Sen5es

Two orders of breakfast. One arrives 15m before the other. By the time the second order arrives, the first one is cold. Cold sunny side up. Cold breakfast. Bleh.
The server handled our toasts with bare hands after touching all kinds of stuff. Yikes.
I can see why they only receive two stars here.

Want to sit all day and drink a coffee with your laptop? This is a good place to do it.
Want to eat a normal, timely breakfast? SKIP AVOID BEWARE.
Came down before my work pickup and budgeted myself 30 – 45 minutes for breakfast. This is what we ordered:
* A coffee
* Oatmeal
* A bowl of fruit
* A bagel
These four items were not even delivered to our table in 45 minutes! My pickup had arrived and I had to ask them to package it to go. It took them another 10 – 15 minutes to package it up, and when they did they didn’t provide any silverware to eat with. Asked for it and within 5 minutes I knew I had to leave.
There was 1 – 2 other tables eating in the restaurant. I know they have to do the whole hotel but come on, coffee, oatmeal, a bowl of fruit, and a bagel is not a crazy order. The bagel didn’t even start toasting until I asked for it to-​go. Oh, and by the way, the expensive oatmeal is INSTANT OATMEAL! I saw the guy making it from a Quaker Oats bag. Uhhhh no.

We only got coffee from here but it was the new low bar for how bad coffee can taste. I had a latte, my husband had a mocha. Both were like bitter piss, we had one sip and then tossed the to-​go cups in the trash. They had some pastries out and I considered getting one but they looked pretty generic and blah. After the bad coffee experience, I was happy I didn’t waste the money. AWESOME hotel but they need to improve this restaurant.

Grabbed a quick cup of Earl Grey to go from here. I wasn’t sure if they served the public as I approached from the street but was pleased to be spoken to by a busy chef letting me know someone would help me in a minute. Overall this is a hotel restaurant that also serves walk-​ins and offers take away. Tea was standard and in extra big cups I would go back for a cup if in a pinch. The layout was a bit stuffed and uninviting for those coming in from the street which left me feeling rushed with not enough space do to the layout and lack of space to sort out paying my bill and gathering my purchase, had it been a bit more welcoming from this perspective I may have ordered more than just the tea.

Visiting Toronto and decided to swing by for a quick bite to eat. The French patisserie suckered me in. Really nice place for a brunch or a nice sit down meal. The resto is right beneath the Soho hotel, but is its own entity. The menu was pretty expensive considering the fairly limited selection and the other restos around offering similar foods. However, I always preferred restaurants with a smaller but constantly changing menu. I ordered a chicken wrap with side salad. The wrap was delicious, super fresh ingredients: mango, avocado, bacon, chicken, lettuce and carrots. I’d like to try their coffee and pasty next time.

Came here for lunch and we were gravely disappointed w/​the food. The lunch menu was nothing special and overpriced. I ordered a chicken club sandwich because nothing else on the menu sounded appetizing and I honestly thought I couldn’t go wrong with such a classic lunch staple. Wrong. The chicken was overcooked and the tomato jam tasted disgusting. I mean, it was edible I guess but for $ 20, it was so underwhelming and overpriced. My friend ordered a salad with smoked shrimp and didn’t end up eating the shrimp because it was too smokey. Service was mediocre– waitress never came by to refill our glasses. Not coming back.

I was here for dessert. They have variety of moose cakes and cheese cakes dessert. The size of the cakes are single person size, and they are exceptional. The white chocolate cheese cake is a balance between cheese and milk flavor. Chocolate hazelnut cake is rich in chocolate with hazelnut all around, which is really good although I prefer the hazelnut more on crispy/​crunchy side. The desserts are $ 7.50 each for the two that I ordered. I expect they did some work on dessert decoration but they didn’t do an impressive job… coffees are so so but at $ 4 each, and if you want some liquor in your coffee after your dinner, then it cost you $ 10. The atmosphere here give you an impression that it is a nice restaurant, but it is not exceptional. Overall, it is not an impressive restaurant that I go unless I have extra money to spare.

