The Federal — Restaurant in Toronto

Hello,

I want to start off by saying your chicken and waffles are amazing. I currently reside in Brampton and every time I visit my girlfriend your restaurant is a must. Now last weekend December 10, 2017 my friend and I decided to visit for brunch. We were both in the mood for your wonderful chicken and waffles. As we walk up to the restaurant I can immediately tell by the number on people lingering outside that there is going to be a wait time but I expect this. When we arrived we were approached by a very nice guy. The gentleman asked my name and told me the wait was going to be 15-20 mins which was fine BUT when I ask that he call when our table was available he said: "No". He explained that your restaurant does not call people and if our name is called and missed they just bump us down. Then he asked us nicely to wait outside.

Now honestly I have no problem waiting outside: Spring, Summer and Fall. To ask people to wait outside a restaurant in winter with no option of a call is just not nice. Like this doesn't allow people to go to a coffee shop, gas station or anywhere to say warm while they wait to eat at your restaurant. I just thought that was extremely mean. For breakfast and brunch you do not do reservations so even if we didn't want to avoid sitting outside there is no other option.

At the end of the day I believe you guys should at least call people to let them know there reservations are available to avoid them sitting in the cold for long periods of time. There are many apps that you can use to even help keep your customers happy.

Also the ONLY reason I’m posting on here is because I have attempted to reach management everyday since Monday morning... which is extremely frustrating. Today I found out you have a second restaurant I could call there but I officially give up it shouldn’t be this hard.

Very Cold...

3.5 stars

The Federal is a super popular brunch spot on Dundas West and I can see why. Hipster cool and unpretentious place serving solid dishes at reasonable prices. We arrived at 9:20 am and snagged the last open 2 top and saw many people waiting for the next hour.

Though the place is on the right side of the street to get the sun into the windows, it's a bit dark & rustic and the vibe is chill, hipster-lite, and welcoming. Service here is really nice and sweet. Attentive to the point you dont have to ask for a coffee refill. The restaurant isnt super big so coming here with a group bigger than 4 might be a challenge especially if you come later in the morning.

Omelette of the day ... squash, kale & chevre - Solid dish that is quite tasty. It is perfectly cooked so its not rubbery or overdone. Soft egg covering a healthy amount of sweet soft squash with bits of nice green kale and a tangy molten chevre. The crispy rosti is also well done. I want to give this a 4 star rating but nothing jumped out to me as being 'oh wow, gonna order this again' 4 star rating. I'll still say it is definitely above average than other restaurants. 3.5/5

French Toast with fois gras - To me, I know this dish as the Commander Hadfield brunch. Supposedly he ordered this over the top decadence ... a hearty amount of french toast with a buttery fois gras on top. Similar to the omelette, it is well done... the french toast wasn't dry and it was good. The fois gras didn't make or break the dish either. I can't fault the dish for anything except nothing said 'oh wow, this is really really good' for a 4 star. 3.5/5

Overall, great brunch spot on Dundas West. I can see why its popular.. friendly and warm service that serves good...

I have been to the federal 3 times before and it was fantastic. I went with my friend for brunch yesterday and we were both excited to have the eggs federal. It arrived and the tarragon cream sauce was more of a tarragon and water mixed with some butter and one of my friend's poached eggs consisted of bits and pieces of poached egg whites with no yolk. They confused our side bacon order and when I called over a server to explain the situation he said 'it's my last day today so you'll have to tell someone else". Our assigned server was gracious and took our plates away to have our meal remade. It came back and the remix was under cooked. It was so disappointing when we had been looking forward to it. It is so unfortunate that that gentleman decided to come to work on his last day. When you have employees like that, who needs saboteurs. When I looked at their Instagram account there was a pick posted of this gentleman announcing it was his last day as a server. I hope he doesn't have to interact with any customers in his next career. Our female server was spectacular and comped our OJ, beet juice and bacon. To the owners- please be attentive on a Saturday morning and those, who you choose to represent your brand- it only takes one bad apple to spoil the entire bunch in a city, where there are many places to brunch............ I posted this review on Facebook and it has been removed and the pic of the servers last day with his co worker flipping the bird was also removed from Insta: How insulting to a...