The Living Room

I tried The Living Room, which is the restaurant inside the Windsor Arms hotel in the Yorkville area because it was part of the Winterlicious offering. It stood out to me because it was advertised as a restaurant with a fully vegan menu. Well, I’m not vegan but I was up for a different Winterlicious menu and thought that it could be a more healthy option.
I reserved for 8 people initially and put down my credit card to confirm. My event gained so much interest that I wanted to expand my reservation to 16, but I was told that this wasn’t possible because there wasn’t space. Okay, that’s fine I thought since it is during the Winterlicious event after all. I came to dinner thinking it will be a packed night but turns out the entire restaurant is empty! By the end of the night, our group was the only ones in the restaurant. It was like they didn’t even want our business.
The waiters were nice and polite and the food came out in a timely fashion after the orders were placed. I did notice that one of the waiters was a little sloppier at placing the food, and although I normally wouldn’t care I do have a higher standard when it comes to fine dining. The food itself was very good, but I noticed that it wasn’t what I was expecting, which was a fully vegan menu. Actually, most of the menu was non-​vegan and there was one vegan option for each course. I was confused by the Winterlicious description, but I was okay with this and thought the beef rib was fantastic.

Came here with with a bunch of girl friends for drinks and a bite.
The mains dishes are mediocre (turkey burger was a little too greasy), dessert is good (gluten free truffles were quite good), and there aren’t many small plate/​appetizer options but the atmosphere is awesome. It’s like an old library with high backed chairs and sofas.
Great place to hang out for drinks! Not the best for food.

Wandered in for a drink mid-​afternoon. Hadn’t been to this space in years. Normally go to the Four Seasons or the Roof Bar at the Hyatt. Had a very pleasant experience. Bartender was very solicitous. Had a bite to eat. Good bar food: sliders and veggie rolls. A big plus is the décor. Reminded us of a favourite hotel bar in Mayfair in London. We’ll be back. A tip to the hotel: improve your website. There’s not much info on this bar there.

Came here looking for french food at the Ici Bistro. Found the Living Room instead!
– Had the Foie Gras and the Steak Tartare. Both outstanding!
– Dining room ambience is very cozy.
– Great wine selection.
– Price was in the upper range, but well worth it!
Next time I am in Toronto, I will consider staying at their hotel.

I was hesitant to try this place since the reviews here aren’t stellar… But I didn’t want cheap summerlicious dinner and I didn’t want a big crowd so I came here. Totally satisfied with the food, service, ambiance that I am leaving a review for a Toronto establishment for the first time… We ordered the fish, rib eye and pork chops — basically everything except for the vegan option — and totally impressed with the quality of the food. Great portions and not too salty! The service was top top notch. We did order oysters apart from the summerlicious menu and it was very fresh but super tiny! Overall the living room isn’t a modern, cool place but it’s quiet, beautifully decorated and more of an old school quality feel to the place… After all it is the Windsor arms. Take a date or a family for dinner!

