Rose and Sons

Ever wonder if Anthony Rose is gunning to colonize Dupont Street? The young big-​shot hip restauranteur has already established a handful of joints on the rather dead and industrial road (and another one on the way, oy vey!), appealing to the various culinary inhibitions and trend-​conscious tastes of the city’s zombie hoards of hipsters and yuppies. And it all started with this Rose and Sons outlet after he left an exec chef job at the Drake. With such a pioneer independent gentrifying mentality, you’d better get your dibs in trying the foods before developers succeed in their evil plans of turning all the nearby industrial land into condos! But hey, Dupont station, the Tarragon Theatre, George Brown College and Casa Loma are all nearby, and the affluence of the Annex further south reeks barely, so…
Rose and Sons took over a greasy spoon burger joint on the street, signs of which are vaguely left behind like a stereotypical trophy prize. It aims to project a hole-​in-​a-​wall greasy spoon diner atmosphere, which doesn’t that effective given how much the place oozes of flashy shameless ironic hipsterness, and how friggin’ tiny it is (very crammed and feels like an overcrowded bus; I’d say you can squeeze 25 – 30 people in here max). Most of the cooking takes place in a very tiny open kitchen. A mirror wall at the back gives the illusion of bigger space, shattering every time the bright headlights of a car pulling up on St. George Street reflects off of it.
But to admit, the food here is pretty decent. The pastrami reuben sandwich special was delicious and juicy, and the matzo ball soup was warming, just to give an idea of what dinner is like. Staff are personable and accommodating (I even get to see a new girl get trained in my visit, which was fascinating to me). I think it’s a good idea to get dinner reservations to best secure a table (same advice goes for all other Anthony Rose properties, speaking from experience).

Awesome find. Unilocal you win again. We hit them up for late lunch– incredible. Tiny little place we sat at the bar and had an awesome chat with the chef and waitress who make an awesome duo. Can’t say enough how great the food is. We had the bleu burger and fried chicken club– but I am confident everything else is just as amazing. Also the special fried rice was ordered at least five times just as we sat there. Peanut butter Milkshake was the perfect ending creamy soft serve, hot salted peanuts on top with a drizzle of peanut butter sauce — we will be back.
No filter. One of the strongest fried chicken sammies I’ve consumed. First it’s a fried thigh! I think Americans are the only ones obsessed with the breast. Thighs are ridiculously juicy (see the video) also thick Canadian cheddar, housemade relish and a spicy kimchi-​of sorts-​veggie shred up top. Buttermilk bun was magically griddled, it sopped up all the juices without getting soggy. I didn’t drop one drop. THE FRIES– hot crisp, and served with a surprise of either garlic mayo (mine) spicy mayo (his) or smoke paprika mayo. Just great food awesome service.

Tried this place after walking by many times. Got a drink without realizing it was 12 dollars. :/​Tried the PL sandwich. It was soooooo greasy and not easy to eat. Plus I was lucky enough to get a hair on mine (cook said it was from the brush they used to baste/​coat the meat). I would probably not go again.

Went for dinner tonight at this location. The restaurant only opens at 5:00 p.m., but we arrived at about 4:50 and waited outside till someone let us in closer to opening time. I fully understand that they only open at 5, but there is a cold weather warning out and several people just looked at us and walked away.
We got ourselves seated and ordered our meals. After we had ordered another table had come in. The server at that time informed them of the special, which we over heard, but at no point in time did she let us know about it. Would have been nice to have another option. I ordered the Special Fried Rice. The rice wasn’t cooked at all. It wasn’t just crunchy from being fried, it had a distinct raw taste.
Our server never came by to check on us, even thought there was only 1 other table in the restaurant. She came by to clear our table and asked me if I was still working on my dish, I advised her the rice wasn’t cooked. She removed the plate and took it to the cook, who very loudly tried to defend that the dish was fine. So loudly that anyone in the restaurant at that time could hear him.
The waitress removed the item from our bill and once again you could hear the cook going on and on about how it was cooked. Even the waitress at the time of payment tried to convince me that it was crunchy because it was fried.
It is really disappointing because I had high hopes to come back and I understand that mishaps happen in the kitchen, but to have the staff on top of that try to convince me I was wrong was really disappointing. I will not be returning or recommending to this restaurant and that decision is purely based on service and attitude.

