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 Recommended for: Romantic Ambience

From a pretty inauspicious start a few years ago with a ridiculously inaccurate, biased and highly critical review from Amy Pitaki of the Toronto Star, Balsam as other reviewers have said, has turned around into an authentic European-esque bistro, which delivers great food, low key friendly and informed service as well as a good ambiance.

The chef proprietor - David Salter, exhibits a deft hand in the kitchen, turning out some real bistro classics - like sumptuous steak tartare, delicious robust bistro foods befitting a Canadian winter, as well as some lovely melt in the mouth desserts.

Service, once described as snooty and shambolic, is now right on the money - with the right degree of friendliness, professionalism - and the wine advice is top notch.

Take last Tuesday for example - we turned up for an early evening dinner, asked front of house to pair a couple of wines for both courses, and hey presto - a perfect bistro meal which was great value for money - under $90.00.

The Beach cries out for places like Balsam. A stroller-free zone for the most part, an adult ambience for a night away from the kids, cool jazz through the speakers - and 2 patios primed for summer bistro socializing, and I believe it is a winner.

Look up and down Queen Street, and with one or two exceptions from Woodbine to Victoria Park, unless you are a wings, burger or pizza afficionado, you'd starve to death! Balsam brings something much needed to "Prime Beach" - a good value Bistro, with a well put together menu and a small but perfectly adequate wine-list.

Improvements? Of course - the bread served with home made dip is not the best - needs improvement, and as someone else said, you might need a flashlight to read the menu at times. Other than that, Balsam is one I would now recommend without hesitation.

This place is a joke and has to be the worst restaurant in klienburg.

the quality of food was horrible and no creativity, what's so ever! it was just fish on a platter with no taste.

The Service started out weird, and schechy!

The server was running like he was just trying to save his job, and sweating all over my plate.

Way to over priced!

One thing that I noticed as well is the cleanliness. . The placed needs to be cleaned

So If you plan on attending, do your reasearch before you spend $300 like we did, and get screwed .

 Recommended for: Outdoor Dining, Romantic Ambience

Balsam has gone through a significant change of late, with the previous chef, one of the founders, moving on, and leaving the kitchen in the capable hands of David, again one of the founders.

From a terrible start back in 2007, with small plates, pricing which made eyes water, and some pretty bad food, things have turned 180 degrees and the food, service and value for money are now top notch.

Gone are the tiny portions, and in are robust bistro-style foods (the mac and cheese is fantastic). Couple that with a small room, rich in ambience, and a genuine wish to please, Balsam is now becoming a favourite of us.

It is obviously a very different experience from the Green Egg Plant down the road - high turnover, and frankly pretty bad service from over-stretched front-of-house staffers, but the price points can end up being the same, and you leave with a real feeling of satisfaction that your hard earned dollars meant something and bought a good meal.

Not all picture perfect of course - the music needs a little bit of work, the wine list needs some massaging and perhaps turning up the lights a little - but the food is much improved and worth a visit.

 Recommended for: Notable Wine List, Outdoor Dining, Private Parties, Romantic Ambience, Trendy Hot Spot, Vibrant Bar Scene

Everytime I get into Toronto for business I make sure and eat at Veritas. I have never been let down, the food has been quite simply superb. I have had both lunch and dinner there, and I can't stop raving about the place to my associates. I have asked about the Chef and his name is Brad Livergant who apparently was involved with the Platinum Club and other restaurants at the Air Canada Centre. This place has to be Toronto's hidden jewel. I can't believe how consistent and excellent the food is and how awesome the atmosphere is. I eat at a lot of different restaurants for both business and pleasure and I haven't found anything that comes close to the quality of Veritas. I have dined in some wonderful restaurants in New York, but they don't even hold a candle to this Toronto jewel.

Commensal is a very good price for value vegetarian restaurant. It\'s good when you\'re looking for a meal that will be both healthy and filling and different.. I discovered so many new ways to prepare food at Commensal. And the other interesting thing is: It goes by weight, so you only pay for what you got! and with their new Maximum Price Policy, you never pay more than 12,95$ for your meal at lunch and 15,95$ for supper.. (before they had that policy I know a few friends complained this was too expensive to go by weight... especially if you like their heavy desserts!!

They have a few Commensal in Montreal and Quebec city.

