The Underground

Meh. As the two stars indicated, it’s nothing special and certainly not as hype worthy as it has been by my friends who attend the university and go bi-​monthly. Went to meet a friend and out of convenience and dire hunger, decided to grab some food with her. I got the grilled salmon on a bed of plain white rice and some vegetables. The rice was bland. To make matters worse, there was no salt or any time of condiment or seasoning within our vicinity to make it less bland — alas, I decided to only eat the salmon and vegetables. Which were equally as bland. The cranberry drink was good, though, but we were let down by the quality of the food itself. For as expensive as their menu is, it’s amazingly bland and completely void of creativity.

Overall it’s alright but the food doesn’t feel as fresh idk it may be me but this is a cool place to watch a game and get a beer

My friend i went there and had some wings and fries, well the fries were TOOO CRISPY and they were very dry not not very tasty. the wings were undercooked. tasted raw. it was okay.

I had a burger and onion rings once here before and thought they were quite tasty (and priced fairly!), but a later visit where I ordered the fully-​loaded nachos and arancini rice balls did not at all meet expectations! The nachos felt a bit average for their price ($ 15+) and the rice balls were not exceptional either. The service I’ve received has also been somewhat inconsistent, with great service on my first visit and much poorer service on the second.

Honestly this place is a hit and miss. Sometimes it’s good sometimes it’s bad…
Once I got diarrhea from their veggie burger LOL
their nachos are the bomb tho

I had a delicious falafel quinoa salad here with tahini sauce. it was high quality and fresh. the only issue is the time it took to get it out. Its not a good option if you’re tight on time.
the staff were friendly but the place looks understaffed especially in the kitchen, I had to look for the waiter and wait to get us seated. we were 6 people and it was lunch time but not crowded.

Frankly, the biggest problem with this place is that it is really inconsistent. The turn-​around time for the staff and the menu is so short, that I could tell you today the service was great and the poutine was amazing but you can come next week and its completely different due to changes in the staff.
I’ve been here a couple of times during my years at York, since it’s one of the few sit down restaurants on campus. The service has always been so-​so, since the staff is most likely full of part-​time employees, probably students that are undertrained and the staff is always changing. There are long wait times, no one serving you or seating you, disorganization, servers who forget about you, forget to take your order, get your order wrong, all sorts of amature restauranteur moves.
For a while, I really liked their burgers, I had the Big smoke, a big juicy patty with bacon, a good mayo sauce, cheese and fried onion rings, between soft fresh buns. I don’t like ketchup with my burgers so the mayo sauce was a plus and who doesn’t like bacon and fried onion rings. And with a side poutine with fresh fries, good quality cheese and sodium-​packed gravy, it was amazing pub food. This is coming from someone who doesn’t even like burgers. However, as of the last few months, this has changed. The menu changes all the time. The Chef I guess changed too. I’ve had the same burger and it was definitely not the same. I’m not sure what it was exactly, the patty was not as juicy, the bun not as fresh and soft, the sauce had different flavour and onion rings too small. It was just all wrong. This time the fries weren’t even fresh and the cheese didn’t melt in the poutine. My most recent visit, they changed to skinny fries and not even the thick fries. I’m just really disappointed and I’m not sure if this place can go back to the same caliber, ever.

I ordered the French Onion soup and a Chicken burger — the soup was mediocre, and kind of cold, but the burger was good (although the price makes it just kind of mediocre). Other times I have been here, the food has been average to above average quality, but overpriced. It is a good place however to sit and work during the day, when it’s not too busy, since coffee refills are free.

This place is horrible, from the service to the food.
My friend had the veggie burger and when it arrived with goat cheese, when she asked to omit the goat cheese, the waitress kept arguing rather than taking the plate back. My friend got fed up and just scraped it off the burger, of which the patty itself was falling apart. I had the grilled cheese, which came burnt, definitely NOT how mom makes it.
Never coming back here again. Ever.

If you your willing to spend double the money for poor service, when you can just go to McDonalds spend less and better service sure go blow your money at The Underground located at York university. Couple of us friends decided to dine in at The underground today, there service was horrible. The waitress misheard our order and wouldn’t exchange it for what we originally ordered. Waitress refused to even talk to her manger about it her exact words «i can try talking to her but i know for a fact she won’t take it off the bill.» It doesn’t just end there, so were force to pay for two meals and one we didn’t even want and as for the second one the fries were burnt and stale. And once again the waitress refused to do anything about that, we were told «thats just how they come.» It sounded like that waitress did not know what she’s doing nor does she want to help anyone. Wait it gets worse! after we finished our meal we asked her for the drink special and once again she informs us one thing and then comes back and says «sorry that doesn’t start till later on.» I wouldn’t just blame the waitress, i think its the management thats horrible there not training there staff properly and are not willing to provide good service. So i suggest keep that money and go somewhere else.

