Jakes Bistro + Bar

My husband and I read some great reviews about this bistro and decided to come over for lunch and we checked their website for the lunch special and opening hours.
However when we came over, we realized that the bistro is not open until 5pm.
We will definitely come back and try the food but strongly recommend others to call before coming in.

A genuine place. Wings special today and I tried the bbq and lemon pepper, both are pretty good. Waffle fries are crispy, just awesome. Owner Jake is super nice and gives honest opinions. Definitely one of the local gems

Came here on Wednesday after work. It is located at the corner of Leslie and major Mac in the freshco Plaza. Tucked away in a small corner.
The restaurant isn’t that big, there is a bar upon entering, and a couple of booths, and when you turn the corner, there is a narrow line of tables.
They have $ 5.00 appetizers from 5pm-​7pm. We decided to try the calamari which retails for $ 10.00 and bacon wrapped scallops which retails for $ 12.00.
On Wednesdays they have $ 5.50 for 1lb wings with the purchase of a drink.
Was looking at the menu for wing flavours, and noticed that it said for an additional 1.75 you can add waffle fries, sweet potato fries or onion rings. The wings also came with carrot and celery and dip.
I got the sweet chili flavour with onion rings, and my friend got the dry Cajun rub wings with waffle fries.
When the appetizers came, the bacon wrapped scallops were 5 small pieces. If this was for regular price $ 12.00 it is definitely not worth it. There is a blob of butter at the bottom of each bacon wrapped scallop. It tasted pretty good, but was shocked at the size.
The calamari was much better, there was a fair amount, and the sauce was okay, didn’t have too much taste. Was fresh and crispy, but a little too much batter.
The wings came, there were 9 wings, lightly dressed which I really appreciated. Sometimes some restaurants totally drench the wings with sauce.
There was quite a bit of onion rings, but one piece of carrot and one piece of celery. Looked like decoration.
The wings were crispy, freshly fried and had a lot of flavour. The sweet chili was had the right amount of tang.
I tried one of my friend’s dry Cajun rub and it was pretty good too, nicely coated and not too salty. Onion rings and waffle fries were good. Onion rings were huge, and had a good amount of onion flavour.
The service was pretty good. Our waiter admitted today was his first time serving, so I could see some nervousness, but he did pretty good. Always checking up on us and giving us refills.
When we asked for take out boxes, we weren’t given bags, maybe they don’t have any.
The bill came, and I noticed that the onion rings and waffle fries were charged at regular price. When asking the waiter he said that the Wednesday special you couldn’t get the 1.75 upgrade. It cost 4.63 at regular price. Which was a little disappointing, as it didn’t say anywhere.
It started filling up when we left at 8. People lining up at the front.
The restaurant is still pretty new, with new waiters and owners (looks like a group of friends combined to open this place). I’ll come back and give it another chance for their Tuesday burger special. Although the wings are worth coming back for on 5.50 Wednesdays too.

Must have their steaks with waffle cut fries! Love it!
Also King of the Hill Burger is very good too!
Friendly services, Nice environment. Would come again!

Wow! I’m super impressed! Came by on the weekend, and they have a fixed price menu that is totally worth your money! Great taste, big portions, and 3 courses? What else could you ask for!
Its a nice, little restaurant that has a few tables, so I can see it getting busy, but coming on a Sunday night was a wise choice. A couple televisions playing some sports with indie music in the background gave for a nice relaxing environment. The air was on a bit too high though as I pretty much felt cold the entire time.
The food was amazing. Apparently the owner was the head chef at Peter’s Fine Dining, so that was definitely a good start! My friends and I all got the fixed price meal: Bruschetta, Tenders, & Ricadilla for the apps, Veal Parmigiana, Fettuccini Alfredo, & Haddock Fish Fillets for the entrees, and Truffle Royale, NY Cheesecake, & Brownie Cheesecake for dessert.
Apps: the Tenders were amazing; nice chicken that was soft and lightly breaded. The Ricadilla was decent but could have included more jalapeño peppers. The Bruschetta was okay, but since the tomatoes were wet, the bread did get soggy.
Entrees: the Haddock was done quite nicely and came with some regular and waffle fries. Loved the waffle fries, but the regular fries were just average. The Fettuccini Alfredo was huge, and had a creamy sauce that was on the lighter side. Just got heavier as you ate it. The Veal was done amazing, very flavourful and came with pasta too!
Desserts: all 3 cakes were amazing. The classic NY cheesecake was soft and light, which is just the way I like it. The Brownie was a bit heavier, but not overly sweet! The Truffle Royale was the best in my opinion. Moist chocolate cake at the bottom with 2 layers of different mousse topped off with rich, dark chocolate!
The service was amazing, but we were also the only ones in there for most of our meal. The server was quick to check up on us, and gave some amazing suggestions. He was super friendly, and gave us 10% off for next time too!
Definitely gonna come back sometime! There were a lot of different signature dishes on their main menu that I would absolutely try! Until next time!

