28 Lister

I REALLY wish I didn’t have to rate this restaurant as I have, but with the hope that management will do something about it at the restaurant’s infancy I have no choice. The restaurant has SO much potential, yet it is lacking in all fronts. Starting with the awkward unshaven doorman in the red vintage tuxedo two sizes to big who leers at the attractive female guests as he shows them in. Next to the untrained hostess in the dress one size too small who from a script uncomfortably encourages the patrons to walk about and consider purchasing the art on the walls that is for sale. Moving on to the server who would be more suited to a Denny’s than to a high end white table clothe chop house (the unsolicited two minute description of what a penne pasta looks like was bizarre). And then of course the food. Oh the unfortunate food. A $ 60 ribeye ordered medium rare and served medium well and spiced so severely that the flavour of the meat was undetectable. Sides that were nothing like what they were described, over cooked and barely edible. Cocktails that barely resembled their namesake. Not even a simple caprese salad could be enjoyed. It was like someone borrowed a kit from somewhere on how to open a formal steakhouse alla Harbour 60 or Jacob’s of Toronto but no one actually went and bothered to attend anything beyond a Keg. And that’s essentially what this restaurant is: A 3 so poorly dressed up as a 9, with an attempt to attain the price tag of a 9 with no substance behind it. Guys, I REALLY want your restaurant to work. This City needs more of it. But put some experienced Staff and a better Chef behind it or you won’t last the year.