The Harbord Room

Hands down one of the best burgers I’ve ever had. Great, cozy atmosphere. The servers aren’t in a rush but it gives you time to enjoy the delicious meal. I also recommend the bursts and beet/​carrot salads. Yum!

We managed to score a table on the back terrace and had cocktails and dinner as the sun went down. It was gorgeous and the food was great. (The cocktails were even better, especially the heritage Toronto cocktails.) We had the pork chop with pineapple-​cashew salsa. It was some of the best cooked pork I have ever had; the pineapple was an unexpectedly excellent complement to the pork. I wouldn’t hesitate to go back.

The Harbord Room– what can I say, this place is spectacular.
Top class food and service.
The staffs are very accommodating and patient.
While the place is small the ambiance is cozy.
My partner and I enjoying our night here, sweet talk over yummy food.
The chicken liver mousse is superb, must try.

Great service, solid food. Recently refreshed with a new paint job and an incoming update on the bar counter, it still has the same cozy intimate feel from before.
Top quality tasty burger. Would definitely return if in the area.

Hubby and I were able to make a last minute reservation for an early dinner at the Harbord Room. I had been eyeing the menu since identifying this well rated restaurant through a Unilocal search of the area.
The place is small but cozy (seats about 24 but an additional 10 at the bar). Because we were there early, it was nice to have the restaurant to ourselves for a while.
We ordered the the French lemonade and ginger lemongrass iced tea (but they brought us a ginger Collins drink I later found out through the bill). Both were quite refreshing, with my favourite being the ginger beverage due to the spicy-​sweet-​citrusy interplay of flavours.
My hubby ordered the dry aged pork chop which came on a bed of sweet potato purée, roasted endive, and roasted mushrooms. There was a nice sweetness from the purée and the glaze on the pork chop which reminded me of fall comfort food flavours.
I ordered the flank steak served with roasted Japanese eggplant and yogurt sauce (which disappointingly was cold). The plate was heated so the steak was a bit warmer than lukewarm but I would have appreciated it more had my food been served hot. The beef was cooked rare and covered in a Harissa jus. The dish had a bit of smokiness to it and felt Moroccan inspired. I had difficulty chewing through some of my meat due to the presence of lots of fibres in the flank steak. Overall my meal was just okay, but it left me wishing I had ordered the pan roasted skate wing with cauliflower and brown butter sauce that I had also been eyeing.
To end off our meal, we ordered the basque style cheesecake with a rhubarb compote on top. This was a decent dessert and at least left me with a sweet taste in my mouth and in a more uplifted mood than I had been in while eating my entrée. It wasn’t the best cheesecake I’ve ever had but I appreciated the graham crumble and slightly tart rhubarb compote to break up the slightly eggy textured cheesecake.
For $ 105 including tip for two entrees, a shared dessert, and two non-​alcoholic beverages, I would have expected more from my meal. If I return to this place, I would probably stick to something simple and tried and true like the burger or pasta.

What Harbord Room masks with its subdued décor it makes up for tenfold with its dishes and terrific service. In the place of flamboyance it values simplicity and masters delicious food in an undeniably welcoming environment.
Read my full review here:

Came here for our last dinner in Toronto. Seemed like the reservations were fairly hard to come by, so I booked it for a Sunday dinner, and the place was about half-​empty when we arrived, but still fairly lively. The place has bright pink walls, but you can’t really tell when it’s dark out, because of the dimly lit space. The intimate vibe makes it quite a good setting for a date, but the space also is a little cramped, so it’s a good thing to keep in mind if you want private conversation.
Given that we were pretty hungry and eager to try as much as we could (duh), we ordered the stuffed piquillo peppers, the chicken liver mousse, the dry-​aged pork chop, and the burger. The piquillo peppers were like your run-​of-​the-​mill stuffed peppers, and the chorizo inside had a nice flavor. The chicken liver mousse was very delicate and really tasty, especially with the crusty bread and sweet pitted cherries. The burger was really solid, and cooked quite nicely, and the fries were perfect. Not quite the mind-​blowing burger I read about, but still very, very good. The dry-​aged pork chop was probably my favorite dish, however, and the dry-​aged flavor was really intense, and you can really taste the difference from regular pork chops.
The problem was that the service was exceedingly slow-​moving, even though it wasn’t particularly busy. Not to mention, for a very quaint, cozy restaurant, the hostess and our waitress wasn’t very warm or friendly, and thus we weren’t offered a reason or apology for the extra wait. Friendliness isn’t by any means a requirement when running a restaurant, as long as the service is efficient, but when the service isn’t is good, the lack of warmth certainly doesn’t help. It was certainly disappointing after reading all the reviews about excellent service at this place.
The Harbord Room does seem like a pretty good place for a casual meal, and the food is pretty well-​executed, so I’m inclined to recommend it. It’s more like 3.5 stars, but I’ll round up because the food was really good. The menu is decently innovative, and I’m sure it’s a nice place for a date, but hopefully you get better service than we did.

