The Good Son — Restaurant in Toronto

To cut to the chase, I'll tell you The Good Son is all about the customer experience - not only is their food simply amazing, their service is phenomenal. If you have not heard of The Good Son, or you have and just haven't given it a try, you should!

I'm not from the area as I live in the countryside, but I do come into the city and meet clients throughout the GTA on a regular basis. I have never heard of The Good Son, but I have visited The Shops at Don Mills over the years since its inception. But I love to dine out with my wife, and I love eating good food with flavour. I actually get upset when I don't have a good dining experience, whether from a quality/tastfulness of food perspective, or equally important, if the customer service was terrible. I've been to many different types of restaurants in my life, including many international foods - I love to eat!!! I've also had a wide range of experiences from poor to amazing.

One Saturday, I was passing by The Shops and decided to look in and see what was available as I was hungry; I happened to come across The Good Son. I ordered their burger and fries to go as I had to make a few client appointments before I headed home. During these pandemic times, it was important to me that I ordered take out from a restaurant hat practice good hygiene and safety, and I was very pleased with The Good Son. The hostess at the front asked me a few questions to make sure the dining experience and safety of all guests and employees would be safe and then proceeded to take my order - I loved this pro activeness! After placing my order I used the washroom, also a very very clean facility that showed care was put into it from a cleaning perspective. As I left the washroom to go wait for my take out, I simply observed the beautiful interior that's been so carefully crafted. I also observed how happy the staff was and how professional they were in attending to their dining on the patio guests, it was so heart warming to see. These guys genuinely love their jobs and helping their customers with their orders. Even interacting with each other, they were all happy to be there and each one of them was wearing a face mask - that's how much they care about their customers and each other. As I got to the front, the Manager Rony brought out my food order in a take out bag. What was really resounding with me was that he not only handed me my food and thanked me, but he did so with such genuine behaviour and told me they appreciated my business. He also said to come visit anytime and he'd be more than happy to introduce some other wonderful items on the menu.

While I thought the service was amazing, I got to my car and I couldn't hold out any longer and I had to quickly eat before I hit the road. To my amazement, my burger was loaded and massive! I was like wow! And the container came with a variety of sauces (which I didn't try as I like my burgers dry), and I could literally smell the french fries, which I might add, have a very unique taste to them. I was so thoroughly impressed, I got the craving for their burger again a few weeks later and had to go back to get it while I was in town on business again. This time, ordering the same burger, I also got a Margherita pizza to go with it, and OH MY it was amazing. I shared it with my wife and she commented on how you could tell it was made in one of those fancy wood ovens I think they're called? The food is absolutely delicious here! From an experience perspective, I saw the Manager Rony again, and he remembered me from last time and asked how the burger was from last time! Amazing to feel like an appreciated and valued customer! Thanks Rony!

Simply amazing service on top of the amazing food, great cheerful and happy staff, a really really clean restaurant (i'm a germaphobe) and a the Manager Rony who genuinely cares about his customers, next time I'm for sure going to try dining in. What an experience, just with take out on two occassions! Check out the size...

Went on Friday, Jan 3rd for a pivotal dinner negotiation, and the host was very bad. He gave curt answers to me. He would give brief sentences to explain and seat me, and had a flat tone and leave as soon as he could. I noticed and thought it was ok at first even though I didn't like the way he treated me. He offered me selection between two tables and pointed in place to another table into the restaurant far away so I strained my neck to see.

Then when I chose my seat, I saw how he treated other guests that came after me, repeating the same but with a completely professional tone and walking directly up to the alternative empty table to present it pleasantly to the customer and presenting it like a salesman, taking over five minutes to explain the exact same content and taking an extended tone and flair to speak to them. He behaved like a completely different person, engaged and ready to help. I discovered I was being treated differently and felt prejudiced.

After my meal, I asked him to help me open the door as my hands were completely full. I did in a friendly way, not out of the ordinary, and then I noticed he repeated the same cold attitude and then immediately went into the restaurant, not even making eye contact or making sure the door was fully open behind me, and leaving me struggling to get the exterior door open since I had both hands full. There was no need for him to go inside. And in fact as a host he needs to mind the door and he knew that he wasn't helping me out. I don't like being treated this way, and confirmed that he somehow judged me and decided he didn't want to treat me well. I do feel prejudiced.

My server was excellent, and I have no complaints; he provided us with a free salad appetizer after bumping into my chair more than once by accident. Between two people we spent over $60 each so you need to respect your guests.

I always go to the Good Son, and have been a regular customer for many years. When I first went until now their service has been impeccable and the servers remembered me. I always felt comfortable here. During such an important pivotal dinner, I discovered the service decreased to this point but I never want to have to worry about getting quality service here. But now I do. I am concerned that I need to check who I invite in order to be given proper service!

If the host is going to be prejudiced, or even judgemental, that is not proper for a host. I come to the Good Son expecting excellent food and service and he is the interface and first interaction for the restaurant. I hope you can respond and do something about this, at least remind them to not give such differential treatment and have such a response from a loyal customer. I have chosen this place for my negotiations, and want to look forward to coming back even though this is my top 3 favourite restaurants. I figure it's best to say something than say nothing at all. I would look forward to your service to be back to normal.

Follow up: Thank you very much for the consideration and response! I am reassured and thank you for taking my post seriously. I will let you know the next...

Just had dinner here few ours ago with my family. We were wowed how they handle their customers. From the time you entered the restaurant someone will acknowledge you and brings you to your seats. Staffs are all so nice and approachable. No wonder they have a good customer service here because they have the best GM. I want to say thank you for the great dining experience. We were family of three and we were taken good care. Our orders came on perfect time. All fresh and I can truly say their foods are amazing! Their wooden pizzas are the best! My daughter who is petite just left one slice of Margherita Pizza. She really loved it! She said it was like the pizza we ate in Italy 🇮🇹 few months ago when we were on vacation. Another excellent pizza which I forgot the name was the pizza with pistachios and honey. A unique pizza! Never tried anything similar like this before and never regretted to try this. Another excellent choice was the wagyu meat ball with curry sauce. We also had Mushroom Pappardelle, fried calamari and Brussels sprouts. For desserts, we had tiramisu, scoop of ice cream ( mango and strawberry flavor), Panna cotta and vanilla latte. OMG, Panna cotta and tiramisu were also winners! I love the presentation! It's a fine dining way! Instagrammable! Salute to those in the kitchen who works so diligently in making all foods palatable. We were all satisfied! Whenever food is brought in to our table, staff will tell us about the menu giving us a brief what's in it making sure we are not allergic to anything on it. It's so good to see and make customers feel that they are really welcome in the place, makes you feel comfortable and making sure you will have the best experience. I think one of the guy who always comes to our table is one of the Managers there too. Always checking on us about the food we ordered and if we need anything else. Over all, 100% highly recommended this restaurant. We will come back again for sure. Ambiance is really good. I like the internal decorations. The patio is open too so you have options where you want to sit. Keep it up Good Son, Don Mills! You guys are amazing! I am looking forward to try your brunch...