Firkin on Yonge — Restaurant in Toronto

Sent this email to management, as it appears they don't pay attention to their negative reviews.

Allow me to preface this email with this: I know it’s getting into the busiest season of the year, and I understand that sometimes restaurants get overwhelmed. That being said, our party of four was somewhat disappointed with our meals last night.

I ordered a club sandwich, with a Caesar salad. Our server mentioned that there was an upcharge for the Caesar, which I agreed to. However, what was not mentioned was the fact that the Caesar was made with kale. I do not like kale. When I double checked the menu, after my meal arrived, it said the KALE Caesar was the upsell. But she did not mention it to me, despite me mentioning that I had left my glasses at home. Your menu is difficult to read on a phone, especially when you have to increase the magnification. The layout is awful. Also, the sandwich is NOT a traditional club, and I think it needs to be mentioned on your menu. The contents to bread ratio were, well, let’s just say lacking.

My friend, who ordered the butternut squash ravioli, found that most of the pasta was overcooked and dry and brittle, and there was little to no sauce. Not that we could have mentioned anything to our server as she would dash on by with a quick glance, and didn’t even ask how everything was. Unfortunately, with timing and traffic being what it was, we had tickets for a show, and were under time constraints. Our other two friends, who arrived later, had the French dip, and the fried chicken sandwich. The chicken sandwich was under seasoned. As far as I know, the French dip was ok.

My friend, who had the pasta, was going to bring her mother, niece and sister to your establishment on the 16th after they see 42nd Street, but is now considering alternate venues. If those mistakes could be made on a Thursday, what’s a Saturday going to be like. And for a family to go to a restaurant is expensive these days.

Maybe think about re-vamping that menu so it’s more descriptive. Less is not...

Excellent fried pickles. Wonderful servers. Excellent sunshine.

However, 1 star off for the damn noise coming from the street. Really not the establishment's fault but still impacted my overall experience.

The second star off is more of a rant. Although my partner would probably disagree. We arrived on a Sunday afternoon and it was a beautiful day. There was only one other table of people in sight, and we were told to sit anywhere we like. I picked a seat by the sun and I started working on my laptop. My partner wanted to watch a basketball game... not a Toronto team. The friendly server managed to get it on screen, but on a small screen across 3 tables because the big screen that we had sat near was reserved for the "Toronto baseball game". Even if we weren't interested in watching it. My partner went on to justify that the TVs are on a system and cant be adjusted individually. But here's my rant: what if im a tourist? What if i dont like baseball? If im a paying customer, at a time where there are only 2 tables occupied, shouldn't i be able to watch the game that is clearly available? I get it. An American team isnt "local", and the colonial "Toronto identify" is much more baseball oriented than basketball oriented. Afterall, where were all these bandwagon Raptors fans in 2006? After Vince Carter and before Drake scored those courtside seats?

But the pickled fries and sunshine is still worth the visit. Especially if youre a...

To management: Respectfully, please show British sports. Especially things like the premier League finals. You put your staff in the awkward position of having to repeatedly tell disappointed Brits that they weren't really a British pub and didn't actually have the ability to put on British games. You only need NBC or SkySports. It would cost less than the giant custom underground style signs and the Union jacks everywhere. I get that you're a chain and being authentic isn't the point. But really it's a very small ask to buy at least one sports channel that will be able to play British football matches and leave that on in the background. You'd have made so much money today serving up a full English with the finals on. For the very small investment of a few posters in the window saying you'll be showing it, you could have opened up at 11 when the game started and gotten such a good Sunday day crowd.

We're in Toronto for a couple months staying nearby and will probably be back since you have such good reviews, but honestly, really had to tell you that you ought to consider playing British sports and not putting your staff in the embarrassing position of having to turn multiple actual British people away in a row. We were not the only guests who came in today, misled by your giant Union Jack advertising, hoping to...