A lot can happen in year, particularly for The Living Room.
When Summerlicious 2015 was announced, I remembered with daydreamy awe, the gastronomic wonder my partner and his family devoured last year. For the record, I’ve always been leery of hotel restaurants as the fare, in my opinion, is predictably sub-​par. Last year, The Living Room was the exception. This year, it was sadly the rule.
The menu is marketing brilliance at it’s best. The ingredients, the flavours… all fetchingly delicious. BUT, what’s with all the deep frying? Ok, so I ordered the calamari ring («Ring of Calamari») to start and ok, maybe I should have known that it would be served battered and deep fried even though there was no mention of it, but where in the next description does it suggest that battered and deep fried avocado would be served up?
Black Squid Aioli, Soy Salmon Tartare
Cucumber and Avocado Wasabi
Deep fried avocado is like something a food stand at the CNE would dream up to serve something «healthy».
For the main, I ordered the dry-​aged rib eye with avocado butter sauce, grilled corn and red potato summer salad. Mmmm, sounds good, right? Unfortunately, not. The potato salad was probably the worst I ever had. I think the potato was cubed and roasted and then left in the fridge uncovered to dry out before dressing. The rib eye was undercooked for medium and in hindsight, I should have sent it back, but was disheartened.
Still, in an effort to cheer to up, I told my partner that dessert would redeem. Again, unfortunately not. I ordered the gorgonzola cheese cake and rhubarb compote thinking that the gorgonzola would be delicately infused in the cheesecake, but no, it was planted on top with metallic decorative balls that parents buy when they’re baking cupcakes with their children. My partner had the avocado chocolate mousse and it was not only adorned the same decorative balls, but it also looked and tasted like it was in the fridge for some time uncovered.
Service was bewildering. We were served water shortly after we were we seated and we later ordered a bottle of sparkling water. They brought another pair of glasses, but the same as the water glasses. It was clearly confusing as we often had to stop them from pouring sparkling into the regular. I’m no waitress, but how about using different glasses?
When our dinner plates were cleared, we were asked the usual, «how was it?» I lamely replied, «alright», and the response I received was «perfect.»
I never thought I’d slam a restaurant, but I’m actually resentful that we paid $ 45 each for this dinner. My partner imagined it could be meal served up in a nursing home and I was left thinking how amazingly good the frozen pizzas I recently discovered from Costco are.
So sad as it’s a beautiful restaurant with a stunning bar.

My partner and I dropped by The Living Room for a late night beer and snack. We were met by our wonderful server Steve who was one of the most polite, knowledgeable and experienced servers I have ever met. He knew the beer menu inside and out and was able to recommend and answer any questions we had. When I return to The Living Room I do hope Steve is working again!
The atmosphere is also amazing! I love the décor its so unique and comfortable and the food we ordered was delicious!
Will be back next time we are in the city!

Beautiful atmosphere. Atrocious service. Really terrible experience. We waited on a Sunday morning for breakfast for 45 minutes. Note: we were one of only three other tables at the time and one of those tables was not eating, just having coffee. The food was good yet expensive, certainly not amazing or anything that would offset the ridiculous wait. My husband and I both only ordered the oatmeal bowl which was $ 14 and was supposed to have «berries «included. This was actually one strawberry and one blackberry. Laughable. Save your time and money and go elsewhere.

Food was good, we ordered oyster, beef tartar, sear scallop, lamb, lobster bisque, calamari etc. Good food, not the best one I had. Only 1 waiter for all 5 – 6 tables, so service was extremely slow.
Also we kept thinking it was Ici Bistro, not «The Living Room».

Dull and expensive.
Went for vegan brunch service with three others and found the food all together boring, over priced, and careless. Service was basic, uncaring and meh.
We ordered all of the options available at the time and no one found anything particularly good about any dish. We had all heard great things about fancy vegan brunch at the Windsor Arms, but turns out that day would not live up to our expectations. Maybe our expectations were too high, or maybe the food was crap. Who knows? Be warned if you go — it seems hit or miss.
I like the room itself, which makes it even more disappointing that I am so extraordinarily disinterested from ever returning. Oh well.

Coming here pretty much ruined taking my wife out for dinner on her birthday. Never to return and would caution those considering.
Pros:
Server was down to earth, friendly and helpful.
Vegan corn pasta was very tastey — the spinach complimented the sauce nicely.
Wifes most enjoyed aspect of the meal was the cappacino (more of a con actually)
Interesting décor and accessible parking garage very close by
Cons:
I looked at the vegan menu online and went there thinking we could order those items. A server mentioned the menu on their website is over 2 years old and wasn’t available — made no appologies. How do you not update your website for 2 years.
Service was very slow. Probably waited almost 2 hours total for our orders and the place was less than a third occupied.
Ordered drinks before meal and waited a ridiculous amount of time for them. Another server came by and asked us if we got out drinks to which we replied no. He said he would check on them and must have forgot because we got them quite awhile after that.
Wife got the lobster bisk but could not taste lobster — oddly tasted more like a werthers candy
Vegan chips hummus appetizer was disappointing
Didnt get my tea after dinner — after waiting awhile told the server and he went to tell someone. Got the wrong order for tea — ordered green tea, whatever it was tasted like peach
Vegan desert was mediocre but at least there was an option.

