I feel bad for restaurants waiting for their liquor license. The most profitable menu items can’t be sold, and staff suffer from paltry gratuities from lower bill totals. If available, I generally get a drink. Yet, the regulators were dragging their feet as not a drop was available during the first two months of opening. After I got over the initial disappointment, I left the meals feeling great! Satisfied and nourished in a healthy way. Maybe I don’t need wine in my life.

Limon starts off the meal with a pickle plate that usually contains a combination of cabbage, cucumbers, and carrots. Lightly vinegared and salty, the pickles help wet the appetite.

Almost every table gets a dip and while the typical babaganoush and hummus are available, the eggplant and pepper dip ($9) intrigued me. Starting with a base of roasted eggplant, slivers of quickly smoked pepper and raw celery & onion are mixed in, so the dip is creamy and crunchy. As a babaganoush lover, I thoroughly enjoyed this version! Without tahini the dip is lighter and brighter.

Still their bababanoush ($9) is good with large chunks of eggplant and tons of tahini turning it creamy. It's just a touch sweet for me.

For the carb conscious, the dips arrive without a pita ($1.50), so you won’t be tempted. I wanted one with the eggplant and pepper… it’s your regular run-of-the-mill thick pocketed pita.

It's remarkable how much they can stuff in a pita. You'll need to unhinge your jaw to bite into lamb kefta in a pita ($18), the ground meat kebab juicy and each bite bringing different flavours. The bites with their zesty and slightly spicy amba sauce are my favourite and despite the abundance of onion, they're well soaked so the acidity is removed and a crunchy sweetness remains.

Their sandwiches arrive solo but is enough to satisfy. The price for a side of French fries ($11) is a bit steep but it's a huge portion, enough to share amongst three.

The beef shish kabob ($30) was a tad chewy but at least cooked well and perfectly seasoned and not overly salty. I recommend upgrading to their Greek salad ($4 supplement), a village style version containing large chunks of juicy ripe tomato, crunchy cucumber, briny creamy feta, and onions. Limon augments the salad with roasted red paper and capers adding a savoury smoky element that’s delicious.

If you’re in the mood for beef, order the strip steak ($34) instead. It’s less grizzly and you get a sizeable portion of meat cooked to your liking.

With three pieces of fish arriving in the roasted rainbow trout ($30), this is a shareable main. It's well cooked with crispy skin and tender meat and simply topped with onions and pomegranate seeds. 

Having visited on three occasions, the sole visit the restaurant wasn't full was during a weekday lunch. And when it gets busy the ordering and paying process slows down as Limon creates a bottleneck by flowing both operations into one person, who I assume is the manager. Despite a number of workers, they seem to focus on serving, refilling water, and cleaning up. If you ask one to take an order or pay, the request gets redirected to the manager. What an odd way to slow down table turnover at a restaurant.

Warning: the tightly packed tables create a loud ambient noise at the restaurant. It’s a bit much at first, but as the meal progresses, I tuned it out. When the weather’s nice and they open the front windows, it almost feels like you’re sitting al fresco somewhere a bit more exotic than Midtown Toronto. A beautiful meal indeed.

Finding fresh seafood in Scarborough is a breeze if you drive down Lawrence. Diana’s has been servicing the area (and many hotels and restaurants across the city) for years, whether it’s for home chefs sourcing ingredients at their retail store or diners leaving the task to Diana’s Oyster Bar and Grill nearby. 

Wanting to beat the crowds, we arrived as soon as the restaurant opened on Sunday at 11:30am. Turns out, people tend to come later (our waitress noted their peak weekend lunch hour is around 1pm), so there was no big rush. However, despite being one of the first to order, the food was still slow to arrive. Generally, I don’t mind things taking time; after all, this ensures there's time to properly prepare items and food should be made-to-order arriving fresh and hot. 

Certainly, the bowls of clam chowder ($10) my parents ordered, which took long to prepare, had steam rising from it; meanwhile, the cup accompanying my sandwich afterwards was lukewarm. Thankfully, the chowder tasted good: creamy but not too rich and the bacon pieces were pronounced adding a nice saltiness. For a place wholesaling seafood, the size of the clam pieces were sadly inadequate as the chowder consisted predominantly of potatoes and little actual seafood.

On the other hand, the mussels ($17) were plentiful; the bowl just kept going on forever and ever. Although the tomato broth was good, I was disappointed with its taste. When the menu describes it as “Thai Spicy”, I'd imagine there would be heat - something like a tom yum broth. So, when it arrived with absolutely no spiciness, it was a letdown. Moreover, it would have been nice to have something to dip into the soup, the crispy lotus chips were beautiful garnishes but doesn’t augment the dining experience. 

The lobster and crab roll ($18) had a decent seafood to sauce ratio; the mixture wasn't too creamy and you could taste the crab and lobster. Moreover, the shredded lettuce and onions provided a great crunchiness along with the nicely toasted bun. 

However, going back to my initial point of not minding a wait to ensure things are done right, the experience was tarnished by a plastic wrapper corner mixed into the crab and lobster. Luckily, it was bright orange so it was spotted as soon as I cut into the sandwich, but it was still unnerving. Sure, the sandwich could have been sent back, but I didn’t want to wait another hour for a replacement to arrive.

Diana’s catch of the day lunch special ($25) consisted of rainbow trout (should have been cooked a touch less given its thin cut), vegetables, and vegetarian fried rice. The creamy spinach sauce was a tad heavy for me, but overall it was a satisfying dish.

It’s a shame that the lunch wasn't better. Diana’s could create some amazing dishes given their access to an abundance of fresh seafood. If only there was more care put into creating the dish – whether it’s ensuring there’s no unwanted additions (as with the piece of wrapper) or the right ingredients are included (as with the lack of chilli in the spicy Thai). For not being particularly busy, the food sure took long enough to arrive … if only that time was actually used effectively.

• 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!

• Diana's Oyster Bar and Grill Markham launch
• Joso's