Blue Bovine Steak + Sushi House — Restaurant in Toronto

WHAT A TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE! My son and daughter-in-law were celebrating their first wedding anniversary and decided to try Blue Bovine on Saturday, April 13, 2024. The night prior, my husband and I drove downtown to check out the wine list (as it wasn’t posted on the website). We were greeted by a manager (can’t remember if his name was Patrick or Philip). We explained that our son and daughter-in-law were coming for dinner the following night to celebrate their 1st wedding anniversary and we pre-purchased a bottle of Barolo and 2 glasses of Moët rosé and requested they let our son and DIL know it was a gift from his parents. We also gave him a card and asked it be at their table as they are seated. We also left a 20% tip to make sure the server was compensated for the service.

The evening of April 13th shortly after their scheduled reservation, we received a text message from my son and DIL thanking us for the card! My husband and I looked at one another and immediately called the restaurant to make sure they hadn’t forgotten the champagne and the bottle of wine as it was strange they were only thanking us for the card and not the actual gift!

I explained the situation to the person who answered (I think Fernando was his name) and he insisted that there is a note on the reservation so he’s sure the server is aware of the champagne and wine. He was not at all reassuring me so I asked to speak with a manager. Vincent comes to the phone and said they should have everything. I asked him to check their table and see what’s been served and after waiting on hold for 8 minutes, he came back and said everything is OK “now”. “Now”? What is that supposed to mean since both Fernando and himself had already told me they had the champagne and wine!!

The following morning my son called to tell us how their dinner went… There was a card on the table from us wishing them a happy anniversary. The server took a cocktail order instead of serving them the champagne we pre-ordered which BTW, was not what my DIL requested. Why did the server take cocktail orders when we had specifically requested they receive the champagne as soon as they were seated! To make matters worse, the server had already taken their wine order and had already opened the bottle and decanted it. When I called suspecting the restaurant forgot the champagne and the wine, despite their fast talking excuses, they had ABSOLUTELY forgotten! They poured the wine they ordered back into the bottle and opened the “gifted” Barolo wine and poured it into glasses without decanting or allowing it to settle and air. At this point they had three glasses on the table (martinis which should never have been ordered had they offered the champagne as they should have, the champagne which I had to call and remind them to serve and the Barolo)….. come on! Unacceptable! I shouldn’t have to babysit a so-called high caliber restaurant! They removed the cost of the bottle of wine that they poured back into the original bottle from their bill and let them take that bottle home. They still charged them $30 per martini because the server forgot to bring them the gifted champagne. They served an expensive bottle of Barolo without properly decanting it since they already wasted so much time and were likely frazzled and embarrassed by the whole mess up.

What is even more sickening is that their meal including cocktails came to $590 once they removed the cost of the wine. This does not include the $380 for the two glasses of champagne and wine that was forgotten had we not called and insisted they check to make sure the guests got our gift. That’s a total of $970 for a couple. That is utterly appalling! We have dined many times at Blue Blood and Don Alfonso and never paid anything close to that nor have we ever received such poor service!

I wrote to the restaurant last week and haven’t received the...

⭐️⭐️⭐️ | Great Location, But Food Fell Flat

Blue Bovine Steak + Sushi House has the perfect location — right inside Union Station — making it very convenient if you’re coming in by GO Train or passing through downtown. Unfortunately, convenience alone wasn’t enough to win me over.

🗺 Location & Atmosphere

Finding the place was not easy. There’s little to no signage inside Union, and Google Maps wasn’t accurate. We ended up circling and even asked security before finding it. To make things more confusing, there’s also the Wine Club across the way — no windows, just a high-tech fingerprint scanner on the door. It made us wonder if we were in the right spot at all.

Once inside, the restaurant itself is spacious and modern, with a clean design. I was there for a corporate event, which can sometimes skew the dining experience, but I wanted to give it a fair shot given the hype.