It keeps getting worse and worse.
Starting from 2014 school year, the underground ‘renovated’ as in: taking away half the alcohol on their bar, eradicating their everyday specials (No more half priced wing tuesdays!) and changing their entire menu.
I was told all the ‘good’ people graduated so the new servers are not as great. My friend ordered a vodka cranberry and they came back with a glass of vodka for her. When she said «Can I have a cranberry juice with this?», the girl got confused. LOL um my friend isn’t about to chug a glass of vodka before her class.
Sometimes when the servers come out from the kitchen, they look so confused as to what they’re supposed to be doing… they’re wandering around and forgetting simple stuff. Gave pasta without a fork? Okay.
The food is alright, it’s mediocre at best. The jerk chicken poutine is yummy, but the cheese is not melted at all. It’s quite hard sometimes when you bite into it. The portions are not big enough for what you’re paying for. Also, the drink menu shrunk so much ;_​_​_​; their drinks used to be amazing! Mixed the coolest shit together and had great names. now it’s just all the basics. Ew.
I’m always like «I’m down to eat at the underground!!» and when I get there, I’m like «…k nevermind.»

1 star for the slow service. Drinks are pretty good. Food is usually pretty decent. However, last time I went there, I had their lettuce wraps and got food poisoning shortly after.

The Underground. Ahh… been here several times as it’s an easy place to meet co-​workers for lunch while still fitting into that 1 hour lunch break. Services is always a bit sketchy (as you can see from the other reviews). That said, we called ahead and made a reservation and when we got there we let them know we only had 1 hour to order eat & pay and we wanted separate bills. That helped to clarify everything right up front and we didn’t’ have any issues. Burgers seemed to be a really big hit with our group. I ordered the So-​Cal salad which was great, but not very filling. I would have preferred a salad with a bit more substance. I was trying to eat healthy, but ended up consuming my friend’s sweet potato fries because she was stuffed from her burger.
All in all good experience.

Ohhhh The Underground. I’m back in school after graduating over 3 years ago and my undergrad university had very little restaurants or food choices. So I was thrilled to learn that there was not only a mini mall at York, but a proper restaurant as well! And thus began my love-​hate affair with The Underground.
The Hate
The service is painfully atrocious. I realize that it’s a case of students serving students, but that doesn’t mean that you should just toss away all effort. There seems to rarely be anyone at the podium where you’re supposed to seated. At one point my friends and I waited almost 10 minutes for someone to show up and seat us. Except for one meal and a very friendly male waiter, most of the time it seems our waiters forget that we exist. The waiters are usually vaguely friendly or indifferent.
The Love
The food is good and the menu choices are pretty fantastic. Every time I go in, I curse my wallet for not being fuller because I usually want to take a bit out of most of the items there. They have great dips and salad options, and you can tell that they’ve put a lot of effort into their menu. That goes for their drink menu as well, which is reasonably priced and has a great selection. The layout and design of the restaurant is quite nice as well (when the waiters actually clear the tables). Quite frankly, I was surprised that a university had a restaurant that looked that nice.
I feel like with a bit more staff training (I get that they’re university students and are hard to motivate, but they’re not high schoolers either) this will be a really great restaurant.

Came here with my cousin after class. The food isn’t that expensive and it taste ok. We had the jerk chicken poutine, didnt really like it. Tasted more like jerk chicken and fries not really a poutine. I expected more gravy and cheese curds with pieces if jerk chicken in it. The risotto balls were so delicious ill be back for them again. The shrimp and ravioli was ok I want to try some of the other pastas. Overall our meals was ok I’m still curious to see what els they have to offer.

The Underground has definitely gone through many changes over the years, some for the better, some for the worse, but more recently definitely for the better.
The menu is nice, not too over the top. Definitely more easily palatable foods with flavours for everybody. It’s not haute cuisine, it’s delicious cuisine for York Kids.
I had the Cajun Chicken Club w/​Fries which was HUGE. It wasn’t a club per say, like in the sense with the three slices of bread etc, but it was all just piled into one huge bun. Delicious, but mad hard to eat.
We also had the risotto balls to start, and I actually really loved it. Ate 4 out of the 6. And I’m not usually a fan.
The menu is easily laid out, the portions are huge, and its easily marked halal for those who need it to be.
Drinks are a bit overpriced, isn’t this supposed to be a student joint?
Looking forward to trying out the next time the menu changes.
Expect to spend about 20 per person.

