I had seen La Veranda Osteria outside Royal York subway station for a few years now, admired their…read moreflower-festooned summer patio, and enjoyed the aromas wafting across the street. Finally, I visited for the first time. I had perused the menu extensively, as part of a quest to find an Etobicoke restaurant suitable for my Mother's upcoming Birthday Celebration. They had so many, appealing Italian and Italian-Canadian options, with pasta, veal, steak and seafood selections. My Mother wanted to check it out before committing to a family gathering, hence our recent visit. The restaurant is airy and spacious, with pleasant and elegantly simple decor. Its vibe is upscale casual. We were greeted and seated right away, and our delightful server offered us beverages and answered our questions about the menu. She was, throughout the meal, really excellent: charming, with a good knowledge of the menu and thoughtful recommendations. We started with some cheesy garlic bread, which was very enjoyable: a good artisan bread with plenty of garlic and melted cheese. They clearly had heeded our request for extra garlic. The stuffed pastas had been enthusiastically recommended by both the menu and the staff, so my Mother and I went for that. She had the Veal-Stuffed Ravioli, with pesto rather than rose sauce. I had the Manicotti Gratinato stuffed with ricotta, with a rose sauce. My daughter ordered the Gnocci with Pesto Sauce. All three choices were excellent, and I can highly recommend the pastas at La Veranda. Although we were feeling quite satisfied, we couldn't resist the European desserts. We shared house-made Tiramisu and the Italian, imported Hazelnut torte. They were both excellent. The Tiramisu was light and flavorful, and the Hazelnut torte was bursting with hazelnut flavor. The desserts were not too sweet, which is how we happen to prefer them. In short, everything was to our satisfaction, and more!! The prices were not to bad either. My Mother felt that this would be a great location for her birthday gathering, so we made the booking then and there. Evidently, we were not the only ones thinking along these lines, as it took a while to find a Saturday night which was not already booked up by large parties. If you want to book at La Veranda for a larger gathering, best to do it well in advance. We finally settled on an evening about a month away from the date of our visit. La Veranda is a wonderful place to gather and dine, from couples to larger parties. The washrooms are beautiful, the service is gracious and knowledgeable, and there is plenty of parking across the street at Royal York station. It is accessible to disabled diners as well. With excellent food, great service and amenities, La Veranda is worth consideration if you are in Toronto's West End.

Fantastic family friendly Italian restaurant in the Kingsway! Pizza, pasta, dessert, it's all…read moregreat. Good size portions as well. Excellent spot for a family birthday. Very accommodating and friendly service too. Been here time and again.

It was good and I liked it Service was quick…read moreAmbiance was nice Parking as anywhere in Toronto is an issue but I guess getting Uber is best way to enjoy the drinks

Figo's is a cute, but pricey casual Italian restaurant. It has a large bar and tiny bathrooms . The…read morepizza is a good wood fired or 800 degree style pizza. They have a limited menu that is too expensive for what you receive. While the waitstaff are pleasant, the manager/maitre'd is a "donkey". The manager is pompous and lacks common sense. He didn't want to seat me at 4:00 pm because he said at 5:00 it will be full. I said I just want a pizza then will leave. That should take 30 minutes. While he gave me a seat in the almost empty restaurant m, he's a jerk. I'll only return because the waitstaff is cool, pizza good and it's in an area I often walk through when downtown. I'm posting their menu it's quite limited. The downside to Figo is it's basically all carbs. It will be a while before I return, but if you go on a Monday night, enjoy the discounted pizza and pasta!

My friend and I came here for dinner on a Friday evening. We were seated upon arrival…read more Food: I ordered the fried mac and cheese balls ti start. They were pretty good and covered in sauce. For my entree, I had the butternut squash ravioli. It was good, and I enjoyed it. The bread it came with was also good. Service: Service was a little slow but they were pretty busy. Our food came out promptly without too much wait between our appetizers and entrees. Our server was a little scarce because of how busy it was. TL;DR - good mac & cheese balls and good ravioli, okay service

GOODNESS, I THOUGHT this would be a great bar to get a martini. I ordered an, "Espresso Martini w…read morevanilla vodka, a splash of Baileys and rocks on the side." I order this drink, this exact way, often. Bartender, (whom I believe was Sam) states they have NO vanilla vodka and then returns to say they have NO Baileys. Then she delivers my martini w/ a separate glass of ice. wtf?! Drink was acceptable but I guess I should've left and spent my $ elsewhere. I also could've been more specific and asked for DIRTY rocks on the side. However, I've never encountered an issue w/ other bartenders knowing this means the remaining ice from shaker. We were not impressed with her mixology or communication skills... Of all the fantastic bars in Toronto, we picked this one because of, I Love Lucy theme. We did not stay for dinner... what a regrettable experience.

Consistency is a good thing. Keeping up the consistency is not an easy task. Balancing this with…read morethe exceptional service makes Buca a pleasure every time.

This is a more upscale Italian restaurant. We received great service, and although the…read moreestablishment feels higher end, it is loud inside. The food is great but overpriced. The sea bass crudo and the pizza with truffles were the best items. There are tons of great Italian places in Toronto. Overall, great place to try for an occasion but not a place I would be returning twice.