Winterlicious Lunch 2012 ($ 25 tax in) was not bad… but something definitely missing at Sen5es.
Services was excellent by the way. The manager even came to check my winter jacket and our waitress was really attentive and polite. Our water glasses were never empty…
But the food?! The food I found it a little bland and not interesting… I do know it is a Licious experience… I have high hopes for their desserts but even that was not one of the best I had during Licious.
I tried:
Seafood Croquettes /​Cucumber & Seaweed Salad /​Roasted Red Pepper Tartar Sauce
— The sauce has saved this dish. The croquettes tastes kind of bland but the sauce has good flavours and with just a little kick of spice in it
Citrus Cured Salmon /​Warm Lentil Salad /​Baby Shanghai Bok Choy /​Braised Endive /​Herbed Oil
— Cooked well, with the outer layer crispy and the inside moist
— if you like fish then you would enjoy that
Orzo Pasta /​Mushroom /​Baby Spinach /​Fine Green Beans /​Pearl Onions /​Baby Carrots /​Spiced Red Pepper & Tomato Sauce (vegetarian)
— only order it if you are vegetarian… my friend definitely did not enjoy that too much as we try to convince each other to have some more :)
Warm Calvados Scented Apple Crumble /​French Vanilla Ice Cream
— Though it is not the best Apple Crumble, but definitely the best part of the meal
— Maybe of the Calvados, an apple brandy?! Sweet smell of liquors…
The dinner menu for $ 45 has really similar dishes aside from the appetizers. For $ 25 as a get together with my Best friend at Soho is worth the price tag, but I definitely don’t think it is for dinner!

Our table of 4 made a reservation for Winterlicious.
We were seated at our reservation time (8:00pm), coats checked and immediately our drink orders were taken.
The bread and appetizers arrived quickly. Bread seemed a bit stale but the appetizers were tasty. We had the seafood croquettes and the butternut squash ravioli. So far, we were impressed…
Our main courses arrived and I found all of the dishes to be WAY over salted. We had the steak and the cornish hen. The steak was cooked to medium rare but I could feel the film of salt in my mouth. The cornish hen was stuffed with Risotto — also very tender but overly salty. Good presentation and portion sizes but there was definitely too much salt — to the point that my tongue was burning and I was gulping down water.
We were looking forward to dessert, but shocked when we had to wait 30 minutes and tables behind us received their orders first. When dessert arrived, they were less desirable than we thought. The cheesecake was two balls of ice cream like substances and the apple crisp barely had any crisp to it. How disappointing!
We’ll likely not return to Senses. The atmosphere is nice but for the service and quality fo food, I’d rather spend it elsewhere.

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again… I know that Winterlicious (or Summerlicious, for that matter) is not the best time to judge a restaurant on its food. So… I will try not to. But the service. Service is key during Winterlicious! (Or Summerlicious!)
I went here for lunch on Wednesday. There was no clear place to wait for the host/​hostess so I waited for someone to notice me. I was noticed, and then I waited until they finished doing whatever they were doing. Then my reservation was taken, but not my coat. Seriously? I know you have a coat check, so why does everyone have their coats on the backs of their chairs like we’re in Swiss Chalet?
The table was set for all three guests, but only two menus were provided. Huh? I had to ask for a third. I had the seafood croquette, the salmon and then the cheesecake. The croquette was pretty flavourless, but the roasted red pepper sauce that it was served with was pretty good. The salmon was definitely the highlight. It was well cooked and sat on a bed of yummy firm lentils and braised bok choy.
Unfortunately, this was followed by the «duo of white and dark chocolate cheesecakes.» I have a MASSIVE sweet tooth. I will eat almost anything sugar based. However, I learned something about myself this week. I will not eat weird ball-​shaped, STILL FROZEN cheesecake. The shape didn’t offend me, though it didn’t please me. I honestly still cannot believe the cheesecake was still frozen. Neither I nor my friend who also ordered the cheesecake ate it.
Also, we only realized at the end that we were not served any bread. WTF? Isn’t this place supposed to also be a bakery?
Anyways, this experience did not entice me in any way to go back and try their full-​priced menu… not with plenty of other places serving delicious food AND offering good service.