The Hardbord Room has been on my list for some time, and I was finally able to check it off last weekend. Such a cozy little place with beautifully refined, yet rustic cuisine.
Upon arrival, we had to wait about 10 minutes before being seated. The hostess was very accommodating.
Our server was lovely — we started with some wine and took some time to decide on the meal.
Arctic Char — really delicate, and paired beautifully with the sauce and side.
Steak — perfectly cooked to medium rare, paired with grilled eggplants.
Note, if you don’t like medium-​rare, make sure to let your server know that you want your steak cooked medium/​well or whatever. I don’t recall being asked how I wanted the steak cooked, but it was cooked to my liking.
And we got the roasted cabbage side to share. Overall, a good amount of food for two. We were stuffed by the end of the night and skipped dessert.
I’d love to come back to brunch some time.

Best «neighbourhood» restaurant in Toronto. Worth going out of your way to visit.
An oxymoron, I know.
Quickly becoming one of my monthly must-​visits.

Looking for a place to meet up with a friend, he suggested this place as it was close to where his class was. It’s a small place that I was surprised was as busy as it was for a Thursday night (10pm!). It’s dimly lit in here so if you have a pimple or feel like you don’t look your best fear not b/​c your friends will never notice!
The bar was full but we managed to get the last table. We didn’t order food but had a few drinks. The drinks are in the $ 12 – 15 range so not too bad. I had the Geisha Sour and the Swedish Royalty. They both tasted like candy but my fave was the Swedish Royalty — it had clementines and saffron in it and was light and refreshing. All their drinks have unique ingredients in them (one had sumac!) so you won’t find these concoctions anywhere else.
Towards the end of the evening we felt hungry but the kitchen had already closed. I would come back here to try the food b/​c it seems a lot of positive feedback for that so now of course I am curious. You would definitely need a reservation as this place only has a few tables and I don’t think as a large group you would feel very comfortable in here. It’s loud and I think it would be kinda squished. But for a small group it would be nice.

We ate our dinner at the bar and thoroughly enjoyed our meals. My girlfriend got a seasonal sausage and I got the burger. It was neat sitting at the bar, the bartender knew her shit. I watched her make a ton of cocktails and asked what one of them was — it had egg whites and a buncha other crap in it. «Hops and robbers» she said, so I tried one and it was really interesting!
Service was solid, food was tasty. The burger was one of the better ones I’ve had in the city. My favourite part of this restaurant is the ambiance. It’s a small ass room with warm old school tracks, and a great feel. GREAT date spot. I’d recommend for a first date place, but make sure you can get a seat because it fills up!

Overhyped in my opinion. Got the burger medium rare, and the meat was very tender and juicy. Nothing else that stood out to me too much though. Also tried the octopus salad which was interesting (lots of different ingredients).
There are a number of things from my visit that would make me think twice about coming back here for dinner:
— I was quite cold while eating because the restaurant is small and the door is kept open save for a fabric curtain that kept opening whenever someone came in or out. Granted, the heaters were on full blast, but we were seated near the door which meant occasional bursts of freezing cold.
— We had a big group and were still waiting for one more. I was seated at the end and the empty seat was to the inside. When the waitress/​hostess poured my water, she moved my water to the inside seat saying (and assuming) that I would move in when the last person arrived. Which was not the case because I was going to share food with my friend seated in front of me. I found it offputting that she did this without asking us first.
— When the burgers came, they were different sizes. Some certainly looked bigger than the others. And one of the party’s burger bun was burnt.
— They don’t split the bill for large groups.
Besides that, our waitress was nice and they got our food out quickly knowing we were headed to a play afterwards.

