Chop Steakhouse & Bar — Restaurant in Toronto

Had a decent experience here with some high points and very low points. It was unfortunate with the inconsistency and what seems like mismanagement of front-of-house staff that really brought down the quality of service.

Service Notes: When we were seated at our table, it took quite a while for anyone to acknowledge us. We later learned that there were even two servers assigned to our table: a trainee and a regular server. That’s pretty bad that with having even two servers assigned to us that the attention to our table was seriously lacking throughout our dinner. It was not a particularly busy night from what I could tell either with several empty tables around us. Often, I’d see multiple staff attending to one table or one particular area of the restaurant. I’d also see a majority of staff just standing or socializing in the kitchen area.

There doesn’t seem to be this attention to how front of house staff are distributed and delivering consistent service for all guests. We contemplated getting dessert and ultimately decided against it because of how long we’ve waited throughout our visit, even down to how long it took for someone to bring our bill (which we asked three separate staff to bring).

I also noticed that neither servers asked if our table had any allergies at the beginning of our meal, which is standard at restaurants and I consider seriously important. It was fortunate that neither of us had allergies, but I wonder how missing this might have caused issues with other guests.

Food Notes: We had a good variety of items from the menu.

The Escargot Stuffed Mushrooms were nice with the bread as an appetizer. However, I do see the mushroom as a bit distracting flavour and texture wise and just extending the escargot in terms of volume. Personally, I do prefer having the escargot on its own and focusing on the successful preparation and highlighting the snails themselves.

The beet and goat cheese salad was interesting, because it doesn’t list arugula as an ingredient on the menu. However, it’s clearly the majority of the dish. I checked the menu again online and it lists the ingredients as: pickled golden beets, roasted squash, candied pumpkin seeds, and crumbled goat cheese. Good to be transparent with that. The salad was okay, on the acidic side for my taste and the beets themselves are already acidic from the pickling. There is also a tartness to goat cheese which adds to that.

The ribeye steak was cooked medium rare as requested with a good amount of seasoning and caramelization. The asparagus is a bit distracting with the stringiness of the peel that was left on. The truffle mashed potatoes had a nice texture and I liked the depth of flavour with the truffle. I can’t say that I was a fan of the herb oil, and maybe just a matter of personal preference. I did really enjoy the peppercorn sauce though, which had a great texture and richness of flavour to it.

Overall Notes: My experience here would have definitely been much better if service had been more consistent and attentive. Food had some highlights, but I think there are opportunities to improve with some details that...

Amazing Server, Manager and of course the food.

We wanted to dine on March 20, 2025 in the Financial District in Downtown Toronto. My wife has noise sensitivity and was frustrated by the noise level in the surrounding restaurants that we had just checked out. With trepidation, we walked into CHOP.

Jimmy ( The Manager) greeted us immediately and took my wife to the back of the busy restaurant and make sure she would be comfortable before seating us. What a relief to us. I should emphasize that these seats are still premium seats in a booth and not next to kitchen traffic or bathrooms. On the note of bathrooms, CHOP should set the industry standard on what cleanliness and tidiness restaurant bathroom should have.

We were off to a great start to a great evening there. Them came our server Lena. My wife was parched with thirst as we frustratingly checked out the surrounding restaurants. Lena brought ice water immediately and refilled them as soon as and as often as we gulped them down. So attentive.

Lena should be the poster girl for CHOP by the way she described to us how the steaks (all Canadian by the way) would be prepared for us and always with the most beautiful and genuine smile. We were already salivating by her description. The restaurant was busy and she had other customers. She never rushed. We ordered the Birria Spring Rolls, Sirloin with baked potato and New York Striploin with mashed potato. The steak also came with beet and new asparagus.

We were mindful of the train the we needed to catch and the time wasted checking restaurants. But the food came quickly, hot and delicious. Our steaks were perfectly cooked as Lena had described it. The cell phone pictures I post would not do their justice. We were able to finish the meal at our own pace and leisurely.

The service was superb. Jimmy checked on us and of course Lena to make sure we were having a great time. The attentiveness to the customers is also reflected how they prepare the foods. They are proud of their service and their food and so they should be.

To cap off, Lena made a genuine, loving and unsolicited comment to my wife, which still warms her heart days later. Lena would be delighted to serve us again and asked us to request her when we visit again.

If I could have given 10 / 10...

First time here, came for my birthday. Places got good reviews 4.9, so I wanted to try it out. I usually try and wait a couple of days before I post a review but I wanted to remember everything about this place. Waitress took a long time to come to the table to take our drink orders. Drinks took a long time to arrive. We didn't get any water and the mains came like 7 min after the appetizers arrived? And even the appetizers took a while to arrive. Second round of drinks was even worse and took even longer than the first round, we almost had to ask the waitress to check on our drinks is how long it took! I did notice though that the restaurant was doi g some sort of event as there were tons of people with little sticker name badges on. So i can totally understand that they were hosting an event that day but if you can't support your other patrons then you should close the restfor a private function instrad of making regular customers suffer with badly timed food and long wait time for drinks. Food though was decent. I had the prime rib and it was good. Overall the verdict is good food, bad service. It was my birthday and i noted it when i made the reservations. Only the hostess acknowledged it being my brithday. The waitress had no clue, only when my daughter mentioned happy birthday to me is when the waitress clued in. The waitress just was not attentive enough in my humble opinion. Like how do you not get your guests any water? That should be the first thing that you do for your patrons! For a place like this im expecting top notch service amd this definitely wasn't it. I've had better service at a fraction of thr proce so i probably won't rerun here again as there are TONS of places to get a good steak around with wayy more proficient service. This place is not worth it and not good value at all. Not sure if I can whole heartedly give this place a recommendation since again the prices are premium but the service doesn't match the price you pay. There are tons of other steak places I can recommend though..this place just dropped the...