 Recommended for: 5 to 7/Happy Hour, Group Parties, Kids, Late Night Snack, Private Parties, Vibrant Bar Scene

What a great spot. Me and my husband have been a few times now and the food is spot on, the service is great and what really impressed us was the management. One of our dinners had a cold side dish and as soon as we made it known we had a manager at our table to apologize and chat with us. Was not contrived but really genuine. They really care! Wasn't necessary but great. Go and check it out. Will go back many times!

 Recommended for: Group Parties, Outdoor Dining, Private Parties, Romantic Ambience

"SUPERB ITALIAN RESTAURANT"

Highly recommended by friends, I went to Vecchio Frak to check it out for a possible office holiday lunch venue and was pleasantly surprised by its great food and exellent service . The place is very big but at the same time very cozy due to the beautiful lay out. I think it is a perfect restaurant for a romantic dinner or for a get together with friends. The food is authentic Italian; the salad was fresh and crisp and tasted as if the vegetables were hand picked from a home garden. I had the Fettuccine with the ragu' sauce, was excellent, I cleaned my plate in less than 15 minutes. My friend had the seafood risotto and she was equally pleased.

Best Italian on the Little Italy.
Would absolutely go back there again!

 Recommended for: Private Parties, Romantic Ambience

great place ! great food ! great surprise ! You have to try the ''all you can eat sushi'' and ''the Teppanyaki Tables'' are spectacular ! The Chefs are really concentrated when they prepare your food.
A pleasure for the eyes and palate ! Keep up the good work !

When is a Ten Ichi in Montreal ??????

I visited this restaurant and dined with a table of 4. The service was rude and condescending - to the point where guests to my home said they felt out of place in this establishment.

This may very well be the attitude of this establishment but it is absolutely unacceptable to treat people in this manner.

I will never visit this restaurant again and I will certainly be telling anyone and everyone I come in contact with to avoid it as well. I have never been so utterly appalled in my entire dining experience. To be frank, I have never felt so discriminated against in my life. They should be ashamed.

Thank you for your time - but not your hospitality.

I want to note the positives first - the food is quite good, besides the cold pizza my friend was served. The staff is extremely friendly, helpful and attentive. The service itself is sloooooow. We waited 1.5hrs for our mains to come out and weren't even comp'd some apps for the wait time. So here's the experience:

I made reservations here for the patio for a group of 14 for my 30th birthday. Two different people contacted me on 2 different days to confirm my reservation. Upon arrival, I noticed that the patio was full. When we got inside I was told that unfortunately they had the patio booked 2 weeks prior and they were going to put us in their best private room. Off to a terrible start as two employees confirmed my reservation 3 and 2 days before. To me, it was a guaranteed group so they filled up the patio before we got there. As mentioned before, we waited 1.5hrs before any of us got our main dishes. There were a number of issues that arose throughout the evening and we had made numerous requests to speak with the manager. Each time, the manager sent a server to take care of the matter. Close to the end of the night I was so fed up with the managers attempts at evading dealing with the issues that I approached him myself. He allowed me to voice my disappointment with my experience, however, I had to demand to have my meal refunded and also to use the card he gave us for "next time" on the same night. There is NO WAY I will ever return to or even recommend this restaurant to others. It's very unfortunate, because the food is quite good, the staff is great (albeit slow) the patio is great, but the management is terrible.

Not worth the price. I will not mention any other place serving the same kind of food way better for lower price so my review will not be miscontrued as advertising for a competition. Quesada just does not have the "it" factor.

Take, for example, their burritos. The meat is "blah", not bad but nothing special, nothing to crave for and yet they put very little of it. A small burrito that costs close to $7 if you add tax, will have about two table spoon of meat and lots of fillers -- white and/or black beans, rice, tomatoes, lettuce, etc. Even the 2-dollar snacker from a famous coffee shop has more meat.

I tried the quesadilla just the other day when I was not very hungry but needing a little fill. I thought quesadilla would be enough, volume-wise. Ugh, it was dripping with watery juice. Yes, watery, not oil from cheese as you would normally expect when you grill mozarella or cheddar.

The people there are friendly, but, hey, I didn't go there to make friends. I went there to satisfy my pallate.

It's still not a bad choice if you are caught hungry within an intersection or two.

1710 Queen St. W
Toronto, Ontario

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