York Street Kitchen

Sandwiches excellent overall - meat sort of tasteless on it's own, but with horseradish mayo and caramalized onions it all came together to become a very generous sized sandwich full of deliciousness.

I'm a sandwich aficionado and I think York Street Kitchen (YSK) serves up some of the best sandwiches found anywhere in the world. YSK has a quote by James Beard printed on t-shirts, " Too few people understand a really good sandwich" - and it's true. Most places just slap some low quality meat and cheese on some bread and call it done - YSK truely tries to make each sandwich a taste sensation, and for the best experience, stick with their specials.

YSK gets VERY busy in the summer as it has its cafe seating, a to-go window, and will often be preparing large orders for tour buses - so before ordering it's wise to ask how long the wait will be that day.

But, as much as I praise their sandwiches, I can't recommend dinner at YSK - I've tried it a couple of times and they don't seem to put as much care into the dinner menu.

The place is located on York Street directly across from the parking lot and the visitor information centre.

The front of the place is tiny with a small front door and a garage door style window/wall that is open during the nice weather (nice unique touch). The interior is long and narrow with walls of painted foundation rocks and bricks exposed. The space ends at the kitchen with the washrooms directly behind that. This is a basement and makes the most of the fact. lots of art on the walls and news clippings expounding on the greatness of the place. Seating is along each wall around smallish tables and the place seats maybe 25 people tops.

The menu at lunch is really all we have seen...looked briefly at the breakfast menu and it has the usual but with little twists. The lunch menu is basically sandwiches, wraps and a soup. A series of specials are on a single sheet of paper and in the twice we have been in there most of the specials were gone. We weren't there particluarly late so we found that sort of poor planning as the specials really make the place. That left the rather limited regular menu. First time in I had the warm pastrami with slaw and cheese in the sandwich (one of the remaining specials. Really pretty good and inventive. GF had a tuna wrap..also very good. Second time in she had a turkey sandwich with an interesting filling along the cranberry line and I had the menonite sandwich with summer sausage, cheese and a cured slaw. Again very nice. Sandwiches where defintely two handers. Full choice of breads as well in all cases.

Service was very good. A pleasant waitress took our orders and did so with a smile and asked how things were when we were done. Unlike Brenny's (reviewed separately) this place was good value for the money and although not a bakery had some nice baked goods up at the kitchen counter. Huge date squares, cookies, butter tarts and so on. Both times in, 2 sandwiches, a pop and a coffee and I got change back from my 20.

Cute little sandwich place, nice service and good food. We will try them for breakfast some morning and also for dinner some time.

It was 4:30 pm on a Saturday, and we were visiting Stratford for the first time. We wanted a place to have some coffee and hot chocolate for the kids and eat something with it. We walked in and a server helped us put some tables together. We sat down and minutes later someone came to tell us that they were only serving the dinner menu, and that if we were not eating dinner we had to leave. They didn't even showed us the menu or gave us a moment to decide if we wanted to eat something from the dinner menu. They just kicked us out. Many lessons need to be learned about customer service in this place. And the truth, after reading the reviews, good thing we didn't stay. Shame on them.

The best part about York Street is the decor.. that is very funky and cool.. but the food i ate was... only ok...

i found a hair in my Thai sandwhich and when i told the server she said Oh... ill bring it back and get you a nother one, she handled it well but she came back empty handed and i asked why and she said "The kitchen doesnt want to make you another sandwhich because youve eaten over half of the other one." i was shocked. and angry.. i didnt FIND the hair till the second half of the sandwhich. then i went to the counter to speak to the kitchen and i politley asked the owner for another sandwhich, she (the owner.. Mrs Pallick(sp?))refused so i then asked for half of the sandwhich and she refused again. she did not even apologize or look up from what she was doing.. made me very angry.
I ended up paying FULL PRICE and i left.

just because you own a business does not raise you above the rest of us..

We stopped by an hour before the 8 pm performance and ordered 3 sandwiches for take out plus 2 iced teas for total of $30

Food was as usual good, maybe not excellent after visiting it a few times, but it was healthy content, okay portion, and a good sandwich better than fast food

Very famous/popular destinations for tourists and play-goers. Typical 5~10 minutes wait for take out

Sandwiches are really good, above average. Dolly was too sour but their Thai Chicken, Curry, Daily specials are worth trying

Food tasty. All ages were there. Wattress very helpful. Will visit it again.

Aninteresting and very small restaurant with a funky ambiance. The short wine list is served in small water glasses, and the water is served in plastic glasses. Definitely not fine dining. The dishes were very tasty, and somewhat innovative, but thrifty on ingredients. The seafood stew was very thin on seafood, a little talapia, two shrimp, and about six very small scallops .... but tasty. The mexican lasagne used beans in addition to the pasta and ground beef ... and the menu listed guacamole consisted of a very thin slice of avocado. So in summary, tasty, innovative food, a bit too thin on the main ingredients for the $15.95 per plate in my opinion. Most meals are served casarole style, and while tasty are not, I suspect, freshly prepared.

The food was fabulous. The pizza app alone could've fed me. The rhubarb pie was heavenly - exactly like my mom's.

If you are a PlayOn member through the festival, you can also get a 10% discount on your meals... yum! :)