Bestellen

The burrata with beet salad was delish! Had the tagliatelle and my friend had the rigatoni… Both were amazing!!! Next time, I’m bringing more friends so we can order the suckling pig!
Dessert selection was limited but that’s OK, we were too full from dinner!!!

Straight up my favourite restaurant in Canada for steak. Take it from the girl who grew up in Tx.
Try anything with a side of marrow.
Seafood options are fantastic if you don’t want meat.
Order appetizers only and you won’t be sorry.

We had the market oysters, beef tartare and Bestellen burger. The beef tartare was excellent and I think the burger was perhaps the best I have had in Toronto. Definitely go for the medium rare. We arrived without a reservation and it was busy. They were kind enough to ask a couple at a 4-​top to split it into 2. None of the attitude and pretensions typical of most west end eateries these days. I will definitely go back.

We are on the hunt for the BEST BURGER in Toronto! Stop #7: Bestellen
Bestellen is a European tavern on the west side of the city. It has a bit of a dark and sultry feel, so I’d say a good choice of venue for your next Tinder date. They seem to specialize in high quality beef and pork, fresh to def ingredients, plus they apparently have a roof top garden.
Now I know this is the Burger Hunt, but I came here with a friend who treated me to some fun dishes that deserve recognition. First up we had their oysters served with horseradish. Not much to say here; they were nice. Then came the Pig Ear. They serve these guys as little slivers of (likely) deep fried goodness. The crispiness and salty temptation of these made me understand how easily I could become obese. Next up came the Burrata, which is generally a mozzarella outer shell filled with cream. It was served with candy cane beets, blood orange, and a green of some sort. The cheese was surprisingly light, and the sweetness of the blood orange gave it a welcome accent. Lastly, we got the oxtail croquettes. They were served with celeriac yogurt, and a stupidly fresh tasting salsa verde.
On to the main show! I walked into this not knowing anything about the menu, and when I saw that their burger selection was a single burger… put simply, I was concerned. My worries were briskly eased. The Bestellen Burger features a picturesque brioche bun that stands out from your typical bun in a great way. Once you really settle into that first bite though, things get a smidge emotional. They serve this bad boy with caramelized onions, raclette (a cheese), and a beef patty that rivals Toma’s. My goodness was that a thick patty, and thank God because that tender meat melts in your mouth oh-​so well, especially as the raclette and onions do the same.
By the end of it all I had big dilemma. Bestellen serves up a burger without a lot of the fanfare of the other restaurants on the Burger Hunt, but damn did they do the basics proud! As of right now, Bestellen has muscled Holy Chuck and Wahlburgers out of the #2 spot, and made Toma feel a little unsafe at the top spot. Still though, Toma is the Truth. Anyway, the hunt is almost over! Loved the experience Bestellen! (And much appreciated chef Jordan)

Came here because I heard the burger was outstanding, but I wasn’t as wowed as I expected I would be. Overall the place has great vibes, upbeat, good crowd and feels classy but in a casual way. I only tried the burger and local burrata to start so would need to come back as the rest of the menu sounds really good. The meat in the burger had a great taste, but the rest of the burger lacked creativity and the fries were subpar. Presentation was also lacking. The cheese was pretty good, with the candied beets. The drinks list seems great, I especially liked their Amber beer on tap. I’d love to give a higher rating, but again would need to come back to give the rest of the menu a try.

Came here for NYE and was pretty underwhelmed with my experience considering I’ve heard raving reviews about Bestellen.
I made my dinner reservation weeks before New Year’s Eve, but the restaurant was pretty empty on the night of. I appreciated the quiet and spacious seating and the speedy service, so no complaints there!
On the way to our table, we walked by the aging room that had numerous beef on display. So when I had to pick from the list of entrees on the prixe-​fix menu, I chose the flat iron steak!
Now, I am a HUGE steak fan and on all special occasions, I treat myself to some good steak. The flat iron steak I had at Bestellen doesn’t even come close to «average». The steak was hard to cut into, overcooked and rough to chew. I made mention of this to the server and all she said was «Oh that’s too bad, sorry to hear you didn’t like it».
This whole time, the «celebrity» chef, Rob Rossi kept walking by our table to chat with his friends at the front (he wasn’t even cooking), and not once did he make eye contact with us or asked how was everything. It certainly isn’t necessary but the personal touch would have shown that he at least cared. I’m pretty sure my displeasure with my steak made it to his ears, and still nothing.
For the price charged, I expected service and food to match. I wouldn’t come back — just not worth my money.