🍽 The Food

Service was a highlight — attentive and friendly staff all evening. Unfortunately, the food didn’t live up to expectations:

Prime Steak Tartare: Flavorless and served on a hard baguette slice. After one or two bites, I questioned whether it was worth finishing.

Sushi: Average at best. The rice was tough — not crisp or intentional, but stale-tasting. Flavors were muted. Definitely not at the level you’d expect for the price point.

Sautéed Mushrooms: A bright spot. Dry, earthy, and very flavorful.

Grilled Asparagus with Hollandaise: Cooked nicely, but presentation missed the mark. The Hollandaise was dumped on rather than drizzled.

Russet Duck Fat Fries: Interesting in concept but flavorless in execution. No real duck fat flavor came through, and ketchup became the only redeeming element.

Steaks (USD Prime Tenderloin, 22oz Bone-In Ribeye, 12oz Canadian Striploin): The biggest disappointment. Though ordered medium rare, they came out tough, chewy, and poorly marbled. The ribeye fat was not rendered and was unpleasant to eat. The tenderloin fared the best, but still wasn’t exceptional. We even had steak leftovers — a rarity for me and usually a sign something wasn’t right.

Dessert was the saving grace:

Raspberry Cheesecake with White Chocolate Shavings: Phenomenal.

Warm Apple Pie with Ice Cream: Excellent, with honeycomb toffee (like the inside of a Crunchie bar) adding a fantastic crunch.

Coconut Crème Pie: Weakest of the desserts, flat in flavor.

Unfortunately, it took 30+ minutes for desserts to arrive after our plates were cleared, which dragged out the meal unnecessarily.

🍷 Private Dining

The private dining room setup felt odd — clear, unobstructed glass meant you could see directly in. Not ideal if you want true privacy for a special dinner or meeting.

✅ Final Verdict

While the location is perfect and the staff were wonderful, the food fell short across the board, especially the steaks and sushi, which should be the stars here. Desserts were strong, but the long wait for them dulled the shine.

For the price and trek downtown, I’d only give Blue Bovine another chance in a non-corporate setting — and even then, I’d think twice before risking it for a truly special...

If you’re looking for a good night out to eat i HIGHLY recommend not to come here. The restaurant is located inside A SUBWAY STATION first of all, and you’d expect valet parking for such a fancy restaurant and for how much they charge for the food but obviously they don’t have that. The service was incredibly bad and SO slow. We ordered a table side Caesar salad and i kid you not, it took the girl AN HOUR TO ASSEMBLE THE SALADDD. She kept showing us the ingredients and telling us what flavours they add like come on we just wanted a normal salad, AND ON TOP OF THATT, THE SALAD COSTED 100$ !!!!!!!! (it wasn’t a big salad either, very small).

Back to the service, my friends and I ordered a lot of food and of course plates started to build up, our server kept walking by and looking at us but not taking away our dirty plates ?? He must’ve been new because no restaurant i’ve ever been to has let me and my friends sit at a dirty table. We finally get our bill and of course they overcharged us an extra $95, before i could fully look at our bill which was $517, my friend paid her share of it. Once we realized we were over charged, we quickly asked for a refund for my friends part of the bill. Our server went back to his machine thing to gather a refund for my friend, and it took about 35 minutes before anyone came back to our table to let us know what’s happening. I understand sometimes there’s technical difficulties but at least update us on what’s going on instead of just leaving us there without a clue in the world of what’s going on. A random server walked by and we stopped her to ask for a manager, the manager finally comes to us and lets us know that they can’t give my friend a refund because the pin pad machine isn’t working anymore for refunds. My friend asked for cash back and the manager lets us know they don’t have any cash in the restaurant?? which is very odd because we ended up paying cash for our bills and we got change back so what do you mean you don’t have cash in the restaurant? Anyways we got a small discount for the inconveniences we had, we paid and left. Will definitely never come back, if i could give this review no stars i would because 1 star seems...