Día Restaurant and Lounge — Restaurant in Toronto

tl;dr - food isn’t bad but the service doesn’t match the price (as you’ll see from other comments here). I also didn’t like the assumption the staff had about my concerns (details toward the end). Pretty low.

We chose Día for breakfast partly because we trusted the Canopy brand to deliver an elevated experience that matched its premium pricing. The hotel itself, for example, is excellent. Instead, we encountered a series of small but noticeable oversights that collectively created a disconnect between expectation and reality.

Our server was genuinely warm and personable, yet clearly stretched thin. She noticeably provided more attention to some tables than others, ours unfortunately falling into the latter category. Other staff members seemed rushed and dismissive, likely due to understaffing. For example, the staff member who brought our food quickly placed the dishes down and left without pausing to check if we needed anything else, without noticing our empty coffee cups and water glasses, and without acknowledging our attempts to call him back. Individually minor, perhaps, but collectively significant when breakfast for two approaches one hundred dollars.

The real frustration, however, arose after we finished our meal. We waited about ten minutes, waving our server down twice to request the check. She acknowledged the request, partially cleared the table, and walked away, creating an expectation she’d promptly return with the bill. Instead, we sat unattended for an additional seventeen minutes. Multiple attempts to get other staff’s attention went ignored. Eventually, I stood next to our table until our server returned. She maintained her friendly demeanor but appeared genuinely surprised we were still waiting.

When I shared these concerns with the hotel through the Hilton app, I proposed a very modest resolution: removing the coffee charges—only seven dollars total—from our bill. Because our coffee was never refilled, we had immediately gone downstairs to purchase additional coffee at the hotel’s café. Initially, the hotel declined my simple request but offered a late checkout instead—something we had already arranged prior to breakfast. Since my intention was never to escalate the issue, I accepted the redundant late checkout offer without pressing further.

However, what truly escalated the matter for me was discovering, through a contact at the property, how inaccurately and disproportionately the situation had been discussed internally. The internal narrative incorrectly suggested we fabricated our service issues in an attempt to have the entire meal comped. Yet, when my contact saw the actual screenshots of my conversation in the Hilton app—which clearly documented my simple, seven-dollar request—they expressed surprise at how dramatically the internal discussion differed from the reality. Childish, and I was tarnished in the middle of this. I was simply sharing my feedback and my only ask was for $7 as a gesture of good faith from the restaurant. We spent more than that at the café downstairs.

The issue at hand isn’t about a small coffee charge. It’s about basic accountability and accurate communication. If guests feel compelled to buy coffee downstairs after already ordering coffee with their breakfast, clearly a genuine oversight has occurred. Also, there is no excuse for leaving us waiting nearly 30 minutes. If you genuinely thought we were staying there to “hang out”, a $100 breakfast should come with at least a water refill. Other restaurants would at least check in with us.

Given Día’s premium positioning, I’d hope management would prioritize addressing simple guest concerns rather than presuming ulterior motives and unintentionally escalating a minor, solvable issue into something unnecessarily significant.

$7 is worth more to the restaurant than a positive guest experience and a positive review.

Edit - thanks for the passive aggressive comment saying I should have spoken to a manager. That's wild. As you can see from my full review above, multiple people were involved (including...

I recently dined at Dia with high expectations given its reputation and atmosphere, but unfortunately, my experience fell short due to several issues related to food quality, service awareness, and handling of dietary restrictions.

To start, we inquired about halal meat options and were informed that all chicken items were halal. However, when I asked if the Lady Dia cocktail could be made without alcohol (as part of our halal inquiry), the waitress mentioned it was pre-batched but suggested adding tequila to the Rosedale Refresher to make it similar — completely overlooking the fact that we had requested non-alcoholic options. This demonstrated a lack of understanding and attentiveness toward our dietary restrictions.

We ordered mocktails based on the waitress’s recommendations. The Mai Kinda Thai tasted strongly medicinal, almost like menthol or Vicks, and the Hestia, which was described as balanced between sweet and sour, arrived extremely bitter. We returned both drinks and replaced them with the Rosedale Refresher, which was excellent and refreshing. The waitress handled this exchange kindly and professionally, though she again asked if we wanted tequila added — once more disregarding our request for non-alcoholic drinks.