Boy what a difference a year makes. Despite cherishing this spot as memorable for moi due to being one of the few ROTD by me I feel I need to update the review for this place. This was a planned visit and we had made reservation already knowing how hard it is to get a spot here on the weekend.
Unfortunately the service was a warning sign from the get go. This was one of colder day in December and right after we walked in the place was chilly. On top of that we were seated at a table which would get gusts of cold air whenever the entrance door was opened (and remained open due to the faulty mechanism I guess in some instances). I asked to be seated elsewhere but were only offered the dreaded bar (read the previous review for the catch on sitting at the bar) and after complaining about the seating I was told by the host that its an old space and the cooling is off a bit and she feels cold as well (Bravo for making me realize that I am not alone in feeling the cold!)
Ah well on to the main reason we ordered the burgers and for app had the Charred Leek & Eggplant Borani. The pita chips it was served with were quite greasy and the dip was not portioned well as we ended up leaving a lot of them. Seasoned well IMO.
Now for the burger it was a lot off from what it was as I recall. The fries weren’t good on this visit and felt cold. Something off with the seasoning on them too (I think I tasted the nori flake but I could be wrong here) The main attraction was overcooked IMO even though I asked for chef’s choice (medium rare). The ketchup was way too smokey on this visit. I guess it started with the poor attitude from the start and just went down from there in my experience. I don’t think I will be back.

Had dinner the other night with a friend. The restaurant is small, and very quaint. It has an extensive list of cocktails that are very unique and extremely tasty! Service was attentive but not over bearing and gave good suggestions when asked about the menu and evening specials.
For dinner we had the beef tartare and the ceviche. The beef tartare was served on grilled crostini with shaved truffles and some kind of cheese. Delicious! The ceviche was very flavourful and served on a avocado cashew cream. Again, we were not disappointed.
For our mains we had the sea bream and rib eye steak. Both were beautifully presented and generous in portion sizes. The steak had an amazing and fresh chimichurri sauce on it, and was served with homemade cheese puffs. The sea bream was fresh and had a side of mixed greens and slaw. Fish was fresh and cooked perfectly.
Unfortunately we didn’t have room for dessert. Will definitely return, and will be sure to save room next time. A wonderful meal!

The best service I’ve felted in Toronto. The waitress was a pro (like a ninja); disappearing the menus, empties, and appearing the dishes so graciously, that it felted like a presentation.
The patio was funny. It made me feel that we were invited to some awkward neighbour’s barbecue. They have begonias… A pink plastic flamingo, and a back door. The seats could use a cushion, but I liked the general vibe.
The white wine from New Zealand was incredibly fruity and fresh, zesty, aromatic, and smooth. It conjugated perfectly the salty flavours of the oysters, and exalted the citrus and details of the octopus salad.
I would advise everyone to challenge their palates with the octopus salad. It had extra thin slices of the best octopus I’ve tried (jelly, smoky, crunchy and fresh at the same time). Piquillo peper, green extra firm olives, chorizo, crunchy chickpeas, arugula, small, bulbs of tangerine or clementines, greens, and a really complex dressing… Sublime
The raw today was salmon. It looked so coralline, shiny, and clean, that it could be used on one of Anthony Bourdain’s shows. Watch out sushi places…
The scallops came with chubby cuscus, rapini, baby neck clams, green roasted succulent chillies!!! And those scallops where magnifique!!! Extraordinary!!!
I finished all the fries without regret. Who could resist some perfect hand cut stripes; crispy but soft insides, and home made ketchup/​aioli sauce. Nobody wants to feel like a potato without homemade ketchup right?
Want to conquer a girl? Take her for a burger and desert here, don’t judge her while she disappears everything, and just watch her enjoying while you tell her you love her appetite.

I heard about this restaurant for its best burger in Toronto but maybe I expected too much…
The atmosphere was so great and staffs were all very friendly. My friend and I, two girls are in diet so we ordered one burger to share. It was served kindly after cutting into half.
The beef patty was cooked a little rare so it tasted very juicy with the cheese, however, not that flavorful. I preferred adding more savory sauce. The fries were not bad but homemade ketchup was a great heaven! I even want to buy some sauce home separately. To be honest, the price was a little expensive for a burger.

