WVRST — Restaurant in Toronto

Brutal experience.

Arrived at 115pm thinking we'd get a bite to eat before a 2pm event at Scotiabank arena. The restaurant was about 1/4 full. We were seated immediately and told "our printers are broken, so you need to scan this to see our beer menu". OK, no big deal.

We placed our order at 120pm for a single sausage and a pretzel. At 145pm after 25 mins of a simple order, nothing on the table. I inquire what's going on and am told "your order will be out shortly" and I ask for the bill as we're now in a rush. When they come back with the machine and bill we're told "the kitchen just got the order" seconds after we pay.

I say this is nuts as we placed it 25 mins ago. Apparently the receipt printer in the kitchen was also broken, or at least this is what we were told. I explain we need to leave now and need a full refund as we can't wait any longer. The manager steps in and tells us "the kitchen has some problems", I told him I really didn't care what the excuse was, this shouldn't have happened, we just need our money back so we can leave. He tells me "there's no need to get upset". Upset? Because I asked for our money back so we could leave when you failed to deliver a basic order after 25 minutes? Not exactly showing any empathy for the customer here.

Anyways, the refund takes another couple of minutes, then we're told "we're giving you the food for free anyways", but we simply couldn't wait and go to leave. The manager tracks us down, says "it's being put in a bag right now", so we wait the extra minute.

I want to be clear that while the service was atrocious, if the food was good, I'd mention that. This is a fair review. But, it wasn't. $15 for an overcooked and dry sausage on a moderately stale bun, with a little cup of poorly sauteed onions. This was $15? Really? Way too high priced. The pretzel was "edible" I was told, but the raclette cheese "tasted like chemicals" for a nice surcharge of $4. Honestly, if we would have been served this, we would have sent it back and left anyways.

Restaurant was clean and had a nice atmosphere, there's no denying that. But, service was atrocious and the food was considerably overpriced and worse than you'd get from a street vendor,...

Ouch. Ordered the Juicy Lucy burger. First bite not only burned my tongue, it also burned my lips badly; I have a large blister on the inside of my upper lip, and a smaller one on my lower lip, even though it sat on the counter for a couple minutes while I finished something.

I love hot food like anyone else. However, when I bit in, I yelped while the bar tender happened to be right in front of me, delivering a couple pints to the customer next to me. They both looked at me and the customer asked if I was ok, yet the bartender did / said nothing. I had to ask for more napkins to hold my upper lip and the blood that followed from the blister popping, and I had to dip napkins into my beer to cool it. Personally, if a customer is burned you'd think it would be the staff, and not another customer, to ask if everything is OK or if help is needed.

I couldn't finish the $16+tax burger (no sides) because it hurt to bite into it. From what I could taste it was under seasoned - it needed salt at the very least.

Beer selection is good, though the beer warms quickly because the glasses are not chilled.

Overall, it is what I would expect from a neighborhood dive bar that serves European beer - not what I would expect from a specialty bar / restaurant in a premier location like the historic Union Station that charges premium prices.

I don't want to sound like a jerk. It's just that if you want to be a premier spot in a historic location, please do not treat customers like...

Honestly, I am pretty disappointed. I went at 9 PM, maybe it was a bad time.

However, if you are waiting for a train or around Union, wanting to grab a quick bite, watch TV and have some beer. This is the spot for just that. The bar area looked cozy and nice.

But we did not go for a quick bite. The bread was super dry & the duck fat fries tasted like regular fries, with no crisp shell and no umami flavours. The sausages were flavourless. I ordered one CurryWurst and one sandwich. The curry was pretty good, and the Bratwvrst sausage was good too. I recommend this.

However, the Boerewors sandwich, on the other hand, was terrible. The best part was that this bread wasn't dry, the cheese tasted good, and the Sauerkraut was delicious. Otherwise, it was dry and tasteless, just a big slab of unseasoned meat with a 5$ piece of cheese on top.

I don’t think this is a good place for a nice dinner with friends and family, especially with the washroom that needs you to leave the restaurant because it uses the public union washroom. (which isn’t pleasant, but I understand the convenience ) The service wasn’t excellent either. For the small amount of people in the restaurant, there were 2 people at the bar, yet none hardly ever came to the dining areas. I had to get up and walk to the bar multiple times to get help.

Hate to say this was one of the WVRST sausages...