Fine Dining Nightmares

I've always considered myself a very polite person and very forgiving when a restaurant has a few missteps but Centro restaurant and lounge took missteps to whole different level. Centro has been a well known staple in the Yonge and Eglinton part of Toronto, which is surprising given the experience I had at the restaurant. I decided to have a meal there because my trusty side kick had a groupon for Centro that was given to them as a birthday gift.

The building itself is very nice and screams "elegance" from the outside. The inside of the restaurant is decorated with modern touches that makes the whole restaurant feel sophisticated. I thought the restaurant would be more suited for business meetings or fine dining with upper echelon of society. It may just be my personal tastes but the whole environment didn't feel very comfortable to me and came off as pretentious.

The first thing that was brought to my attention within the first ten minutes of sitting down was the service. The groupon stated that I needed  to notify the waiter before ordering my meal, so i tried to politely interrupt our waiter to let him know we had groupon and he promptly told me that I need to let him finish explaining the specials before I could tell him anything. I was a little dumbfounded by this because this was a nice establishment and I expected a higher level service then a TV sitcom snotty waiter.

I tried to put the bad first experience behind me and just enjoy meal. 

Beef Carpaccio

The first dish that came out was a beef carpaccio, which was fresh and looked very vibrant. The meat was tender and silky smooth. The deep fried shredded potatoes used to garnish the dish also provided a nice texture to the dish. The seasoning, texture and sauces in combination made this a very satisfying appetizer.

(Strip Loin)

I always enjoy a good steak and I had high expectation about this steak since the description looked really good and it was listed as a fifty five dollar steak too. This was quite the let down the moment I plunged my knife into the slab of bovine. I usually have my steak cooked medium rare, but this was cooked well done. I was willing to give this steak another chance and hoped that it was only the edges that were overcooked, so I cut into the middle of the steak and was met with a mostly grey colourless meat. This was disappointing because they took a nice piece of meat and turned it to a slab of beef jerky. The steak was so dry that I actually had to return it to get a new one ( This is the first time I have ever sent food back to a kitchen). The second one that came out was marginally better, it came out medium.....

(Lobster)

My trusty side kick had the lobster and it came out looking lovely on its pristine white plate. Too bad the lobster was only eye candy. This turned out to be the same scenario as the steak, disappointment as soon as you plunge the knife into the dish. The lobster tail was beyond overcooked and extremely difficult to cut and chew. This is a staple dish for most fine dining restaurants and you would think that a professional chef would be able to cook a lobster.

After we finished our entrees we waited for 15-20 minutes for someone to come collect our plates and offer us a dessert menu, no one came. Getting a little tired of waiting I decided to wave down our waiter and ask for the desert menu. As soon as I finished my sentence the waiter abruptly told me, "sir you don't need to ask, of course I'll come and bring you the desert menu." again i'm quite taken back by his response. We waited for the menus and the hostess appears and hands us the desert menu, where was our waiter? These were not isolated transgressions by our server; through out the night the waiter kept stepping on my foot while pouring water (no apology either), told a fellow dinner there were no nuts on a dish when the menu clearly stated there were nuts, was rude to another diner because she didn't quite speak english properly, and didn't even apologize for the over cooked steak.

The whole environment and people at this restaurant made the meal not very enjoyable at all. I didn't even want to eat desert because it would mean I would have to continue to suffer longer at this establishment ( don't really want to call this a restaurant, it would be insulting other restaurants). I just paid the bill and left a terrible tip and ran out of this place like my life depended on it. I don't think I will ever go back to this place and I plan to tell as many people as possible to save them a bad experience or tell people I don't like to go dine here. 

For More Information (so you know which building not to go in):

Centro