Eataly Toronto — Restaurant in Toronto

Last night CB and I had plans to catch-up over dinner with our friends E & B and DBB. We had planned to walk to Trattoria Nervosa and sit outdoors. But the drizzling rain and Nervosa’s no-reservations policy caused us to pivot and meet at Eataly Manulife Centre instead. So I set up a reservation for 6 pm in La Piazza (my favorite) at Table 411 – a tuff-to-get round table for 5 overlooking the umbrella-ed pedestrians and busy traffic at the corner of Bay and Bloor. On a nicer day the windows would be open to the street.

Eataly Manulife offers 3 main restaurants (Trattoria Milano, La Piazza and La Pizza & La Pasta), as well as numerous smaller specialized food and drink counters and bars: La Pescheria and La Pizza alla Pala for seafood and wood oven pizza; Il Gran Caffé and Caffè Vergnano for your espresso fix; Il Chioccolato Venchi, La Pasticceria, I Cannoli Siciliani, and Il Gelato Artigianale for your sweet tooth; Enoteca, Birrotecca for libation. It really is a “must-experience” experience if you have never been.

La Piazza is a relaxed, bright, spacious setting with large windows overlooking Bay Street. On arrival C and I checked in with Jason, La Piazza’s genial restaurant manager whom I have known from previous visits. We chatted about the new Eataly venues around the city as we wound our way over to our table. DBB was already seated when we arrived and was gushing about the wonderful server Jordy. She obviously made an impression. E&B arrived shortly after, and we were all offered our choice of sparkling or still water.

First up was a glass of Reguta Prosecco DOC for all while we reviewed the extensive offerings on the menu. A refreshing and oh-so-Italian start. E & B opted to share a Cesare Salad, Margharita Padellino Pizza [Mutti tomato, mozzarella, basil] and Liguine alle Vongole [housemade linguine, manilla clams], DBB had the housemade Burrata with EVO (beautiful presentation and so creamy) and the Truffle Butter Mushroom pasta special (amazing); CB and I each had our own Cesare salad and Spaghetto al Pomodoro con Stracciatella [house spaghettoni, Così Com’è yellow datterino tomatoes, red cherry tomatoes, housemade stracciatella, Olitalia EVO]. Fresh and full of flavour. To be honest I thought the Caesar salad was too light on punch for my taste, but the others loved it.

Of course, the salads arrived first, and while waiting for our mains we shared an order of Fritto misto di mare - crispy fried New England squid, shrimp, market fish, carrots, zucchini, lemon. This was delightful, crispy as advertised and very, very tasty.

To drink I ordered a bottle of Cesconi Moratel Vigneti della Dolomiti Rosso IGT to share. I love this wine. It is a velvety blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Teroldigo, and Lagrein grapes from Pressano in Valle dei Laghi, Trentino-Alte Adige. This wine is very easy to drink. It tastes of red and black berries complemented by rich and generous soft tannins. It owes its Bordeaux-esque structure to aging in oak barrels – a crowd pleaser. Besides, in this time of tariffs, who needs California reds anyways ….

For desserts, 5 spoons shared 3 Dolci: Budino al cioccolato [dark chocolate mousse with crumbled devil’s cake and chocolate crunchy, chocolate glaze and whipped cream], Panna cotta con frutti bosco [panna cotta, almond streusel and fresh berries] and Amalfi [limoncello syrup-soaked rice sponge cake, lemon cream, frolla cookies, soft whipped cream, meringue flame]. Mamma mia ! were these ever good.

In summary, La Piazza at Eataly Manulife met every expectation. From the moment we arrived we felt the welcoming, “I must be in Italy” atmosphere, special dedication to culinary details, and professional service for which they are renowned. Our server Jordy was wonderful. The Italian food on offer was outstanding. And La Piazza is just one restaurant at this incredible venue. If you have not made your way to Eataly, well, you are missing out on something truly wonderful and unique to the Toronto...

This was such a disappointing experience at Eataly.

We have been loyal patrons for many years as we live in the neighbourhood. Overall, it has just gone completely downhill, especially in the past 6 months to a year.

We sat on the patio.. the service was insanely slow, even though it was well-staffed and not very busy. Then the food... I'm happy that we decided to start with only ordering drinks & appetizers and still decide on our mains after eating to see what we felt like. Our normal inclinations for mains are the pasta and pizza, but we wanted to take our time to decide.

We ordered the tuna crudo and the burrata, plus 2 cocktails.

The crudo was completely disappointing and the presentation lacked colour and was very "ringard" to the eye (Basic "B"). There were no pops of colour, literally 4 pieces of tuna in a lemon infused olive oil, topped with flaky salt. To be honest, I was floored at the lack of presentation. Where were the microgreens or chilis or just something to make it look pretty? It was so lacklustre I thought this was a joke. It was also very overpriced for what it was at $23.*Please note, I wasn't going to initially take a photo due to the underwhelmingness of this, but decided to after having one piece as I needed to document this.

