Czehoski Restaurant

Not all bad, not all good

I was at Czehoski’s recently (December 2008) for a Christmas party, and found the place to be a mixed bag…

1. THE FOOD. Prior to dinner, wait staff walked around with trays of hors d’eouvre, which for the most part were very good, especially the mini-burgers and the puff pastry. For dinner, we had a choice of appetizer, main, and dessert, and I chose smoked salmon, steak, and crème brulee. The salmon was great, served with crisped bread, capers, and a powerful vinegar and onion concoction. I ordered medium-well for the steak, which arrived more medium-rare. It was sent back and done to perfection. The crème brulee was good, but not great – my wife makes better. Overall, 8/10.

2. THE STAFF. Terrific! Very attentive, well-mannered, polite and fast. 10/10.

3. THE VENUE. Good, but not great. We were at the back of the restaurant near the open kitchen (nice little kitchen, by the way), and the restaurant is extremely narrow, with too many tables for such a small space. 5/10.

4. THE SEATING. Awful! I can’t speak for the entire back of the restaurant, but four of us were seated at this weird table right next to the open kitchen. Aside from being a small and cramped space, there is no proper floor under the table! There is only a metal frame to rest your feet on, otherwise, your legs dangle in mid-air. I am well over six feet tall, and my legs barely touched the ground. After sitting in these seats for only a few minutes, all of us began experiencing leg cramps. If you go to the restaurant, do NOT sit in these seats, period. 0/10.

5. WOULD I GO BACK? Yes, but not in a hurry. Decent food, decent prices, very good staff and a nice Queen Street West location are among the pluses of Czehoski’s. The minuses are the cramped overall feel of the place, and the dreadful table we sat at, which is the dining equivalent of grown men piling out of a clown car.

On December 5, 2008 I came in with 3 friends. I recommended this place and was very disappointed with what happened. When we walked in the bartenders told us to sit at any table we wanted, so we did. A few minutes later our waitress comes up and tells us the table we were sitting at was reserved and that we would have to find another table. I told her that the bar staff told us to sit anywhere and asked her to find us another place. She then tells us that there will be tables available upstairs that would be available in 5 minutes and to tell the bartenders to put us on a wait list for a table. I asked the waitress, since she worked there to confirm with the bartender that a table would be available and we followed her up. When we got there, the 2 tables that were going to be available were tables for 2 and weren’t even together! To make matters worse the bartender tells us the wait is 20 minutes and there are no reservations possible that the restaurant was a first come first serve place. So why were we told downstairs our table was reserved? I told the bartender this type of service was pretty bad and she told me that was my opinion. We left and spent our money elswhere. Hopefully now lots of other people will read my opinion and never go to this place. Good luck Czehoski...word of mouth is powerful.

Has anyone been here lately? What is going on? I used to enjoy going here for the atmosphere, good music and super staff... i havent been in a month or so and went in this week and once last week and was completely confused? the menu seems sparse and prices have gone up. i dont recognize any of the staff. the new staff come across as characterless uncaring and seem to have no clue about the history of the space. this place used to have my favourite staff in the city.... always friendly caring and hilarious. im not sure when czehoski became about dr. dre and fedoras but its a shame. it used to be me and a lot of friends go-to bar during the week for a friendly drink and good conversation. i hope i just hit a couple bad nights?

This was the worst most pretentious breakfast i've had in toronto, and I'm a big breakfast person.

The food was totally over priced, and it bad BAD! nothing tasted good. Even the orange juice seemed sour.

The only redeeming thing about this place was the cute rooftop patio.

Oh how I miss Xaccuti...

We visited Czehoski for the Summerlicious event and really enjoyed our dinner and the lovely ambiance. We were seated on the second floor dinning room which is such a beautiful space; the entire restaurant has a beautiful European aesthetic with the chunky wooden staircases, the rustic fireplace, the antique Polish deli freezer and beautiful solid wood bar standing in contrast to the tall white walls, modern banquets and stark white table place settings. I loved the old-world sensibilties of the decor, which were a perfect foreshadowing of the menu we were presented.

Our server was absolutely gracious, very polite and quite attentive. The menu for Summerlicious was one of the most adventurous we had seen and did not dissapoint. I loved the Eastern European influence on the menu, a charming nod to the restaurant's past incarnation. Each course was delicious with highlights being the chilled beet soup and above all, the hand made truffled brie perogies on a bed of RIesling-braised sauerkraut with creme fraiche.. they were melt-in-your mouth perfection.

I'd really love to go back post-Summerlicious to try something else on the menu!

excellent........

We had dinner there about a month ago and while they were busy, the food was not only poorly executed, it was boring. The menu promised great things but the plates offered very little. I had the low temp steak with tobacco jus, and it was barely okay, if a bit chewy.

It has been stated too many times that the service is awful, so I'll leave it at that, but more importantly, the wine list while I was there was pitiful.Nothing stunning. I'm 12 restaurants into my global top 50 and while Czehoski may be in the far next 100. Please don't waste your money. You will only feel the chef, Nathan Isberg's horrible temper and whims from the food.

I had the pork - it was awesome - can't remember how it was prepared but I was thoroughly impressed. Great cheese plate and wine to start with olive tray!! dinner followed by some chocolate desert that was out of this world. I really enjoyed the atmosphere - it is a very interesting - intriguing - comfortable - enjoyable place to have a few drinks on the deck upstairs and dinner afterward. I met the owners - very down to earth people - and the wait staff were very accomodating and diligent.

I am from California - San Francisco Bay area so the bar is set high - I was very, very impressed!

Czehoski is one of my favorite places to go for drinks after work, both in summer for their fantastic patio or in the winter when they keep it all cozy upstairs. Some of the cocktails seem a bit weak in flavour but the food is delish and i'll give it a nine overall since I think the atmosphere is incredible.

Hope they make their website more than just a page with their logo and address. They'd do well to show off the diverse drink list - like organic wines - and pictures of the old butcher shop fridge and bar. It's got a unique style in TO. Not trying to emulate other restos.

Just a warning to those of you that haven't heard much about this place. We made reservations for summerlicious as we thought that was a great way to discover this restaurant. When we got there, of course, they didn't have our reservations even though I received a call confirming it. The hostess - didn't even want to try to accomodate us. There was room in the patio for us - but the hostess was quick to tell us that the summerlicious menu was not available there. She didn't even try to make an exception us for their error.

The food on the other hand was superb. Good wine and beer selection to complement the dishes. It was fairly slow service, but since my friends and I were in no hurry - it was acceptable.

We probably won't go back there - they don't make you feel welcome and they would much rather turn you away than to try to accomodate you. Considering we spent over $300 for the nite - I think there are much more friendlier restaurants that serve same quality of food with much better service.