Aria — Restaurant in Toronto

Aria was a great Italian place in the south core of downtown Toronto.

We came here for a date dinner and enjoyed the overall experience immensely.

Atmosphere:

The restaurant is smaller inside than it looks outside, but it is quite elegant. In the evening, it is dimly lit, contrasting the light with the wooden design of the tables and the ceiling. You feel like you are in an upscale yet casual place in New York City.

Drinks:

The wine list is quite expansive, with bottles for every budget. Most of the wines are from Italy, and the staff are quite knowledgeable about the different wines. They can easily recommend pairings. We also had an opportunity to finish with an Amaro, selected by (I believe) one of the owners. Bitter, yet sweet with notes of ginger, and it was just perfect.

Dinner:

We started with the I Taglieri board, which included a selection of cheeses, cured meats, bruschetta, figs, and olives. Accompanied by bread and high-quality olive oil, it was a great starter to share. For the main course, we chose sausage, mushroom risotto, and Filetti di Branzino. I think the risotto was tasty, but nothing outstanding that I have not had anywhere else. It was a bit watery for my liking and could benefit from more flavour. On the other hand, the Branzino was on point: tender, delicious, and paired perfectly with scorched tomatoes and lightly prepared bitter rapini. It was truly a delight. Finally, we finished with dessert, which was a chocolate hazelnut torta. It was succulent and highly textured: there was hardness, crunch, and softness to it all at once. A true delight from the chef.

Service:

As we sat, the service was impeccable. We felt we were treated with great care as all the staff tried to make our experience great and memorable. Every single person wished us a good night as we left the restaurant. I would very much recommend this experience. Finally, the Price: It was on the pricier end, but I would expect...

The location is great especially if you are seeing a game or show next door and the ambiance is nice but the food and service was not so great. I came in with a group of 4 and was seated by the window which was very nice but once we started ordering drinks, everything went downhill from there. We tried ordering 3 different kinds of cocktails in which the server each time had to go the bar to ask and then tell us they did not have the mixer for it. Which is strange considering the cocktails is on their menu and pretty standard in all mid to high end restaurants. That is fine we just ordered wine. Then when it is time to order our food, some of the items were not available when we tried to order it. The menu or server didn’t even bother to tell us ahead.The server blamed it on being closed over the holidays. This is also strange because should you not be prepared to be open after Christmas especially when there is a big raptors game happening? To keep it short, the service was also bad, bringing out our food and placing it to the wrong person, accidentally breaking a plate from our table having it smashed to pieces right beside us and not saying anything, not bringing out cutlery with our mains, having to ask multiple times for things. For a restaurant advertising as high end, I would say the servers needs to be trained better and the kitchen staff/bar need to be stocked properly to prepare for customers eating there. If food or drinks are not available then maybe have servers tell you ahead of time or just remove from the menu, this will be less of an inconvenience for customers having to keep going back and forth choosing what is available and what isn’t. At the end we ended up spending quite a bit of money there since each item is priced high but we will not be returning...

I have to say that i had such a disappointing experience after reading the reviews and expecting so much. There was so much traffic for us to arrive so we were late. I did call and notify that we will be late and we were reassured that it will not be a problem. The restaurant was almost empty when we arrived and we even got to choose the seat.

We waited for menus and even asked twice while in a half empty restaurant waiters were running around. The third time I asked a man (that I later sadly found out is the owner) for a menu and he said to us that he doesn't have enough menus and that we were late anyways. Then he handed 2 menus to a table that came after us.

Finally the waiter came and took our order. He did not smile the entire dinner and asked once after the food arrived if everything is ok. We asked for bread twice again and it was ignored. My father was so upset of the service that he went up to the waiter and asked for at least bread. He finally brought some bread and said the food will be out very shortly. Again we waited around half an hour until the food came out. All was brought out except for my salad that took another 10 min.

The only reason I am not giving this a 1 star is because the food is tasty. i only wish the service matched the taste buds and price. It was truly a disappointing experience. The waiter apologized at the end, Im assuming so he would get a tip. I did tip him well for a very bad service because he apologized that they were...