Fox on John — Restaurant in Toronto

My friends and I visited Fox on John today (11 AM–1 PM) for a birthday brunch. The atmosphere was lovely, and the restaurant was understandably busy. However, we found it a bit jarring that all the TVs were all playing sports; it clashed with the relaxed, celebratory brunch vibe. It might be better to limit the sports coverage to the bar area to help maintain the ambiance.

The food was great; we appreciated the flat-rate "bottomless" brunch menu and enjoyed everything we tried. Unfortunately, the service didn’t live up to the experience we were hoping for.

We were a group of five, reservation for 11 AM; our full party was all stagger seated by 11:30 AM. At that point, we were ready to order everything we wanted all at once. However, our server, Elizabeth, told us we couldn’t do that and asked us to order in smaller rounds to help ease the load on the kitchen. We completely understood and agreed to that. Our server, Elizabeth, was outwardly friendly, but came across as somewhat disengaged or annoyed by how busy it was.

Here’s how the experience unfolded:

11:30 AM: We placed our first round of food. ≈12:00 PM: The first round finished arriving — it took about 30 minutes. 12:00 PM: We immediately placed our second round of food in a small round although we wanted to order more. ≈12:30 PM: The second round finished arriving. At that point, we were also considering a third bottle of champagne. We asked our server for a few more minutes to decide and told her to hold off on bringing it for now. After that, we didn’t see her again. From 12:30 PM to 1:00 PM, we tried to get her attention to place another round of food, but she never returned; even though she was serving other tables in our section. There was no last call or check-in to see if we needed anything else, or to check in about the bottle.

At exactly 1:00 PM, our server returned with the bills and told us our time was up; almost as if she had been waiting for the clock to hit the two-hour mark. It felt especially frustrating considering we had been trying to get her attention for the last 30 minutes with no success. After being largely ignored, the sudden precision in ending our time seemed inconsistent and left us feeling dismissed.

This meant that for the final 30 minutes of our brunch, we were left without any service, unable to order more food or drinks. It felt like we were being avoided to prevent another round from being placed, which was frustrating; especially given the two-hour time limit. If you're going to offer an "unlimited" brunch for a flat fee, guests should reasonably be able to order as much as they want within the time frame. Unfortunately, due to the slow pace of the kitchen and inconsistent service, we weren’t able to enjoy everything we had hoped to try.

For larger groups or celebratory occasions, there should either be an option to extend the time limit or a more efficient system in place to ensure food and drink orders can be fulfilled in a timely manner. If this type of brunch service is something you specialize in, it’s important to be properly staffed and prepared to accommodate it; especially on busy weekends.

We left feeling disappointed. While the food and setting were great, the quality of service took away from what should have been a fun and celebratory meal. We hope this feedback is helpful in improving the experience for...

PLEASE CHECK YOUR RECEIPTS , THIS WAS A HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE *

For context me and my boyfriend are from New York and we have dined in some very exclusive sometimes private culinary events and only once have we experienced something like this…

If I could rate 0 stars I would , I was told that this is some hyped up restaurant so I was looking forward to booking this for me and my boyfriend’s anniversary. This restaurant is clearly here for the cash grab, we showed up 2 min before the reservation and they asked us to sit in the waiting area , which is okay it did seem busy so we didn’t mind waiting , but once your seated boy do they rush you…

People were seated before us as we waiting but maybe their reservations were before ours? Not too sure… they did come In after us though, but I digress. We were told we have an hour and a half to eat …. Which to us was plenty enough time. So maybe 2 minutes into sitting down the waitress asks if ‘we know what we want’, I haven’t even looks at the menu properly yet… this happened a few times I’d say 3 more times within the span of 4-6 min . not only that…. I’m not too sure but it seemed as if I was annoying the waitress just by simply sitting there , there was no greeting it was simply a “what do u want ” type of situation…. We ended up choosing something random because I couldn’t actually read the menu as the service team really were stressing us out … I would have said something but it was our special night. . The food was bland as heck , I got a ceasar wrap (like I said most random choice because I couldn’t even read what I wanted !) and I swear fortinos has better ones. No one smiles and this place is like dining in a jail … I wish I was joking but there was a waitress standing in the corner grilling people that were dining. I started to get very uncomfortable with this and I think she noticed because one of the randomest waitresses came up to me and said “ur so pretty” but like imagine that from mean girls and she looked me up and down. Again I digress it just definitely made me feel uncomfortable , maybe she was sincere but it definitely didn’t come off that way.

Unfortunately my boyfriend was not finished with his food yet when the PLATE WAS TAKEN FROM HIM. This made everything so awkward and we even considered not tipping that’s how bad service was ( I’m never the type to do that but I can’t explain how terrible of an experience this was) we laughed about all of this after but truly we were both very disappointed in the service. This must be a very competitive environment for the owners considering that when we received the cheque THEY INCLUDED A 20% tip in the price and it still asked for a tip which we gave another 20% of , until we realized later…

So clearly this place overbooks on busy days, Does not have trained staff, but if you’d like to see more about this I’d take a gander at social media and what people have to say about their experience. I also heard that the turnover rate here is crazy which could explain why we were treated so poorly, maybe the staff is also treated poorly, because something is...

I had a very disappointing and frustrating experience with this establishment regarding a scheduled interview. I arrived on time and fully prepared for my appointment, only to sit and wait for 45 minutes without ever being acknowledged by the manager. During that time, not once did anyone come to check in with me on behalf of management. Eventually, I asked one of the servers if she could confirm that the manager knew I was there. She kindly offered to message him, and despite her effort, she never received a response back. A little later, she told me that the manager (I believe his name is Will) was not going to show up at all and suggested that I should just come back another day.

This kind of behavior is completely unprofessional and demonstrates a total lack of respect for people’s time. Preparing for and attending an interview requires effort — arranging schedules, commuting, and showing up ready to present yourself as a serious candidate. For the manager to simply ignore multiple candidates without any notice or explanation is unacceptable and reflects extremely poorly on the business as a whole.

What made the situation even worse is that I was not the only one affected. There were at least two other candidates also waiting for the same manager. Like me, they waited patiently, only to realize after a long period of time that he was not going to show up. They eventually left as well, equally frustrated by the experience. This shows that it wasn’t an isolated mistake, but rather a serious lack of professionalism and accountability in how they handle interviews.

For a hospitality business, where professionalism, communication, and respect are supposed to be at the core of the company culture, this kind of treatment toward potential employees is a huge red flag. If management cannot even be bothered to show up to meet candidates — or at the very least send a quick message to reschedule — it raises very real concerns about how they treat their staff once they are hired. It also says a lot about how the business is run behind the scenes, and none of it is positive.

I left this experience feeling extremely frustrated, disrespected, and honestly shocked that a company would operate in this manner. Job seekers should not be treated as disposable or as if their time has no value. Respect is a two-way street, and if this is how they choose to treat people at the very first stage of the hiring process, I can only imagine how little they value employees once they are on the team.

In my opinion, this incident speaks volumes about the lack of organization, accountability, and leadership within the management. It was a complete waste of time for me and for the other candidates, and it left me with a very negative impression of this establishment. Very disappointing experience overall, and I would strongly caution others about pursuing...