I desparately wanted this restaurant to be great. As local residents we have been waiting for this type of establishment to open up, rather than have to travel to the other side of Dufferin.

To a degree we weren't disappointed. The decor is welcoming and comfortable, there is a nice patio at the front, and the layout works. Nice job by the owners.

The service is excellent - attentive, friendly, knowledgable and accomdating. Not easy to do, so kudos again.

We had two issues with Cowbell - that could also be said for many other restaurants... when will someone get it all right?

The first is the food - yes, it's organic/local/home grown - and what we had tasted pretty darn good - it's just that we have a problem paying $27 for a $2 cut of steak, and $20+ for a chicken drum stick. The portion sizes were also on the small size. (As an aside, it is interesting that we look at American as glutons for their portion sizes, and they look at us as suckers.) It was by the way, one of the best $2 cuts of steak I have ever had. Looks to me like the chef is using his considerable talents to turn cheap ingredients into high prices. The bottom line - tasted great, but I couldn't help feeling a little ripped off.

The other is with the noise... when you can't hear the person sitting across from you well, it's too loud. A lot of this is due to the choice of building materials - they need something soft in the room to soak up some of the noise. If you are looking for a loud boistrous place to hang with a bunch of friends, this is it. Romantic first date or winding down on Friday after a long week at work.... I'd check out the Beaconsfield.

Never in my eating expierences have I recieved such a bad example of dining as I did at cow bell restaurant.They lost our drinks order, then lost our mains order, cowbell restaurant. Food was overpriced, and the service for the prices of food and wine was not good, remindig me more of a small cafe than a restuarant with $30+ steaks.

The Maitr'd for the night made the whole expirience even worse by not even really responding to the comments we made regarding the service and fact that our food arrived over afive minute period ( with five people on the table waiting for everyone to get their food before eating). To top it off when we asked for the wine just to be left, people kept topping it up. We had to ask not once but five times!

Toilets that do not have hot water, toilet paper or look clean. the food was sub-standard. what wasn't overdone was underdone, and it was all what you may think of as "North American Industrial Food". It got so bad that we were taking bets on HOW the next dish/course would be screwed up - not on WHETHER it would be .

was just that sort of place; a once-in-a-lifetime experience. You know that you'll never again scale those dizzy heights of culinary ineptitude.

Unfortunately, I can't give this restaurant a rating because I never happened to actually get through the door - twice!

I thought Cowbell would be the perfect place to host my sister's birthday party, especially because of her great love for fine cuts of meat. The fact that Cowbell supports local farmers was an even greater draw for us socially and environmentally conscious 'foodies.'

I emailed Cowbell regarding the possibility of reserving a table for 10-15 people. They got back to me three weeks after the fact by phone to inquire whether or not anyone had "gotten back to me." When I told the person "no" and that we had booked elsewhere, he promptly said his good-bye and abruptly hung up.

Against better judgment, I decided to give this place a second chance despite this unpleasant phone experience. It was a Tuesday evening and the restaurant had a smattering of diners - it was definitely not packed!

We were greeted by a pretty bitchy waiter, who actually blocked us from entering the restaurant, and proceeded to tell us that it was completely reserved for the night (yeah right!). However, we were given the option to eat at the bar. Fair enough. When we decided against this, the waiter quickly rushed us out the door. In fact, she grabbed a Cowbell card and hurriedly escorted us out of the restaurant. It was embarrassing and left a really bad taste in my mouth - even though I didn't even get the chance to eat anything there!

Needless to say, I will not be going to Cowbell ever again. The place had a lovely atmosphere and I am sure the food is delicious. In the end, it may be too big for its britches.

I agree with the last comment. I went there anticipating a great meal. I ordered the steak frite. The meat was tough and full of fat (and $36). I complained and they took it 3/4 of the remainder away - but they didn't take it off the bill. I spoke to the chef directly to complain and asked him to justify how he could serve this fatty and tough meat. He said "no one else complained" and refused to remove the charge. Big deal over nothing - I've been eating organic and local meats and there is no excuse for the crap fed to me that evening. I would never step foot in that place again. For the record, I had a mind blowing local steak at "Globe." It was the same price.

Read the initial review and decided to try Cowbell. Arranged a dinner for 5 - reservations in advance for 8pm. Arrived at 8 - seated within a couple of minutes. The server proceeded to inform us that "it was busy, and that our table would need to be clear by 10pm for another reservation." Nice.

For the record, I have had the privilege of dining in some of the finest establishements in the city - and I have never experienced that type of reception or attitude.

We left within 5 minutes, and will not be going back. End of story.

We decided to try out Cowbell a few weeks ago. I had been excited that a good restaurant was opening up in the neighbourhood. Unfortunately, we were disappointed. Very disappointed.

We had reservations for 9:30 and arrived a few minutes early. There were 2 couples ahead of us waiting to be seated. One couple had a reservation and the other said they had just walked in hoping to get a table. A host approached and told us they were running a bit behind. The two other couples were seated within about 10 minutes. Not us. We were forced to stand in the tiny doorway for 30 minutes waiting for a table. We were not offered a seat at the bar nor a drink. The host came back once and said that the people at "our" table wouldn't leave, despite the fact that he was encouraging them to leave. It was incredibly rude of them to let us stand there for 30 minutes, seating walk-ins before us, and also to push other people out the door - people who probably spent quite a bit of money on their dinner.

Finally we were seated. We had high hopes that the evening could only get better. It didn't. When our waiter approached and asked how we were, my brother told him about our ordeal, and his response was "oh?". No apologies at all, no offers to make up for our wait. The service was inconsistent and not very good. A number of menu items were no longer available by that time of the night. The food was ok, but certainly not great and not worth the $30 average/entree. We will certainly never return to Cowbell and I would never recommend it to others. Save your money for one of the many restaurants in TO with great service and food to match. No one deserves to be treated like that.