Came here with my friend to try out their exclusive vegan menu. The avocado frites were yummy! We also ordered the mini cupcake Shepherd’s pie. The taste was quite good but the paper from the cup actually came off when we scooped up the lentils from the cup and we ate some paper.Yuck. I would give it 3&½ star because of that. It seems someone must have used the wrong cup for serving this warm dish or there is a major error in design of the dish. For the main we had the zucchini and carrot spaghetti. The Veg pasta (not real pasta) was refreshing and the marinara sauce was really good. We used it to dip our bread. we also ordered the crusted tempeh steak and I really like the texture of crusted tempeh and sweet potato mash. For dessert we had the Vegan Petit Fours. the beet chocolate cupcake was a little on the dry end but the other ones were quite good including the butter pistachio chocolate orange and coconut raspberry cashew almond.
We came here on a Tuesday night and it was very quiet. The décor of the restaurant was very classy and pretty. They decorated the walls with original print art and paintings from. the room is furnished with oversized chesterfields with colorful and comfortable cushions and the British influenced checkers tablecloths. We were told by our friendly server that they just got a new chef so we will definitely come back to try other dishes and desserts. Prices are quite reasonable. Tip included we spent about $ 90. We didn’t drink any alcohol but apparently they have a huge wine and beer/​draft selection. They also serve a huge variety of loose-​leaf teas (probably supplied by the Tea Room next door) !! Can’t wait to try the afternoon tea menu or twilight tea menu at the Tea Room.

A Horror Show
We went in the hopes of finding a couple of great steaks. What we got was badly prepared food, and incompetent service. Our starters were accompanied by the sides for our mains; they were cold, so we had no qualms about sending them back.
The wine order got lost, it seems, and the bottle didn’t arrive until several minutes after our mains had arrived.
We ordered steaks for our mains … they were awful. Bad meat, with lots of sinew and it seemed they were cooked in an Easy-​Bake oven. No sear to speak of, the meat was an unappetizing shed of tawny-​grey. There was a rather tired-​looking portobello mushroom on the side… my guess is that hit had been grilled some hours earlier.
I don’t know what they are going for in this place. The prices were remarkably reasonable — suspiciously so. This fact, along with the too expansive menu leads me to wonder whether they are just tarting-​up Sysco prepared foods.
It’s too bad. The room itself was very nice.

My husband and I stopped in one night after a movie for a beer. I have to admit, we were lured in by the vegan snack menu that I had read about, and we were NOT disappointed. The avocado fries were scrumptious, and the sushi was fresh with really tasty dipping sauces. We sat at the bar and service was very attentive. I like the warm, cozy atmosphere, I think it would be a great place to come on a cold winter night. Also they have table taps at some of the bigger tables, which would be a lot of fun if you had a larger group. I definitely want to return and sample more of the menu.

Went to the media launch for The Living Room inside the Windsor Arms Hotel in Yorkville. Its cozy but luxurious environment is inviting and provides comfort and glam.
The food we tried that are on the menu: Kobe Sliders, Nori Rolls, Salmon Crostini and the Fish were simply delicious, especially the Kobe Beef Sliders! There’s an extensive list of their comfort food offerings in the menu.
There’s a computer desk and board games in this restaurantm which really adds to the «homey» atmosphere.
The beautiful bar offers over 60 local craft beers with 2 on tap for self-​serve (so cool!) and they also offer an impressive premium international wine selection.