My girls and I were having our monthly book club meeting and decided to do “Restaurant Edition”.  Normally we do it at someone’s house but we figured we’d switch it up.  I compiled a shortlist of restaurants (including Delux and Czehoski’s) [...]]]> Burger Shoppe Quality Meats
210 Ossington Avenue
Toronto, ON
416-850-1919

My girls and I were having our monthly book club meeting and decided to do “Restaurant Edition”.  Normally we do it at someone’s house but we figured we’d switch it up.  I compiled a shortlist of restaurants (including Delux and Czehoski’s) and we settled on BQM.  I remember hearing about it when it first opened and every time I’m in the Ossington hood I remind myself to check it out.

I arrived before the rest of my party and immediately got a not-so-great impression of the place.  I entered and stood awkwardly in the door for a few minutes.  Do I just sit down?  Is someone going to seat me? HOW DOES THIS WORK? After a few minutes of looking around nervously someone came over to me.  I told him that I needed a table for 4 but that I was waiting on the rest of my party.  He said the big table was reserved and walked away.  Ummmm if the big table is reserved does that mean no parties of 4?  What about moving some of the two tops together? SO MANY QUESTIONS.

I took a seat by the door and figured the situation would resolve itself.  About 15 minutes later I asked the same guy how long a wait it would be, his response, “I don’t like to commit to waiting times”.  WTF?? It’s a RESTAURANT that’s part of what you do? So again I went back to my perch not knowing if I was in for a 15 minute wait or a 2-hour wait.  I probably would have left but my friends had not yet arrived.  Oh! A highlight of waiting was this poor woman who sat down and waited for a menu or to be acknowledged.  She sat in one spot for at least 15-20 minutes and no one acknowledged her.  She then moved to another table, waited some more and got acknowledged. WOW.

So after waiting for 45 minutes another guy comes up to me and asks to put my name on a list.  Okay.  I ask him how long and he says probably a while since there’s a group of 5 ahead of you.  Um, you mean the group of 5 that I watched walk in? That group?  He looked like he didn’t quite believe me and went over to some other staffers.  After much whispering the truth was revealed that I in fact had been there first.  PHEW!  There were apologies and we moved on.  Although, at one point I was ready to storm out.

After a solid hour and fifteen minute wait we were seated at a table that was arranged to be a two-top that they turned on an angle to make it a four-top.  At this point we were hungry, kind of irritated and wanted beer so we took it.

BQM has a solid list of burgers all available with either regular, Angus or Sirloin beef at various price points.  Toppings run the gamut from the ordinary (bacon) to outside the box (eggs) and all burgers have names like The Ossington, The Riverside, The B&B etc.  You also have the option of paying more for additional toppings.  I chose a burger with Brie, bacon and some other goodness.

The burger was good.  I wasn’t blown away but it was enjoyable.  I found the meat a bit on the dry side but was won over by the brie and bacon combination.  We also ordered poutine and sweet potato fries.  The poutine was just ok.  The curds didn’t seem super fresh and the poutine itself was lukewarm.  The sweet potato fries were pretty yummy though!

Prices are on the high side but you’re getting naturally-raised beef, so what would you expect?  Burgers range from about $7-$11 (depending on what meat you choose) and fries are around $5 or $6 (they serve multiple).  If one friends wants regular fries and the other wants sweet potato fries you are each looking at about a $12 tab and you haven’t had anything to drink yet.

Would I go back? I’m not sure.  I was really put off by the way the seating was handled initially and also frustrated by how they divvy up the service.  It seems that no one really has assigned roles.  No one seemed responsible for acting as host for the majority of the time (although towards the end one woman did step up) and it was one of those meals where multiple people stopped by to take our drink orders.  I also saw one server walk right past another group that entered the restaurant without acknowleging them and in fact averted his eyes!  It was appalling. I’d like to chalk this up to opening pains but this place opened back in 2008 so excuses are few and far between.

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