Carens Rosedale — Restaurant in Toronto

Yes, I agree, a one-star rating from a first-time diner is pretty harsh, and I for one seriously dislike giving restaurants in my hometown bad reviews, because I understand how tough the hospitality industry can be for restaurant owners and their staff. I really do. Second only to working as a cashier, wait staff at any restaurant tend to be notoriously underappreciated by the clientele, especially when faced with obnoxious, self-entitled douches who feel the staff owe them something just for arriving.

On the flipside, we arrived at Carens with high expectations after they had boasted on Instagram how Ricky Gervaise had been a previous guest of theirs. How could we possibly go wrong…?

After waiting two hours for a poached egg and seared tuna to arrive at our table, only to end up leaving the restaurant almost as hungry as we were when we first got there, we learned just how wrong we were to have given the place a try, and might I add, the least memorable Fathers Day brunch ever.

I get it. Restaurants experience rushes slammed to the gills with customers, they’ll have shifts that are under-staffed, and everything can easily go all pear-shaped in the kitchen for any number of reasons, but if I’m expected to pay the prices that are quoted on the menu, none of those problems need matter to me or any customer. We're not paying for excuses due to your shortcomings.

We’re paying for the entire reason a restaurant is in business: a couple hours of quality food and service that leaves us with full bellies and smiles on our faces.

Toronto's hospitality industry is unforgiving, which is why, just up the Street, Sorrel Restaurante , at 1158 Yonge Street, and Capocaccia at 1366 Yonge Street have provided for us some of the best dining experiences in the city, even as recent as the first day Toronto returned to Stage One of its reopenning.

You work like Hell for the money you shell out to restaurants like Carens. They should do the same in...

We made a reservation for a ladies dinner. When we walked in, we waited 5 minutes or so and no one greeted us. Finally someone came and showed us to our table. There was a large party, crowding our table b/c it was next to the bar. Someone asked if we wanted our coats so I took mine off but then the person left and never came back.

We sat there for twenty minutes before anyone came to take our drink orders. We didn’t have drink menus, so we could only order water (and a drink menu). Someone then gave us a drink menu but it took another mins 15 before I was able to flag someone down to give us a food menu. Our arrived around 630pm and we didn’t get menus until well after 7:15pm!

We ordered the classic fondue to start. It was alright. I liked it b/c you can’t get fondue at many places. But it wasn’t fantastic.

The waitress came to ask for our mains and 2 of us knew what we wanted, so we told her. The other 2 didn’t know yet, so the waitress said she’d come back but I think she forgot about us b/c we had to flag her down again.

Our meals were okay, but nothing special considering the poor service we were receiving. No one ever came to check on us.

After dinner we ordered dessert. I was warned the chocolate cake would take 20 mins. No problem. My friend wanted the creme brûlée but they were out so she got an apple tart. After the 20 mins the waitress told us that the kitchen messed up another party and we were being given the creme brûlée instead of the chocolate cake, and the apple tart.

We felt like second class citizens. The waitress was nice, but not very attentive. We didn’t feel like they even cared we were there b/c they had other bigger parties. They didn’t give us the time of day and you shouldn’t either. I...

Came here with friends on a fine Friday evening in June. After getting some drinks - so far, so good! - two of us ordered steaks, and the other two requested bouillabaisse. Then we waited. And waited. We weren't offered any bread, probably because we would have eaten it all and more. The waiting continued.

After what felt like a few hours, the steak frites appeared. But the plates were cold and the steaks and frites colder still. Eventually we managed to get our server's attention, and ask for the situation to be remedied, and the offending dishes were removed. And a solitary bouillabaisse arrived, leaving one of our number the choice of eating solo, or allowing her food to achieve cold steak status.

Eventually the other bouillabaisse was brought out, leisurely followed by supposedly hot steaks. Except they still weren't hot. But by this time we were too hungry to care, especially as there was no guarantee that a request for a hot meal would have any chance of success. We ate, slightly embarrassed at having made a fuss, and slightly indignant at having been put in that position.

As a rule, I write very few Google reviews. A report on mediocrity adds little, so it needs something extreme to prompt me to spend time and energy describing just why something or somewhere deserves my praise or criticism. My experience at Carens was extreme.

To serve food that is cold and unsynchronised is unfortunate, but, given the opportunity to remedy it, fixable. To repeat that error is extreme. And to not even acknowledge it by, say, comping our drinks or wine - that just takes things to a whole new level. ...