We wandered into this lovely courtyard restaurant in Yorkdale Mall. The formal surrounding with…read morechandeliers brought high expectation of what was to come. Servers dressed impeccably brought us menus. And the dishes listed were equally impressive with the likes of caviar etc. We ordered: Grilled shrimp and vegetable salad Crab roll Chilean sea bass Afogato Bellini The bellini came late, so they gave me a complementary cookie as a gesture of apology. Thank you for that!! Everything tasted great!! If I have to give a suggestion, it would be the plating. It's very plain, which takes away the sophisticated theme of the restaurant. But I would go back again!!

Back again for another solid meal. Walked in at 6pm on a Friday and was seated immediately…read more Service was normal. Decor fantastic as usual. Had the ribeye steak which was cooked perfectly. Good char medium rare and served with what looks like premium pyramid shaped salt. Shared the chicken sandwich and it was above average. Wife had the chinese chicken salad and it was loaded with chicken. Overall, solid meal and a go to in Yorkdale.

was really looking forward to my visit to Ardo, especially given its Michelin recommendation, but…read morethe experience ended up feeling a bit underwhelming for me. We started with the octopus croquettes (special of the day I think), which unfortunately leaned quite fishy. The carpaccio was fine, pleasant, but not particularly memorable. As for the pasta, I struggled to find the right words for it; nothing was wrong per se, but it just didn't quite come together for me. I'll admit that I may not be deeply familiar with Sicilian cuisine, and I don't have extensive exposure to it, so this is very much from a personal perspective. Still, throughout the meal I found myself quietly sighing more times than I expected, which probably says enough about how it landed for me overall. It's also possible we ordered the wrong dishes. As we were leaving, I noticed many tables enjoying pizzas and other pastas, which made me wonder if those might be the stronger highlights of the menu. That said, from a Michelin-recommended restaurant, I did go in expecting everything to be solid across the board. The service, however, was amazing. I'd be open to giving it another try someday, perhaps with different orders. But this visit, unfortunately, didn't quite do it for me.

Food and service were great! And for a Michelin recommended restaurant, the prices were reasonable…read morefor the quality of food. Not to mention the service was excellent and attentive as well. My friend and I started with the beef carpaccio paired with complimentary sourdough bread and it was delicious! The meat was super high quality, and the toppings complimented the dish nicely. For our mains, my friend ordered the Con Le Sarde, a pasta dish featuring linguine tossed fennel pesto with anchovy & sardines. We worried the fennel would be overpowering because it's a strong spice, but honestly everything blended so well together to create a fresh tasting dish still with a lot of depth. Only suggestion I have is that it should've had more parmesan! I ordered the ragu, which was also delicious. I liked that the torchietti they used was made in house, and the sauce wasn't overly tomato-ey. Tomato based sauces aren't my first choice but I actually really enjoyed this dish so much I would order it again. It was hard not to inhale the whole thing, but I was pretty stuffed after finishing my plate. The restaurant's space is small and intimate without being overly pretentious. It's a great little dinner spot with some unique dishes and high quality food. Definitely recommend checking out this spot, not sure if they have a rotating menu based on the season, but it's sure worth a try!

Nice ambiance but lacking in flavour…read more Atmosphere: The restaurant has both an indoor space and a covered patio space, which is especially nice over the summer when the weather is warm. Went on a weekday for a work social and people were dressed casual to smart casual. Food: The food was a little disappointing, and was more of a modern interpretation of classic Italian food. The bruschetta had a bit too much tomato, and it was diced very finely and was on the watery side rather than the sweet or acidic side. The grilled calamari was interesting with the char, but the red bell pepper on the side tasted on the acidic/sour side, and could use more sweetness. The linguini was cooked well but didn't have the al dente texture of freshly made pasta and again, the tomato sauce tasted too watery and lacked the sweetness and tartness and there was no white wine taste. Service: The server was friendly and generally out of the way, but had trouble understanding us at times. There were a couple of us who were vegetarian and he had trouble hearing, and suggested pizzas with meat on them to the vegetarians, and so we had to repeat ourselves several times for him to understand. The food also came out quite slowly, especially the mains, and felt like we were sitting for a long time. They did clean the table off between courses, which was appreciated. Okay option if you're in the area, but had better food elsewhere.

Had a delicious meal here with my friend and her family!…read more As soon as we walked in I smelled garlic and Italian flavors. Great start to the evening! We had reservations and we were seated promptly. We shared the bruschetta. The tomatoes were very fresh and the focaccia bread was wonderful! For my entree I had capellini sardi, but I substituted penne for the capellini. The flavors in this pasta dish were wonderful! Everyone else enjoyed their dishes as well. Service was great. Drinks refilled as needed and we were checked on.

Had a lovely evening here! Ordered the $35 prix fixe dinner that included curried mussels (good…read moreportion, fresh and tasty, bread wasn't great), steak including mashed potatos and vegetables, and creme brulee (really creamy and delicious). Also ordered a pizza with olives, sun dried tomatoes, artichokes, and a good amount of arugula. The crust was thin without being floppy, the toppings were quite salty, good if you like salty olives. Atmosphere felt both intimate and casual. Our server was excellent. The food and atmosphere are both a casual and accessible interpretation of French and Italian food.

It took them forever for the staff to come and get us the menu…read more Then it took them forever to take our orders and serve us any food we ordered. They are totally understaffed. I dont think I could come back here. Food wise was more like home food you can make at home.