I was really looking forward to trying this place! But I was pretty disappointed. Between the appetizer and 3 meals we ordered, all were just so-​so. Not anywhere near the quality I would expect for the prices. Staff was super nice and their specialty cocktail was great. Would only go back for drinks, not food.

Super tiny hole-​in-​the-​wall but damn awesome food establishment. The service is great and the food is fantastic. You have to go early if you plan to walk in and get a seat for weekend brunch, but they have iPads and text messaging happening so you can walk around outside while you wait.
We wanted to try everything on the brunch menu but alas, ordering a peanut butter milkshake as part of brunch sorta made us feel like we went too far already :-)
Definitely would return or try one of the other DuPont restaurants that’s run by the same former Chef of the Drake.

We went here for an afternoon snack because we heard they had good milkshakes. This place is small, cute, and decidedly hipster. After spending about an hour here, I’m still not sure if it’s hipster good or hipster bad. For instance, we were there at a pretty random time of day…, right at 5pm, which was WAAAY before the dinner rush. However, straight away, they asked us if we had reservations. No, we just want a quick milkshake! I get that it’s a small place, but there were approximately two people there when we arrived. This felt a bit pretentious.
I get that a lot of smaller places have small menus that they do well, but the milkshake menu was quite small. I’m a fruit milkshake fan, and the only fruit flavour they had on the standard menu was blueberry. They had chocolate, peanut butter, and of course, the cursory salted caramel flavour. I was in luck this particular day, as they had a sour cherry milkshake on special. The sour fruit actually really well with the extremely thick, creamy ice cream. Though I can tell you that the sweet flavours would have become overwhelming pretty fast.
One other point of contention: this was the smallest milkshake I’ve ever received from a restaurant with a $ 7 price tag. It is quite flavourful and quite thick, so the small milkshake might be enough. Just be warned… You probably shouldn’t go here, at least for dessert, if you don’t super thick shakes.
This place looked like it had a nice bar, so maybe we’ll come back to try that or dinner. But I can’t bank on them having a sour cherry shake again, so I probably won’t be getting more milkshakes from this place.

I came here with some friends after an afternoon at Casa Loma. We wanted a snack and heard that this place had some of the best milkshakes around. The place is small, so blink and you just might miss it. Parking is not widely available so keep that in mind when you decide to try it.
The inside was not much bigger than the outside. I would say it could comfortably hold maybe 8 parties if they were small parties of 2 – 4. There was also seating at the bar. The place looks like they make a spectacular cocktail, but alas we didn’t try any on this particular afternoon. The inside is also very hipster, but that is not necessarily a bad thing.
So, I ordered a peanut butter milkshake. I loved that they put peanuts on top, but I wish they would’ve take the peel off the nuts before putting them in my milkshake. I know there is supposed to be flavor in that part of the nut, but I don’t generally eat it and it kind of messed up my texture. The milkshake was very thick. I would say it was the thickest I’ve ever had. So if you like thick, this is the place for you, but if you don’t you’ve been warned. The only problem with it being so thick was that it was also heavy, so I couldn’t finish it all. My friends had chocolate which he described as very strong. My other friend has sour cherry which was a seasonal special not listed on the menu. I think she was actually the happiest with her milkshake.
Overall, I thought the place was adorable and I would definitely try it again.

This place is a perfect example of the famous hole in the wall restaurant. They have seating for about four parties at a time plus four bar seats. Everything is clean and well organized to maximize the use of their space. We came in for a mid afternoon snack in the form of a milkshake and a coke. The milkshakes were thick and awesome. My chocolate was exceedingly strong. My wife had an unadvertised special of sour cherry variety. The sour cherry was flavorful and delicious. All in all I’d definitely return for dinner at some point as the snack was perfect.

Went here for weekend brunch. Here are my thoughts:
FOOD: Amazing! Ordered the PLB Special Melt with a side of hash. The PLB is a must-​try! The bacon and sausage in the PLB is not your average streaky bacon and breakfast sausage — it is definitely high quality. The egg was also cooked to perfection — not oily, no crispy bits. To top it off, it comes with a yummy cherry jam. My partner got the peanut butter shake which was also very tasty, and as someone else mentioned, more like soft serve ice cream. Thought it was a little pricy for the quantity of the shake, but ok if you want to splurge a little.
BUILDING/​DECOR: Kind of cool, cozy, the epitome of ‘hipster’. A little on the smaller side so if you go on a weekend, make sure to go before noon or you will have to wait.
SERVICE: No complaints. Our server was very friendly, as are the chefs. They made a mistake on our order twice which meant waiting and getting our meals at different times and our hash got cold by the time the main was ready, but they more than made up for it by comping our shake. That gesture was much appreciated.
We will definitely return for another delicious brunch!

