TONI — Restaurant in Dublin

This was our first time eating at Toni and our food and server was AMAZING. We had a dinner reservation under “Daniela” for 8pm on the 24th of April and left at 9.30pm.

The manager on duty is one of the most unprofessional people I have ever encountered in the hospitality industry. We were charged €12 (as we got two bottles) for our water unknowingly until we received the bill. We had asked for water but our waitress did not specify that we had the option of bottle or tap. When we asked for water she said “okay” and brought us a bottle, giving us the impression that the only option was the water in the glass bottle. As a server myself the past 8 years and a manager the last 4 years, you need to be disclosing if there are additional costs to items to avoid the issue we ended up having at billing.

Regardless, Toni was understaffed and this waitress was the only one taking orders, running food and drinks, bussing tables and billing them out. She did a fantastic job basically running the restaurant on her own and her not mentioning the additional cost is not why I gave the service a 1 star. She deserves 5 stars plus for her service.

Her manager on the other hand is astonishingly horrible at his job and I don’t know how he is the manager. Shocking is an understatement. The manager sat behind the main counter pouring himself a coke and stood there drinking it as he watched her running around like a chicken with her head cut off.

Correct me if I am wrong, but in my 12 years of hospitality and being a manager myself, management is supposed to be SUPPORTING your staff, not standing there. We watched him polish wine glasses when the wine glass rack was already full and this waitress was triple sat running food and bussing tables. This lazy man couldn’t even buss the tables for her to ensure Toni’s was running as smooth as possible last night. I guess his Coke was too delicious to put down to help the restaurant. In my hour and half there I saw him run food to ONE table.

When our waitress brought our bill at the end we had mentioned that we were not informed that there was a cost to the bottle watered or else we would have gotten the tap. She went to get her manager to see if the cost could get voided and this is when I had the delight of speaking to such an intelligent individual.

He proceeded to tell me that we had order bottled water. First of all, he wasn’t there when we placed our order so how he knows what kind of water we ordered is beyond me. He then asked us if we drank the water. Well, to the human eye the bottle was empty and our glasses were full. So I am going to make an outlandish assumption and say yes, we drank the water.

The point is, you cannot be charging customers for items when they are unaware there is a charge as it is not disclosed. Again, I am NOT blaming the waitress she was VERY busy and her lazy manager couldn’t step in to help her as her colleague called in sick hence them being understaffed. The manager should have apologized for the miscommunication and taken care of the water bottles as it was an honest mistake. Instead, he stood there challenging us at the table the whole time saying “you ordered bottled water and drank it”. Never have I ever had a manager argue a customer constantly, and for so long. You apologize, fix the mistake and go on with the night by helping your staff be as successful as possible for the evening (which in case you didn’t catch my drift, he didn’t do). He did void one water bottle though so I’ll give him that!

Food was 10/10 our waitress 10/10 the...

This was the third time we had eaten here, having come from Glasgow on all occasions. The first two visits were very good on all fronts: food, service and ambience, hence why we made Toni a must stop on this, our most recent visit.

It was a disaster from start to finish.

I have pondered long and hard about the why of this. The first times we dined there it was early evening and that was definitely a determining factor. This time, we arrived a title later at 9.00pm and, although the website claimed not to close until 11.00pm, it was clear on arrival that this was not the case. Within minutes, the restaurant had emptied and the sole waiter had all but put his jacket on. Quite possibly, he had had a hard day. He was certainly in no mood for our joviality.

We ordered three mains and a pizza to come at the same time, sensing the ticking clock. The carbonara was edible, if a little on the bland side. This was a major disappointment as both times previously it had been excellent (and I say that as a connoisseur of carbonara). The puttanesca, quite frankly, could have been eaten by an eight month old. To say it could have been served as a school dinner is insulting to school dinner ladies/gents across the country. The prawn pasta dish was edible, if not particularly flavoursome. The saving grace was the pizza which we devoured (on account of hardly touching the two mains).

As with many experiences in Temple Bar, the night could have been rescued with some Irish hospitality. Having frequented Dublin, often, for the best part of thirty years, it would be naive to expect high end food in the Temple Bar area but generally what you can be assured of is good service and certainly with a smile. Certainly, this had been our experience on previous occasions in Toni where the waiting staff were lovely and very professional.

Unfortunately, the one waiter looked like he had just come off the set of Dr Zhivago. Cold doesn’t begin to describe him.

All in all, it pains me to write this, but it also pained me to be treated so shabbily in a place that I thought was welcoming , in a city I...

We went here because of the good reviews and TikTok but clearly the reviews are falsified as this was hands down the worst experience me and my 4 friends have ever experienced. The service was absolutely terrible. Our starter plates were left on our table for 30 min after we had finished them. When the main course came they brought all our plates except one and left my friends plate on the kitchen counter for 5 minutes. We were tempted to get up and take it ourselves but felt uncomfortable to do so just waited. The two waitresses made us feel extremely unwelcome and uncomfortable, as if we were putting them out by existing. It took them 10 minutes to bring us a drink and when we asked for anything we were met with huffs and rolling eyes. We are all a shy group of girls so we were polite and didn’t ask for much or complain but we have been left really shook by the experience and can’t understand why we were made to feel like we were doing something wrong by dining in a restaurant. We were walking on eggshells the entire time afraid to say a word. Do places of business not want.. business? I can’t speak for the chefs, I’m sure they were nice people but unfortunately the spaghetti was like straight out of a chicken flavoured koka noodles packet and my friend had a hair in her pasta. But again, we are quiet so we didn’t alert them to this or complain. I would really recommend anyone giving this a try would proceed with caution and to prepare yourselves to feel horrible for the duration of your stay here. Although hopefully this review will prompt them to make some changes as it would be a shame for the owner of a new restaurant to...