Against the Grain

This restaurant is not easy to locate and parking is limited. Normally you have to park across the street. We arrived before noon for Sunday brunch on a very warm day. Seated on the patio under the shade of an umbrella with cool drinks we were able to relax and enjoy the view of boats on the water and the surrounding atmosphere. There is a good beer selection and the bloody caesars were tasty. The ordered urban egg dishes were decent but the signature burgers were another story. There was half slice of bacon and small piece of cheese inside and on top of the bun was a small pickle. This was not appealing to someone who enjoys the best of burgers. The service was friendly but we were charged for an extra drink. Go for the drinks, the view and the ambiance. We were against the brunch. Close by there is Sugar Beach and on weekends there are a variety of events happening.

Great spot near the lake!
Against The Grain is located on the main floor of the Corus Entertainment building. It has a nice patio near the water and a great bar and interior. The service is prompt and friendly and the menu very interesting.
The theme of this restaurant is the use of local organic ingredients to prepare some interesting dishes like Braised Farm Raised Veal Ossobucco and Maple Brind Ontario Chop. They have a selection of reasonably priced appetizers and the Roasted Tomato soup was excellent. The entrees are a little pricey however the preparation setting and service make it worth it.
The Kobe Beef burger underwhelmed and the regular burger at $ 7 cheaper would probably have been as good. The egg bun used for the burger made it difficult to eat and keep everythig together, however the taste was good. This would be another place that would be great for drinks and appetizers first as it seems you require some knowledge of this place before you know exactly what to order for a full lunch or dinner.
Aside from the people working in the building, this spot is still relatively unknown in a quiet area west of the Docks.

For the view it’s definitely worth coming by from time to time ! The food is meh but their drinks are pretty decent especially the pitcher sangria. We complained about one of the dishes as it was too bland and wasn’t what we expected at all. Our waitress went on to say that it’s normal but took the courtesy of covering that dish for us on her own so we naturally tipped her a lot — in conclusion customer service was great.

Very nice location on the water with a large outdoor patio. Food quality was generally good but not exceptional. Be sure to check out the specials since the best part of my meal was a seasonal soup. Desert menu was limited and of the 3 items offered one was not available.
We waited to be seated for a long time and service was a bit slow but pleasant. I think I would return if in Toronto.

New student at GBC. Recommended by my prof to check this place out at least once while we’re studying here. Came here with some classmates after our midterm on Friday. Nice large patio facing the waters. Sometimes you get blessed with the musky lake scent. Came for lunch — not a lot of wait staff but a lot of tables — so we were kind of waiting to get our bills.
I was unimpressed by the menu. Nothing really popped out. $ 20 for burgers. Just your usual caucasian food fare… fish and chips etc. I ordered two appetizers instead since the items on that list seemed a little bit more tasteful. Ordered the beef tartare and braised cheek tacos and a passion fruit tom collins. Beef tartare was actually delicious, savoury asian flavours. Tacos were alright — kind of bland — needs some sort of sauce to add some kick to it. My two appies and my drink with tax and tip came up to just under $ 40 for lunch. Kind of on the expensive side for mediocre food.
Overall, would not return here again.

Wonderful location with a great view.
But then onto the other aspects of the experience… The menu actually offers some fresh ideas. Nothing necessarily innovative, but with the times. Their execution, however, was below average. First, as a restaurant that brands itself as Canadian, you need to work on your poutine, or get the right ingredients at the very least. Chicken was dry; pretzel was dry; flatbread was dry; veggie patty was dry. And frankly, presentation was very clunky even for a casual place.
Don’t really know how the kitchen is managed… but if they would only properly execute what their menu has to offer, this might actually be a place worth revisiting.

Food: I ordered the signature burger and it was okay. It was average but good. My friend ordered a whiskey drink that came with Bacon and it looked amazing and as per her is was really good.
Service: There was a short wait for a table but we were given candy while we waited which was a nice plus. The waitress was friendly, knowledgeable about the menu and checked on us a few times to see if we needed anything.
Ambiance: The restaurant is near the water which made the ambiance very calm and relaxing.
Pricing: The price of the food was appropriate (Disclaimer: I am basing this off of American dollars)