The food here is phenomenal, and you’re able to see everything that goes on in the kitchen.
I wanted to shave off a point because it’s so expensive, but the quality of the food more than makes up for it.
My friend and I split two of their burgers which were reasonably priced and incredibly delicious.
Can’t miss this little Toronto gem!

I’ve heard great things about this place so my friend and I decided to drop in for brunch.
The décor is simple and very country-​like. Wooden tables and booths, it had an old school feel to it too. It can get very cramped during it’s peak hours, which is usually around noon. I recommend that you make your way to Roses and Sons around 10AM to avoid the super long line ups for brunch on the weekend. I also recommend that your party size to be about 2 – 4, any bigger and it’ll be uncomfortable and difficult to seat all of you. The bigger the party, the longer the wait, so keep that in mind.
Onto the food, my friend and I decided to each order something different so we can share it and try out two dishes. She ordered the griddled brie cornbread and I ordered their special of the day which was some kind of fish omelette dish. We also craved for something sweet so we ordered the wild blueberry bread pudding as well.
The wild blueberry bread pudding was delicious. It was just sweet enough and the fresh blueberries gave it a hint of that bitter sour taste. Well balanced with each and every bite and the bread pudding was just the right consistency. Soggy and chewy. It soaked up all of that wonderful maple syrupy blueberry goodness. The portion was small,. it only came with one small square piece and I wasn’t too happy about it at all.
Griddled brie cornbread with brisket, fried egg, maple syrup and chili sauce. It came with a giant toothy steak knife that was jabbed into the cornbread-​brisket. It was very red neck like and raw, I loved the presentation. This dish was rich and heavy but everything on the plate really came together very well. The brisket was cooked perfectly and the cornbread was chewy, soggy and soft like how cornbread should be.
Presentation wise, it looked like a big mess but it was very tasty! The flavours were a bit odd but it worked. The combination of the fish, egg and this bread-​like bit was interesting. I’m big fan of weird combinations so this hit the spot for me. Each bite was tangy, zingy and fishy. The bread-​like bit helped contrast the mushy texture of the egg and fish by introducing a crunchy texture
Overall, definitely check this place out for brunch one day. Everything’s fresh and super tasty!

This place is terrible. We ordered the milkshakes based on the blogto review of them being the best in Toronto and boy was blogto wrong.
The milkshake was nothing it soft serve with some peanuts on top and a bit of peanut butter. And the worst part about it was the size. I bet the entire shake was about 250ml. The definition of tiny. I mean I’ve never seen such a small shake for the high price of $ 7.00. I won’t be back that’s for sure.

Went with 2 friends for milkshakes, based on an outstanding review found in
. we tried it out, and were completely dissatisfied.
The milkshakes were $ 7.00 each and literally 250ml in size.
Not even real ice cream… Just soft serve. Pathetic. AVOID.
I have never had such a terrible experience.
must have been paid off to post that this place has the best milkshakes in the city.

«It’s retarded.»
That was the answer to the question «How much food would there be?»
There were four of us. We ordered the $ 50 a person «Chef’s choice».
Arguably the best price-​per-​pound-​of-​goodness in the city. Everything we ate was delicious. From the first bite of cornbread to the giant steak bigger than my head to that last slurp of ice cream peanut butter brownie.
An absolutely colossal amount of food. Enough sodium to kill a small child.
Every single bite delicious.
A super cool atmosphere. Dotted with hipsters who clearly appreciated the old diner aesthetic in the post-​ironic way that only they could.
Bourbon selection galore. Four Roses, small batch FTW.
Recommended.