What can you expect for a $ 600 meal at Bestellen? To feel humiliated by the end of the night.
Our party of six was excitedly anticipating an evening at Bestellen. My family, who was visiting from out-​of-​town for the weekend, had been gushing about celebrity chef Rob Rossi, and to celebrate a milestone family event, we were going to dine in style.
Instead, we had what I honestly have to say was the most disappointing, disrespectful and tactless dining experience I’ve ever had in Toronto.
To be fair, the evening started out well — my father ordered some delicious wines and we began with a tasty charcuterie board. In our party of six, we had dietary restrictions for one person (who was vegan) and made this clear in a phone call beforehand — to which they said was no problem.
When we let the waiter know, he offered her one salad option, which was essentially a few mixed greens.
We understand that this is a meat-​heavy menu, however, at a restaurant that boasts an expensive menu and the sophistication of a renowned chef, sautéing a few veggies or coming up with an oil-​based pasta, isn’t rocket science.
Here is where good old-​fashioned customer service can be used to mitigate and prevent an uncomfortable situation. All the waiter had to do from the get-​go was offer to speak with the kitchen and get back to us. Instead, we had to insist on this (which our vegan family member felt guilty about because she didn’t want to put anyone out) before the waiter offered to do so.
A small setback, but that’s fine — we moved on.
Let’s get to the meat — the star of the show. After the waiter discussed the specials and highlighted a $ 200 42-​ounce steak to share — the four meat eaters at the table decided to take on the challenge. The waiter contended this would be more than enough food for four people. Perfect.
And then we waited.
Forty-​five minutes later — no food, and no waiter to be found. In fact, he seemed to be zipping around the tables, talking and laughing with about three or four other tables, who at this point, arrived after us, but all received their entrees before us.
A bit odd, we thought. It started to feel like every time we tried to make eye contact with him to understand what the delay was, he looked past us — in fact, it felt like he was actively avoiding us.
After about an hour and 15 minutes, we tried to vocalize our concern to our server about the delay. Instead of simply apologizing for the wait — which would have made us feel acknowledged and that they hadn’t forgotten about us — he started to defensively rattle off excuses. In fact, two of our family members, who have worked in the service industry for over 10 years, were taken aback by his hasty and cold demeanor.
Finally, after an hour and a half, our steak arrived — if you could call it that. I wish I was over-​exaggerating about this next part: The plate was a mini-​mountain of bones.
In a 42-​ounce steak, we collectively ate about 18 ounces. Personally, I had one strip of steak that was about 3 – 4 ounces. Unacceptable.
After struggling to scrape the final bits of steak off the bone — we were truly at a loss for words. At this point, we just wanted to get the bill and leave. Which is what should have happened.
But our story continues: A manager — who should have come out an hour earlier to apologize for the wait and service — came to our table with a bottle of liquor to try and smooth things over.
While I can appreciate the sentiment this manager was trying to offer, it came off as insensitive and insincere. In doing so, he actually minimized our experience and didn’t really try to understand why we were disappointed. We weren’t looking for a handout — free drinks or dessert — we just wanted someone to listen to why we were upset.
After my family had collected their coats and paid the $ 600 bill, I waited while my husband had a few final remarks with the manager and chef near the back of the restaurant.
While I waited at the front of the house for him, our waiter — the person who was mostly responsible for our unpleasant experience — started distributing our uneaten dessert to patrons near surrounding tables as they laughed about the «difficult table».
I felt humiliated. This restaurant not only under-​delivered on their food, service and overall dining experience — my good and kind family was now somehow the punch line of a nasty joke.
Bestellen ruined our evening, embarrassed my family and left us baffled (and hungry) — all for the price of $ 600.
I would never return to this restaurant and before you do, please consider the type of business and people you want to support. Because patrons should never feel the way Bestellen made my family feel last night.