Ive wanted to try the restaurant for a long time and finally did during Winterlicious 2012. I have to say that the dinner was not worth $ 45. I’m not sure if it was because it was the first night of Winterlicious or whether its always like this but the service and the food was very poor.
The guys bringing out the food almost always went to the wrong table/​individual. The food was rather disappointing. The bread was not hot and didn’t seem fresh. The appetizer of squash ravioli was good and tasted homemade but I made the mistake of getting the halibut main entrée. Its hard to cook halibut unless you are skilled in the kitchen and the fish was very dry. The lentils and vegetable sides were good though. The dessert was terrible — I don’t think anyone’s was good whether it was the apple pie, cheesecake or whatever — would have expected more since they have a bakery.
I guess I gave this resto a bad rating because I expected so much more and was left disappointed.

I rushed to Sen5es Restaurant for a nice dinner because my Groupon was about to expire. I couldn’t make a reservation because it was already booked full, but luckily, we managed to snag a spot early in the evening.
Now onto the food:
The complimentary bread was really nice. But sadly it was served with goat milk butter. Since both my mom and I hate goat milk, we left the butter untouched.
French onion soup with sweet onion tart– I found the deconstructed presentation interesting. Instead of placing the pastry on top of the soup, it was served on the side as a sweet onion tart. The soup was delicious and not overly cheesy, as French onion soups often can be.
Prime beef tenderloin and foie gras: truffled mash, green asparagus, and truffle veal jus. Altogether, this was a very rich dish. The beef tenderloin was juicy and cooked to a perfect medium rare. I particularly enjoyed the aromatic truffled mash, which was ridiculously creamy and rich. The only disappointment was the asparagus, as they were amazingly salty to the point of being inedible. The beef, foie gras and mashed potatoes were all exceedingly rich (albeit delicious) and finishing the entire plate would have put me in a coma.
Quartet of crème brûlée: vanilla, chocolate, ginger and mocha. Every one of them was divine! The texture was velvety smooth and creamy with a perfectly caramelized top. I thought that the coffee flavour in the mocha was a tad overpowering, whereas the chocolate and ginger were subtle complements to the natural flavour of the crème brûlée.
All in all, it was a lovely meal, although I’m not sure that I’ll be returning without a Groupon due to the steep prices. The quartet of crème brûlée definitely made a strong impression on me, and I’ll most likely come back for the desserts.

I came to the restaurant portion with TM for Summerlicious in July and it was a fun night — would I go back? Probably not.
Overall the setting was very nice and intimate. Great for a date or even a small get together of friends. It’s not a large restaurant so you’re not overwhelmed by surrounding conversations.
The food was good, but not memorable. I’m actually trying to remember what I had, and I can’t… I suppose you can partially blame the time lapse, but also the fact that it wasn’t anything special. Mind you, I do remember that it was tasty. (I’ve since found the menu… thank you Google!)
My Order:
App: House cured salmon and torched salmon sashimi with green pea and scallion cake
Main: Grilled lamb chops with baked polenta and carmelized root vegetable
Dessert: Trio of cheesecakes
TM’s Order:
App: Duck confit ravioli
Main: Grilled lamb chops
Dessert: Milk Chocolate and Orange Mousse Dome
The salmon app was light and refreshing. Very enjoyable. The duck ravioli was slightly disappointing. Not enough duck flavour and the colours were very blah and beige. We both thoroughly enjoyed the lamb chops and agreed that the baked polenta was a nice treat. Cheesecake trio was amazing — their combinations of different cheeses and fruits were wonderful and had us wanting more. The chocolate/​orange mousse dome was ok, rich and decadent but needed more orange flavour. All in all an enjoyable meal.
The only real low note was that the kitchen service was very slow. Our server was great though, and constantly checked in and apologized. She had blamed the new Summerlicious menu as the main culprit, but it was disappointing to see other people get their food before we did — especially when we ordered before them. Good thing I had great company to distract me.

