Clandestino Food& Drink — Restaurant in Toronto

I’m really sad to write this review because Clandestino Wine Bar used to be my favourite restaurant. I’ve raved to everyone about it, and I’ve even made the hour-long drive to dine here twice within a month because I loved it so much. Unfortunately, my most recent experience changed my opinion of them.

During the current tax break in Ontario, they charged us tax, which surprised me. When I questioned it, they justified it by saying their prices are very good and it’s difficult to change it in the system unless they do it manually, so they “have to charge tax.” This explanation doesn’t sit well with me because businesses can’t simply decide to charge tax during a tax-free period.

What made it worse is that they didn’t tell us upfront. They just dropped off the bill and walked away. When I noticed the tax and brought it up, they said it was because we ordered the date night menu. If this policy applies to certain menu items, it should be clearly mentioned before we order.

I’m so disappointed because I genuinely loved this place, but this experience felt unfair and left a bad taste in my mouth. I hope they take this feedback seriously and reconsider how they handle situations like this in the future.

edit & reply to owner: While I understand you may have posted about it on your instagram, you must understand that not everyone follows your social media. It should be made clear from the moment your customers sit down, I would have had no problem paying tax if I was informed or perhaps we would not have gotten the date night menu in this case. It was my birthday dinner and my boyfriend and I were excited to be able to eat my favourite nice meal tax-free for once. We end up spending around $200 including tip instead of the $170 we budgeted for. I will still be recommending to others, but will not be returning myself because I’m disappointed. I don’t expect you to pay $5000 to change your pos system, but just inform your customers when they come in so they don’t expect something different, you don’t know what people have going on in their lives. In this case I’ve decided to raise the review to 4 stars, because I do love the food.

Would also like to add that I just read a lot about the tax exemption and the restaurant will not be paying tax to the government on any sales made during this tax break as long as they can prove their sales/ items that were purchased for this period, thus I was charged tax that the restaurant will keep/get...

After reading the reviews I was excited to celebrate my 30th birthday here. It started fine, we were seated and the server brought us cold water. However, it went downhill after that point. I ordered the steak and she did not ask me how I wanted it cooked. While overhearing the table next to mine complain about their well done steak and afraid that I was going to be served a glorified hamburger, I let the server know how I liked my steak. The menu stated that the steak came with potatoes and asparagus but my steak when brought to my table was paired with pasta. I brought this to the server's attention and she said they sometimes run out of items and substitute. That is not a problem if I was told that only one hour into service they would be out of 2/3 of the components of my dish. Afterwards the chef came out and made my girlfriend and I extremely uncomfortable. He told me the same thing the server said and that he thought the substitution was fair because he made the pasta fresh that day. He also condescendingly informed me the steak I ordered was worth $60. The entire dish on their menu was listed at $30. How in the hell do you make money when food cost is 200%? The tables seated after me were treated much better. The server asked if they would like regular or sparkling water, an option that we did not get but would have loved to order. She also asked how the other guest would like their steak done. The two that worked there left such a bad taste in my mouth I wanted to leave and asked for it to be packed up. This took over 15 minutes and I know it took over 15 minutes because I timed how long it was taking. I also asked for the dessert to go and she refused to pack it saying that "it is meant to be eaten at the restaurant". When asking for the bill we waited even longer, once again timed. I have never been treated this poorly before in my life and will never come back. Such a shame because the food was actually cooked well. I could only give 2 stars for this. It's unfortunate that the chef possesses that kind of ego towards someone that has cooked in CAA 5 Diamond restaurants. Maybe we were treated so poorly because I am a female with a rainbow heart displayed proudly on my shirt and I was there with my girlfriend. Who knows. As a homosexual couple we felt safe to be out in Toronto but felt very unwelcome at this restaurant. Two big...

Was not going to write this review nor leave them a bad reading but as we were leaving the place the waitress told us "Do me a favour, and never come back to this place again."

For context, we did not like the food so much. I heard a lot of good things about this place and the food i got, especially for the price (which is heavily overpriced), was beyond disappointing. I couldn't finish most of it.

We did tell them we are not a fan of their food (when they asked how everything is), so the waitress bought out their chef, who kept telling us that his food is the "best" and "perfect". That's all he kept telling us, that we aren't eating it correctly, because it's "perfect". The only nice item on our table was the lamb rack but the sides that came with it were ... difficult to eat. Regardless, the food not meeting my expectation is alright, i'd still not be writing this review if it wasn't for the service (read below).

I am heavily disappointed with the service provided at this highly rated restaurant. Are these guys paying for their reviews or did they get new staff? I am not sure. Things felt off with the waitress from the start. The service was mediocre to begin with. On top of that, they were cocky and arrogant about their food quality, constantly telling us it's the best and we just need to eat it right. To end things off, they were forcing us to pay $25 in tips for awful service and mediocre food. We already spent a lot of money for some food (and trust me, it's a LOT for the portion size they give you) that we will have to give to some homeless person because i honestly can't eat this. Let me remind you, you have to deserve the tip. If someone is not happy with your service, they don't owe you anything other than the food cost.

As to wait the waitress who told me to "never come back", don't worry. You didn't have to tell me that because I was not planning to ever come back anyway.

One last bit to add, if you go read the other reviews, particularly 1-3 star reviews, you'll see their cocky response and the same cocky attitude i was talking about. I won't be surprised if they reply to this review and talk smack.

TLDR: if you want to lose a couple hundred bucks, get below average service, and sill be hungry and disappointed, you are welcome...