The food at Rose and Sons is good, but the greasy spoon diner aspect that remains from the previous establishment does it a disservice.
First off, the restaurant is very small and only fits 28 people, and that’s squeezing in 8 – 10 people at a common table. If that’s the case it will be tight and uncomfortable. If you want a tip, do yourself a favour and don’t go with a group larger than 4 and wait for a booth by the window.
The size of the restaurant is small and so are some of the portions. The blueberry bread pudding, while yummy, was incredibly tiny. Do not consider it a main, but more of an app. The fried chicken and grits is definitely yummy, which I had. Though again its on the smaller side. If you want the most bang for your buck go with the griddled cornbread and brisket.
The server was quite friendly though and accommodating. A pregnant lady was part of our group and had quite a few dietary restrictions and they made it work out.
The food at Rose and Sons is definitely tasty and worth paying for, but the overall experience wasn’t ideal. If the place was bigger, and they did diner size portions, I’d be back for sure, but I’ll probably just continue my quest at trying out new brunch places elsewhere.

Over-​priced, crammed in communal bench tables (no one wants to sit in the middle) and ‘tude de hipster for $ 13 for an appetizer sized, mediocre food.
Washrooms located down a treacherously slippery hallway past 2 or 3 kitchen prep doors.
The bacon was excellent, but not worth $ 13 for 2 small pieces. 2 eggs and boring toast. To be found at Vesta Lunch for half the price. The sauteed romaine (essentially a deconstructed Caesar salad w less effort and nominal favour except for the anchovies) was um like being the guinea pig in an expensive experiment.
Server was okay, not exactly welcoming (true to hipster form).
Not spending my money here again.

I had a great dinner at Rose & Sons, and wanted to come back to try their brunch. Since the restaurant is quite small, we should have known to come earlier (we arrived around 11:30), and we had to wait for a good half hour before getting seated.
Fried chicken and soft ‘n sexy grits with poached egg and green sauce ($ 17) — Having previously sampled Rose & Sons’ fried chicken before, I was pretty confident that this was going to be an awesome dish. I was not disappointed! Is there anything better than perfectly done fried chicken topped with a runny egg? The creamy grits were also excellent (super flavourful!), but extremely filling and the only component that I couldn’t finish.
Griddled brie cornbread– brisket, fried egg, maple syrup and chili sauce ($ 15) — my friend is a cornbread and brie cheese lover so it’s no surprise that she went for this dish. I’m not a big fan of brie cheese but tried all the other components. The cornbread was delicious– buttery and sweet, and I loved the flavour combination of the maple syrup and chili sauce. However, the brisket was a little tough, in my opinion. Overall, it was still highly enjoyable.
Bread Pudding with wild blueberries ($ 9) — For something sweet, we shared a bread pudding, which I’ve heard good things about. Although it didn’t blow my mind off, it was tasty and ended the meal in a satisfying sweet note.
All in all, brunch at Rose & Sons did not disappoint, and I would specifically recommend the fried chicken and grits.

I don’t really understand.
Every other restaurant in Toronto felt warm and inviting due to the friendliness of the staff. Here the staff was warm and friendly but it came off as fake. I had the feeling they were trying to hurry us out of our table to fit another seating in for brunch. True friendliness is tough to fake.
The food is alright, a lot of creativity that goes nowhere in the end. The flavors don’t congeal nor contrast. It’s like giving a child a set of crayons and then waiting to see what they produce: most likely it’s heavy and a combination of lots of different colors.
Convenient to my hotel and better than the usual hotel-​y brunches although at the same inflated price. That’s the level of my endorsement.

You should definitely come here early for brunch if you don’t want to wait. My friend and I waited for 20 – 30 minutes before we got a table for two. Since we got seated in a booth, we got seated in the middle with strangers. This was slightly uncomfortable because when I wanted to get out of my seat, I had to get one of the strangers on my left or right to get out of their seat first.
Now on to the food! I ordered the griddled brie cornbread which came with brisket and fried egg. I personally enjoyed the cornbread more than the brisket. The brisket wasn’t dry at all so this is a good dish to order.
My friend ordered friend chicken and soft ‘n sexy grits. I don’t usually enjoy fried chicken because the inside is usually dry and the only good part is the skin. However, I really liked the fried chicken because the inside was moist. The grits was also really good.
We couldn’t help but order the bread pudding with wild blueberries. I didn’t like the first bite but as I took several more bites, I really enjoyed it! I definitely recommend getting this if you’re craving something sweet to end your meal off.