Czehoski

this place has permanently closed down

This place is has a really nice vibe and the exact kind of décor that I love. It has two floors and a rooftop patio. But I’m only giving it two stars because the food is really just too expensive for the quality and the portions. Our salads were just meh — they would be ok for under 8 dollars, but they are basically a side salad for $ 12. My friend’s mojito was $ 14 and she claims it’s the worst mojito she’s ever had in her life.
The service was great considering it was just one server busting her ass by herself, with some help from the bartender or someone to bus tables.
This place would be awesome if you just came for a drink and took advantage of the drink specials.

The inside of the restaurant was rather dark and shabby. Patio had a rustic, «hipster» look to it. We went during the day so we weren’t able to fully appreciate the beauty of the restaurant during the evening but our experience was overall, enjoyable. The signature cheese and potato stuffed perogies were so good! The skin was perfectly crispy on the outside and the inside was just melt in your mouth good. The mayo and red cabbage on the side helped to enhance the perogies. The only criticism that I had would be our server. She was somewhat awkward helping us out. Other than that, I’m looking forward to coming back to try out the sauerkraut and mushroom perogies for our second visit!

I came for buck a shuck oysters yesterday and got a seat on the patio– the makings of a lovely summer evening. But unfortunately czehoski did not deliver.
Czehoski is a 3 level bar/​restaurant with daily food and drink specials. It is because of the many specials and large space that I am not giving them one star. They really need to get their act together IMO.
Our oysters took over 20 minutes to come out, and when they did, the bed of ice they were on had almost completely melted. Frankly, I’m surprised they allowed this to leave the kitchen. Water spilled all over me when the server plopped the oysters on the table, and she didn’t even apologize. I told her she’d spilled on me, and she ignored me.
I know this is not an oyster place, but it’s like they are not even trying. They don’t tell you what kind of oysters they have. They also don’t offer sauces other than horse radish and hot sauce.
I was still hungry after I finished my oysters, but I got the bill because I didn’t want to give them any more of my business. I went down the street to another restaurant and ordered dinner. I will never return to Czehoski.

We sat on the patio on a nice evening and had great service. What brought down the experience was the patio’s lack of atmosphere, a lack of seasoning on all the food (but mainly my bland beet salad) and the charcuterie board. The board was scarce. It worked out to over a dollar a slice for the meats and was for sure not worth it’s $ 20 price tag.
Long story short: somewhat bland and expensive.

I’m not sure whether this was simply due to the fact that it was «Winterlicious», but I was very disappointed by my experience at Czehoski. Service makes or breaks the dining experience, and in this instance it certainly did not «make» it. Additionally, the food was quite poor — again I can’t say too much about their regular dinner menu since I only had the Winterlicious 2014 items. However, I feel that a sample menu such as this should attempt to showcase the restaurant in the best light possible and entice the customer to come back for the full show. I certainly feel strongly otherwise.

SIgh. I went here on just this past Thursday after wanting to try this place for AGES.
I didn’t mind the draught beer selection for the most part. The menu probably showed 10 beers but at least three of them they were out of. Bummer #1.
My date wasn’t grabbing any food but I was famish having come right from work. I had always heard good things about the food here from friends and word of mouth. I decided to go with something basic and tasty… mac and cheese. Biggest regret and bummer #2, I definitely got food poisoning from the mac and cheese. Not pretty.
To say the least, I probably won’t come back as I’m scared for life…

It’s possible I visited them on an off night but the food was not that great. The polish poutine had missing ingredients which we had to request on the side — cheese, tomatoes etc.
The cheeseboard had some great cheeses although it was small. For $ 20 we thought it would have been bigger. The perogies were just okay. I didn’t taste the wow but as I said I think they were having a bad night.
Atmosphere is nice but it was very loud with chatter; you can barely here the music.
Saving the best for last, the half off bottles of wine on Wednesday is a great deal. Good wine selection as well. The trick is you must order food to get the deal and the food is mediocre.

I found the service to be average and the food and cocktails to be overpriced. $ 17 for 6 potato/​cheese perogies? Could not bring myself to order them. Burger was just average. Extremely limited vegetarian options. I do not recommend this place for vegetarians.
The feel of this place is very nice and I think that’s what you end up paying for and not the quality of the food.

First time in 28 years have I decided to leave no tip! This establishment is a joke.
The drink specials require you to order off their shitty excuse for a menu. So far from traditional polish menu it’s not even funny. The perogies were bought at shoppers drug mart from the frozen section and smothered in sour cream… Yet take a full hour to prepare. The service is terrible and the cherry on top was that our server sensed our disappointment … after she served us a cheese board with 3 pieces of cheese on it. But either way she sent over the bus boy to settle up our tab hoping we would be charmed by his accent …, when in fact I felt even less inclined to tip! Awful awful experience!

