Bar Neon — Restaurant in Toronto

I used to go to Bar Neon a lot more often when I lived in the neighbourhood and it was a great little date spot. But the last few times I've visited, it's been average at best, or honestly kinda subpar on the service and food front.

This week, my partner and I decided to stop in for happy hour (3-6pm), mostly for the oysters. We hadn't been since last summer because we had such bad service when we were there with a couple of friends. I think they were training multiple new staff on the same night and there were so many lost looking employees on that patio. We had like four people serving us, and one of them kept having to go check if menu items were still available but forgetting to tell us, and so we just waited to see if the food would ever show up. Another one forgot our orders, so sent over her co-worker to ask us because she was "scared". (And we were so nice! Why was she afraid!) I think the bill had to be adjusted three times due to errors. Honestly, we just laughed it off but it was wild. New staff, busy night, it happens! I didn't write Bar Neon off completely but wasn't in a hurry to return.

ANYWAY we decided to give it another shot! So here's what we ordered And I hate when people post reviews talking about menus being affordable or not, without saying what they spent, so here's what it cost: Negroni, $13 (regular $17) Pint of Beau's Lug Tread $8 (reg $9.50) One dozen PEI Malpeques ($22/dozen, reg $44 MP). I think the market price of $3.67 per oyster is probably at the high end of average, so the happy hour deal seemed decent. But what do I know about seafood suppliers! Two orders of house made dips with grilled bread and pita ($7/dip with bread, reg $8/dip and bread is $4 extra)

Drinks were fairly quick. Oysters took about 25min to come out. They tasted fresh, but they didn't give us any mignonette, only horse radish and hot sauce. And then nothing. About 45 minutes, close to an hour after we placed the initial order, I flagged down the server to ask if the rest of our food was still coming. When we did get the dips (Tyrokafteri and Muhammara) they were quite tasty, but whyyyyy would a dish like pre-made DIP take so long?

As we were finishing up, we suddenly realized we were alone in the restaurant. There wasn't a single other patron or staff member, not even in the kitchen that we could see, for a solid five minutes. ??? That has never happened to me before! If the service hadn't been so off, we might have ordered another round of drinks and oysters, but decided to head somewhere else instead.

Honestly I think Bar Neon is still a safe bet for a drink, and I do really like their patio in the summer. But I can't recommend it for food at all, even just if you want a few snacks with...

Recently I had a horrible service (or lack thereof) experience at Bar Neon in Bloordale Village. Upon arriving, there was no host to seat us, which was fine so we sat ourselves outside on the patio. After five minutes nobody showed up, so I went inside to grab some menus and alert the server where we were seated. Once again another five minutes went by - keep in mind there were only two other tables with customers - so I went inside to communicate our drink order and let the guy know we’ll be ready to order food soon. The beers were brought out soon after by another server, but no one took our food order so I went inside again to deliver the news. Our food came out in decent time: my spinach rolls were good (albeit a very small portion) and my friend enjoyed his cheeseburger and fries, but these sentiments were all for naught; the server never came by to do a QC (Quality Check). Eventually we ordered another round of beers from our original server and my buddy ordered another order of fries. After waiting another 30 minutes, we assumed he had forgotten so we just asked for the bill - believe it or not he got this right! We were happy to see the second round of fries was not added to the bill, so he clearly just forgot. The total was around $30 each. I did not leave a tip. My friend did (he is a bartender so he’s used to generous patrons). As someone who's been a server myself, your tip comes from giving actual service, not just entitlement. I debated telling the server why I didn’t tip him, but decided he was smart enough to figure it out on his own. Bar Neon is a staple in my neighbourhood, a popular destination for hipsters, the LGBTQ community and locals alike. I’m sure it normally lives up to its good reputation and we might have gone on an “off night.” Perhaps the regular server called in ill that night and the only person available to cover the shift was the manager’s ne'er-do-well cousin. Whatever the reason it’s taken the “neo” out of neon, as in there’s no “one,” as in there was no one to serve our table. I know, that’s a stretch.. But so was giving even basic service to...

very limited menu and it took quite a while yo get the server's attention. when we finally got our bills, it took the server another 30 mins to pay up via credit/debit cards. very nice patio though.

So this is me again a few months later...After our first not so great visit to Bar Neon, we had little intention of returning but were enticed back at the invitation of the owners who told us they had a new and appealing summer menu. My partner and I visited yesterday and were pleased to see they’ve reconfigured the patio with tables (a bit smallish though) to replace the picnic tables, and the lovely cloth napkins were a nice touch. Even as the patio filled up, the music was kept at a level that allowed conversation. Also, our server was super-friendly and attentive.

We were promptly seated and got our drinks right away. Next came our order of dips. We went with the tzatziki which was ok, pretty standard. But very respectable was the turokafteri (spicy feta dip) and seriously yummy muhammara dip, just delish with the grilled homemade bread. Next up were the feta fries, potato chip style with a generous portion of feta sprinkles, again really yummy.

Our third meze was the calamari. Wow! So tender, not at all greasy, lightly battered and it even kept its crunch in the tzatziki. Gold star.

I really have to wonder…did they get a new chef? The food is soooooo much better than our first time around. We split the Sanagans dry aged beef burger served medium on a house-made olive oil brioche bun. It arrived with tomatoes, pickled onions and lettuce which were ok but holllly, the charred edges on that burger? Oh yeah. It was served with a small horiatiki salad topped with a nice dollop of super-tasty whipped feta.

Finally, we wrapped it up with chocolate tahini mousse. I’m not usually a chocolate fan but my partner convinced me, plus I was intrigued by the idea of the tahini. Really happy we ordered it as it was a generous order and the tahini subdued the in-your-face chocolate, really nice...