O&B Canteen — Restaurant in Toronto

I can’t say that I’ve really had a great experience here, although I haven’t been in some time and wanted to try their Summerlicious dinner menu. I also think it’s convenient if you have a movie upstairs in TIFF Lightbox right after, which I did so I gave it another shot.

I had the popcorn shrimps for my appetizer. The shrimp was dry and with the breading just tasted like frozen or store-bought shrimp in a bowl with a wedge of lemon and some aioli. I think this is missing something as a dish because you’re really just eating a heap of small dry shrimp and it gets monotonous.

I had the wagyu katsu for my entree. This was really disappointing considering wagyu is known for some great marbling and being tender and rich. The meat was an unpleasant grey colour and was bland and dry. The breading falls off as you bite it and you’re just left with the not so appetizing sight of the grey meat. The jasmine rice was also really disappointing. It tasted old and poorly cooked. My friend ordered the same thing and we sent both of them back because we felt the same way about both of ours.

The manager came over and we expressed our feedback on the dish and he was accommodating enough to provide us different entrees.

I had the salmon bowl this time, which was a lot more edible. It’s a filling dish portion-wise, and the salmon was cooked fine.

My dessert was the black forest cake. This was again to me a poor dish. You have this mountain of whipped cream covering a slice of dry sponge cake. There are two types of cherries used in the same dish which doesn’t look very cohesive to me.

The server was nice. After we complained about our entree, it felt a bit like she was avoiding our table for some time for some reason. She had asked at the beginning if we were in a rush for anything and I mentioned we had a movie at 7:30pm. It would’ve been nice service-wise if that was actually kept in mind because I had to flag her down to get the check and dessert at the same time because we weren’t getting much attention after the entree.

This is I think a restaurant I’d recommend if you want to fill up on food and need to see a movie or go to one of the nearby theatre venues. I can’t recommend this after all of the times I’ve been here now getting this consistent level of food and service quality for any higher...

This is a decent casual place to grab a bite before a show at the Princess of Wales: the menu even has a prix fixe menu so you can get to your show ontime...that said, we almost didn't make it to our show on time.Despite multiple requests, our 2 part prix fixe of entry plus dessert for some reason took 20 minutes to get the dessert. We had to ask for it to be packed up to go which of course made the panna cotta a wet soggy mess. While it's not really their fault that the panna cotta "melted", it is their fault that they took so long to bring us the dessert that we didn't have time to eat it before the show. I understand they were busy but since we had ordered from the prix fixe and had asked several times about the dessert, I was close to the boiling point. In addition, when we arrived, the table outside that we were sat at had a very unpleasant surprise on the ground behind one of our seats- a doggie poop bag that had been used and apparently dropped just behind the chair. They were kind enough to handle it and someone wore gloves to dispose of it but it was pretty gross and should not have been missed when the table had been cleared for guests. Again, while not their fault that previous customers brought fecal matter into a restaurant, it was really unappetizing. We ended up moving tables so that we could accommodate friends that were able to get into town earlier than expected. When they asked if the food they wanted to order would be ready in time for the show at 7 pm at the theatre across the street, I believe it's universally understood that it takes a good 15 minutes to eat fish and chips, longer if it's fresh out of the fryer; luckily our guests shared the meal so that they could gobble it down faster as they didn't have 15 minutes for one of them to eat. We were actually quite concerned that there might be upset stomachs from having to eat so quickly. Again, they could have estimated better. The food was delicious but we had to deduct stars for the timing being off. We did appreciate the server asking about everyone's allergies but cannot opine on whether the food would have catered to those with...

Brunch Affair

Food: plating 4, flavour 2.5, execution 1. To note flavour profile gets messed up when execution is poor.

Staff: friendly, but low key ditzy.

Atmosphere: Tables too small. Reno is modern and fitting for being in the dead centre of the entertainment and financial district. Wall to ceiling windows are a great vibe, but would be concerned if I were to dine here in the summer due to possible air temperature problems.

French Toast: I ordered the “Love me Tender, French Toast.” When it arrived, it had no chicken…..? When the server came to check on us, mind you we haven’t even taken a bite of anything yet, I told her this is wrong. To which she replied, “you said cinnamon French toast.” Me, “no I did not.” I can remember thinking the name was strange, but fitting when saying it out loud. I didn’t appreciate that she knowingly made a mistake and told me I was wrong. To the FOH, own your mistakes and stop putting stuff on the customers or BOH. She took the plate and returned with the same plate of food but with the chicken tenders SLAPPED onto the side. The chicken was somewhat crispy, light in colour, BUT WAY OVER COOKED AND DRY. I did not eat it, I took it home for my dogs. The french toast itself burnt and not enough syrup. I appreciate the playing effort.

Shashuka: bread to sauce ratio was way off. Provide more bread or offer/suggest a surplus charge side when it is ordered. Eggs not runny, not fully solid. Favours of this dish was well balanced.

Salad: very standard salad. Made well, but ingredients, such as the romaine had some piece that were off. Therefore there were pink rot on them.

I would only return again after a period time aka when turn over of staff occurs to see if this place...