Regardless, the cookie didn't taste any better than a regular bakery down the street… they were bigger though but not better

-watered down coffee- standard cheap tasting coffee which is interesting for a bistro style but maybe I’m wrong? They may not socialize in coffee but it tasted like sunset grill

Overall: I would not be back as I felt it was overpriced and the food did not justify the cost. In an economy where everything is inflated, I am conscious where I spend my money and am mindful not to make the same mistake again. I will not return , especially not for the brunch. Food is mediocre at best; service is gr8.

I cannot speak on the lunch menu or any of the other items, I am only speaking on my experience. Again, really wanted to like this place but it came...