The Grenadier Cafe — Restaurant in Toronto

Generally, I’ve had a pleasant experience here. For over 23 years, I’ve had both sit down meals and snacks on both sides of the restaurant. It’s a beautiful atmosphere inside the park and I hope the restaurant remains for many years. However, recently, we had a negative experience on the Restaurant side. I went in with my daughter to sit down while waiting for friends to join us. The waitress came over and I ordered coffee, a scone, and cake for my daughter. The waitress immediately told me that they encourage people to eat on the other side if they’re just having snacks and started gathering up the menus. She seemed immediately resentful. I told her that our friends would likely be ordering a meal and to just bring the coffee for now and we would decide. I also asked her if that was really the Restaurant’s policy and she walked away from me and did not answer. We ended up moving to the patio and ordered three meals. The waitress continued to provide poor service, and I had to remind someone else who brought the food that my daughter had ordered cake. I also waited about 15 minutes after asking for a coffee refill. In the meantime, I looked around and saw that other people were just having coffee and not actual sit-down meals on the restaurant side and wished that we had been served by their waitress instead. I paid her a 10% tip that she didn’t deserve after providing poor service along with a bad attitude. She sighed when giving me the receipt and slapped it on the table Instead of handing it to me. I’m just wondering if this restaurant is under new management? I’ve been around using restaurants for a good number of years and I’ve never had a waitress suggest that I sit on the other side. It is pretty normal to sometimes order coffee and pie in a restaurant in North America. The grenadier restaurant isn’t in Paris or a five star restaurant to say the least, so perhaps they should talk to their staff and/or provide some people skills training and better direction. In the least, if you have a policy regarding where to sit for certain types of food, maybe put up a sign or ask people prior to...

Fare is family friendly and offers common diner style choices. They have a take out area with some indoor and outdoor seating, and a dine-in with a sit down menu and table service. The patios are lovely quiet spaces with lots of shade and trees. This review focuses on the take-out menu. If you want the dine in service enter the restaurant and walk toward the patio door where someone will seat you. Prices are higher and Dine-in service ends at 6pm.

This section covers take out. Dine-in dishes are further down:

The fries ($6.99) are great - crispy and thick cut, with a natural sweetness. We always enjoy them with a side of gravy ($1.49) - it’s not exactly home style gravy but tasty.

The chicken burger ($8.99) is okay. It’s definitely an industrial patty, but with a nice crispy outer coating. It costs extra to get cheese ($1.75) and bacon ($2), but the burger would be too bland without them.

The rice pudding ($4.99) definitely tends toward North American sweet, but it has a nice texture and just the right amount of plump raisins.

This entire meal with a Diet Pepsi was $33.90. A bit pricy but I imagine the rent they pay the park is outrageously high.

For dine-in:

The steak sandwich is very good! Cooked right to order (medium, next time I’ll go medium-rare) with freshly cooked mushrooms. Tasty and tender! Best thing we’ve had there so far.

The Caesar (3.49 for a side)salad has bottled sauce and store bought croutons, but still manages to be nice. Definitely ask for extra parm on the side.

The cheese and bacon burger (16.49) is NOT worth the price point. A frozen industrial patty.

It’s a cozy, simple experience. A lovely way to enjoy beautiful weather. If you’re tired of meeting friends at restaurants and cafes you’ll find this a lovely alternative, plus you can walk into the park with your meal and enjoy it in a number of settings (just don’t leave garbage behind). Or come here on your own with a book, it’s the perfect setting for it. I tend to hit the trails for a hard bike ride or demanding jog, then sit down and decompress with some much...

For the past FIFTY years or so the Grenadier Restaurant has been an excellent historic venue situated in the centre of one of the spectacular urban oases you could ever imagine. Thank you so much to the Grenadier Group who took over ownership in the mid-1980's for maintaining the huge "tree" in the front servery as the restaurant's tribute to its location in High Park. The menu prices have, understandably, gone up in the past few years but considering the magnificent location and the good food this should be quite acceptable. There is a large outside patio for the cheaper TAKE-AWAY from the servery as well as a lovely shaded deck area for the more expensive DINING ROOM. Meeting a group of my mature (....and not OLD) friends from our local high school our early group tasted a couple of raspberry and blueberry scones ($3). Although a tad dry they were very tasty and washed down with copious amounts of excellent bottomless cups of coffee ($2.50) attended to constantly by our cheerful, very friendly, and extremely attentive and efficient servers. SHOUT-OUTS AND THANKS TO YOU ALL!!!! There are ALL-DAY BREAKFAST as well as lunch selections and we settled for a bit of both. The EGGS BENEDICT ($16) were nicely poached and covered in tasty Hollandaise sauce. The GREEK SALAD ($15) seemed a bit pricey for a salad but it was a proper Greek style, which is hard to find in Toronto. The GRILLED CHICKEN SANDWICH ($17.50) was tender and complemented by a fresh focaccia bun. The CHEESE and BACON BURGER ($16.50) started well but then I realized the star of the show was the thick and meaty strips of bacon and not the burger patty. That turned out to be a somewhat bland and pre-formed affair and not prepared in-house as I had remembered from before. No beer, wine or booze thanks to John Howard who deeded his farmland to the City of Toronto in 1873 on the condition that alcohol would NEVER be served. On the positive side, it does keep you tab...