Came here twice for some good quality BEEF! :) the meat here is absolutely AMAZING. love the ambience, and i love walking by their meat storage where you can see them aging the meat IN HOUSE :) so far everything I’ve ever tried there was very delicious and so good. bone marrow, yum. the giant rib steak shared between 6 people… SO GOOOOD. WE ordered their burger, it was ginormous but juicy in every bite. Also tried their meat platter, their salamis were yummy and i don’t usually eat pickles, but i ate their pickles — also made in house. if you’re ever in this neighbourhood it is definitely worth checking out! we had dessert there as well ans it’s as good as it is described. STaff is very knowledgeable about their menu and drinks and also very good with suggestion for wine too. Definitely worth coming back!!! :)

I absolutely love the food and drinks at Bestellen. I had the pleasure of sitting at the bar and got to witness the precision that went into producing a single drink.
We didn’t have to wait long for our starters to come out and the mains were perfectly timed and arrived after the starter was cleared.
Though I didn’t order the burger, I did get to take a bite and it might just be one of the best burgers in the city. The ravioli was amazing! The flavors of the mushroom and artichoke went so well together.
I am very much looking forward to my next visit!

Being a Foodnetwork junky I watched Top Chef Canada when it came out, so took an interest in Rob Rossi opened up a place.
I finally made it there on Saturday — the food was all about the meat, here’s what we had:
Beef tartare — simple and delicious, topped with a couple of anchovies and quail’s egg, rimmed with an intense garlic aioli
Charcuterie board — a lot of it cured in house, served with a killer grainy mustard that was also made in house
Duck breast — with a cherry sauce, cooked to a perfect medium — medium rare
Butcher’s cut special pork chop — I can’t remember the name, but the description makes me think it’s the «kobe» of pork; served on the richest, creamiest grits I’ve ever tasted
Service was on point, my dinner date described our server (Dillon) as the perfect amount of in your face/​banter, food and bevvy knowledge. The restaurant itself was open, every table had a view of the open kitchen, and the man himself was cooking with four others (this was another key point for me, if I go to a restaurant for a specific chef I want to see him cooking my food). Music was lots of 70’s early 80’s rock — CCR, Cream, Police, etc. Also, bonus points for a very hot tatted up hostess.
I’ll be back at least two more times to try their cote de boeuf, and in force for the family style suckling pig.

The good — the food is delicious. We’ve been three times so far and never had a bad dish. We’ve tried everything — steak, burger, pork, gnocchi, charcuterie, etc.
Two of three experiences were great. The third was not as fantastic, mainly due to service. A comedy of errors starting with a mix up on the beer delivered and being told whoops! Oh well. To being asked if we were ok not having bread with the charcuterie board because they ran out (as it turns out they got some in from their friends down the street at bar Isabella). Then when asking if we could have another slice of bread (4 people — 3 slices of bread) the answer was — you can purchase some for $ 4.
Then the kicker was waiting almost 2 hours to be served our mains without a word from our waiter. When he finally did serve us no apology. We are a relatively easy going bunch but honestly really confused by the lack of ownership and service.
The guy who seemed to be in charge did try to fix it in the end by comping dessert and some after dinner drinks but it makes me think twice before bringing friends there again. With so many other restaurants to try in Toronto I’m not sure we’ll be back.

There’s nothing better than the afternoon before a big dinner. The expectations. the possibilities. the idea in your mind. it’s great because its this catalogued fantasy just waiting to be fulfilled. until it isn’t. My friend and I have been waiting to try bestellen for quite some time due to referrals and blog posts alike.
Real quick we had. Pork ears. Dozen oysters. Burrata. Burger. Cote du boeuf and tagliatelle.
Pork ears were tasty and well seasoned. Fried and bite sized.
Oysters were malpeque. We were upsold 2 dollar in house hot sauce. (Meh it was Sriracha mayo)
Burrata was great. but only three slices of toast to spread it on. Burger meat. looked good. Didn’t taste as good.
BURGER BUN was very good. Meat tasted overdone in spite of looking cooked perfectly medium rare. Very clean burger for purists.
COTE du boeuf had a nice subtle flavor but was very tough. Even at medium rare.
Pasta was a mixed hit. Great taste.. I’ve had better but my friend really liked it so.
Don’t believe the hype. Go in with low expectations. It’s a nice place regardless. Excellent service and staff

