With both its big-budget-but-bland, hotel-ish interior and shockingly hip patio (a big redeemer), the restaurant stands tall and confident among its pricey peers. It’s that hazy dichotomy that makes One a partial success – or on the other hand, a nice, noble hotel restaurant. While not quite a sleeper, it’s definitely a worthy Yorkville addition. -DE
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Hazelton Hotel, 118 Yorkville Avenue, Toronto, ON
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14 Reader Reviews
It was a beautiful sunny day and I not only wanted to sit outside at what seemed to be a really lovely terrace but it was a restaurant owned by one of Toronto's most notable chefs. I expected a good experience. Well I was very disappointed. The maitre'd was pretentious and rude. She left us standing for a long period of time pretending to anguish about where to sit us when there were numerous empty tables (it was 2:30 pm). She seemed to kow tow to certain people but was generally rude. The service was slow and the servers unattentive. The food was nothing more than just OK. We had a Cobb salad which was fine but far from great and the price for lunch for 2 with no alcohol was around $80. Perhaps if the overall experience was spectacular and the food was great, it might have been worth it but alas it was not.
Mark McEwan where are you??? You seem like a person with high standards. Why not start getting involved in this below par establishment. After all, it has your name attached.
Elaine Wasserman's Rating: 1 Stars |
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Okay. Second time here, only to hear the waitress say "Fucking Cheap People" in regards to the table next to us (regarding the bill).
Unprofessional and immature. Left me utterly flabbergasted.
Please don't go here, unless you want to watch a soap opera.
Every step you take, you cease to find anything spectacular.
Yorkville is way overrated.
Kitty's Rating: 1 Stars |
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It's a place where old wanna be rich farts try to impress yonge girls...distrubing crowd
Aden's Rating: 1 Stars |
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We went for Sunday breakfast. The speed, friendliness and skill of the server was sub par given that it was Sunday morning at 10:00. Seating was fine but the table wobbled even after they tried to fix it by putting a pebble under it??? The pancakes were a "10" but unfortunately were overshadowed by the over-cooked scrambled eggs (breakfast is dining as well!!!). All in all not an overly impressive spot for breakfast but a great location.
PS> The coffee was excellent so we may go back in order to be "seen" while drinking our "cafe lattes".
Leo's Rating: 2 Stars |
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First, I must note that I am not picky, nor do I have ridiculously high standards when I go out to bars or restaurants. Having said that, I could not believe the lack of professionalism that ONE has.
On service:
1 - Arrived, and though the hostess was extremely nice and super cute, there was some confusion about where we could sit. We've never been here before, not sure what is what, but kind of got the feeling we should seat ourselves?
2 - Ordered a bottle of wine, which they didn't have. The server suggested another bottle, and charged us for the more expensive one. (we are not cheap, just demanding of simple restaurant etiquette in what is supposed to be 'fine dining' - in a restaurant with a lower price point this is not expected)
3 - Our desserts arrived before our wine was opened.
4 - Our desserts arrived before our water was poured (the first thing we ordered)
5 - Our server disappeared, and we were left wondering when he was going to refill our wine glasses (He was was nowhere to be seen for the most part, and would appear at odd times...timing was off)
6 - We asked to move to the lounge. We paid our bill. He made no effort to "show" us where the lounge was, or simply inform us whether or not we could seat ourselves...some sort of instruction would have been nice...we've never been here before.
7 - In the lounge, he brought us our wine with new glasses. We said the old glasses were fine. He insisted. My friend said no, the glass was dirty. He didn't hear her. I repeated it. He didn't hear me. She repeated it. After three times, he still managed to pour the wine into the dirty glass, and when he noticed our 'distress,' he shrugged his shoulders. I finally had to transfer the wine from the dirty glass into her old glass myself. Not only that, he filled our wine glasses too much, to avoid bringing a chiller, AND he spilled the wine while pouring it. All this...was the worst. Everything else could be forgiven but any DECENT server would at least take the time to listen to a VERY simple request.
Atmosphere
1 - Maybe because we arrived late (around 10:30 on a Sun), but it seems like we were in a very 'busy' cafeteria, NOT a dining room. Why? Servers were walking back and forth like madmen, looking very important 'strutting' I suppose...BUT NOBODY SEEMED LIKE THEY WERE GETTING SERVED! At the very least, with all these people in black shirts moving about, our server was nowhere to be seen. And when I tried to get the attention of another server because ours was nowhere to be seen, she thought I was smiling at her (sure, she's SOOO important) not because I perhaps needed something, even though I WAS WAVING???
2 - I could see a server drinking coffee from where I was sitting.
