Avling — Restaurant in Toronto

I think this is probably a good place if you're looking to have a drink or two and maybe an app. But absolutely not somewhere to come for a casual dinner.

Dinner menu is wordy and INCREDIBLY underwhelming. It sounds very fancy but in practise the food is just not good. I thought I would treat myself to a $32 (!!!) lamb risotto. It was very meh. Very salty, undercooked and there were literally 2 pieces of lamb in the whole thing. Portion size was small and I left hungry. Not one person in my large party was impressed with the food.

No good non-alcoholic drink options. Just fermented small cans of juice that cost as much as a beer (literally). Not a coke or soft drink option.

Service I can forgive. I know every place is short staffed due to the pandemic. Our server came to our table only for us to order and to bring our order. No other visits. Had to flag down another server to get our bill.

What I can't forgive was them allowing an employee to walk around without a mask. It was busy and she was cleaning up and delivering food/drinks to most tables and chatting. If she had Covid, she would've given it to everyone in the place. I thought it was irresponsible and unprofessional and honestly shocking. Its one thing as a patron to be seated closely and be exposed to a couple of people you don't know. Quite another to have an employee expose you to the 40+ other people in the restaurant. Every other server and bartender was wearing a mask, I'm not sure why she felt it was ok not to. Definitely something management needs to address. It upset me so much I felt like I needed to leave my first ever review.

I'm giving them some kudos because the space is nice and my friends who drink enjoyed their beer. But definitely a lot of places with better prices, better food and safer...

I've been wanting to try Avling for a while now, having saved it on my beer bucket list, and I'm saddened to say that it was disappointing. My girlfriend and I took our best friend here to celebrate her birthday as she's a big craft beer lover, and we wished it could have been a better experience.

To start off, we ordered a bunch of dishes to share, from small plates to mains, but what was strange was they brought out everything at once, making us feel rushed to eat everything, but not in the most enjoyable way as the food got cold quickly having it all sit out.

We had the tuna crudo, sausage & pesto flatbread, smorgasbord charcuterie, wedge salad and beer can chicken - it was good, but overpriced. The beers we had were great though and fairly priced for Ontario craft.

What made the experience a letdown was the service. Our main server was polite, but not friendly. It was just such a strange vibe - there was a lack in kindness, warmth and customer care that evening. The worst part was when towards the end of the evening, another sever (or he may have been the bartender), came to our table and in an abrasive tone said, "in 10 minutes I'm going to take away your glasses." That threw us off. No "hi" or any form of greeting. This was right after another server told us it was last call for the bar at about 10:50pm. 15 minutes later he came and took the glasses and said "it's time to go." I was shocked. We immediately got up and just left. I've never experienced this level of rudeness and lack in customer care at a restaurant. There were groups of people next to us, but it didn't seem like they were told the same thing. Maybe they were just having an off night, but while I was so excited to go here and I'm sad to say I don't think...

Avling is a beautiful, spacious restaurant which I found quite refreshing since many restaurants downtown, uptown, midtown wherever are small. I was with a group of 8 which included three kids and a baby, with a massive stroller and there was more than enough room. I ordered the cod tongues (which are pieces of cod fish) battered and sits onto of a mayo/cream coleslaw - I think that is what it was anyways. It was alright. I find that when you deep fry food it loses the flavour so if they sprinkled it with salt or something after they took it out of the fryer, it woulda been great, but it ended up being just okay. I also ordered the "not a wedge salad". It was also just okay. It was doused in dressing with was off putting. Its nothing to write home about. I would skip this one. The bacon was overcooked and cold which made it hard. I think if it was served earlier, it being candied would make it taste amazing, but it was alright. I shared a small smorgasbord and again it was okay. I liked the cherries, it was a nice pop of flavour when eating strong cheeses and meats. Again nothing to write home about. Ive heard the brunch is pretty good so maybe I will visit it Avling again for that. It has a brewery on site and that's pretty cool. They have an extensive beer menu and I wanted a blond type beer but my waitress, who was lovely, didn't think they had any and instead suggested a pale ale, which again was meh. The location is good, lots of street parking. If a friend was like, hey where do you want to eat - I wouldn't jump to make reservations at Avling, unless they were going to pay...