Nodo Junction — Restaurant in Toronto

This is a wonderful upscale restaurant that produces great food in a pleasant setting. This is my second time eating here. The evening would have been a total success except for the waitress we had.

We ordered the arancini as a starter. It was more than a bit dry and could have used a sauce of some sort…ketchup maybe? The Caesar salad was different and delicious. Even the croutons which I usually don’t care for were tasty and crunchy. The bread we ordered never came.

After the apps were finished and we were sitting there with the dirty dishes and cutlery, the waitress did something I’ve never seen before in an expensive eatery. Instead of removing the used plates, she carefully took out the dirty fork and knife and placed them on a cocktail napkin back on the table. She did the same with my partner’s then she took away the soiled plates. We were left to stare at dirty cheesy forks and greasy knives for ten minutes or so while we waited for our main courses. This wait allowed us to ponder what was going on here? Had the restaurant decided that they were doing cost cutting by making patrons use only one set of utensils the entire meal? The thought of the fork gathering bacteria while it waited and waited there was getting to be more and more of a turn off minute by minute. And what about the Veal chop I had ordered, was I to eat it with this same knife I used on my salad and arancini?

When the entrees arrived brought by a male server, my veal chop and my date’s fish dinner, I asked him if he had a different knife for me to cut my veal chop. My partner quickly asked if he also could have a new clean knife as well. These were quickly provided and we made sure he left with the dirty knives. We were stuck using our same forks…oh well.

The veal chop was perfectly cooked and served with generous portions of delicious potatoes, kale and a very tasty side of white beans. The fish was perfection and again a decent sized portion. The ambiance and the food could not be faulted and I would definitely go back. But please get rid of this “one set of cutlery per person” policy , it doesn’t fit in with everything else you have going for you at NODO Junction, and this patron found it awkwardly creepy. Total cost with one starter, one salad, two entrees, a bottle of fizzy water and a bottle of wine, tax and...

Exemplary service and quality.

Firstly, the food was excellent. Pizza chewy and well flavored, topped with fresh ingredients and just the right amount of seasoning. Aranchini, still crispy even when delivered to our apartment and a great filling of sauces and meats.

Next, and most importantly to me, was the accommodation for my dietary concerns (allergies). Not only did a manager get back to me after leaving a message, but they voluntarily went through their entire procedure of food preparation in order to make me feel safe in ordering.

Too many other restaurants have made it seem like such a big deal to pick up a new pan, or even just state in a non-ultimatum way that they can't guarantee anything. In fact, some restaurants simply have refused me service altogether when I'm willing to take the risk and very knowledgeable of food preparation myself having worked in the food industry for some time.

To get back on point, when I did call in my order, the second staff I spoke with also made me feel very comfortable. In fact, I asked about a particular menu item and they fully admitted they didn't know all of the ingredients in it, so they went back and checked with the chefs in order to make sure., without any prompting. This is an absolutely huge confidence booster for anyone with allergies looking to order out. I don't care if you know anything, but please offer to check. Nodo's staff did this without hesitation.

As a side note, though no less pleasing, the staff even spelt my name correctly on the food containers (a pet peeve of mine, and was delighted to see someone took the care to do so).

Whoever is in charge of training and staffing at Nodo's, you've done a fantastic job! Keep up the great work.

I will definitely be giving Nodo Junction my continued support and would recommend to anyone either with dietary concerns, or simply looking to have an exemplary example of customer experience, to call in and place an...

This just happened and it was so unsettling and awful I had to write about it as soon as we got home. Our family and another family came here for Mother’s Day with our 3 kids. This restaurant bills itself as “family-friendly” and there were mostly other families with kids dining so we expected a warm, welcoming environment. But from the moment we sat down, our server was cold, unwelcoming and even hostile at times. I think she was expecting 7 adults, because when we said our entire party was here - 4 adults, 3 kids, she seemed immediately upset and seemed to be adding up our total bill in her head already and already disappointed. At one point she scowled that our table was a mess - though we’d just sat down and had our drinks. My husband ordered one kids pasta for our kids (4 and 2) to share because they are light, picky eaters. She visibly scoffed and grimaced and actually said our kids would “go hungry” if we didn’t order 2 separate servings. Sure enough we ended up with so much food leftover at the end, but at least she got her up sell. There was no service to speak of during the meal but the most appalling moment came at the end when we asked politely for the bill to be split in half. She screamed sarcastically “I GUESS” and then visibly tore up our bill in front of us. Our jaws dropped. All 4 of us adults felt awful, embarrassed and chastened. It was like she’d been doing us a favor all evening and this was the last straw. I’ve never in my life been treated so horribly anywhere let alone a restaurant. Awful. Ruined the day. Will never ever return here and would highly recommend no one else choose this...