Oliver & Bonacini Cafe Grill, Bayview Village

Awesome, as always.

My friend had the liver and onions. She said it was amazing. I must say it did look delicious. I had the grilled calamari. It wasn’t so good. Had a bit of a fishy taste. Was cooked well enough though. The service was very slow but I was catching up with a friend so that didn’t bother me. I also had the soup of the day which was corn and cauliflower. It was very bland. The mushroom soup is much better. I have had better meals here before. I will return but will not have the calamari.

Everything was done very well. The bread was freshly made. Will come again.

Good reliable restaurant in the local neighbourhood

The food was good as always but I have to especially commend Andrew (I'm pretty sure) on such incredible service! Only wish the restaurant wasn't quite so loud, but it didn't really affect our enjoyment. Love the mushroom soup.

Friends reunion

We have frequented this restaurant for years but find now that the menu is limited and food not as it used to be quality-wise. My meal was luke-warm and after requesting it be heated it still arrived luke-warm the second time but the plate was hot?? Service was slow which did not help matters.

Good location with lots of parking, easy to get to.

Great food and excellent service!

Server was especially courteous and helpful. Hope I have her next time I visit.
Thank you!

Eva, our waitress was always available, always pleasant. Good experience as always.

the Piri Piri chicken was so good! I've told a couple of people to go order it!

Food was quite bland and did not live up to its description. Also, the price for this dish was also too high.

I've been going to O & B for years and it never disappoints.

Food was not that great. This is the second time I have been here and both times the meal was not up to par.

(Revised) I love this restaurant and this location; the reason I am giving 4 stars this time is because we were seated at a tight table that was difficult to get in and out of especially for a person with a disability, but to be fair, it was a Saturday night so that was to be expected. The other reason is that even though the service here is usually excellent, the waitress we had this evening was not as conscientious about the menu as she should have been, particularly as it relates to allergies. Nonetheless, I found a meal on the menu that worked out for my allergies. Overall, it was a good experience and as I said, I love this restaurant and the Bayview location in particular.

The restaurant made every effort to accommodate our last minute addition to the group. Our server was awesome and we had a wonderful time.

Very good food

The restaurant is casual but elegant. The service is friendly but sharp. The food is tasty and memorable! Always consistent, always nice, for special occasions or for every day dinning.

We had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner. Food was great - my favourite, the Peeky Toe Crab and Shrimp Cake was delicious as was the hummus appetizer which I was having for the first time.My son and nephew were pleased with the Jerk Ribs (a compliment from real Jamaicans). Dessert was excellent! Carrot cake as usual was worth all the calories.

Our only complaint is that service was a bit slow - took awhile for us to be seated, and our wine came after the appetisers. But, we understood as it was Thanksgiving, and the staff were very apologetic.

They have a varied menu so everyone can order what they like and the wait staff is excellent.

Generally, it was very good. The food was very slow coming out of the kitchen.

We had lunch on Thanksgiving Day. The restaurant was very busy but we had reservations and were seated quickly. As usual, when the restaurant is crowded, it was quite noisy. The food when it arrived was generally good. However, it took close to fifteen minutes before our orders were taken and then close to forty minutes before the food arrived. Our server was friendly and helpful and the slow arrival of the food was not her fault. But all three of our recent visits have involved long waits for our orders to be served. Once or twice may be the exception but this seems to have become the norm and it's annoying.

The food was extremely average. Nothing tasted great - or bad. It just was a meal. For the same price I could have eaten at 100 other much better restaurants in the city. I would not bother going back for another meal here.

Thanksgiving

Food was very tasty. Service was friendly but slow. Took more than 1 hour for mains to arrive.

I ordered the rib, so dry and cold. Don't understand why they serve the whole corn and a muffin as a dish.
Sorry don't think i will go back...

Our server Rob was exceptional! It was my mothers birthday and he made sure no detail was spared.

Second time at this restaurant and as good as it was the first time, that's how bad it was this time. Celebrating Thanksgiving (selected that special menu) and my mother's 83rd birthday. Service seemed to be okay to start, got water right away, waiter took drink orders but then we told him that we were having the turkey dinner and that seemed to get him off track. Was expecting drinks and within 5 minutes (SERIOUSLY - FIVE - minutes), we received our turkey plate. I felt like they were just stacked in a line ready for pick up. Took another five minutes before we got the drinks. The meal was barely okay (not worth the exorbitant $29 price tag - marginally better than cafeteria food) AND the brussels sprouts, which were the most plentiful thing on the plate, were inedible. They were hard - I like aldente but these things still crunched for heaven's sake! They also were not trimmed properly, the stems were still on them. Disgusting. Waiter showed up to ask how our meal was when it was almost all gone, we told him about the sprouts and he INSISTED on bringing us more. Our meals were done and he presented us with a double order of sprouts. Gee, thanks. To add insult to injury, they had obviously been put in the microwave to soften them (ugh) AND were actually harder than the ones that we left on our plate.

Okay - so we had enough room for desert. Mom's - the apple blossom - was fabulous. Mine - the molten lava cake was beyond tragic. Michael Bonacini - if this is what passes as a molten cake for you - you ought to be ashamed. I've seen you rip home chefs apart for not getting this right. My "molten" cake was ICE COLD. Needless to say, no lovely melted chocolate sluicing out of the cake after being cut. It was like a chunk of fudge. AND no waiter to check in with us. We then had to wait for another 30 minutes, before he deigned to check in and see if we needed anything.

Not much of a birthday for my mom. We'll go to The Keg next time.

It was great!

We were 4. We were put in a booth first that was round and found it awkward as two of the seats were on parts of the bench that separated the two seat cushions. One seat cushion was in rough shape and not nice to look at. After that everything was fine. Service was ok but could have been better. 2 people ordered pasta and we were not offered parmesan, had to ask for it. All in all solid but not spectacular.

Very comfortable environment and attentive services.

Lunch with all the mommies and babies! So it was quite noisy and chaotic. The waiter was attentive. But the soft drink machine was non functioning and drink choice was very limited. OK food, but nothing outstanding.

Burger fest at Oliver & Bonacini. Only until October 5th so if you haven't been ... what are you waiting for?
Lunch with a beautiful friend I had the Jerky Turkey which had jerked turkey, grilled pineapple & fresh slaw. I added extra crispy bacon for that extra yum! Barbara had the Umami Veggie burger with Portobello mushroom, grilled tomatoes. I got to taste it. It was pretty good. Gotta head back and try the other 3 before the end of the week.

On another note: My server Eva is awesome!!! Beautiful inside and out. Will ask for her again next time I come in.

Just to note that the quiet rating was chosen because we went for lunch and sat at the tables located outside of the main restaurant, under a canopy that are actually in the mall. But much quieter than inside the restaurant.

Inattentive service (server was preoccupied with large groups and we were neglected). Would’ve preferred to have been given another less busy server.

very busy and too many humans vs servers - so service was lacking - no top up on water, no one asked me how my food was and couldn't wait to get my bill and get out - very disappointing, not my first time but likely wont be back for a while - or at all

Interesting food combinations. Bar service slow and not made correctly. Waitress redid herself and much better. Fun spot

I have been going to O&B restaurants for years. Peter O would be extremely disappointed if he knew how this particular restaurant is being run...most importantly the food was definitely not up to the standards O&B are known for .
I definitely will not go back to this restaurant.
Carol Brown

Overall a pleasant experience, there were a few mistakes with our order and a bit of a long wait for the food but the staff made up for it. Excellent service!