Rumeli Restaurant — Restaurant in Toronto

Extremely disappointing experience — not worth your time or money.

A few nights ago, my friends and I (a group of eight) went to Rumeli for dinner, and unfortunately, the experience was disappointing from the start. We had to wait over an hour and a half just to get our drinks. When we asked the server why it was taking so long, he seemed genuinely surprised and told us there was only one bartender for the whole place — which, in his words, “only has eight people right now.” While it wasn’t the server’s fault, this clearly points to poor management. A restaurant should be able to handle more than one table of guests — especially when it wasn’t even busy. Besides our table, there was only one other table of about ten people who were already halfway through their meals.

When the food finally came, it was overpriced and underwhelming. The meat tasted gamey, and the appetizers were tiny — barely enough for one person, let alone to share. On top of that, when we asked for separate checks, we were told it wasn’t possible, and that everything brought to the table had to be split evenly, which made no sense. We ended up paying over $700 for the table, and it was absolutely not worth it.

To make matters worse, the manager — a man whose name I never caught — seemed completely uninterested in what was going on. He looked totally out of it, almost like he wasn’t sober. At no point did he check on us, offer help, or seem to care about the delays or poor service. His detached attitude was honestly shocking for someone in charge of running a restaurant.

I had guests visiting from the U.S., and I had told them in advance I was expecting great service. I had even confirmed with the restaurant that they’d be open until midnight, but around 11 PM — when only our table was left — they started mopping the floors and told us not to walk in certain areas because they were cleaning.

I would not recommend this place to anyone. They simply have nothing to offer — neither in service, nor in food, nor...

For me, this was the worst dining experience I've had in years. Good points: Decor and some people in our group loved the fish. Average: The service was OK. She tried, but was visibly upset when we asked too many questions and one person in our group sent back a bottle of wine. It took over 20 minutes before anyone even came to our table, but once that happened, things moved well. One order was missed altogether. Bad: The music was too loud, so forget about talking to anyone you are with. We were a party of 8. For me, that set the tone for the evening. Aside from the fish, everyone hated their food: One sent his back, I would have sent mine back but I'm afraid of what may have replaced it. It looked like the dregs of a days worth of kebab, and tasted the accordingly; no salad dressing on the salad, portions were not great given the price, one order never even came and the wait staff was rude in 'explaining' that they never ordered(they did), Everyone's food was cold. Instead of serving food on a plate, it was served on an ice cold box of some kind, which was extremely high off the table. The bench seats were so low, two of us on the bench had to stand just to get the leverage to cut into our food. Plus the cold 'boxes' were excellent at passing this coldness to the food, so the food was cold, or worse, it was cold to start. The liquor menu had $00.00 as the price for each item so you had to ask the price, which everyone else in the group sees, which I suspect is part of the plan. It ended up being $11 for a small bottle of Heineken, which I thought was way too much this particular venue. The food was overpriced in general, but if it wasn't for all the aforementioned, it was not completely...

I had a reservation at Rumeli Restaurant that I unfortunately missed due to a death in the family the day before. In the midst of grieving and handling family matters, I completely forgot about the reservation. To my shock, the restaurant charged me $120 for the no-show. While I fully understand the importance of no-show policies, I had hoped that under such heartbreaking and unavoidable circumstances, the restaurant would show some basic compassion. Instead, when I reached out to explain the situation, they showed absolutely no empathy or willingness to help. I even offered to provide a death certificate to verify my circumstances, but they coldly dismissed me and told me to contact OpenTable. OpenTable then informed me that the refund decision is entirely at the restaurant’s discretion, since they processed the charge directly. I even have proof of this conversation with OpenTable. I’ve since called and emailed Rumeli multiple times, asking to speak with a manager. Every time, I’m told the manager is “unavailable.” On one call, I finally got through, only to have the manager hang up on me as I began to explain my situation. When I called back minutes later, staff suddenly claimed the manager was no longer there. It’s clear they are either avoiding accountability or being told to ignore me altogether. This experience has gone far beyond a simple policy issue. It’s about a complete lack of integrity, accountability, and compassion. I gave this restaurant every opportunity to do the right thing privately, and they chose not to. This kind of treatment should give anyone pause before supporting this business. I won’t...