So I rarely give ratings of 1, and only do so when the meal was so unenjoyable that I would have been happier eating a bowl of cereal for dinner.
To note, I am not a picky eater at all, and am just as happy going out for phở as I am going to a 5 star steak house. I just hate when you go to a somewhat upscale place and the food is worse than street meat. For the price we paid, I could have happily eaten congee wong take-​out for a month –_​_​_​-​«
Appetizers: Grilled squid with some greens and sauce — all you could taste was salt. Charcuterie plate — this was pretty good, good cuts of meat with some bread and mustard to dip. The only decent dish of the night.
Mains: Sirloin (which, by the way, they are supposed to be known for) — we all ordered them medium, and all were done closer to medium well/​well. All tough, chewy, unflavourful, slabs of meat that went unfinished. The potatoes accompanying the main were undercooked, and the greens were so salty they were un-​edible (they seem to love salt at this place). My friend ordered the chicken and it was also very dry and had an odd taste to it.
We would have brought this up to the server (especially the funky smelling/​tasting chicken and leather-​cooked meat), but alas, he never stopped by to check on us during the meal.
Head to Bar Isbel down the street if you’re in the area. 1 000 0000X better and you will spend the same :)
Would I return? — Definitely not
Parking? — Street parking (paid on College, free on residential) and Green P’s in the area
Value for $? — Poor
Space? — Mid sized restaurant/​decent waiting area
Ventilation? — Good
Service? — Poor

I’m never coming back to this place !!!
Let me tell you why…
Turns out that we really wanted to go and check out this place, and for secret reasons we were running late and needed to have a late dinner, well, their website clearly reads: «Hours: 6 pm — Late», so it was perfect, right? unless we don’t understand what late means… now hear this, we even call this clowns before going there, just to check if they were going to be open, and we specifically axed … at what time are you guys closing the kitchen tonight? we are thinking about late dinner and we want to head over there… and so the deception begins, they told us they were not closing the kitchen until 11 PM (take note) 11 PM !!! OK, perfect!
We take a taxi to go aaaaaall the waaay there, and so we show up at about 10:20 PM, all looking like idiots… guess what??? Kitchen was closed !!! why would you do this to me ??? I’m here on business !!!
So we were just standing there, feeling like dog feces and talking to the hostess, explaining to her that we were on the phone earlier (like half an hour earlier) with her, and she told us that the kitchen was going to be open… and her response was a simple «well, they changed their minds» !!! ???: | excuse me??? they changed their minds ??? dafuuuuuuuuqqqqq ??? oh ok…
So, never trust this clowns… for all we know it may not be open today (even though it is supposed /​advertised to be), or they might could close early, how about closing today at 7 PM??? sure, why not! or maybe it’s going to be 10 PM … you never know… because THEY CHANGE THEIR MINDS frequently…
What a joke!!! I declare this place a big pile of feculence !!! in other words: this place is NOT ALLOWED !!!

Enjoyed Summerlicious tonight at Bestellen.
I had the organic greens, Cornish hen and budino. The toasted hazelnuts married well with the lemon dressing of the salad. The Cornish hen was a portion of a Cornish hen rather than a whole hen, very tasty. The budino I had was much smaller than the one pictured here but very delicious. 3.5÷5
My husband had the charcuterie, strip loin and hazelnut gelato. He really enjoyed the charcuterie, found the steak portion very small and nothing special (I thought it was tasty) and also enjoyed the gelato. I thought his gelato was very delicious and might have had several bites. ³⁄₅
The service was excellent and nice ambience. I would go again if we lived closer.