The menu here has really improved– they’ve introduced a real international flare to their dishes. The only problem is that the price is a little more than I’d like to pay– especially on campus. Burgers are a reasonable price but I got a curry poutine which tasted great but the portion wasn’t meal sized– the price was!
The service is BAD. Leave time and expect your order to need changes.

The revamped Underground is looking good. It is clean, classy and modern. The menu has also gone under an extreme makeover. The food is better than what you would expect from any university pub. In fact, I would say that the food is up there with some decent establishments. The beer selection, with the exception of Granville Island, is pretty lousy. I hope they bring in some stout beer. Won’t somebody think of the pretentious philosophy students?!
I was impressed with the new Underground. The space looked nice, the food was good, and prices were OK. The service was an entirely different story. We must have waited 20min to be seated. The food arrived shortly after but our waitress took forever to bring us the bill. She was also not arithmetically inclined. She had a hard time splitting the bill four ways and forgot to charge us for a beer at the end. Looking over at the other tables, there seemed to be an obvious lack in communication and training of staff. The management needs to be running a much tighter ship. There were plenty of staff on the floor but the service was extremely inattentive and most seemed lost.
Atmosphere: ⁷⁄₁₀
Food: ⁸⁄₁₀
Service: ³⁄₁₀

Out of the 4 years I’ve been at York, last semester was the first time I ever stepped into the Underground. Through word of mouth, I heard they recently invested $ 1 million on renovations and what not. Um… sure?
The restaurant/​pub is decently decorated. I wouldn’t say $ 1 million worthy. But again, how much can you really expect from a school bar?
Upon looking at the menu, you actually get excited because the pictures and descriptions of food are interesting. Although, this is far from the truth. Their food is mediocre at best :/​
I have tried the french onion soup, fries, some pastas, thai chicken curry… the rest I don’t remember. The three times I’ve been there were usually with friends and we’d share plates.
I would never ever get the soup again. The curry was good, but not worthy of a second try.
The place is surprisingly busy though. I suspect everyone is there either for their daily deals or the booze. I went again today. Everyday is $ 10 pitchers. Monday, not sure. Tuesday, half priced wings/​$ 4.99 per lbs. (place is PACKED. and you know everyone ordered the wings as each table dawns $ 5.00 bills. lol) Thursday nights also have $ 3.00 shots.
The crowds are especially nice during these times. You can’t help but laugh as the other table downs another pitcher, tries to pick you up, or begins to talk louder and more obnoxious by the minute.
Have you not drank beer before? *shaking my head*
They also don’t ask for ID. Which I guess being university everyone is of age. Although I’m pretty sure there are the odd 18 year old/​gifted students walking around.
I would give the resto a 1, but a change of heart happened today as I tried the Chicken Burger, subbed w/​sweet potatoe fries.
I have to say, this burger was BEYOND delicious. Ciabatta bread, lettuce, tomato, and avocado. The chicken was neither a breast nor a deep-​fried chicken patty. It was made out of actual ground chicken formed into burger patties. I wasn’t expecting this at all. I don’t think I’ve ever tried a chicken burger like this. The chef cooked it perfectly as well, as the inside was moist but it being ground, the outside charred nicely.
Oh. And I also got a «Peppermint Patty», that was a hot alcohol bevie of crème de menthe, crème de _​_​_​_​_​_​_​, hot chocolate and baileys maybe? Not sure. One of those coffee liqueur alcholic drinks. This drink was a fail. I did not taste any alcohol nor any of the hot cholately goodness it promised.
I would only go back for the chicken burger. and probably a beer. Minus the burger. Or the beer. lol.
No. I’d go for the burger definitely. And maybe the watered down draft if they’re out of water.

You know I want to like the Underground. It’s York’s largest pub. Sadly the food is really disappointing and expensive. I had an order of the humble chicken wings. It’s a fairly small portion of wings that arrives with no fries and a few carrot sticks and celery on the side. The wings are cold at the tips (probably insufficient microwaving). It’s not just my order but everyone who had the wings. What does it cost you might ask? Nine dollars. Other dishes seemed similarly overpriced and flawed in one way or the other. We ask about the five dollar martini specials for Thursday nights as advertised on the little standup menu on our table. «Which martinis are on special?» we ask. «Oh that’s at the Chef’s discretion» we are told. Um, what does that mean? The only reason it gets two stars instead of one is that the staff are friendly. If all you intend to do is drink-​fine. You’ll be happy. If you’re even considering food, you can do a lot better somewhere off campus.