Casa Manila York Mills — Restaurant in Toronto

I don't usually make negative reviews but my friend and I were disappointed with our experience so she insisted I write this to caution people before coming.

We made a dinner reservation for winterlicious and this was my first time trying something like a prix fixe menu as well as my first experience with this kind of event. Upon arrival, we arrived 15 minutes earlier than our reservation but was seated right away, which was great.

We were sat with menus and I looked around to see about two other tables of 4 in the entire restaurant. Even though there wasn't a lot people, it took some time (maybe about 15 minutes) for someone to come and ask if we were ready.

After ordering, they proceeded to give us water and plate set ups. Our appetizers came out quite fast, maybe about 10 minutes after ordering and my friend was quite disappointed with the portion of the wonton nachos. It was three pieces of fried wonton wrappers with topped with a mixture of peppers, tomatoes, pork, and sauce. Though the flavor was very delicious, it felt like they only put a few shredded pieces of pork and it was mostly the tomatoes and peppers in the dish. (2/5)

For our other appetizer, we ordered the truffle soup. It was my favourite thing of the meal, it was a good portion, flavor was on point, and the creaminess was simply heavenly. (5/5)

Our mains took quite some time to come out, which I understood because I saw bigger tables of 6-8 people arriving and so I knew it would take longer. We ordered the chicken inasal and the pork leg for our mains, and when it came out, it was not really hot, maybe a bit warm. The chicken inasal flavour was good but once again, the amount that we were served was quite disappointing as the amount of chicken seemed to be like half of a chicken breast that was sliced and portioned for half to be on some lettuce and the other half on some naan. (2/5)

The crispy pork leg was better in terms of portion as it was a plate that contained the crispy skin and the meat that was cut up with two sauce options on the side. I particularly enjoyed the more opaque sauce, it tasted like a plum sauce with a hint of vinegar in it. It was tangy and went well with the pork leg. However without the sauce, it was kind of bland, and some of the crispy skin was so hard that I felt like my molars were gonna break from biting into it. (2.5/5)

My friend was absolutely shocked when our desserts arrived at our table. We got the mango sago and the Ube cheesecake and the portion of the cheesecake was the size of a small cupcake that you would get at Walmart. The mango sago was also in a small cup, maybe about 125 ml. As we were starting to taste it, the (presumably) owner went around and asked everyone if everything was okay. We said we were okay and she noticed that we were only given one spoon and one fork but the sago was not thick so she asked if we needed another spoon and we said yes please. it really disappointed us because as we waited for the spoon, we tried to wave down a server to see if we could order an additional larger ube cheesecake but that was when we realized then that no one come once to check on how our food was tasting except for when (presumably) the owner came. We couldn't get a hold of someone for 20 minutes, by then, my friend has given up on asking for the cheesecake. We also had to ask for the spoon again after we finally got someone and by that time, I just asked for the bill because I didn't know if we could get their attention again. (1.5/5)

I really tried to understand their situation as I have been serving for over a decade and so I know things happen. However, for situations like these where both service and food do not meet expectations, I can't justify it.

I paid about $113 for the meal for two, including...

My sister made reservations for a large group of us to celebrate Mother's Day at 2pm. She was told that there was an option for buffet or a la carte. Note: The buffet is standard on Sundays from 11am-4pm.

Upon arriving, there was no hostess, but eventually a free staff member seated us. I was looking forward to ordering from the menu but no one came around for about 15 minutes, so I decided to take a look at what was offered for the buffet (on a menu which was available at the front inside the restaurant) and decided to go for that instead of waiting any longer.

If you need staff for anything be prepared to wait for the opportunity to get their attention; menus, water, plate clearing (not once during our time there).

When paying, we were sorting out the amount of adults and kids to be charged with a staff member. For the buffet, Adults are $28.95, kids 7-11 $19.95, 4-6 $14.95 and 3 and under are free.

We were told this wasn't the case because it was Mother's Day and there was a menu posted on the front door stating Mother's Day buffet prices. Also they had different offerings from the standard menu.

I had looked at the menu at the front door because I didn't notice it coming in and in fact there was a different price for today. However, the last mother's day seating was from 1-1:30

So we were charged the Mother's Day price (Adults $44.95, Kids 5-11 $24.95) even though we made reservations for 2 pm which fell outside the last Mother's Day seating.

Unfortunately we had paid already. However, after my wife talked with the owner (giving my wife every excuse she could to justify keeping the price as is) she was able to get half back from the increased mother's Day price.

I would be fine with the increase in price but there was no communication while making the reservation, no hostess to communicate new pricing due to Mother's Day, the menu at the front, inside the restaurant was standard buffet and not the menus for mother's day.

If we were seated in the time frame of the Mother's Day menu, I also would have understood.

Come to think of it I believe no one came around to give menus (buffet or a la carte) to force your hand in picking the buffet. As we were leaving I noticed a table of 4 in front of me in the same situation waiting around for what was at minimum 15 minutes for someone to come but I digress.

I understand that restaurants try to find creative ways to make money but this situation made me feel tricked...

Not worthy at all when too many things made us disappointed. Food is not special and 100% overpriced with that portion and ingredients. I ordered Pinakbet with vegetables and shrimp. And it cost 19.95$, and the shrimp they used was the frozen ones in the bag with small sizes. The funniest thing is when i looked at the picture on the menu, it included the pork, so i just i looked at the price next to the name of the dish, which was 19.95$, and ordered the dish. But actually, the crispy pork is 7.95$ for 100gr. So after tax, only my dish already costs 31.5$ with vegetables, small shrimp, and 4 pieces of crispy pork, and the portion is small. and it doesn't come with rice. I was shocked tbh and feel like I was scammed. And when we ordered rice, the menu again messed up. It has 2 options for garlic white rice, one for 1-2 people, and the other for 2-3 people???. I didn't pay attention cuz I thought it gonna be the first option because we have two people. But when we paid, it became the second option which was 2-3 people. I was "What?" and it cost nearly 10$ only for the rice, and the garlic rice was not good as well. I don't talk about Western food with small portions with high prices, but compared to other Filipino restaurants, this place is way more than expensive. And for the drink, I order calamansi juice, and it's tasted like salty lemon (My family back in my country plants calamansi trees, and we make salty lemon juice as well. That's why I know how it's tasted). I just shake my head and try to finish it because I don't want to waste food. About the staff, I can tell the staff here is nice and friendly, but somehow they were not around when we needed help. And when we arrived today, they had a lady with fashionable clothes who can be the owner or the manager, and she made us feel uncomfortable while rushing us to choose the dishes from the beginning. And when we asked one staff about the parking lot, the lady again kept calling the staff's name to serve the other table. In customer service, you don't do that because it's rude. You need to wait and get other staff to help you, or you say sorry nicely to interrupt the conversation.

After looking at the receipt, and thinking of all the experiences we had today, my boyfriend and I decided that we would cancel our next plan with friends here in March, and we will never come back in...