JOEY Yorkdale — Restaurant in Toronto

Joey yorkdale, a real game changer! It's not often that my Miami Dolphins play my brother's Philadelphia Eagles so when they faced off on Sunday Oct 22nd my brother suggested we go out in full fan gear to root for our teams. My initial thought was to go to a Firkin pub or something along those lines, but my brother suggested something a little more upscale for this special occasion. We made a reservation for 8:15 p.m. and arrived 10 minutes early. Aryan, one of the hosts that night greeted us warmly. He welcomed us in to check out two tables that they had in mind for us close to the big screen. After we gave our table preference, Aryan offered us two complimentary flutes of nice sparkling white wine while the waited for our table to be prepped. Once seated we expressed our gratitude to Aryan (this guy was awesome) and mentioned that we wanted to speak to a manager unbeknownst to Aryan we had only good things to say. Aaron, one of the managers on duty that night came over. He could see that we were big football fans and that we were looking forward to an enjoyable evening. We told him how impressed we were with the level of customer service thus far from Aryan and he understood how much we valued the patron-customer relationship. Shortly after he thanked us for our business and walked away, another female manager came over to make sure we were well taken care of (but we couldn't remember her name) and thanked her too for looking after us. Promptly after she left our server Leanne arrived. Leanne gave us our menus and we ordered a couple drinks. When Leanne returned with our drinks she suggested we wait a little bit and continue ordering from the Happy Hour Menu as it was only about 30 minutes until better pricing on food and drinks went into effect. That was a game changer! Leanne showed up right at 9:00 p.m. ready to take our order. We had truffle parmesan fries, Korean fried cauliflower, roasted corn guacamole and the tuna poke bowl. Everything was so good and so affordable! Around 10 p.m. Leanne closed out her shift and we generously thanked her for her service. We closed out our evening with a couple more cheap beers off the Happy Hour Menu with our last server for the evening Vanessa, who was also super nice! My Dolphins didn't win that night but the experience at Joey Yorkdale was a winner on all fronts! Big props go out to all the staff (those named and not named) for next level customer service and for making my time with my brother, on his suggestion to dine, drink and watch football at Joey Yorkdale a great pick and a great experience overall! Our only regret is that we had such a good time that we didn't take one pic with each other decked out in our fan gear, or of the venue or of the food! Guess we're committing this one to memory, but a memory we won't...

I went last night with girlfriends for a milestone birthday. After our server came over and introduced yourself, the night manager made a point to come over and ask us if you were celebrating anything that evening. We were pretty clear that we all had milestone birthdays, and it was just mine a few days ago and we were out to celebrate together. Why bother coming over and asking if we’re celebrating something if you’re not going to at least give us some sort of cake at the end??

The server that we had was obviously new and although very sweet and kind and always had a smile on her face, she lacked in being attentive when it mattered. She asked us how her food was at least four times, however, I had to keep searching for her to ask for more water, and I had ordered two other drinks that I had finished so it wasn’t like I had only ordered water and it wasn’t going to her total bill affecting her tip.

And honestly, the water wasn’t even A big deal, but when our meal was cleared, and cleared for quite some time, no one came over to ask us if we wanted any tea or coffee or dessert. Not for nothing but I was pretty eager to have a dessert for my 40th birthday dinner, so when we asked for the bill, and she came over, and realized that my friends were giving me birthday presents, should she not have realized that it’s clearly a birthday?? Or even the night manager to have let her know?? And the best was that when she asked if it was my birthday, I let her know that we had all celebrated big birthdays, so then she proceeded to say happy birthday to my two friends and exclude me from her well wishes!

I’m just confused. I go here all the time. Food is great. Atmosphere amazing. Staff is so beyond on the ball, but she’s clearly been under trained or rushed in her training. Don’t ever skip a birthday. Especially a milestone that we were clear to say it was. And if you don’t give a cake at least ASK IF WE WANT DESSERT AND WE WILL PAY. we sat with our plates cleared for at least 20 minutes, so we figured we should get the bill at that point since no one was exactly being attentive

At the end of the evening, she asked us for a review And because I used to be a server, I will not name her name on this review, however, I think it’s pretty clear who I’m talking about because I don’t think you had any other milestone birthdays, walk in or even the night manager knew it was a birthday. I mean, if I can remember the day later that the night manager’s birthday is July 19 and she’s a cancer, and she should’ve at least been able to make sure that her server knew to celebrate a birthday. That’s...

In a restaurant world dressed up with disingenuous marketing JOEY Yorkdale offers you a magnificent spot outside downtown Toronto that delivers what it promises on their home page, “Our guests, new or old, are not treated just as guests, but as if they are a good friend we are catching up with.”

And this was the experience for me and my two close chums who selected this spot primarily because it was the midpoint between our diverse locations. From first arriving, the hostess took the time to offer a complimentary champagne glass and inquire if our visit that day was for a special occasion. It was a reunion and she graciously followed up with pleasant comments establishing a charming mood.

When the waitress came to greet us, she also took the time to find out more about the nature of our reunion and only then flawlessly delved into the menu. I understand this is common practice at luxury restaurants; however, I would contend that, although there are dining establishments that treat patrons similarly, it is not simply about what you do but, rather, how well you do it. And this is the reason I am taking the time to write this review: JOEY does it very well.

Having frequented several luxury restaurants in downtown Toronto I can anecdotally share with you that there have been far too many occasions when the host and/or server left a poor impression. Whether it is conceited complacency in their brand or even our own bigotry of unrealistic expectations, there seldom is a meeting point of both food, service, and overall impression.

The treatment at JOEY was so genuine that it left an indelible impression. Each interaction with the server and hostess throughout complemented our dining experience. We were then surprised with dessert on the house presented on an expansive serving plate with the words “Happy Reunion!” written in caramel. Delicious, delicious caramel. Mmmm, but I digress…

Over the years I have written to restaurants far more complaints than compliments and, in retrospect, this is unfair. It takes a team and a culture to create this magic and it can be quite challenging to get it right. When it comes together as well as it did on our visit, it is the sort of joy that can accompany you throughout your day.

At JOEY they seem to have captured the right formula and I look forward to returning and catching up with “good friends” that understand that going out to eat today is about...