Posticino — Restaurant in Toronto

The Wyck Recommendation: Posticino Rating: 4.3/5 Negronis, Velvet Seating, and a Vespa by the Piano

Intro Scene The smell hit first: grilled garlic, warm bread, and that buttery parmesan haze that tells your wallet it’s not getting out clean. We walked into Posticino and locked eyes with a Vespa parked beside a piano. It felt like walking into an Italian film directed by someone who once worked at a Porsche dealership.

What Was Ordered For three people with ambition and wine optimism:

Bruschetta & House Bread: No notes. Juicy tomatoes, toasted bread, perfect oil. Bread so good it could end wars.

Mushroom Risotto: Silky, balanced, loaded with umami and not a soggy grain in sight. It held its own like a headliner.

Veal Entrée (exact name forgotten): Tender, generous, sauce-rich, and plated like they knew we’d take a photo.

Multiple Negronis: Bittersweet, stiff, and unapologetic. The kind of negronis that turn dinner into an evening.

Bottle of Red Wine: Warm, medium-bodied, and gone before dessert. As it should be.

Altogether, it was the kind of spread that required a moment of silence after the last bite.

Service Commentary We were handled by a three-person dream team: two sharply dressed men and one seasoned, no-nonsense woman who carried herself like she ran the joint -- and maybe she does. Water never hit empty. Wine flowed without a word. Questions were answered before we even asked them. No one hovered. No one disappeared. It was elegant, unfussy, and personal. If this crew started a cult, we’d join.

Vibe Check Soft murmur of conversation, low jazz, clean glassware. Couples in booths, a few regulars at the bar, and not a single clout-chasing selfie in sight. This is where grown-ups eat. And drink. And maybe flirt a little under the dim lighting.

The Space Itself Polished floors, slate grey walls, oversized booths. Art that feels curated, not ordered in bulk. An orange Vespa sits beside the piano like it just rolled off a Milan runway. The place is spotless. The light is flattering. Even the cutlery has confidence.

About the Neighborhood Posticino sits on the edge of a strange crossroads: No Frills across the street, Costco nearby, and ghostly echoes of a now-vanished Money Mart. Parking is free in the back -- Porsches and Rolls if you’re lucky -- and the intersection feels like a movie set from a dream where you’re both rich and a little lost. Etobicoke weird, but charming.

Hits & Misses ✓ Bruschetta & bread: Best in class ✓ Risotto: Mushroomy perfection ✓ Veal: Rich, filling, delicate ✓ Service: Five-star team, seamless delivery ✓ Interior: Elegant with character ✗ Patio View: Just a parking lot, don’t romanticize it ✗ Price: Only stings if you forget you ordered like Roman royalty for three

Final Verdict Posticino is what happens when old-school hospitality meets modern taste. No gimmicks. No influencer bait. Just damn good Italian, poured and plated by people who clearly love the game. You could spend less somewhere else -- but you’d walk out colder, hungrier, and without a Vespa memory. I'll be back -- for the bread, the woman who runs the floor like a general, and the Negroni that changed my mood.

Rating 4.3/5

Perfect For

Impressing someone’s dad

Negroni-fueled...

I hope this was a bad night for these guys - it hurts my brain to leave a bad review on a local business but the food was flavourless, produce old, and taste worse and more expensive than what pastuccis across the street has to offer. I would encourage others to think twice before spending money here and leaving disappointed.

Pros: -service was pleasant- our server was friendly, asking if we lived in the area and if it was our first time visiting. -complimentary bread + olive oil -complimentary bruschetta

Cons: -some of the greens the app were served on were wilted -the tomatoes in the bruschetta were also going bad -we ordered the calamari on the menu described as “deep fried calamari” for $24. The server asked if we liked shrimp, and he said he would throw some in. Totally fine with a small extra charge, would have appreciated if he told us about the 25% upcharge but he did not- that’s business practice these days I guess. For $32, we were served 1/2 fried calamari and half fried sardine fillets (or similar sized fish) and small fried shrimp. We didn’t find out about it until time to pay the bill. The oil the seafood was fried in must have not been very hot as it came out soggy and smelled eggy. Bland, no seasoning, no sauce on the side, though it did come with a lemon that had not yet gone bad, so I guess that’s a plus. Would not recommend. -we got a veal bolognese and an orechiette pasta. For $25/26 a plate, I would have guessed it was fresh pasta but it was not. A fair amount of the tagliatelle were stuck together, the sauce was beyond bland tasting. A cheap fix to improve this dish could include diced garlic or ground black pepper. It wasn’t as bad as my partners dish -my partner got the sausage orechiette pasta, which included large chunks of rapini visibly going bad in a bath of oil. I was told it was also unseasoned and bland. Easy fix for this would be garlic, fennel for the sausage, a touch of chilli flakes, or smoked sausage, among other things -water was never refilled

At the end of this experience, having spent nearly $150 I left feeling like this was a waste of time and money, and I was severely disappointed in supporting this local establishment. While the cost of everything has gone up and I acknowledge this restaurant may have been doing their best, restaurants at similar price points do not have all of these issues and as a customer, I couldn’t recco this to anyone.

Hope they can bounce back from this but in the meantime I’d recommend...

I used to go to Posticino with a co-worker, who the staff knew, and I guess that’s why, in the past, I had such a great experience. Unfortunately, we had a terrible experience last night. 4 out of 6 of our guests arrived at the time of our reservation but 2 of our guests got caught up in terrible traffic so we decided to have some appetizers while we waited. First of all, it took at least 20 minutes before the server came to our table. We ordered our drinks and explained that we would like appetizers for the table while we waited for our other guests to arrive. We had to ask three times for our appetizers as we kept seeing tables around us (that arrived after us) getting bread and their appetizers well before we did. Some tables, again that arrived after us, received not only their appetizers but their main course before we had our appetizers. Now, in fairness to the waiter, he was running off his feet so I have no idea how many tables he was responsible for but apparently it was too much for him to handle. There were items on the menu that listed that they came with vegetables (that three of us ordered) and when it finally came to the table the vegetables weren’t with it. When we asked to waiter about it and pointed out that it clearly says on the menu that they come with it, he just said they didn’t. Despite our efforts to point it out to him, with the menu in our hand, he still refused to honour the menu. Also, the price of the Prosecco we ordered was different to what was on the bill. There were many other instances throughout the evening that ruined what was intended to be a lovely evening. As we were leaving, with a person who was on crutches and having a lot of difficulty walking, there was a large group of people just standing at the door holding drinks, blocking the exit, and not one of them moved until we adamantly asked them to give us some room to get out. Why someone in the restaurant wasn’t at the front door, telling them they were blocking the doorway, is beyond comprehension. Your customers shouldn’t be responsible for dealing with this. Sadly, I will not be returning and I will let my co-worker know about my experience as well. You could tell there were a lot of regulars there that received preferential treatment and quite frankly that’s not fair to other customers in the restaurant. While I think it’s appropriate to acknowledge regulars, it shouldn’t come at the expense of others in...