I dined here last night. When I walked in the hostess was friendly and helpful informing me she’d be right back after she sat a patron who arrived a few minutes before us. That was the highlight of the night. It took 20 min for our drink order to be taken. Another 20 minutes for our dinner order. I ordered the steak medium rare. It arrived well done. I was hungry so I opted to eat it. I pointed it out to our waiter. He came back and said I wouldn’t have to pay for the steak. That was unexpected but a nice gesture.
My friend ordered the Cornish hen. The portion was extremely small for a 26 $ plate though it was cooked decently.
All in all a ³⁄₅

After a hot and beautiful day of Volleyball at Woodbine Beach. We needed to find a patio. Against the Grain was the destination. When we got there the patio was on a wait. For a pretty good reason too, the view was amazing. Once we got in the patio we had to order pitchers of beer. We got pitchers of Mill St Tank House Ale and Mill St Organic Lager. I ordered the ATG Road House — Confit Chicken, Smoked Pork Loin, Tomato Preserve, Lettuce, Basil Mayo, on a Ciabatta Bun. It was a pretty good sandwich but a little on the small in terms of portion size.
After the meal, drinks were still flowing. We drank and drank and the OPA! There was an accident and a glass pint of beer tipped over and broke. Our waitress was really great about it and gave us another pint to replace the one that tipped over. I also cut myself in the process and the Manager personally came outside to the patio and brought out band aids for me. He had a pretty good sense of humour thinking I was gonna wear a Hello Kitty band aid or a Dora the Explorer band aid. I tell you that customer service really impacts how you view the business as a whole. They have my vote for 5 stars just on the service we were given. I would recommend to go to Against the Grain on a beautiful day and enjoy their patio. I know I will. Until next time, Jimstar Out!

Fantastic patio by the water. Good service. Decent food. Good spot to hang out for a drink!

The restaurant is beautiful; it’s situated with right on the quay and has an extra large patio with ample seating — the view from here is great and peaceful. This place seems to be great for corporate and company gatherings, as was the case when we were there. The beer selection is pretty typical, and the food choices were pretty similar to what you’d expect at Milestone’s or Moxies. For the price, the food left something to be desired. I had the ATG burger and fries, and for $ 18, I don’t think there was anything notable about it. Service was slow, despite many servers going back and forth. And despite the patio being very large, it was chaotic weaving between the chairs, tables, and umbrella stands.
In general, everything is pricier than it should be, and unless you really want to sit on the patio by the quay, there are probably better options around as this is quite out of the way for most people.

I haven’t had much luck with waterfront restaurants in Toronto. But Against the Grain was an exception. First of all, the service was amazing. We sat outside right by the water and our server arrived promptly to offer us drinks. In fact, he was all over his section making sure that people had everything they needed. He did introduce himself by name, but I will confess that I don’t remember. Either way, he was great.
We had the ginger margarita, which was not so great. For $ 30 for a pitcher it amounts to about a drink and a half and was a little too sweet. My boyfriend had the poutine and was pretty disappointed, but my mushroom flatbread pizza was the perfect nosh. I wished I’d had a nice chardonnay with it instead of the margarita, but that’s my own fault for not drinking fast enough ;).
Overall it was a great experience and I’d come back in a heartbeat. In fact, after being burned at the Watermark by awful service and mediocre food, it’s now my only choice for drinks on the waterfront!

HORRIBLE service. Barely mediocre food.
The server did not tell us that they had a drink special or that there were a bunch of taps NOT on the menu. We ended up ordering some pretty bad beers and when he came by and asked us how they were we told him «meh» and he did not react at all.
Food came, they gave us fries instead of the salad that we ordered, when we pointed it out, he took the plate away so I was left with a meal while the person I was with didn’t have his. We didn’t have cutlery, he never came to check on us once, and we asked for the bill but it never came so we just got up and paid on our way out as we were tired of waiting.
Do not come here unless you want to spend money on an over-​priced, frustrating, slow and disappointing experience.

The view from the patio is amazing and calm. It is away from the busy flow of people at harbour front and it is right by the lake.
Their patio is very big comparable to other places and the vibe was amazing.
We ordered the poutine and the super salad.
They were both very delicious. The salad had popcorn in it (yes, I was very surprised), avocados (my fav), goji berries amongst other more delicious things!
The service was great, very attentive.