The Burrata was tasty, albeit small. From what I recall in the past this was served with crostini. The Burrata was also smaller than what you would purchase for in store. Glad we had the side marinade from this to mix in with the tuna, making it a bit less underwhelming. Same price at $23.

The table next to use as well as several others had ordered pizza. As our initial inclination was to order pizza (as we have always loved it up until maybe 6 months ago?) we were shocked at the size as well as the consistency. It was about the size of a personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut, (To note, I am not a fan of Pizza Hut) and looked quite doughy (not the thin beautiful crust it used to be). The size of the pizzas literally have shrunk by more than half. Priced at $26 for this sized Funghi pizza would have just pained me. I'm glad we decided to hold off. As soon as we started tasting the appetizers we made a decision to finish our drinks, get a coffee and a glass of prosecco upstairs and migrate elsewhere for food instead as this was so unbelievably unsatisfying. Our server also never once checked in on us to see how the quality of the food was or if we would like another beverage. Really sadly unimpressed.

So upstairs we go to the dessert/coffee bar on the second floor. They had no prosecco glasses for prosecco which was quite surprising to say the least at an "Italian" establishment (they only had red wine glasses). Also I remarked to the server that the glass she pulled out was dirty (it had lipstick on the rim) so I asked for another. She started pulling out more glasses and she refused about 7 of the glasses as they were also dirty. Finally finding a cleanish one.

The bathrooms also have been consistently filthy for years. I understand there is a high amount of traffic, but they consistently seem neglected, not cleaned often. Pee on the toilet seats, no toilet paper... sanitary dispensers full and spilling over, tissues and toilet paper on the floors, water all over the sink and floor areas.The state of the washrooms has also been pretty consistently unclean for years. For such a high traffic area, this should be serviced more often than what strikes me as maybe 1-2x per day or maybe have an attendant staffed to make sure it's serviced.

To be honest, after this experience, as a loyal patron since Day 1, I would not go back. Overpriced, small portions, and an unclean/unsanitary environment in many places. Just overall very sad to see this so run into the ground. At $101 (including tip) for 2 drinks and 2 appetizers, for what it was, I found this to be very painful. Had the presentation, service and portions been better, this wouldn't have been a struggle but I am definitely...

Eataly is a good place to shop for specialized meats and cheese for sure; Great for an upscale supermarket, but I would not recommend this place for dine in. It has a rich tree vibe in terms of various selections to choose from. On this particular day I was honestly craving rustic pizza and thusly chose to eat at La Piazza. First off- why would they choose to place a pizza section so close to the seafood section of the dine in, I don’t know. It’s not a pleasant combination of smells so I was asked to be seated as far away as possible from the seafood section as I am sensitive to smells, the host seemed annoyed by this as if I asked for a table on the moon or something. I should have listened to my instinct at this point and walked to Yorkville, but it was cold and don’t mind trying new places as I’ve only ever shopped there, never dined. Nor will I ever again. Firstly, I just finished from a day at a spa and afterwards a facial so I was in sweats and sneakers at the time, but I believe we reached a point in life where looks and appearances should not be judged by now, and no offence this is not my regular fine dining spots for myself nor does anyone need to dress up for this place tbh. But I felt judged when I was approached by the “seating waitress” who assumed I wanted tap water. Not that there is anything wrong with tap water, but to assume and imply that I’d want tap water right off the bat? Not cool. I ordered the Capricciosa. It was the WORST pizza I’ve ever had. Completely bland with toppings that looked- NO- that I KNOW, came out of a can. I’ve had amazing fresh rustic pizza before so, for this establishment and its location, I would never think or expect nothing less than fresh Ingredients and amazing taste; it’s in a supermarket after all! But the mushrooms, artichokes etc, did 100% come from a can. I don’t like to waste food so I did my best to finish 2 slices until another patron smelling like they drenched in CREED or something ( a mainstream smell everyone is bathing in and stinks) sat behind me and that was my cue to pack it up and leave. With that said, can people just dab perfume and cologne on themselves instead of bathing in it? I'm tired of being overwhelmed by all these strong scents for goodness sakes! Barf. Anyhow, I usually tip very well and I believe most people would tip very well if they are completely satisfied/satiated with their meal and treatment, but I find more and more places are adopting the “it’s expected to tip” vibe even for mediocre service and no offence, that will never fly with me. Of course I understand the difficult time we live in and tipping helps support the already underpaid servers, but I work hard for my money as well and in the little time I have left to treat myself once in a while, I don’t expect my servers to perform magic ticks for me during my meal or anything, just politeness, curtesy and non judgemental assumptions can go a very long way. If servers have a problem with being paid and overworked- get up and fight! Get rid of Torontonians common way of thinking “it is what it is” and get up, stand together and fight. Don’t take it out on the customers who are here to help you if you help them. Still, I reluctantly left $5, I’m soft. Anyways, sorry for the rant- this is what bad food does to me. Overpriced menu for bland, hard to chew, pizza with canned toppings. Will NEVER eat there again. Shopping for specialized imported meats and cheese, ok....