Annette Food Market — Restaurant in Toronto

HORRIBLE Experience! Annette Food Market used to be my favourite restaurant in Toronto. I’d say I’ve dined there 8-10 times, always either in the main area or on the patio. Back in 2020, I moved across the country and when I knew I’d be in town on February 17, 2024 I just had to make a reservation (I booked my reso way back on January 1st) for myself and 4 family members. Upon arrival we were told we’d been given the private dining room in the back - a large high top table which I would estimate can seat 10-12 people. The chairs that accompany the table are extremely uncomfortable - especially if you are 7 months pregnant (though the rest of my party agreed). I immediately asked our server if we could be moved to the main dining area. She said she would ask the host but that currently it was totally full and it would be tricky since we are 5 people. I explained that I’m heavily pregnant and was literally in pain so I would appreciate it if we could be moved if something became available later on. I tried cushioning my chair with my winter jacket which didn’t help and eventually I had no choice but to stand for the entire meal. Luckily I was able to eat standing since the table was so tall. I don’t blame the waitress - she even told me she felt terrible and that I look so uncomfortable. She told me I should have specified that I would like to sit in the main dining room at the time I made the reservation, but I told her that I didn’t even know this back room existed - otherwise I would have. Maybe the restaurant should have told me that they would be seating me there at the time I had made the reservation (though admittedly I wouldn’t have known the chair situation until I got there). While I understand that it was too packed for them to move us, I was shocked when we received our bill and nothing was done to show their regret for my experience - every passing staff member saw me standing while they walked to and from the kitchen. Whether it be a dessert on the house, waiving the app we shared, or even just taking 10% off the bill - ANY gesture to try and rectify the situation, but nothing. I truly will never be returning. A restaurant I spent months excited to eat at - the one and only place I went to during my short time in Toronto - really devastated me. If I could make at least one recommendation - replace those awful chairs. Everyone hated them. Invest in something comfortable.

As a side note, I want to add that while the pizza is still amazing, I felt the quality of their pastas...

We really wanted to love this place. It started promising and the ambience is really romantic. The food was also quite good - the beet salad (fresh but lacked salt), the eggplant Parmesan (fantastic!) and beef ravioli (decent though took a while to arrive). However.. 3 main things really brought the night down. 1) The wine. You don’t really know which wine you are getting - just the brand, and the type. Unless you ask to see the bottle you risk getting something quite overpriced (which is what happened to us). The server couldn’t provide an educated recommendation saying the “list was quite new so she hasn’t tried this particular wine”. She gave the same excuse to the couple next to us on a totally different bottle. They also served us the bottom of an already open bottle mixed with a new bottle. For a $16 per glass at least make an effort to not serve old wine. 2) The service - they almost forgot about us even though we were on the wait list and gave priority of bar seating to the people that were behind us. There was an apology but no real effort to make things right. The server at the bar was also quite rude. Not even a thank you at the end of the night or to ask how everything was given that we didn’t leave that happy. 3) the dessert. Don’t get the pana cotta. It was served with a warm compote on top, completely melting the cream dish and turning it into a soupy mess. I really wished for more, as it would be great to have a neighbourhood go to place. But...

This place is one of the more disappointing restaurants I've been to in a while. There isn't a lot of room to begin with so the tables are right next to each other, so if you're hoping to have a private conversation, that isn't happening. We had ordered the proscuitto and truffle pizza, along with a few other items. The server left the pizza at our table and went away for a minute or 2. I flagged him down to check whether it was the proscuitto and truffle pizza, and turns out they messed up the order so they took it back to the pizza station, gave it a few minutes and we saw them serving the same pizza to a different table. They're lucky that we didn't touch the pizza, but it made me wonder if our food was left at other patrons' tables before it made its way to our table. The food was okay - the wild boar pappardelle wasn't bad, but nothing to write home about, and the truffle and proscuitto pizza wasn't very good because the dough was too thin, so fell apart before you could even take a bite. The one redeeming thing here was the passionfruit cheesecake, which was very light, with a great shortbread cookie crust. That being said, I wouldn't go back because, frankly I don't trust that I wouldn't be ingesting someone else's germs based on how lax the staff was with our food. Also, I was very surprised about the $50pp cancellation/no fee charge for reservations based on the caliber of the restaurant, food and...