Yesterday, we took Dave, who’s visiting from Chicago, to his favourite restaurant in our neighbourhood: The Yellow Griffin (2202 Bloor Street West, just east of Runnymede). It looks like a typical High Park/Bloor West Village/Swansea faux-Brit pub, but it distinguishes itself with its menu of burgers. They offer 35 sets of toppings, from the traditional cheddar cheese to Stilton and walnuts to mango chutney and tandoori yogurt sauce to scallions, peanuts and kung pao sauce to peanut butter. If you don’t want beef, you can ask to change your burger to ground lamb or turkey, a chicken burger, pork escalope or veggie. I’ve only had the beef burgers, but they cook them just right. There’s also a good choice of sides, from the expected fries and onion rings to my favourite, the breaded green beans, served with a choice of mayonnaise-based dipping sauces, such as curry, garlic and mango-pineapple.
The Yellow Griffin’s major problem is that the service is erratic. When it’s good, it’s passable, and when it’s bad, it’s rather like restaurants in the “before” state on Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares. Last night, it was closer to the latter, with the waitstaff in a state of mild confusion and the kitchen slow to crank out the food (the place doesn’t have more than a dozen tables). When we first took our table, we saw the credit card receipt of the previous patrons, who’d put “0” on the tip line, and based on last night’s service, I understand completely. It’s a shame the service is so bad when the burgers are quite good.
It also has the minor problem of not quite feeling like a local place. I can’t put my finger on it, but the “feel” of the place just doesn’t make any sort of concession to the neighbourhood surrounding it: it might as well be a ground floor pub in an office building downtown or in an industrial park in the ‘burbs. Even the Timothy’s coffee chain just down the street has a more local feel (for starters, they display works by local artists on their walls).
The wide array of burgers, sides and dips are the place’s saving grace; if it weren’t for them, the Griffin would’ve been trounced by the places across the street — Sharkey’s, The Swan and Firkin and especially Dr. Generosity, who in my opinion make a better burger and have great food, great service and feel like they’re part of the neighbourhood. If they could get the place renovated — perhaps an appearance on Restaurant Makeover — and retrain or replace the waitstaff, they’d have a winner on their hands.
For more about the Yellow Griffin, here’s the Toronto Life writeup, and here’s a Now magazine blurb.
6 replies on “The Yellow Griffin: Good Burgers, Lousy Service”
Walk a little farther down the street to Jane to find Bryden’s. While not offering the variety of the Griffin (one burger; billed as the best in the B-Dub, nudge-nudge, wink-wink) The lack of variety is more than made up for by the quality of service. And, the place is very much a part of the neighbourhood. Go there. Hopefully J.D. will be on the bar and the owner, Tash, will be helping out. Mention my name to either of them and be prepared to swap stories about me. Or maybe not. You and they know waaaay too much. BTW: the thought of enjoying that burger is making my mouth water. Excuse me, but I think I smell something sizzling.
Michael Kennedy aka: Special K
we saw the credit card receipt of the previous patrons, who’d put “0” on th tip line
I always do, and then leave a cash tip. This way, the servers can share the tip with the kitchen staff, and I’m not funding the coffers of the credit card company or the government, neither of which had to be on their feet all day being pleasant to people who probably didn’t appreciate the service because Management severely understaffs the restaurant in order to maximize profits for the shareholders.
Worst service ever!! Thanks for posting it Joey.
RG
True, but the table hadn’t yet been cleared and there wasn’t any cash on it either. Whoever sat there left no tip, and I’d be hard pressed to blame them.
Thanks, RightGirl — I’m always glad to do something for the ‘hood.
I like the Griffin’s burgers but am disappointed that they discontinued the Junction fries. It wouldn’t hurt for them to crank out an amended menu with all of the recent changes, too. They’re only yellow paper, it’s not like a set of new menus would bankrupt them.
Couldn’t agree more, the service is usually abominable. Sharkey’s is nice and has great food. The Swan & Firkin has acceptable service but the food tends to look like it was bought in the frozen foods section at No Frills down the street. Had a chicken cordon bleu in there last month that was indistiguishable from reheated frozen fare, very disappointing.