Okay. My friend picked out this place, and considering she is a vegetarian, and she doesn’t eat meat, it’s surprising that she would pick a place that has no alternatives to meat.
My main problem is that there was a short hair, or an eyelash on my Scallops app. It was on the plate, not in the actual food, but not appetizing. I didn’t like the broth it came in, not very tasty. The scallops were great! But, when I found the eyelash or hair, I asked our waiter (who was beyond nice), to take it away, and he said he would take care of it. Unfortunately, having run into another restaurant (Milestones) that had a piece of plastic in my food, they said they would take care of it, as in my bill. But I was BILLED for my app. I told them I wasn’t paying for it, and they took it off.
For my main course, I ordered the lamb. I asked for well-​done, I got PINK lamb. I asked them for a refire, and they did, but when they brought it back, it was still red (more red in other areas).
For dessert, I got crème brûlée (vanilla, chocolate, mocha x 2, I didn’t want the ginger). AMAZING.
I gave the waiter a 11% tip, he helped me with my coat afterwards and was just so nice, I couldn’t be mean to him. He’s not the one that cooked my food. He’s just the poor messenger.

Attention all Unilocalers! I must share a secret with you, this secret is that I had the best lemon cake ever in my life while at Senses.
I know often people say that, but believe me this time it’s no bull.
Chef Patrick Lin is a talented Chef, and you can see by how he manages the SoHo that he means business.
I was there yesterday for an early breakfast with a friend, and to my amazement the Chef raced over to us and practically fed us the lemon cake. He was very proud of it, I would be too. It was sooo lemony, moist, lightly sweetened, just like a perfect lemon meringue pie, ahhh.
The service was very professional and super friendly, one server was about 4 months pregnant and moved faster than Castor Semenya.
The place was kept clean, coffee served at proper temperature, and the other offerings on their neat boutique style buffet were very Senses.
My pocket is not so big, but I was surprised that with specialty coffee and continental breakfast I spent about $ 14++.
Congratulations are in order to Chef Patrick Lin and his crew, they are true ambassadors for the food scene in Toronto.

Had drinks and dinner in the bar last night. It is what you would expect from a nice hotel bar — good service, lots of fancy drinks, and a limited but reasonable selection of food. The atmosphere is elegant, quiet and quite dark. We joked that it would be the perfect place to bring your mistress.
I had the lamb kabobs served with couscous, and my friend had a kobe burger and fries. My meal was delicious, although it surprised me that the couscous was cold (while the lamb was of course hot). The creamy sauce on the side (tzatziki I think) was a little over-​powering, but I guess that’s why it’s on the side. My friend’s meal was huge — a big juicy burger and lots of crispy french fries.
$ 80 for one drink and meal each. Nice for a treat out but if I were looking for this sort of atmosphere I would probably check out the Roof Lounge at the Hyatt first.

I went their with 5 other friends on the first day of winterlicious. I made the rsvp at 8:30pm. Although there were some of us who were a bit late, we didn’t get to be seated until approx. 9:15pm!the wait was extremely long, especially considering that we’ve made a reservation. Not only was the wait for a table was long. the wait for the food between each course was annoying too. We officially got up and put on our jackets around 12 am!
Now onto the food. It really annoyed me and my friends how one’s dish can be so different in size when almost all of us ordered the same thing. ⁵⁄₆ of us ordered the lobster tail as appetizer but mine was so tiny compared to my friend’s. I understand that lobster don’t all come in the same size… but the huge size difference really disappointed me. Then onto the main course, all of us got the lamb, which I really regret. Again, some of use got more meat than the others. Two of us were done when the others have only ate half of their dish. The sizes of the desserts were pretty filling and finally more proportionate.
In terms of the tastes of the food, the appetizer, lobster tail tasted nothing special. It did taste really fresh and great with the sauce it came with, but nothing surprising at all. As for the lamb, very disappointing. Our server told us that it can only be cooked to rare so there will be pink and blood, but that was hardly the case when we got it. If you blind-​folded me I wouldn’t even be able to tell it was lamb… it tasted like an ordinary piece of meat. The dessert I got was the pana cotta which was pretty good. It was my first time trying this dessert though, so don’t got any previous experiences to compare to.
Oh, forgot to mention, my friend and I also ordered a cocktail. One called seduction and another called sinful. Both tasted really good but we didn’t get them til our main course came! As for the service, not bad… but not exceptional either.
Overall, $ 45 for winterlicious… I totally don’t think it’ worth it! don’t think I’ll go again. If I ever do… probably just for the dessert or bar.

