Il Ponte Cucina Italiana — Restaurant in Toronto

Felt like the staff went out of their way to insult us and they succeeded.

Started off well enough. Waiter (owner?) came by and greeted us, listed off the specials and took our order. My friend ordered a glass a of wine and I had water. We placed our orders for calamari, risotto and a pasta special.

Calamari arrived shockingly fast and was obviously not made to order. We were hungry so ate it anyway; not inedible. Our waters were refilled at this point.

Food was brought out by someone other than our waiter. She had the saddest affect I've seen in a long time and did not make eye contact or engage in any way. We were offered pepper and cheese and that was the end of that interaction.

A few minutes later another one of the waiters/owners walked past and asked if anyone offered us pepper or cheese. I stress walked past as he did not actually stop at our table to ask us.

We start to eat our meals which are not amazing, just OK. For the price you'd expect much better but I digress. Neither one of us particularly enjoyed it as was evident by the full plates of food in front of us for over 40 minutes.

At no point did anyone come to our table to ask how we were doing or enjoying our meals. This was especially perplexing given the fact that one of waiters/owners had his back to us for the majority of our time there speaking to friends at the adjacent table.

After an agonizing hour of being willfully ignored some poor girl came and took our plates. Didn't ask how we found our meals or give any overture. Simply told us our waiter would come with the bill.

Waiter/owner who had his back to us the entire time comes by with the bill. Does not greet us, does not ask about our experience, says and does nothing other than hand me the machine. Guilt got the better of me and I tipped 10% but truly wish I had not tipped anything. In fact, I wish I could take back that entire experience and just walked out of there.

He wished us a good night as we walked out the door and that was that. We left wondering what we could have possibly done to deserve such treatment (or lack of). Because we didn't both order wine? Because we didn't both splash out $40 on a "special" bowl of pasta? Did they simply just not like the look of us? We don't know but we left feeling extremely angry and disrespected and disappointed.

The joys of dining out are derived from the ambiance of the restaurant and the air on conviviality from the wait staff and owners. This matters just as much, if not more so, than the food itself. Unfortunately this place missed the mark on all aspects this evening.

So sad that what was once an enjoyable neighborhood place has...

While on vacation in Toronto we found this lovely restaurant on our last day, the food was spectacular and delicious. The restaurant itself was beautiful and clean with a lovely patio out the side.

Unfortunately we made the mistake of showing up at the restaurant too early. We checked online first and saw that the restaurant was open for lunch at 11:30. We got to the restaurant at 11:55, to which they told us that the restaurant was actually opening for lunch at 12:15 (this had been the second restaurant we had walked too that wasn't opened when it said it was supposed to open for lunch). It had been very hot this day and we had walked quite a distance to get to the restaurant, I was struggling a lot to even make it to the restaurant due to how hot I was. Due to this the server decided to accommodate us and let sit down in the restaurant for 20 min before the restaurant actually opened up for service (we fully did not expect to be severed, we literally just needed the air conditioning). This wasn't an issue until the owner came over to our table and told us that due to the pandemic he wasn't opening up the restaurant until 12:15 and now that we are sitting here it makes him look bad for not opening up to other people.

We apologized for causing so much trouble, to which the owner told us it wasn't our fault but he sure didn't make us feel like it wasn't our fault. He came up to us several times after to show us the people waiting outside, telling us that it makes him look bad that we are sitting in here. When we complemented him on the restaurant and the food he didn't look at us or say anything to us. We could hear him yelling at the server that let us in (we later apologized to the server for getting them in trouble, we felt awful...). But not only was he yelling at the server that let us in, he was also yelling at other staff in the back throughout our lunch for reasons unknown. It was one of the most awkward dinning experiences we have ever had, as we were made to feel guilty the whole time by the owner. Sadly this was our last experience in Toronto before the long drive home.

Make no mistake we greatly appreciate the restaurant staff and owner for accommodating us and letting us sit inside we just did not appreciate the rude comments and attitude from the owner the...

This past weekend we hosted a couples shower for a group of 30. Prior to this we came to check out the place, tried a pizza, and were excited about having our guests join us because everyone we met that evening were very nice. We finished our pre-dinner event earlier and I sent my guests there to have a few drinks before dinner, they arrived about 45 minutes earlier than the reservation. This was clearly a mistake on my end because it was not well received and stressed out the staff. For the entire night I felt bad about this and apologized to Giancarlo multiple times to try and change his mood. I will say now, I have mixed feelings about even feeling bad. Our group was very easy going and polite. It is a celebratory event and I shouldn't have had to feel bad that we showed up early when my guests were very polite and respectful. They nor I were not all greeted as well as we could have been.

I had a set dinner and there was miscommunication here and I should have gotten things cleared up on my end in writing. Giancarlo was gracious and honoured the price we verbally agreed to. Thank you.

Overall food was good, great atmosphere, and most importantly our guests had a great time. This event was something very special for us and we appreciated the accommodation though I wish the service was a little bit friendlier. Without the kindness of one of the staff members - Sharon, I'd lower my rating. This would have easily been a 5 star for us had I not felt I needed to explain myself all evening. I will say it ended well (at least for me), but not for any lack of...