Came to this place after walking over to Harlem Underground and being told that the next seating available is not until 10:30pm. It was 8:30. Ordered their sharing board $ 26 and a few pints. It was terrible. The portions were miniscule. It was almost embarrassing to call it a sharing board. I’m sorry, I know how much a good kielbasa costs and giving us 3 skinny slices in a board… really? The Drake’s shareable boards puts Czehoski’s to shame. Friend had the soup… we were apprehensive ordering anything else thinking the sharing board could have potentially filled us up. Not quite, we ended up on Spadina and getting some Chinese to actually get something substantial.

I was here for their $ 25 Winterlicious meal. I had the caesar salad for my appetizer, the filet mignon for the main course, and the chocolate cake for the dessert.
The salad was decent, but it was nothing to write home about. It’s caesar salad — what else do you expect?
The steak was good. They give you two medallions of filet mignon and yes, it is wrapped in BACON. Super tender, succulent, and the portions weren’t too bad either. Definitely worth the $ 25 by itself.
The chocolate cake, like the caesar salad, was run-​of-​the-​mill. I thought it was a bit too sweet, but hey, it’s chocolate cake. It’s what I paid for.
In summary, I had a pretty decent meal. Would I come here again? Probably not. The meal was good, but not good enough for me to rave about. In all honesty, I’ll probably forget that this place exists in a few months.

Just did Winterlicious here — disappointing. Not offensively bad, but I won’t be back.
Starter: I ordered the «beet salad», which ended up being a mixed green salad with two tiny slices of beet hidden amongst the leaves. «Orange fragments» mentioned as an ingredient on the menu ended up being tangerine slices out of a can. My partner had the borscht, which was served just above room temperature. Not great.
Entrée: I had the filet mignon, which was specified on the menu as being «cooked to order». The waitress didn’t ask me how I wanted it cooked, which I didn’t even notice and which I usually don’t really care about — but when it came, one of the two medallions was dry and a bit overdone and the other was extremely rare. Not a big deal to me, but really weird — what were they thinking in the kitchen? My partner had the pierogies — they were okay, I guess.
Dessert: The crème brûlée was lukewarm but cold in the middle; the chocolate cake tasted like it came from Metro (dry, with sugary icing).
For $ 25, the meal was underwhelming and overpriced. Certainly not an effective advertisement to new patrons (which is the whole point of Winterlicious). The service was also off-​putting — our waitress seemed like she was annoyed to be working there. We thought about complaining but figured she wouldn’t bother passing it up the chain. We also observed her interactions with other customers and they seemed to get it even worse than we did.
Get off my lawn, Czehoski!

Went here on a groupon one night.
I liked this place for the food and that’s it.
I didn’t like the small beer selection they had nor did I like our service.
We arrived and at first the host said «there’s no reservation under that name» My friend even said she got a confirmation callback later that day stating everything was set for 8:30pm.
The host simply said «sorry, you’re not here, don’t know what to tell you» My friend asked him then to find us a table. He just took another long look at all of us then said «ugh, i’ll see what i can do» I was like really. About 30 seconds later, the owner comes to us and says «we have your table all ready» I think the host could have done a waaaayyy better job of accomodating us. Thank god for the owner though.
So we sit down to order our drinks and our food and such which came out at almost a snails pace. Our dinner took 3 hours but could have been shortened if the waiter didn’t take so darn long. It may have been a busy night but honestly, our food took for — — -ev — errr.
Conclusion:
Food — 3 ***
Service — 1***
Would I come back. If they got better staff or trained the ones they have to be better, then yes. I’ve come here on their patio and although it’s a good patio, drinks take awhile to receive.

Small place warm and cozy… Perfect for a Tuesday drink … Didn’t try the food though… Went there for wing night special but they had stopped it which sucked

After a nice late night meal here, I’m going to eat some crow and update my review.
The fries, Hunter’s stew and pierogies were all excellent and really hit the spot. The stew was an especially nice surprise, very hearty and plentiful with a rich broth and toast.
I Previously was too hard on the food here, or they’ve really turned it around. Either way, check it out!
I still can’t effing spell their name…

Worst summerlicious ever. I am literally still sitting here at the table 3 hours later. They had to comp our meals it took so long. They switched servers on us… Apparently the manager was supposed to come talk to us and never showed.
Of the 9 items on the summerlicious menu we were told they were out of 2 of them.
The beef perogies were terrible. The cottage cheese crêpe was vile.
Of what we were being charged for (the drinks) there were a number of drinks that showed up on our bill that weren’t ours.
I love summerlicious but wouldn’t recommend this restaurant to anyone… Ever.

Czehoski, the name that just can’t roll off your tongue, had for the longest time had me curious about what’s inside the place with the weathered peeling original red sign (they really need to do a better job at preserving that sign). Yes, it took a Groupon to joust me here (which they handled quite well), but eh, I’m finally here now at this recognizable Queen West upscale hangout.
It’s dark in the back where we sat. But the music isn’t loud and the crowd not anywhere as stuck-​up yuppie as I thought. Heck, our friendly server was full of humour and delight, upselling wine (how do you run out of all the beer and wine I want early in dinner service?) and remembering I still don’t have a clue what the soup of the night was. A good time was had by all.
The aforementioned tomato soup was great and swimming in delectable spices. I also dabbled in their perogies and pan-​seared tuna, and it was alrighty. Despite the adopted name and theme, there isn’t a lot of anything Polish or eastern European on the menu. But there are a lot of Queen West themed burgers.
There is an ATM in the basement. And though Czehoski isn’t an ideal place to take kids to eat, except maybe in the brunch hours, I did see a server put away a high chair. Just sayin’.
{TTC: the 501er to Palmerston/​Tecumseth. Now look up. }

On Sat 2014-​03-​01, two of us went for dinner at 5:00 — 6:30pm. This time we used a groupon (paid $ 36 for up to $ 76 worth — 2 appetizers and 2 mains). We can order from their regular menu (unlike some other groupons).
We had a table on their second floor (didn’t even know they had a second floor!). The ground floor was darker but the 2^nd floor had plenty of light (more windows). There is a rooftop patio but I didn’t have a look. The waitress was very pleasant and service was good.
This time the portions were huge (unlike the Winterlicious portions which were small — we only paid $ 25/​p for a Winterlicious dinner). The food was very tasty and well presented. See my new photos.
Didn’t have dessert because we were very full (had to take the unfinished food home). But the desserts the waitress told us didn’t sound captivating (or else I might have been tempted).

I’ve always driven by Czeohski on Queen West and wondered what lay beyond the rustic sign in big red letters. I’d seen it as an option for Winter/​Summerlicious but always passed it over for other menus. Last night I finally took the plunge and discovered what it was all about.
With a Dealfind voucher and my best friend in tow we ventured to this Queen West hotspot. The dimly lit restaurant is seemingly small until you’re taken up a set of steep stairs to reveal a second floor through which you discover there is a rooftop patio (that is extremely popular with most tables serving as a layover spot until a spot opens up).
Czehoski, formerly a Czech-​Polish butcher shop has maintained more than just the original signage. Items such as Borscht and Pierogies pay hommage to its predecessor.
We sip our drinks to a white noise and mindless chatter until the DJ arrives and the speakers are blaring with a great selection of tunes. I’m not quite sure what to think of the restaurant as I sit down by the window with a painting of a naked woman; her butt cheeks just inches from my head.
But that quickly fades into the background after I’ve had my first drink — a refreshing Pimm’s Cup ($ 13) made with Beefeater gin, Pimm’s citrus, muddled cucumber + berries, mint, agave nectar and gingerale. While the ambiance is that of an overall pub, the prices certainly digress. When I can get a mixed drink a few doors down at the Dog’s Bollocks for just $ 5; it makes me seriously reconsider just sticking with dinner and going elsewhere for my night cap.
For starters I opt for the Beef Poutine ($ 11) which I’m told is traditionally made with tongue and tail, topped with Ontario cheese curds, sour cream and cabbage. At a glance it loosely resembles a Fries Supreme at Taco Bell; but after having tasted the heap of crispy fries my doubts are settled. The meat gravy is extremely tasty and hot enough to melt the curds. I’m not sure what to make of the sour cream as it doesn’t do much to enhance the flavour.
My best friend opts for a plain plate of Russet Frites ($ 5) which, while simple are tasty in their own right (unlike the bland aioli that comes with). I’d stick with the good ol’ ketchup.
For our mains we continue down the road to dieter’s destruction with a Pulled Pork Mac +_​Cheese ($ 19.95) which is rather bland, save for the overly sweet BBQ sauce that masks a somewhat dried pork. Ironically, the Sweet Potato Pierogies ($ 19.95) are the better choice as the natural sweetness of the tater contrasts the smoked Gouda.
Service is friendly though lag time between drinks to ordering to getting the bill becomes increasingly annoying as we try everything from turning our heads and closing our menus to entice our server to attend to us.
The damage at the end of the day for dinner (includes 2 beers + the Pimm’s Cup) is about $ 93 before tax and tip, which, without the $ 50 voucher is a bit steep for comfort food. However, the art of making a good pierogi shouldn’t be discounted and I would gladly pay $ 20 for a quality dumpling as I would a quality plate of pasta.
All in all, I had a great time at Czehoski and will definitely return to sit on the patio and try the charcuterie and Borscht — and maybe if service is a little speedier next time I’ll actually get to dessert.