3 - They were carrying garbage through the restaurant
4 - They were taking apart tables even though there were customers still inside
Yes...I get the point... maybe they were closing down, but perhaps you'd want to close the doors to customers before you start taking things apart??? I'm fine when it's in a bar, or when you're paying 10 dollars for a burger somewhere, but come on...with all they claim to be???
Overall, service was horrible, timing was off, and the servers (and manager?) were not even pretentious or "hip," they were just immature.
Here's a tip: If you want fine dining, head over to Opus. The staff are unpretentious, mature, attentive and quiet, they've got a heck of a wine list, and you can expect professionalism every step of the way. Moreover, the crowd's better...They're not trying to be.
If you want good food, good service and good atmosphere, you can probably find more of it in your local pita pit than you could find here.
Beware!
Kitty's Rating: 1 Stars |
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Me and my boyfriend have been here a couple of times. Most recently was on June 4th, for dinner. Amazing meal -
Started with the cured meat plate (various meats with buffalo ricotta and spiced olives), my bf had the burger (which is amazing) and I had the lobster risotto (which I noted was still the 'specialty' dish since the last time we were there).
All the food was amazing as always.
Service was great, a touch slow but my bf always had a full drink.
We sat on the patio which even though it was a bit chilly was beautiful because of the heat lamps. Great atmosphere, great people watching spot.
Margarita R's Rating: 4 Stars |
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Extremely rude waitress actually said 'fuck ' when she brought us our coffees. Complained by email. No action was taken. I do not know how somebody gave this place 5 stars. Perhaps you can buy them?:
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Beautiful construction , completely spoiled by a badly run restaurant and a bar that's getting its name high up on the meat market list.
Shakti's Rating: 1 Stars |
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My boyfriend & I dined at One this past Saturday. The staff was friendly & courteous. The ambiance & decor was great. The food though I must say was over salted & oily. I really don't know what the huge hype about this restaurant is.
Appetizer... Organic beet salad for me (too salty I must say I had to drink a lot of water just to wash it down & it was sitting in too much oil) My boyfriend had something that was recommended by the waiter (I believe it had prociutto with a crostini, a bit of greens & a mild soft cheese with dressing... the dressing to him was a bit too sweet but I really enjoyed the soft cheese).
Entree... Sole fish (flown in from Europe somewhere - $60) Ok... now what we were shocked to find was this fish came breaded. I don't know why anyone would want to bread a beautiful tender fish like sole?! Mind you it was lightly breaded but still.... I think it shouldn't be breaded (our waiter didn't tell us it would be breaded). Plus, (thank goodness) we asked our waiter to put the butter caper sauce on the side. I didn't put any on my fish. My bf tried a bit but didn't like it too much. We couldn't imagine if the sauce was on the fish. It would have been so greasy.
Sides..... Jerusalem artichokes were ok but a bit too greasy (it was sitting on a lot of oil) We had fries with some reggiano cheese shavings & an aioli with a bit of truffle oil. This was probably the only dish that we probably liked.
Dessert.... I really didn't want any but my bf insisted. So we had the maple creme brulee with pumpkin ice cream. This was really good! I'm glad we ordered dessert.
Overall... we'll go back for drinks, dessert & the ambiance in the lounge area but not for food.
Gstar's Rating: 2 Stars |
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Okay, I did enjoy the evening - as an opening to this review. The decor was a bit disappointing for the area. It (the decor) was predictable with not a lot of visual enticement or excitement. The service was great, and made you feel 'special'. The food was very tastey, but again very 'traditional' and predictable. For the money I would have expected and enjoyed a lot more delicacey with the meals. There was nothing exceptional, nothing visual to focus on or to remember. The food was very good, but not memorable.
L's Rating: 3 Stars |
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I've read some bad reviews here on the service and felt compelled to write my own experience. I ate at the restaurant on Feb 29, 2008 and felt the service was excellent--attentive, prompt and courteous. The place was hopping but we never felt we were abandoned or having to wait too long. The food was delicious, truly a culinary experience. I couldn't give it a five for value since my bison tartar appetizer was $32 but then you don't go to high end restaurants for good economy. The seating is tight but once the place is filled you get the sense you're in a busy happening locale and the noise blends in. All in all, either people are way too picky (understandable given the glitterati crowd) or perhaps the service has improved since some of these other reviews were submitted. In any event, I had a great meal experience and would highly recommend it to others.
Mario Zeskoski's Rating: 4 Stars |
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One |
Hazelton Hotel, 118 Yorkville Avenue, Toronto, ON
416-963-6300
Yorkville
Contemporary
Restaurant
$$$$
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