Zia's Place — Restaurant in Toronto

Was super excited to try this spot since being a fan of Pasta Forever since the early pandemic days! Sadly, the experience didn’t live up to the hype. I get that it was opening weekend, so I’m hoping this comes across as constructive feedback, not just critical.

To start, I had booked my reservation on Touchbistro before the reservations were officially released - unfortunately there was no way for me to contact the restaurant to confirm whether this was still valid.. I tried through the booking system to no response. However, I received a request to confirm so figured everything was good to go!

Once arriving at the restaurant, the host let me know that Opentable was their new booking system so they were attempting to seat "the Touchbistro people". We were seated at the worst table—right by the front door and over a freezing cold AC vent (silly me decided to wear open toe shoes). This felt a bit like we were being punished for booking early especially as I technically booked BEFORE all other customers.. why weren't the reservations moved over or at least made us not feel like inferior "Touchbistro people"? Of course, his friend who arrived shortly after was somehow seated at a table with no reservation, not to mention also received his food before our app arrived. We were not given a menu (happily retrieved this myself) and water (a server apologized later for this oversight). No big deal, just small oversights. But then we ordered two glasses of wine, both served far too cold, which really muted the flavours.

After waiting what felt like forever, we received our app - the fried pizette was tasty and fun though fried dough is definitely a cheat code though the stracciatella that accompanied could've benefited from a bit more acidity to balance the richness.

Sadly, the mains which we came for were the real disappointment. The filled pasta was barely warm, and flavourless, the rapini was cold (intentional perhaps?) and the sauce very anchovy forward. The ragu pasta had better flavor and the braised meat was tasty, but the temperature was strangely inconsistent—some bites were hot, others just lukewarm. It gave off a bit of a reheated vibe, which felt off for a place that prides itself on fresh pasta.

At this point, we were ready to just call it a night. Server seemed unbothered that the food was not finished nor did we want to pack it to go. At no point did anyone ask us how our experience or food was. We paid, skipped dessert, and went somewhere else to end the night on a better note.

We were really looking forward to this dinner, especially after following Pasta Forever for so long, but the experience just didn’t feel quite ready. From the start, we felt neglected—like we weren’t really a priority and left quite let down from the food (regretting the babysitter expense now). Hoping they can iron out the kinks!

TL;DR: Big fan of Pasta Forever, but opening weekend was disorganized. Lukewarm pasta, and uneven service made the overall...

I’m sharing these critiques as an attempt for the restaurant to provide a better experience for their future customers.

It started off with us waiting a considerable amount of time (maybe 20-30min) for our second round of drinks. We politely asked our waitress if they were on their way. She didn’t realize that the drinks had been sent to another table and so she got us our drinks right after.

Once our appetizers came in, we sliced right into the arancini and realized that the cheese and surrounding rice in the middle was cold. A little hesitant to bring it up, we politely informed our waitress. Her response “and what would you like me to do with that” was likely coming from a lack of understanding, but came across dismissive of our concern. We asked if we get it hot, which seemed like an obvious expectation to us. Note that we were seated right next to the kitchen and could hear the slight “it’s okay just do it”.

It came back to us cold again, but we decided not to push further. The pizzette we ordered was incredibly salty, almost inedible. We also ordered the fried seafood, which was alright, but also veryyy salty.

We sat there with the appetizers barely consumed on our table for over an hour. Feeling that they were waiting for us to finish, I told the waitress that we would like pastas. I want to mention that we asked about her favorite pasta and her advice on choosing our second pasta. Right away she dropped off to-go boxes on our table with a paper bag, which kinda felt like “can you pack up and leave” since I said she can leave the appetizers on the table while we wait for our mains. We waited another 30-40min for our mains to arrive until we got fed up and decided to just cancel them. At this point we had been waiting almost two hours. Our waitress was flustered when we brought it up because the mains allegedly never got sent to the kitchen “due to a mixup on open table”? Sounded a bit odd to us but we didn’t care at that point and just wanted to leave.

Some general context to this evening: we were one of the first tables seated in the restaurant and directly infront of the kitchen/bar so the staff could see exactly what was on our table. Our waitress only checked up on us prior to the arancini event and then we had to continuously try to flag someone down. The restaurant was also half filled so it felt odd that we were so easily forgotten on multiple occasions when we were seated in their direct line of vision.

Overall terrible experience, and for that reason I’m out lol. I will never be back again but hopefully the restaurant can address these concerns for future customers (ones that are not their...

Follow @bredgyeats for more food videos!

A fateful chance encounter, walking down Dundas West, when this new restaurant caught my eye. I am so glad I decided on a whim to try this place out, as their handmade pastas are well-executed with thoughtful flavours and beautiful ingredients. The Pansotti was the standout. The wonton shaped pastas are perfectly al dente, with just enough chew to cradle to smooth, delicately salted cod filling. The fish brings a subtly sweet umami, that's enhanced by the silky lemon chive butter and topped with trout roe, little bursts of salty brightness. The "rigatoni" dish was made with fusilli tonight, lucky me. It has a bouncy chew that reminds me of thin tteokbokki. The robust ragu of tender pork shoulder is swimming in a rich, herbaceous nduja-tomato sauce that brings a spicy tang and savoriness. Each hearty bite is further enhanced with grated parmigiano, basil and a drizzle of olive oil.

The desserts were also a delight. I couldn't resist ordering their tiramisu after biting into their sweets plate, which starts off with a not too sweet fennel orange hazelnut biscotti. It has a lovely crunchy and toasty texture, with a distinct herbaceous aroma that's elevated with a hint of orange zest and fragrant nuttiness of the hazelnuts. The peach ricotta cookie sandwich is buttery, aromatic and just a touch bitter that's balanced by the creamy ricotta. The pistachio amaretti was the best bite, lightly crisp outside, moist and chewy inside, with a beautiful marzipan and nutty depth. The tiramisu is constructed just the way I prefer it, generous on the fluffy and moist lady fingers, light mascarpone cream, and an intense...