Laylak Lebanese Cuisine Toronto — Restaurant in Toronto

Before i start the review, can you please give the hostess from today a raise? She was so welcoming, attentive, and sweet! Probably the best hostess I've seen in Toronto.

I decided to celebrate my birthday in Laylak with 2 of my other friends as I saw the photos online, and it looked like a beautiful place that will be right down my alley:) it was also a reunion as we didn't see each other for 9 months, so it was time for us to catch up.

Atmosphere: First impression? The restaurant looks much prettier than on the photos! However, I do have a sensitive sense of smell, so from the moment I opened the entrance door it felt like I was sprayed head to toe in men cologne. The smell was extremely strong. We were sitted in the central part of the floor on a couple of sofas right beside the bar. At first, it felt fine, but as the time went on and the restaurant was getting crowded, we realized how cramped the seating was. The distance between the bar stools and our table was roughly 2', which resulted waiters and the guests to squeeze to pass by. Both of my friends who sat closer to the isle were hit multiple times. We moved all the table items away from that side so they don't get knocked down. The noise level was acceptable, my friend and I were able to have a chat without yelling over other people or music.

Food: it was the only positive thing these evening, not including the hostess. We got Grilled Octopus, Kefta Kebab, Chicken Tawouk, grape leaves and rice. They tasted good and looked very appealing.

Pricing: definitely OVERPRICED!

Service: BEYOND TERRIBLE.

I barely saw our waiter. One of the friends didn't drink and he sipped on water. Out of 2hrs that we spent in the restaurant, our waiter hadn't refill his glass even once. He came up to our table 3 times asking if we picked what to drink or what to eat. None of those times we were offered water, up until I asked specifically for it. If that's not part of your standard service, please remove water glasses from the table. We had to ask 3 different waiters to refill our glasses. I understand, we were not their table, however when our waiter just abandoned us, we had to ask others.

Bills: we asked for 3 bills. The waiter brought 1. So we emphasized that we need 3 bills. He asked would you like to evenly split it. We asked him again 3 separate bills, as we are paying each for only what we ate. The waiter nodded his head and passed the machine to us. The first person who paid didn't notice the difference as his bill was supposed to be pretty similar to 1/3 of the total. The second person paid, but he was confused about why his bill turned out that high. Meanwhile, I was looking at the POS, and it didn't look right. It turned out the waiter proceeded to split the bill EVENLY, even tho we asked him 3 times how we wanted it to be split. After all, i paid the last 1/3, but we asked itemized bills for each one of us, so we don't have to do the math ourselves. We were waiting for them for 30min!!!!!

All in all, I don't think the restaurant lives up to the good reviews. I dont think Laylak would be the first thing I'd recommend to people. The food is good but it's not outstanding for a recommendation + the service wasn't the best.

Side note for the owner: I'm having serious concerns regarding the fire routes as they don't meet the code requirement. I don't think the city inspector would be happy with the sizes of the isles that the restaurant has, and how...

I visited Laylak a while ago, and unfortunately cannot recommend it. The long and short of it is that it seems like the restaurant hasn't quite figured out what it wants to be, yet: upscale casual or true fine dining.

On arrival, we were informed we would not be seated until exactly 5:00 PM. Their doors were already open, and it was exactly 4:58 PM. I have the utmost respect for dining times, but this is excessive and unwelcoming behaviour. Unfortunately, this set the tone for the rest of our experience.

Uniforms were inconsistent and conveyed a lack of pride or concern from front of house. Some staff were wearing what appeared to be a signature lavender uniform - we noticed it was wrinkled or fit poorly on several staff, and there were others who weren't in uniform at all, instead wearing a ribbed racerback tank top with bra straps exposed. Fine for lounging at home, but unprofessional and inappropriate for a restaurant commanding such a price on their dishes. The stark contrast between that and the lovely décor is confusing at best, but mostly frustrating to see these inconsistencies when they have the potential to be great.

The atmosphere is beautiful, but with loud music more suited to a club than a restaurant, it's difficult to have a conversation or share the experience with others who are dining with you.

