Vagabondo Restobar — Restaurant in Toronto

atmosphere: love the lighting, decor, and layout. not too bright and not too dimly lit. art decor leans more torwards contemporary pop culture, but its not that ugly or in-your-face. love that the floral decor is real and arent fake plastic flowers, pleasantly surprised at the effort. layout of the restaurant is visually clear and not crowded. not sure if theres a wheelchair accessible entrance, didnt see one at the front of the restaurant, but theres no stairs once you enter the restaurant.

service: attentive staff, its easy to get their attention and theyre very accomodating for dietary restrictions and preferences. they seem to always ask if you have any dietary restrictions which is nice. complimentary bread with butter and some sauces 👍 i can only describe my interactions with the staff as pleasant and polite, although talking about the wine menu leaves something more to be desired.

only major issue i had was when i asked for a wine rec to go with my linguini vongole. its not that i dont know what pairs well with this dish, but i asked because i wanted to know what the server thought and if he had anything to add. it wouldve been nice if he elaborated on why besides just saying "chardonnay or riesling". it also wouldve been nice to hear whats good about the riesling i ordered, like expected aromas/flavors/tannins etc.

food: arrived in a timely manner after ordering. the linguini vongole wasnt bad, but it was a little bland. i ended up asking for some salt, which the server did bring quickly and i appreciate him for that. the food wasnt cold, but it wasnt hot either. the pasta was a bit solid and there was a little resistance while i was trying to pull it apart and mix it.

one of the clam shells was missing a clam. while unfortunate, im not terribly bothered by that. but for a dish priced at 30+, i cant say im not a little disappointed to the attention to detail here. there were also 2 whole and a quarter of a bay leaf in my pasta, but i dont know if thats normal since i dont often eat pasta at restaurants.

we also ordered the antipasto misto for our group of 6. the food itself was great, but the tongs were annoying to use. theyre really rigid and it becomes a struggle to use them, not to mention theres no clean space on the board to put them. your hands will inevitably get dirty with grease from the food that gets on the tongs. on that topic, the olive oil and vinaigrette bottles that came with the complimentary bread were greasy as well.

overall impression: i might revisit this restaurant because the service isnt bad, and maybe issues with my dish was a one-off thing. i would still like to try their other dishes and drink menu, but this restaurant wouldnt be my first choice for italian. solid...

We came to Vagabondo for a birthday celebration and the service and experience we had could only be described as subpar at best. I arrived later than my party did to the restaurant and upon my arrival I was given no cutlery, no water, and no menu. I disregarded this because it was clear that the waiters were busy, and I wanted to give it the benefit of the doubt. When our server, Jeffrey, came to take our food order I ordered a drink and specified that I was ready to order food as well, however the server ignored that and proceeded to take my friends order, I had to get the servers attention afterwards to order my food. My friend specified to the server that she wanted a tomato sauce based pasta that isn’t bolognese, due to the fact that she has a beef allergy. After ordering food my friend also ordered a drink. Our food arrived, my pasta was over cooked, and my friend received a pasta that was clearly bolognese, when she asked the servers about this they insisted that it was not bolognese. At this point she still did not receive her drink even though she had been waiting for it for 30(!) minutes. After another 10 minutes of waiting we had to ask another server to bring her her drink. At the end of our night, when we received our bills we noticed that there had been an automatic gratuity applied to our bills. This is understandable as most restaurants do this for parties over a certain number of people, however it is required that clients are notified of an automatic gratuity being applied to their bill. No one from our party was notified of this and the level of service we received definitely did not warrant the gratuity amount. We also noticed that my friends bill literally had ‘1 spaghetti bolognese’ on it which would mean that the servers were flat out lying to us when they said it wasn’t bolognese. We asked to speak to the manager, Mai, who proceeded to make excuses for the service we received. At this point the other servers started clearing our table and we felt like we were rushed to leave even though some members of our party were still finishing their food and drinks. The manager ended up letting us know that the gratuity cannot be reversed and only refunded my friend for the bolognese. As someone who has extensive experience working in the restaurant industry, I understand how busy restaurants can get and that mistakes can happen, however this treatment and how the staff went about resolving our issues is completely unacceptable for a restaurant of this caliber, price, and location. Extremely disappointed with...

Came by the restaurant for a birthday dinner and had high hopes but it was unfortunately pretty average overall at the end.

DRINKS Had an Amaretto Sour cocktail and it was delicious! Sweet and sour at the same time, which was perfectly balanced

FOOD They also provide sliced baguettes and butter for the table as well I ordered the Spaghetti Alla Carbonara for pasta. Presentation was nice and the temperature was very warm/hot, always a thumbs up in my books But the dish itself was a bit on the salty side and the sauce was way too heavy with cream/butter, making it a chore when nearly finishing the dish Also, it’s really on the expensive side as well as it was $28. In comparison, the best pasta dish (now my personal gold standard for all pastas) I had in Rome, Italy a few weeks ago goes for 11€ which coverts to roughly $14.50

SERVICE Service was very average because after our main courses came by, our server never really followed up with us. We asked for more water almost 3 times over a span of 15-20 minutes. I get that it’s a busy Saturday night service, but we were just a small party of 6 We even asked if they could bring out a special surprise or dessert for the birthday girl after dinner and they failed to deliver on that request. Even though the tables in our section were receiving the same birthday treatment we were looking for, guess not!

SIDE NOTES Use extreme caution when trying to enter this establishment through the main/front door as it made of a solid material which you can can’t see through and it opens outward to the street; only because as we were entering, a server came flying from inside the restaurant with food in hand (rushing to the front patio) and the door in question almost smacked my girlfriend, way too close of a call for me - The server did approach us afterwards and apologized nonetheless Please avoid having an espresso after dinner at this place as it was just the most depressing thing I’ve ever seen. No crema, pretty much ice cold (they probably forgot about it on the bar) and did not provide a sugar packet or spoon either. Being in Europe for a month really set my standard high, but this was just awful. They only have 4 individual/private washroom stalls, noticed they had a lineup of 4-6 people at times

FINAL THOUGHTS Overall, I’d have to rate this place 3 stars for its overall service, tastiness of the dishes/dishes and value for your money.

Drinks - 4 out of 5 Food - 3 out of 5 Service - 2.5 out of 5 Value - 2.5 out of 5

Would I come here again? Probably not for a...