Uncle Tony's — Restaurant in Toronto

This was an incredibly disappointing experience. Honestly, even 1 star feels too generous. If I could give 0 stars, I would. I just noticed that they only have 3.6 stars here, and it seems like they’re doing everything possible to lower that rating even further.

We stopped by for a quick dinner around 8 PM, planning to have some food, along with beers or wine, and enjoy some desserts. Unfortunately, the staff's rudeness made us feel extremely uncomfortable from the very beginning. Before we even placed our order, I asked about the dessert menu since it wasn’t included in the main menu. Rather than simply showing us the options, the waiter insisted we justify our order, as if we needed to 'qualify' to stay. It was our first time there, so we were still exploring the menu and discussing what else to order. We intended to start with a pizza while looking at other items on the menu. However, when I asked to see the dessert menu, the waiter immediately told us that we couldn’t dine there just for desserts. I clarified that we were also planning to order food and wanted to begin with a pizza. The waiter completely disregarded my request for the dessert menu and immediately started talking about a surcharge for sharing the pizza before we even decided what we wanted to order. His attitude and the way how he spoke to us left such a bad impression that we didn’t feel comfortable staying another minute. The absurd surcharge, the need to justify our order, and petty attitude made us feel not welcome there and we decided to leave.

I’d rather pay for a full dining experience at another restaurant than give a single dollar to that place. It wasn’t about the money—it was about the attitude. The fact that they felt the need to tack on an extra $5 for sharing a pizza is absolutely ridiculous. If they think that adding a $5 charge for sharing a pizza is helping their business, it's honestly one of the worst strategies I've ever seen. All it does is drive people away, including those who would’ve been happy to spend more. The way they speak to customers is downright humiliating. This is a serious issue, and it's the first time I’ve ever encountered anything like this.

We decided to leave and went to CRAFT instead, where we had an amazing time. The staff there was incredibly welcoming—especially after the poor treatment at Uncle Tony’s. Piano Piano next door also offers consistently great dining experiences.

I rarely leave bad reviews, but the attitude at Uncle Tony’s, along with their absurd surcharge, made this one of the worst restaurant experiences I’ve ever had. I’ll never return, and I’ll be sure to warn others to...

I made a reservation this evening through OpenTable for 7:00pm. At the time, it showed availability for all seating options. So I chose "standard" indoor seating. The reservation was accepted and confirmed. 2 minutes later, I received a notification that the reservation had been cancelled by the restaurant. I went back into OpenTable and saw that the time slot was still available but all seating options for 7pm and earlier only had Bar or Outdoor seating. The 7:15 time slot had standard seating available. So I booked that and, again, it was accepted and confirmed.

Rather than take it at face value and not wanting to walk up to the restaurant only to be told they did not have my reservation, I actually called them to confirm. The phone was picked up after 7 or 8 rings...no hello...no identifying opener that I had reached Uncle Tony's...just a man who barked, "Can you hold on a second?". I was not put on hold, but he continued a full conversation with someone else on another phone and I had the pleasure of listening to his fantastic customer service skills (I'm being sarcastic about that).

When he came back to me, he did not apologize or thank me for holding. He abruptly asked what I needed. I told him I wanted to confirm my reservation for 7:15. He asked when I made it and I told him I made it about 10 minutes earlier through OpenTable. He immediately said, "No. We can't take that. I am going to cancel it. We are cancelling all reservations made online." I asked him why they were then still accepting reservations online. He said, "That is OpenTable, not me. We don't have availability and I am cancelling your reservation now."

Rather than argue a clearly lost cause, I thanked him and said goodbye. I can't see myself trying to eat there at any time in the near future even though I just moved into the neighborhood, live 2 blocks away, and could have been a loyal customer. Once I find restaurants I like with good food and good service, I tend to frequent them often. I understand that during this time, restaurants are understaffed and very busy. However, the ones that will truly survive and thrive are the ones which know how to artfully and respectfully treat a potential customer, even though they may not be able to serve them at the time.

I cannot rate the food or the waitstaff service since I never went. But if this is the way people get treated before they even arrive to eat and spend money there, I think I will just vote with my feet and wallet and avoid this...

I usually only leave reviews if I really enjoyed the restaurant and just don't go again to the place if it is bad. However, I felt compelled to let people know how scammy this place is. I had a surprised birthday party there in which they pushed us to do a family style dinner because it was too difficult to serve 17 people. Not sure how that makes sense because if you have the capacity then you should be able to serve that many people.

They charged us $76 per person for just food. Food was decent but they gave us no where near that much. I added up the amount of food that came out and it added to just under $900. They charged us almost $1300 for just the food, not including drinks.

We ordered 2 Caesar drinks and one of them came back tasting like club soda. I told the owner and instead of just saying no problem, I will make you a new one, he spent 2 minutes arguing with me that it is not possible because he made it himself. I know they must've ran out of clamato after the first glass and probably filled the second glass with club soda hoping I would not notice. Terrible!

For dessert, he only gave us a limited selection until some of us asked about the other options. Basically, he was trying to get rid of his slow moving products, since he knows we already paid for the meal.

At the end of the night, he proceeded to charge us the full amount without deducting the $400 deposit we put for the reservation. First of all, I've heard of leaving a credit card for reservations, but I've never heard of a restaurant actually taking the money. The owner tried to pretend he didn't remember about the deposit.

This place was full of scams and not one moment did they try to make things right. Very disappointed. Please avoid this place at all cost. I understand the difficulty of running a business and only wish businesses success, but bad business has no place...