As food was brought out, we noticed that cutlery looked very worn and unpolished. For a brand new space that seems to be aiming for at least upscale status to have cutlery that looks like it came from a local greasy spoon, there is a problem.

We had the kebab, tenderloin, several of the dips, and some cocktails. The food was decent but not memorable, somewhat insipid, and simply did not meet expectations in terms of authenticity for an establishment of this calibre. Service was also lacking: never checking on empty glasses of water, not clearing away finished plates, not replacing dirty cutlery between courses, and leaving us to have to wave down staff desperately when we needed something. We asked politely and repeatedly for bread that never came. It doesn't feel good when you are largely ignored as a guest.

As others have mentioned, constant reminders of dining time limit before sitting down, in the middle of the meal, and again before being asked if we would even like to try dessert feels very much like you're being told to eat quickly, leave the cash on the table and get out. Not ok. Time management is important, and I fully appreciate the pressures of keeping things moving, but it is on the restaurant to ensure they're not overbooking and not expecting their guests to rush through an expensive meal to do them a favour. When you pay for a meal at a place like this, you are also paying for an experience, and this one just wasn't good. Needless to say, we didn't stick around for dessert.

Final note: I would suggest management try to respond with more personal comments when people take the time to leave reviews. The community is supportive and wants to see fresh, innovative spaces achieve success, but the generic (possibly even automated) responses once again convey dismissiveness, making it hard to want to come back...

A special 10-course menu with a welcome cocktail and wine pairings ($173 inclusive of gratuities and taxes), we were treated to reduced portions of their favourite dishes so that we could try a bit of everything. That’s perfect as variety is ideal and their extensive menu has so many great sounding dishes that it’d be a shame to miss (the post includes their regular menu prices, which would be for a larger portion than pictured).

Maybe my stomach has shrunk, but I just wasn’t ready for SO much food! Starting with four generous portions of dips ($17 each or $22 for a trio) served with hot-from-the-oven puffy soft pitas:

The nutty mohamarah was the most unique made with smoky roasted red pepper and walnut. Laylak’s hummus was thick and rich, perhaps a bit too thick as I would have like it thinned out with a bit of oil. While labneh can sometimes be overly yoghurt like, I loved how they added some garlicky toum into it to create a savourer version of the sauce.

Of the four, the baba ghanoug was still my favourite containing enough tahini for flavour and richness without overpowering the roasted eggplant.

Normally, I find whole wedge salads to be a pain as you need to cut through the lettuce and the dressing saturated some bites but is non-existent in others. At Laylak, the refreshing apple cider vinaigrette in the fattoush salad ($22) coated the grilled baby romaine evenly and I loved how they ripped mint and tucked it into the layers to give an interesting pop to certain bites. Who would have thought I’d learn to love salads?

Since the dried sausage used in the sajuk pâté ($22) is so flavourful, the pot of spread was too much when a couple of bites would do. The spiciness of the sajuk was rich and evident, while the normally dry sausage was blended so it became very smooth. If anything, the dish could use some pickled vegetables to help counteract the heaviness of the paste.

As a pet owner, the kibbeh nayah ($26) reminded me of the canned food I feed my cat. The smooth and semi-crumbly texture of the raw lamb also didn’t help. I enjoyed the bites where I could spread it on the airy rice cracker and top it with a crisp radish, but once those crispy elements were finished, I just had to stop. Still, if you can get past the texture, the flavours of the nayah was tasty.

Give me the traditional fried kibbeh ($22) any day. Laylak’s was so good - moist, perfectly seasoned, had a great crispy crust, and an airy centre. The bulger to meat ratio was nicely balanced and the sauce a great pairing.

The halloumi ($26) seemed promising, the grilled cheese combined with watermelon and herbs was a great idea. Indeed, the sweet and salty flavours meshed well with the fresh elements, but the actual halloumi had cooled down too much becoming dry and chewy. This is a dish that needs to be served fresh and not to a crowd.

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