Great, friendly location. Food was great. I would spend more time there if it was more within walking distance.
Hope they continue with serving craft beer and perhaps in the future provide a larger selection. Richmond Hill is in need of more craft beer support.

Service was very good and friendly.
Unfortunately, food wise, this was one of the worst meals I’ve had in a long time. It almost seems like their kitchen staff don’t even have the basic fundamentals of cooking.
Fettuccine Alfredo
Fettuccine was over cooked and mushy. Alfredo sauce was watery and bland to the point where it was questionable whether the chef forgot the seasoning…
French onion soup
Onions were undercooked and crunchy?
Monstrosity Burger
For a restaurant that talks so much about their burgers and even has a separate section on their menu just for burgers this was the most disappointing. I can’t believe a restaurant that does all this and has the audacity to charge $ 17 for this burger serves rubbery FROZEN patties! They do not even stack the burger properly. They put the lettuce and tomato between the bottom bun and the patty. This takes away from the mouth feel and the juice of the patty hitting your tongue first. It can be argued that they put the lettuce on the bottom to protect the bottom bun from being soggy but you totally fail at this once you put the tomato on the bottom. The bottom bun disintegrated and the whole thing turned into a mushy mess.
Onion rings
Best thing I tasted on the menu. However they were inconsistent. Some were perfectly thick and juicy yet others were thin and stringy. The onion was not sliced uniformly! Another example of how their food prep doesn’t really stack up to «restaurant» quality. The onion rings really summed up the overall experience. Eating here was akin to going over to dinner at a friend’s house who cooks a few things decently but does not have classic training or experience in a real kitchen. Which is ironic with their claims that their executive chef worked multiple years at the Octagon.

Went to Jakes last Wednesday night. We heard about this place through the radio. This location have had many different owner.
That night we just had beer and wings. I think it gave St. Louis & All Star a good run for its money.
It’s definitely a place to try out. We’ll definitely go back and try out other items on the menu.

The owner Jake actually served us that night. We didn’t even know he was Jake until he introduced himself when we paid.
Excellent service from beginning to end. Very personal. Gave samples of their local beer on tap.
Good was great too. Overall a very good experience for a local diner.
Would support again.

Great service and yummy food! The place was packed on a Wednesday night and the one server handled it very well! Wings and burger tasted very fresh! Will definitely come back!

We live in the area and have seen this location turn over many times over the years. We like to support local restaurants and thought we would give this place a try. We came in at lunch and their $ 7 lunch special. I tried their wings and my wife had their chicken wrap.
The wrap was very blah, the chipotle sauce was ok, but the chicken was barely tasteable.
The wings were quite good though, sweet chilli sauce was great, much better than our order at All Star last week. There were quite a few wings, more than a single order would give you at most places.
We tried the waffle fries as well which were pretty good as well.
Definitely nice to see a good selection of beer on tap, esp craft beer.
The owner was hyping up the steaks, so I will give that a try next time. Seems like the food is all made from scratch, so I will give them a shot at my next visit.

