JOEY Eaton Centre — Restaurant in Toronto

My review will focus less on quality of food - no issues there as it was delicious - but more on the overall "guest experience". My partner and I joined 2 more for a late lunch during "Happy Hour". There are three main issues we had with our guest experience at this restaurant, so this is mainly addressed at management:

First, please make sure the contemporary pop music you play stays at a low background noise level at all times. It started quiet enough but then became louder and louder during the course of our stay and thus made it more and more difficult to follow conversation at our table. Not everyone has a “booming voice” and can be heard above any type of noise. You are running a restaurant, not a discotheque after all.

Second, please make sure that all tables are clean at all times, meaning please clean the tabletops as soon as the old dishes have been removed, not just seconds before new guests are seated at that table. The way I was seated I was forced to stare at a single leaf of lettuce on a dirty table across from ours for the entire course of my meal as that table had not been cleaned after the previous party had left. Once a manager came by that table and I hoped that it would then be cleaned. It was not. It was only casually cleaned seconds before a party of 4 sat down at that booth. Why? Do you think it is appetizing to other guests within the vicinity to be forced to look at dirty tables while they eat? Then, the table beside ours finished their meal and the gentlemen left. Again: dishes were removed, but the tabletop remained dirty. Despite the fact that it had been empty when the girl came to clean the above-mentioned table. Rag and cleaning solution in hand, she ignored the other dirty table (beside ours but also beside the one she had just cleaned for the party of 4) and left. Why? If your job is to clean dirty tabletops and you are standing beside a table that is dirty with rag and cleaning solution in hand, what makes you think it is OK to leave that one dirty? Now you are forcing the newly arrived guests in that booth to stare at a dirty table as well.

Third, even if you (the guest this time) don't mind dirty tabletops and loud music, you would certainly appreciate good service, right? The very young waitress meant well but was certainly not prepared to provide us with complete information concerning the happy hour menu. It is always best to think of your guest as inexperienced, coming to your restaurant for the very first time, having no clue how your happy hour meal differs from your regular menu. Also: in any case, drinks are delivered first and swiftly so. Not here. We neither had proper cutlery at our table nor did we receive our drinks in a timely fashion. So when the food came (another surprise there, but not so fast) we were quite hungry but unable to eat it as there was no cutlery. Why the surprise about the food? The happy hour dish my partner and I ordered carried the same name as the regular burger dish so we had thought that it would be that meal just slightly cheaper as it was happy hour. Turned out what made the price slightly cheaper was the beer served with the - single! - burger. Basically you are tricking your guests into believing they struck a bargain at happy hour when in fact they do not! The burger in the regular menu comes with fries at 25 dollars. The happy hour burger does not come with fries, but with half a pint of beer at 22 dollars. Or with a glass of wine at 28 dollars. While I understand that happy hours are usually about cheap alcohol, you should not force your guests into consuming alcohol at the expense of French fries. The happy hour menu does not inform guests about the fact that there would be no fries so we were forced to order a side of fries with that so-called “happy hour” meal. There is nothing “happy” about the fact that those fries took forever to be served. In fact, we had become convinced the order had been forgotten once they arrived. In addition, we had to ask more than once where our drinks were after the food was...

Joeys brings back the JoY in your life with a new curated menu to tantalize your taste buds. I was celebrating my Mom's birthday this past weekend and the Manager (Alex) and staff (Kat) ensured we had an exceptional experience.

If you have not been to Joeys recently or even if you have let me give you the reasons why you should be going for Date Night/ Game Night / Gals night out again - The Menu just changed last week - Now they have the best from other Joey locations here in DownTown

The Service was improved just a notch above and the attention to detail just went higher

The Patio weather is here and the glass windows will be opened and you can stay indoors while you enjoy the warm weather

The Happy Hour is from 4 pm - 6pm :)

Food - 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 We started with the crab dip, which came with golden-crusted sourdough bread that is just finger-licking good! For our mains, we ordered the Chicken Parm that came with spaghetti cooked in red sauce and even under the pasta you have the most wonderful crunch for your chicken :) and the Crispy Tofu salad bowl. The portion size is great and you will have enough room for dessert. Thank God and Joeys Management team of DT location, the legacy of the freshly baked apple pie lives on the menu for the last 25+ yrs. Its a sin that you must commit, the cheating that should be allowed for if you cant treat your senses whats the point :) The warm apple pie served with cold vanilla or maple ice cream (whichever you choose) is truly exceptional.

Service - 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 Kat was our server and kept checking on us after every serving and ensured our drinks glasses were full. She was always around and we didn't have to keep looking for her. Her attention to detail is exceptional! Given it was Friday evening and she was taking care of other guests she ensured we had orders coming in on time per our specifications!

Atmosphere - 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 Joeys Eaton has been my Go To Place for the past several years. Its the best place for a post shopping food indulgence or if you are craving a hearty bite before you want to catch the movie! Or if its just watching a game and drinks with a bunch of co-workers. Joeys Eaton has given me a million memories and each time I have the opportunity to make another moment a memory, its always my Go To Place!

Keeping a size of this restaurant running and scaling and ensuring every guest has an exceptional experience along with managing a dedicated a team of staff requires an exceptional Leader. That Leader for Joeys Eaton Centre is Alexander Shirani (Alex). He runs a super tight ship, and he genuinely cares about how he, his team and the food served, is making your visit a special one! Alex went above and beyond to make my Mom feel special for her Bday and also stopped by to chat with her about her own cooking channel. All this while the restaurant was packed with people and he had the kitchen and bar running at 140 m/h. Alex is extremely passionate and you can see that he demonstrates the core family values of Joeys as he has tried the menu items and can speak about his favorites and share a note or two with guests!

Alex is not only paying attention to you while you are dining but ensures you keep coming back for more. Post COVID its not easy to run a restaurant but thanks to Leaders in Hospitality Industry such as Alex - the staffers want to work there and the loyal patrons want to keep coming back! Thank you Alex for running a super tight ship, and for giving us an evening to remember. Will definitely be back for more and will definitely be back for the next team event to build...

When you have Sunday off and so you decide to have dinner with some friends you haven't seen in a while, which was actually much needed.

I wasn't supposed to be in Toronto that night, however, someone out there told me to stay in the city and enjoy myself. So I contacted some friends, and we met up on a spontaneous night and catch up with one another. Deciding between three restaurants, we selected Joey mainly for the menu variety.

Despite previously living in Toronto, this was my first visit to this location, and it's much bigger of a restaurant than I expected. I have been to other Joey restaurants, but it's been a while since the last time I ate at one. I do believe the menu has been shortened, but they had the one menu item I was seeking after: Steak & Sushi.

My friends and I collectively ordered Steak. While one got theirs with the Ravioli Bianco, the other two went with the Sushi. What impresses me is the pairing of the two dishes, as you'd think this would be a staple combo in most restaurants, but Joey is the only place I think that offers this (based on my restaurant experiences).

For a restaurant that offers a variety of tastes, I have to admit that the Sushi is quite delicious, while the Steak may have been a bit too drenched in the Ponzu Sauce (a bit salty for my liking). The dish ended up being a bit small for the price that we paid, but that does not take away from being an overall excellent dinner.

Selena provided exceptional service, heightening our experience and checking in on us throughout the night. There were other servers who asked how was our dinner, which was a nice touch, especially when Selena was working on other tables. The one thing that caught me off guard though: asking for our names. Not sure if this is a standard at Joey Restaurants, but I thought that was rather cute to make our visit more personal.

While we did end up going to another place for dessert, it was a great way to end the night yapping away while being...