We went there for summerlicious. The place was just OK. The service is extremely slow. The food was alright — I took the grilled squid for starters (underwhelming!), steak for entrée (the steak itself was good… Bit salty but I liked it. The mint sauce underneath it … Was like «Why would you do that to the steak!?» .) for the dessert I took the lemon pistachio cake. It was good!
Tip — try the Cornish hen from the summerlicious menu. It was really flavourful.
P. S. Liked the server who took care of us though. He was friendly.

Underwhelming! Where does one begin?
I really wanted to like this place, and for a multitude of reasons it just did not pan out how I imagined it. I’d walked by this place and read somewhat positive reviews and figured it would be a good place to try. This is what Toronto’s Summerlicious is all about, trying new restaurants. It is like Restaurant Week in New York just in case anybody was wondering.
I went with a group of seven people, by the end of the dinner the overwhelming opinions were pretty much the same. Disappointed that our expectations were not met.
The first course was the grilled squid with Romesco sauce, shaved fennel, and charred scallions. Squid is best served simple, think classic Greek and Spanish. The Bestellen squid consisted of three tiny pieces accompanied by a spicy romesco sauce and what seemed to be lightly vinegar fennel and some charred scallions. The tastes were all over the map, like the chef tried to use opposing flavours to work together. Meanwhile, those who ordered the house charcuterie plate had a better experience.
The main course, a measly four ounce dry aged striploin was hit and miss at best. Consider the restaurant cures its own meats and ages its beef onsite is encouraging. The striploin was tender, well aged, but too salty. Disappointment. The salsa verde which was minty in flavour was smeared on the plate as a decorative accent — it looked horrible like a diaper smear. Kind of like the chef threw greens into a blender and then smeared the remains onto the plate. Aesthetically a big turn off.
The dessert, chocolate budino with caramel and sea salt worked well and ended the meal on an upswing.
Beyond the food, service was slower than molasses. We walked in at 7:00PM, ordered by 7:20PM, received our first at 7:40, mains at 8:30…you get the idea.
It may sound nit picky at this point but our table did notice the wait staff did not use trays to bring out meal plates. Fingers were all over the plates. It would make sense for wait staff to use trays.
At this point, I don’t know if I’d go back — but I would one day like to see what Bestellen is capable of when their game is tighter.

«Nailed it» as they say. Bestellen is a gem worth returning to.
Service: Upon arrival, we were directed toward a table unappealing to us and asked to sit somewhere else. Without hesitation, we were happily granted two seats at the bar. The bartender greeted us with a smile, info about the menu, suggestions and everything else a great bartender should have.
Drinks: The cocktail list is creative. We commented on this, then were revealed the repertoire of the owner… Cocktail Bar! Aha! No surprise. The cocktails were an A+. Balanced, boozy and bold. We had the New Money and the Southern Dandy.
Food: We had the straciatella, steak tartare, chorizo and the pork belly. Everything was presented beautifully, seasoned accordingly and tasted great. My top dish was the chorizo, which came with some out of this world fried cornbread. I’ll have a plate of just that, please. The ONLY issue with the food was the fact that the pork belly seemed overcooked and a bit too tough. For dessert, we ordered the chocolate budino to go and we killed half of it in the car, saving the rest for later because we weren’t ready to say goodbye.

The service was great. We had a group of 20 for a birthday and they did a fantastic job. The food took a while to come, but what can you expect with that many orders going in at once? The server stayed on top of our drink orders and was very charming and good fun.
As for the food: don’t order the ravioli… there’s 5 small pieces for $ 22. A friend who ordered it was luckily a tiny girl, but even she was disappointed and hungry after. The other food (steak and lamb shoulder, which were specials of the day) was just OK and nothing special. They were extremely overpriced. I will definitely not go back.

Came here for dinner on my business trip to Toronto this past week. The servers were extremely friendly and very hipster enjoyed the vibe. It was on a Tuesday evening so was a bit quite but they played some great old school music.
Steak was amazing and perfectly cooked. Great seasoning on the outside. Super soft on the inside.
But the most memorable thing was the crispy pig ears. That is a must! could have ate 2 – 3 orders myself. Had to fight myself not to.
Will def be back and hopefully more than once.
PS the chocolate pudding with cream on top for dessert was perfect as well! Left very very happy!