BONESHAKER should be advertised on their banner.
We had a long conversation with Jake of Jake’s about his new, what we call, «gastro pub.»
The kitchen is actually manned by Jake’s uncle who’s been at another restaurant for 22 years. And Jake, himself, has been in the restaurant business for almost his entire life. Born and raised in Germany with lots of experience in Toronto.
Monique (our waitress and bartender) and Jake were so nice and offered us their honesty. We asked about their food and drinks they helped us decide what to get.
Drinks:
So I mentioned BONESHAKER which is one of my favourite craft beers and Jake has it on tap! They have a large variety of beers and wines and a cider and a raddler. Jake knows his beers and mentioned he wanted to make Jake’s a haven for craft beer drinkers which I’m totally in for.
Food:
They have a great menu that specializes in steaks and seafood. Check out their site.
I tried their Chicken Cordon Bleu with garlic bread, grilled veggies and sweet potato fries. The fries with chipotle were on par with most other sweet potato fries. Grilled veggies were good and so was the bread. The chicken was stuffed with a slice of ham and cheese, breaded and smothered with the chef’s mushroom — wine gravy/​reduction. It was slightly too salty and was on the small side (4oz-​6oz). Jake asked me what I thought and I told him 7.75÷10.
This place is a great new spot in Richmond Hill and it will hopefully open up some mouths to the craft beer scene. Once you taste the complexity craft beer can bring vs. your regulars, I’m sure you’ll not want to go back.
Grab the Unilocal deal and try it!

My boyfriend and I came into this restaurant because he originally said he wanted a burger. I then looked around Unilocal to see which places were highly praised for that specific food. I couldn’t pass up the lunch deal of $ 7 for such a wide variety to choose from.
Even though he was the one who was craving a burger originally, I was the one who ended up ordering it. He ordered the pulled pork sandwich which actually came on a burger bun. Both of us ordered onion rings on the side for an additional $ 2 each order.
When our food showed up I saw one of the most visually appealing burgers that I’d be glad to dig in to. It was comparable to the pictures of food you usually see on menus but this time when the food arrived, it actually looked like the picture they use to draw you into trying it. To my shock, the burger tasted almost as good as it looked. I also decided to stick a few of my onion rings into my burger which gave it an extra kick of flavor! The only reason I’m not giving this 5 stars is because my burger was definitely on the greasy side. As I picked the burger up, oil dripped out almost immediately and kept doing so through out the entire meal.
I would recommend this place to anyone who’s looking for good food for a great price!

I have been to Jake’s Bistro + Bar a few times and I’ve never been disappointed. The food is always outstanding, filling and definitely worth the good price! I would recommend it to anyone living in the area! The service is also excellent! Take a look at some of the food I have eaten there :)

I ambled in to this bistro for the first time about a week ago. I was in the middle of moving, and I was hungry! Because it was around 2 in the afternoon, there were not a lot of people there. I was eating alone, so I sat at the bar, and chatted with one of the owners and the server. The customer service was outstanding, but the cheeseburger was out of this world, and at a $ 7 price, very reasonable! Even though I was leaving town, I will be back for another cheeseburger, and I will bring my appetite because this burger is big! I was informed by the owner that all the food is made in-​house from scratch, and I could tell by the way he discussed the various menu items that a lot of care goes into the food here!

2.5 Star
$ 7 lunch Special with a good selection of wings, burger, sandwich and more.
Jakes Bistro+Bar is a good place for lunch at this price point.
Craft Beer Selectuon includes Amsterdam Boneshaker and Mill Street 100^th Meridian. Too bad I need to work after lunch.
I ordered a burger to celebrate #Nationalburgerday which maybe a mistake…
Cheese Burger ($ 7) + Onion Rings ($ 2)
I made a mess eating because it was super super greasy. Oil was dripping dripping all over the place even before I bite into the burger. Patties are not made in house, maybe they can try sourcing it somewhere else? or try cooking it on the grill for a little longer?
I did have an urge to go into Snap Fitness next door to run 10 miles on their treadmills after ultra greasy food.
I will come back for a drink at least beer selection is good. There is daily special including Happy Hour with Appetizer specials everyday.