It’s anniversary time and you want to take that special lady somewhere special with a dope patio and yummy cocktails. Where do you go? Well The Harbord Room is the ticket! This place is great from the cool NYC style décor, to the super friendly and polite hostess working the front. I wasn’t able to book a reservation, but before I freaked out and thought of the prospect of ruining our anniversary, the friendly hostess told me to come grab a seat by the bar and we could have dinner there or wait for a patio seat. Phew, that works for me!
The patio looked awesome, almost as if you were having dinner at a friends backyard. We ordered the Charcuterie Board, Dry Aged Beef Burger and Red Curry Pork Belly. We also grabbed a few drinks as well, including those outlandish pineapple goblet cocktails meant for two or more people to share. Food is top of the line and I cleaned up every last crumb on my wooden plates. Cocktails and drinks were prepared with the love and care of an experienced bartender, which is good to know considering the drink prices are up there.
Service was top notch and what you would expect from a place like this. You’re ordering a $ 20, burger not a $ 1.49 extra value pick! Overall a great experience and I’m sure we’ll definitely be back for more. Make sure to order one of the giant pineapple cocktails to share, they’re outlandish and people with stare with envy! Forget Marvins Room and hit up dat Harbord Room.

My experience of the Harbord Room is nothing short of awesome! I have been here by myself, during a business trip to Toronto. I researched a little and found this restaurant on several sites, it’s never at the top spot but I thought it could have been a good pick. Well my instinct was wrong… It’s not good, it’s AWESOME!
Let’s start with the drink menu, a good choice of original cocktails, I have tried one and it was sublime. The bar-​lady was soooo great and watching her making the drinks was a real spectacle in itself.
I had the burgher then. Heavenly. Cooked to perfection, they bread was simply great, hand-​cut chips were great too. Probably one of the best I have had in my life.
I then went for the Brownbutter cake, here maybe they did not touch the same level of greatness as the rest of the meal, but it was a very good cake nonetheless.
Add in impeccable and friendly service and you’ve got a recipe for awesomeness!
Will surely come back if I am in town!

The BF and I wanted to celebrate our anniversary with some truly amazing food, and The Harbord Room delivered! Initially, we couldn’t get a reservation, but were offered spots at the bar upon arrival. However, when we got there, the hostess very graciously found a spot in the patio in the back, but with a 15 min wait. Perfect, since we just made ourselves comfy at the bar, and ordered a round of drinks.
Drinks themselves are expensive, but not exorbitant. With a description «gentle, beautiful tea notes, yet it carries the ability to knock ‘em down quick like a geisha», I HAD to try the Geisha Sour ($ 12) and it was fantastic! Egg white foam with rosewater on top, gin + lime + matcha tea syrup. Noms. My man got a manly scotch. The hostess gave us periodic updates …“10 more minutes…5 more minutes”, very considerate. Then… we spotted the bartender preparing a HUGE pineapple chalice of drink and decided that’s what we’re having with our dinner!
For dinner, we ordered Charcuterie Board ($ 20) to share, Dry Aged Beef Burger ($ 19) for him and Red Curry Pork Belly for myself ($ 17). Oh, and a big honkin’ copper pineapple chalice full of «Monkey See» — pineapple/​banana cocktail that seemed to never end. The Charcuterie had lard, tongue/​cheek terrine, duck liver pâté, chorizo, multiseed mustard, pickled beets and okra, and toasted bread. So so fantastic. It was an amazing way to start the meal, and everything was house made. Highly recommended!
The burger was absolutely delicious. Juicy juicy juicy! It had caramelized onions, cheese and on egg bun, comes with fries. They also had house-​made ketchup… interesting. Our tastebuds are too geared towards Heinz ketchup, so it’s a nice change! The pork belly came as a deconstructed dish, with egg crêpe, basil, pickled beets and radish rounds. The curry had a good bite to it, and the crêpe strong enough to stand up to the curry sauce (aka LOGISTICS!)
For dessert, we split a brown sugar cake, that came with rosewater ice cream, panna cotta and fig jam. That rosewater ice cream… was so delicate and rose-​y. It was definitely strong in the taste arena. The dessert worked best when you have a bit of everything in one bite, otherwise the cake on its own was way too flavourful.
Amazing amazing service, hands down. And that Pineapple punch lasted all through the meal too!

been here a few times and its already been fantastic. there is a small indoor dining room and also a beautiful back patio which I highly recommend! If you get there early around when they open you can get a seat without reservations
The service is very very nice there, once they ordered and brought the wrong entrée for me, they re-​ordered the correct one for me and gave me the wrong one for free!
For food I tried the fried green tomato salad, the tomatoes were good and it came with some sort of jelly like green cheesy panna cotta which was a bit odd. The warm octopus salad is a great portion and they give a good amount of octopus and not chewy at all. Their potato gnocchi was interesting mine came with charred green onions but something in it gave it a sour bitterness and the dish was very heavy and filling. Last but probably the best is their burgers always juicy!