CLOSED: Harvest Kitchen (Toronto)



I like restaurants that support local farmers, make the majority of their ingredients in-house, and attempts to serve things fresh, so it’s a shame that our brunch at Harvest Kitchen went poorly. It started while getting a table – there’s no reservations and don’t even think about being seated before the entire group arrives. Luckily, even with the two limitations, we snagged a table for six on their pretty rooftop patio by arriving shortly after 11am.

Harvest Kitchen isn’t the only restaurant to introduce strict seating policies during brunch, so the above could be easily overlooked, if our meal was just served together. It’s understandable that there will always be a delay in getting food when you have a larger group; servers need time to go back to the kitchen and pick up further plates. But, to have half the table get their food and the remaining parties not arriving until HALF AN HOUR later, that’s ridiculous. It’s even worse when the neighbouring table, arriving and ordering well after us, get their food before the last of our dishes arrive.

Honestly, I’m not sure the food was worth the wait. Sure, the Pingue’s peameal bacon eggs benedict ($14.95) looked good and the poached eggs were cooked well so the golden yolk remained runny, but the vinegar from the cooking liquid was so pronounced that it ruined the hollandaise sauce. Moreover, the peameal bacon and home fries were lukewarm, it seemed like the dish sat around despite being rushed from the kitchen at their peak like the waiter described.


The best part of the meal was the Florida Sunrise ($8.95), a refreshing cocktail combining Prosecco, Stiegl Radler and Campari. The grapefruit beer was cooling and extra bubbly from the Prosecco, a lovely drink for an otherwise disappointing meal.


Perhaps if our waiter offered an explanation, instead of assuring the three of us to eat first as the other dishes would be arriving in five minutes (lying to customers is never a good thing), the long wait wouldn’t have stung as much. Alas, there was no excuse, no offer to comp the other three meals, not even so much as an apology. For a town that’s filled with eggs benedicts, I’ll happily have mine elsewhere.  

Overall mark - 5 out of 10


How To Find Them
 Location: Toronto, Canada
 Address: 124 Harbord Street


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Gastro World's Grading System

  • Anything under 5 - I really disliked and will never go back
  • 6 - decent restaurant but I likely won't return
  • 7 - decent restaurant and I will likely return
  • 8 - great restaurant that I'd be happy to recommend
  • 9 - fantastic restaurant that I would love to visit regularly and highly recommend
  • 10 - absolute perfection!


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