[ location /​décor ]
The beautiful view of Lake Ontario from the patio is definitely this restaurant’s main asset. Right next to Sugar Beach, a quick walk from Queen’s Quay, and a nice bike ride from Cherry Beach.
They have large tables for big parties as well as nice little 2-​person tables, as well as couches around fire pits. Very nice use of space.
[ service ]
Service has never been poor — can be a little slow on days when the place is filled up, but never an unreasonable wait. I needed a dairy-​free meal and the waitress was very kind about switching out the butter brioche on the vegetarian burger for a different bun. I noticed she was very playful with the kids in the family sitting near us and repeatedly and patiently brought more ketchup and condiments.
[ food and drink ]
Cocktails are pricey ($ 9 — 12), but what you would expect for a place like this on the lakeshore. They are good, summery drinks.
I’ve had the truffle mushroom flatbread and the veggie burger, both of which were yummy but no more special than typical lakeside bar food.
[ conclusion ]
Food and service are more than fine — but ATG’s selling point is definitely the location and the great views.

Nice area with lots of outdoor seating. Good for groups of +5. I was with a group of 11 and it was good. The food is descent. My salmon was overdone. The fish and chips were good. The fries were not good
Great place to have drinks with a view with a group. Service is very friendly and accommodating.

After seeing a Bluejays game, my wife and I walked along Queens Quay east and came across this restaurant. It has a surprisingly beautiful sight line of the lake. An outdoor patio is meters away from the lakes shore. That alone gives this location a 5 star. The unfortunate thing about this location is that it appears to be situated around some industrial buildings. That really didn’t take away from how great this place. If you want to have a seat pre or post dinner, you could visit Sugar Beach. If you’re in this area, on a nice sunny day, this is a place to visit. It’s just as nice but only a few minutes further east than the Amsterdam Brewery, and well worth the travel.
As for the atmosphere, it’s very cozy. My wife and I sat at a table for two that had couch like chairs. We were very comfortable. We even remarked on how we felt like we were on a cruise. The staff were efficient, professional, friendly and competent, made up primarily of very young adults. Our waitress was on the ball and a treat to deal with.
The food was pretty awesome. My wife had some sort of stir fry thing with an egg on top. It was not only different to us, but super fresh, and delicious. See my pictures. I had a Cobb Salad with Chicken. Weirdly it had a pretzel that came with it. That salad was great if it was bigger with all of its toppings minus the pretzel. It was still satisfying and tasty.
Definitely go dine here. It’s cozy, warm, fun, professional and tasty. I think it would satisfy the professional, and the casual.

My party of five had a reservation and we were initially seated at a table for four, with one chair added to the end of the table, where one member of our party kept getting knocked by wait staff. We asked our server to be re-​seated and was informed that the rest of the tables were already reserved; yet, we saw a round table of five where only two people were seated the entire time they were there. Eventually, we spoke with the manager and he re-​seated us to a much more comfortable spot. It just felt like our particular server was more interested in doing what was most convenient for her, which was disappointing, since we did purchase multiple drinks, appetizers, entrees and desserts, and we tip generously. Very grateful to the manager for his kindness and graciousness, but wished our server had some of his compassion.
Food and atmosphere were both lovely. Service left something to be desired.

Might be one of the best patios in Toronto. Fantastic location, especially in the summertime. Service was friendly, but not super fast. Food was pretty good. The home fries were great. Good for kids (outside) except the kids meals were kind of pricey in comparison to other. ($ 12). But it is now one of my favourite patios in the city!

I came here recently for their Winterlicious dinner menu. When I got there, the atmosphere and restaurant setting was pleasant. But by the end of the evening, I was really disappointed and it’s all towards their food.
As an appetizer I chose their grilled oyster. When it came, I literally thought they gave me empty shell! There was only one oyster. It was sooo small and when I ate it, I think it tasted more like the cream sauce than the oyster itself.
For the entrée, my choice went to the cider-​brined pork chops. Of all the meat steaks I’ve had at restaurants, this was one of the worst — very disappointed. Not sure why but they made the outer layer super salty (both top and bottom). The saltiness even simmered through to the middle too. Every bite was just salty!
The mashed potatoes on the side weren’t great either. They weren’t fully mashed up and doesn’t have much taste like those double-​baked potatoes. Possibly not enough butter cooked with it. The actual good thing was the braised meat bits chopped up and placed on the side.
The dessert was alright. It was apple fritter pieces. However, the inside part of the fritter wasn’t too flavourful — more dough. Overall the dinner wasn’t very fulling for the party I went with, especially the guys.
On the positive side, the waiter was really friendly but the food took off the restaurant’s points. The atmosphere was pleasant as well as the décor. The place is actually quite big and can fit many parties. I especially loved their setting with the light bulbs hanging from the ceiling and wooden theme :)
Meh. Oh well.