Well — this is actually for the Bar side of the Senses restaurant.
First off — it is not an inexpensive place but both the food and wine were great.
Good ambiance — not too loud music — wonderful for catching up with friends and actually being able to talk!
Modern décor and comfortable.
We had the burgers and frites and I have to say, while the burger was on the expensive side, it was definitely one of the best I have ever had in the city! It had portbello mushroom cap, bacon and cheese on it with the othr fixings. Yummy!
So, if you are looking for a nice place to have a bite with friends, with a city vibe and cool modern décor, look no further than Senses bar.
PS the restaurant has some great offerings, but you will definitely find it even more expensive. Worthy of a special night out (say anniversary celebration etc).

I was so lost in Toronto without my Unilocal App (darn costly international phone plan) that I had to ask the concierge of my hotel… gasp… for a nearby lunch spot. And that’s how I ended up dining here at Senses, which was conveniently located across the street from my hotel. Convenient indeed cause looked like there was a storm on the way.
When I first sat down I asked for a refreshing glass of lemonade and the waitress offered me strawberry lemonade or chili spicy lemonade. Chili spicy lemonade? Weird! I thought maybe it was a Canadian thing, but those I asked seemed to think it was just as strange. I opted for strawberry lemonade.
As for my entrée I ordered mini turkey burgers and sweet potato fries. The turkey burgers were just so-​so, but I devoured all the sweet potato fries. Yum. The meal was a bit more expensive that I’d prefer, but I guess that’s usually the case when eating at a restaurant connected to a hotel.
All in all this did the trick of filling me up, but next time I’ll do some more exploring on Unilocal before choosing my destination.

(This is a review of Senses Café/​Bakery in the Soho Hotel — not to be confused with the Senses Restaurant there.) This is my first review. I know nothing really of reviews and thought at first I best write a nasty review cause that is easier and people will accept it better. Then I was having a coffee yesterday at the café in the building I live in and I thought, «Oh right, duh!» So review this place. A place I know.
I’ve lived here for over three years. There’s a resto a bar and a café/​bakery. I do almost daily meetings in the café or on its mini-​patio — six chairs sitting outside on the corner through the brief non-​winter season here.
The coffee is fine. $ 2.25. It never makes me feel good to watch an espresso have hot water poured over it in front of me — just reminds me of when Ive made instant coffee. But that’s what an Americano is, so I just look away. The great pastries are all going stale after 2pm. But they mean for their pastries to be bought by 10am anyway. The service staff is geared to specific tasks, by management, that do not synch with reality so on weekends there may be only one person on the floor while table service goes to hell. This is not a reflection of lack of desire by the staff to serve you well. It is worth noting that they serve brunch and then breakfast and lunch and then will not serve food to you except for pre-​made sandwiches after about 2pm and the kitchen opens again round 5pm and the café remains open til about 6pm.
One thing worth noting is that there is an all you can eat morning buffet breakfast that is about $ 20 I think. It is part self serve, part made to order in front of you. It has an excellent range of foods — the obvious — bacon/​sausage, great home fries, but also fresh fruits and graved lax, muesli/​granola/​yoghurt, fresh made heavenly pancakes (they may get stupid and pretty them up with confectionary sugar — avoid it) with unlimited real maple syrup. There’s all sorts of foods of course but for me the highlight is that, since the owner also owns Lai Wah Heen (a noted Chinese restaurant), there is also steamed dim sum which is succulent. I love it every time. I once told the management at Senses that their price on their brunch is only a few dollars more than Cora’s across the street — Cora’s is about $ 16 for the Cora’s Special with coffee and tip. At the time the Senses brunch was only $ 16 — they soon corrected for this since you do get much better than diner food, all you can eat of it, and no 30 minute line-​up waiting outside in the cold.
What’s new for Senses? They removed both the «High Table», a communal table that was a great feel but had horrible trouble for sliding your highchair up to the table, and the casual lounge seating that was enjoyed by many. It just chills the place out a little reducing a nice warmth that I and many had enjoyed for years. It now looks all business, no charm.
Okay, I’m new to writing this sort of thing and just decided to start writing anything here. I’ll do better next time. Advice is welcomed.
Here’s a great deal right now: