Degrees Kitchen Store

First of all, I am signing up to Unilocal simply so that I can share this post. That’s how disappointed I feel in the service at this store.
Today was blustery and snowy, and my boyfriend and I walked a long way up Yonge St. seeking this store. We were soaked and cold by the time we arrived, but had high hopes that we might find the cast-​iron pan brush that my boyfriend was looking for. After we scanned the store’s walls, my boyfriend asked a brown-​haired woman, who was standing near the cash register, if they had the brush. She stared at him and looked confused. He went to explain further, but in the midst of his explanation she cut him off and said that she knew what he was referring to and that they did not have it.
The woman walked over to the display of cast iron pans and began to criticize his question, telling him that he didn’t need to grease the pan and use the brush, as he intended to do. I watched from a few displays away. He looked at her while she talked and she ended her comments with «I’m just saying,» in a tone that was in no way polite or informative. Her attitude was curt and her voice impatient.
After an awkward pause, my boyfriend verified that they did not have any brush of the kind. She said, «no.» He said that he supposed he would need to look elsewhere, and she replied, short and hard, «that’s fine.» I could see from his expression that he was confused and hurt by her behaviour. The two of us left the store, and as we walked out I looked back and saw the woman standing near the cash register, staring at us with a look of distaste on her face. When we got far enough away from the store that we couldn’t be seen through the window anymore, we had to stop and take a moment to discuss what had just happened, why it had happened, and how an employee (a human) could treat a customer (another human) so rudely.
Let me tell you, it took everything in me to not march back into that store and call all the way over to the cash register «We won’t be back!»
Disappointing, hurtful, and in my opinion, wrong. This store has potential to be great, but with that attitude, it never will be.

The products are all right, the service is positively rude and ignorant. After I asked about some utensils I was told by a very unhelpful lady that she doesn’t cook. Maybe you shouldn’t be working in a kitchen store? The prices are too high for that kind of customer service.

Minus 5 stars. This store has lots of neat stuff but the woman I dealt with today was condescending and rude. I was shocked. After my negative experience here, I took my business to Peppermills down the street. Degrees lost out on a $ 250! Too bad!

This is, without a doubt, the BEST kitchen gadget store in the world! I always find what I’m looking for at Degrees. Today I was looking for lasagne servers. I went to every store in Yorkdale Mall (Williams Sonoma, Home Outfitters, Crate and Barrel and the Bay) and no luck. Crate and Barrel did have one server that could be used for lasagne, but it was $ 60 — way out of my price range. I also tried a few stores on Yonge street and Avenue Road in Toronto and still no luck. Then I stopped in at Degrees, and not only did they have one type of lasagne server to choose from they had 3 — all of very high quality. I bought the Al Clad ones for under $ 20 each. The staff is very friendly and best of all, very knowledgeable. A few weeks ago, I was looking for a little contraption that sits on the top of a soft boiled egg, and you pull up a spring loaded lever on the top and it makes a nice clean cut on the top of the soft boiled egg — looked everywhere for this and found it at Degrees. I’m giving Degrees a 5 star rating because clearly, they are as good as it gets.

That’s it, I’m increasing my rating to 5 stars because I walked in here, and for the first time in 3 years of searching, found J. J. Abrams cutting boards made in the USA.
Simple, no weird grooves, elegantly made, professional and in a variety of sizes. They did NOT have these items before.
They also have a lot of Made in France items for ceramics (HUGE plus) and I’d rather support this local business than Williams-​Sonoma.
You can’t get better than this kitchen store in Toronto. Even Nella Cucina does not live up to this small, but well-​stocked, well-​priced, beautiful little store.
As for customer service, the salesgirls are lovely, the older man is very quiet but kind, but his wife (I think?) can come off a bit abrasive.
Still, I don’t care. I always find what I want, she just needs to learn to smile more and keep her strong opinions to herself to stop alienating otherwise well-​meaning customers.

Love this little kitchen supply shop. Staff is very friendly and prices reasonable.

While I am not a huge cook, my brother owns a restaurant out of the country. So every once and a while I am sent off on a wild goose chase to find some cooking implement that I have never heard of. Luckily these people have and usually have it in stock. The world’s best pepper grinder and most reliable meat thermometer, according to my brother, both found here…

Degrees Kitchen Store is a really high ended store. They do have quality items on sale. but not cheap.
Those Staub Cast Iron Cocottee that are on sale, the ¼ quart one is selling for $ 60… hmmm (¼ quart = 1 cup) And the others are like $ 350! And that’s the sale prices…
But if you want to impress the chef in your life and want to buy some unique gifts, this is the place to go!
I wish that buying that $ 350 cast iron cocottee will make me a good cook? But that’s not going to happen.

Dammit, I really, really like this kitchen store, but I had a very mediocre experience today that has left me feeling sore.
Ordinarily, I would give this place 4 stars, and place it above places like IQ Living, Cook’s Place and their ilk, simply because they are more about quality and less about the gadget of the moment.
Though their stock is generally top quality, I purchased a faulty meat thermometer which I tried to return the next day. Maybe it’s the dynamic of a small business that treats their customers with suspicion, but the two clerks would not take me at my word that the item was defective. They tried to tell me that I was misreading the device, and when that proved to be a dead end, they instead told me that their Rep would take a look at it later in the week to determine whether or not the device was working.
The result is that I left without a refund or even an exchange (and even an insinuation that I had returned a similar thermometer the previous week!), and am now waiting for a phone call on the results. The only reason I didn’t blow my stack (aside from being kind of mild-​mannered) is that like I said at the beginning of this review, I really like Degrees. I don’t want to make a scene just to get my way, because I’d like to come back and not be loathed by the staff.
But as I left, the whole experience just became more sour in my mouth. Even if they deem the unit to be defective, they’ll likely ask me to come in a third time for my refund or exchange, and if they don’t, if they insist it’s working, I’ll have the happy task of picking up $ 40 of defective merchandise which I know doesn’t work (I guess I’ll tell them where to stick it if that happens). Even if they refund my money, it’s a bit of a Pyrrhic victory at this point, as I can’t say I want to go back anytime soon.
**UPDATE** I got my money refunded over the phone a couple of days later.