Bistro '67 — Restaurant in Whitby

We visited Bistro '67 for the first time this past Saturday night. We had received many recommendations over the past few years and finally had an opportunity to give it a try. While making reservations on-line, I perused the menus to see what we could expect. The menu is quite descriptive and will either further entice you with its creativity and unusual ingredients and combinations (pickled lotus root on the Korean Burger, for example) or completely turn the less adventurous off. Keep an open mind, you'll be pleasantly surprised. The dining room is tastefully decorated, clean lines, modern lighting, lots of natural light from the large windows. We started with the "Fried Green Tomatoes" and the "Mushrooms on Sourdough" and from the first bite, I knew we were in for flavourful treat that night. It was instantly obvious that presentation was regarded as highly as taste. The dishes were equally as pleasing to the eye as the tongue. For entree's we ordered the "Jerk Half Chicken" and the pasta of the week. Both dishes were plentiful and packed with incredible flavours. The staff was attentive, perhaps a little too much so, but not enough to be considered annoying. They were though, extremely versed on the dishes being served as to the ingredients used and where they were sourced. It was explained though that most of the vegetable are grown right on the premises in gardens attended by the culinary students. The dining room actually overlooks the gardens where the menu ingredients come from. The wine list is in keeping with the theme of locally sourced, offering many Ontario VQA's but we opted for a Cab Sauv from Sonoma (big fans) instead. It's not an extensive list but there's something there to please every palate and accompany each entree. So, why not five stars? Simple- the acoustics in the dining room are probably the worst I've encountered in the hundreds of restaurants that I've visited. There are absolutely no soft surfaces or sound absorbing materials used in the decor and together with the very high ceilings create an atmosphere that sounds reverberate off making it nearly impossible to have a meaningful conversation. Even the wait staff had to compensate by over emphasizing their dialogues. This could be easily overcome with some simple decor additions, wall panels etc. With that said, I certainly wouldn't let that deter me from returning; in fact as soon as the fall menu becomes available, we'll be right back to enjoy. Give it a try, you won't be...

My wife and I visited recently for the first time. Starting with the atmosphere. The restaurant has a simple but modern decor. The furniture offers some natural warmth. One side of the restaurant is all windows. The far end has windows all around. This provides a view of the vegetable garden and campus as well as allowing plenty of natural light in.

Service was very quick and attentive for the first half of our time there. We were seated right away. We had our water glass filled and fresh bread brought to us. During the latter part of our time the staff were focused on cleaning up for the night. Our water glasses were left empty. I was not offered another beer. We had to get someone's attention to get more water. For the price of food being charged, service should be attentive throughout the time there. I want to be clear that the staff were courteous at all times and this is more of a constructive criticism for future improvement.

Let's talk about what most people are interesting in and that's the food. As I mentioned above, they brought us fresh bread to start. It was a house made focaccia with beet hummus. The hummus had a very subtle flavour that was overpowered by the bread but it provided a smooth and cool contrast from the warm focaccia.

For our order, I decided to go with only appetizers while my wife stuck with a main course. I ordered the Portobello Bao, Chickpea Panisse, Smoked Pickerel & Potato Croquettes, and Buttermilk Brined Chicken Wings. My wife had the House Made Agnolotti.

Both the chickpea panisse and croquettes were beautifully golden brown with a good crisp. More importantly, they tasted good. The portobello bao had a lot of potentially but the portobello marinade was excessively salty. They brought the wings last with my wife's agnolotti. It was a bowl of 12 wings which was a lot more than I expected. Sadly, it was over fried to the point that there were burnt spots. It was clearly left too long in the frier and the burnt taste was in every bite.

I expect the kitchen to be more consistent with the quality of the food considering the way they priced it. I do like the concept of a school run restaurant and using their own grown vegetables. For now I'm giving it a 4 star review but I hope to have an improved experience next...

I just experienced my least favourite dining experience, ever. Ive always wanted to try this place, knowing the culinary and hospitality students are involved. How miserably disappointing!

The salad had large chuncks of woody, chewy, nasty parsnip. The rest of the salad was okay, but ruined by occasional mouthfulls of inedible parsnip. The carrot and coconut soup was absent of any hint of coconut and seasoning and was over spiced.

The lamb korma was awash in oil and it was impossible to discern what the meat actually was. It could have been beef, lamb, or even goat. The accompanying vegetables were raw (not undercooked, but raw), and the rice was bland and nondescript.

We had different desserts. My wife's coconut flan was actually a creme caramel, except the custard was chalky with and unpleasant texture. I opted for the lemon tiramasu. It turned out to be a dense white cake with a thin layer of lemon mascapone cheese between the layers. Neither dessert was even close to our expectation based on the description.

All of that was washed down by a $64 bottle of VQA gamay red wine. It had the colour and body of Kool-aid with unpleasant topnotes of engine oil and bottom notes of bitter herbs. There was nothing remotely pleasant about the wine.

Serving staff constantly asked us to hand them plates and appeared to be poorly trained in hospitality standards.

To top off our unpleasant experience, our validated parking pass refused to allow the exit gate to open. A press of tge "help" button resulting in an officious security guard who refused to let us out, the machine indicating that $28.10 was owing for the 1¼ hoursw we were parked. Finally, after providing our names, etc, the woman reluctantly opened the barrier. After $250 and a terrible experience, we were finally allowed to leave.

I hate fast food, but a trip to Burger King would have been infinity more pleasurable.

I can only assume that the culinary arts teaching staff at this establishment adhere to the old adage that, " those who can do and those that can't teach." The students need better more qualified instruction, or significantly more supervision and remedial...