SIMPL THINGS — Restaurant in Toronto

Walk too quickly on Queen Street West and you’ll breeze by Simpl Things tucked away on Dunn Avenue. It’s a cute and cheerful establishment swathed in pastels with a retro feel. It’s a place that locals know given their rotating customer groups during our late Saturday lunch.

The brisket croquettes ($9) are a great snack or appetizer. Hot from the fryer, the crispy potato nuggets are stuffed with shredded beef. Offered as a daily special, I feel it deserves a permanent spot on the menu.

In fact, an order of the croquettes with the mini wedge salad ($7) makes for a nice light lunch. The side salad is surprisingly large, almost half an iceberg lettuce topped with a creamy and zesty herb sauce and sprinkled with crunchy corn nuts, hazelnuts, and cashews. The excess dressing would go wonderfully with the croquettes.

There are a lot of incredible breakfast sando ($22) around town. Simpl Things is fine, a tower of scrambled egg, bacon, avocado, cheddar cheese, pickled onions, and lettuce sandwiched between thick slices of soft house made milk bread. While filled with great ingredients, they just weren’t hot enough – the bacon was cold having been premade and the omelette merely warm. Maybe it’s a matter of preference, but I like mine steaming to cast of an enticing aroma.

While it doesn’t rock in the sando department, Simpl Things is where you go for boozy brunches. They offer an array of cocktails. I tried the butterfly effect ($18) that looks and tastes fruity, but not overly sweet so it makes for a great summer sipper.

And if I were in the mood for more, I would have went with the cocktail flight (three for $30) or just ordered the “teeny” sized ones that are $10 each and make my own flight. Just a little tipple, a great excuse to knock back a few without...

We were looking forward to dine here as our friend recommended this place. We arrived on time for our reservation at 8:30, stood awkwardly by the door for 5-10 minutes to finally catch a server’s attention to be seated. The ambiance and the interior of the restaurant is beautiful. Very trendy eccentric vibe, menu looked terrific too but the chairs we were sitting were extremely uncomfortable, small whimsy bar chair only good for its look. We asked to be moved to a sit down table but we were told that there were reservations coming up. These ‘reserved’ tables were left empty until we finished our visit, likely a no-show or cancellation, but we were never offered to be moved despite us asking number of times. It took us 1.5hrs to receive 3/4 food items and 2 cocktails, each menus taking 30 minutes to be served, two of them were cold dishes. Our server looked very busy and just left the dish on our table without any word and walked away. After our third menu waiting for our foruth to come we lost our patience and asked our server to cancel the fourth if the chef hadn’t started it yet. Our server was kind enough to cancel the menu and not charge us for our drinks. The restaurant looked extremely short staffed for a busy Saturday night; two servers (one making drink and another serving), and two chefs. I don’t blame the staffs for our unpleasing and unsatifying experience, they were doing the best they could but this place really needs to step up...

I really would love to give this place a great rating. Loved the extensive cocktails list. The dish from Chef Betty Chia was scrumptious and the plating a work of art. Unfortunately, like with all things in life, I like to be at choice. I was dining alone and ordered according to my photos timestamp exactly at 7.09. My dinner arrived at 7.59. There was a check point by the server at 45 min. I mentioned "it has been 45 minutes" very quietly and she answered very short that there's only one chef, so that's that (paraphrasing). Not an apologetic response, a rebuke. My thoughts: 1) The place wasn't full but was busy. Understandably hard for one single person to cook quickly. But why? The dish was $48. Not cheap. Why didn't the chef have helpers during the busy times? 2) Consent[! Usually when one orders something that is going to take a while, the server offers a warning "sorry, we are very busy right now" or even in the menu: "this dish will take 20 minutes". There was no warning whatsoever and perhaps if I had had company I wouldn't be so disappointed for having had to wait 50 minutes for one dish. 3) could have been offered something else or an appetizer. Could have gotten some bread? Instead, when I point out the wait I am shamed because there's only one chef in the kitchen. Please see my other reviews, usually very positive all over the world, and take my comments in that context.Most of my reviews are 5 stars! Sad. As I said, it's around...