For appetizers, we tried the parmesan fries and the spicy Korean fried chicken. The fries were tasty but the portion size was quite small for the price and compared to other Toronto establishments. The chicken was average — not bad, but nothing particularly special or memorable.

For mains, we ordered the marsala chicken, ricotta agnolotti alla sorrentina, and wild mushroom garganelli. The ricotta pasta was mediocre, and the mushroom dish lacked the truffle flavor it promised — it tasted more like pasta in a mayonnaise-based sauce and needed seasoning. The marsala chicken, however, was the most disappointing. When it arrived, there was a strand of hair in my food, and the dish included prosciutto, which I later learned was pork — something I had explicitly mentioned I could not eat. The waitress apologized sincerely, removed it from the bill, and replaced it with a pork-free version. Unfortunately, I later discovered that marsala is a wine-based sauce, meaning the dish still contained alcohol, again conflicting with my stated dietary restrictions, which was not communicated to me by the waitress.

While waiting for the replacement dish, the waitress kindly offered a complimentary salad, which was appreciated. However, when the bill arrived, I was charged twice for the marsala chicken despite being told the first would be removed. After pointing it out, they attempted to refund the difference, but the system was down, and I was told the refund could not be processed immediately.

The manager came over to apologize and offered a round of drinks or dessert “on the house.” Given our restrictions, the drink offer felt tone-deaf. He ultimately provided one dessert for our table of three, which felt insufficient given the multiple errors and inconveniences throughout the evening. I requested a couple of cakes to go instead.

Despite all of this, I want to acknowledge that our waitress remained kind, patient, and apologetic throughout the experience. She returned after the manager’s visit to personally apologize and ensure we were okay, which I genuinely appreciated.

This review is meant as constructive feedback. The staff were polite and accommodating, but there was a noticeable lack of awareness and sensitivity toward dietary and religious restrictions, which is crucial for an inclusive dining experience. Improving staff training in this area, ensuring accurate billing, and maintaining better quality control in the kitchen would significantly enhance the overall guest experience.

With some improvements in attentiveness, food quality, and communication, Dia could live up to its potential. Unfortunately, our visit was disappointing, but I hope this feedback helps the team make positive changes...

Worst experience ever. I made a reservation at the beginning of March, the first week to be exact to have my birthday dinner here. I called and spoke to a gentleman and asked a few questions. Due to working as a server myself, there’s a few things I wanted to find out. I asked if there is a one bill policy, auto gratuity due to the large party and if there are any requirements, restrictions or cancellation fees of any sort. I was told no to everything and was only advised that if I wanted to make any changes to reach out 3 days before the reservation. I completed the reservation by giving my contact information and spelling out my full name for the gentleman as he said I would be receiving a confirmation. Days passed and I had a few additional questions so I reached back out to discuss and also let them know I still did not receive a confirmation. Three days before my reservation I reached out to make a few changes. Now what I will say is that when making changes they were accommodating, but that was the only good thing . The day of I gave Dia a call and found out they had the reservation under an entirely different name, which is quite shocking as I spelt it out the first time around. It was also disappointing considering my guest would have arrived and been told there was no table under my name. During dinner I was told it must be one bill which I was very confused about so I asked to speak with a manager. There was a lot of back-and-forth and clearly a lot of miscommunication amongst the Dia team and their staff. Patricia, the manager that night was very passive aggressive and did not have any sort of empathy or understanding considering the fact that the information I received over the phone was completely wrong. The lack of professionalism on her behalf made me very irritable. And after multiple conversations with her we finally came to an agreement. On the other hand my server was very nice and I appreciate the fact that she did not let the issues deter her attitude towards my party, but there were a lot of instances where the service was not up to par to be honest. There were a few times an orders was made that took long to come and then we told we didn’t ordered them. but she was still very nice about it all. Another incident was an issue where of my guests did not enjoy their meal and so the server suggested to replace it with something else and it wasn’t until after leaving that we noticed we were charged for both meals, although the first was barely eaten and sent back. Overall the food was good (but I would stay away from the salad as my guests that order did not like) and I appreciated the positive attitude the server had but truth be told this was the worst birthday dinner experience ever. I believe that providing potential guest with accurate and correct information is most important especially when it comes to large parties. I think they need more training on how to de-escalate situations and an overview on their policies, so that the information that they are giving out is correct. I’d wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone due to my experience. Now I wish I went to STK which is right...