Gare de l'Est

Our table wasn’t ready when we arrived since earlier guests were still enjoying their dinners. Aaron offered us a choice of accepting a less desirable table, or waiting in the bar area. We enjoyed complementary drinks and a charcuterie board while we waited. Service was excellent all evening. So was the food. Our friends from Queen Street West were impressed with our “lower East side” find.

Great ambience, interesting wines and good food
Looking forward to going back soon.

Perfect combination of friendly, attentive service and high quality cuisine

It was all you would expect from a classic French restaurant. Fine dinning at its best!!

We love this destination as a pre-show destination. If it was more convenient to where we live we would go every week.

Outstanding all-round.
We just keep coming back for more!
Aaron is a superstar customer experience maestro

Very nice! Staff were great in accommodating our request. Thanks!

Gare de L'Est is a fantastic brunch and dinner restaurant in the east end. Great for date nights, dinner before the threatre or a sunday family brunch. Food was really good. We had the eggs meurette and the benedict - both were amazing!

Great meal and vibe to the place. I could see myself becoming a regular if I lived in Toronto.

We had an amazing experience at the counter watching the kitchen staff do their magic. A pre theatre prix fixed was perfect. The portions were generous and the flavour wonderful.
I’d suggest buying the kitchen staff a round for $8. A bargain for the guest and appreciated by the staff.
Will be back for half price wine on a Wednesday for sure!
(PS a subscription to the adjoining Crows Theatre will get you 15% off too!)

The waiter had a bit of a snobby attitude but he was efficient and got us to the theatre on time.

We had a lovely anniversary dinner at Gare de L’Est. We were welcomed with complimentary champagne and the service was impeccable. We felt as is if we were in a restaurant somewhere in Paris - the ambience was perfect and the food was fantastic. A wonderful restaurant that we will be sure to go back to. We highly recommend to friends and family!

Waitress did not tell us there were specials. Also forgot or frite order. However did not charge us for that item. The noise level was so high we could barely have a conversation. I enjoyed my meal. Confit de canard excellent

Another outstanding meal - wonderful food, wonderful service, and careful attention paid to getting us to the theatre (which is adjacent to the restaurant at the corner of Dundas and Carlaw) on time.

Service was friendly and standard. A little slow but that was due to the mass exiting of the theatre rush (next door).
Food was hit and miss. What was good, was very good, such as the steak frites and duck confit... miss was the salmon gravlax.
Overall a good experience and will come back. However will avoid any theatre days or at least time slots around theatre shows next door.

Our service in the bar area was amazing! We ordered cocktails - le 57 and an old fashioned. They were absolutely delish! As an appetizer we has the escargot with gnocci and the chicken liver mousse. Both dishes were two of the best we have ever had. Anywhere. The escargot and gnocci was the perfect richness and abundance of earth flavours. The mousse was divine. If I could, I would have licked the plate. For dinner we have the steak hache and mussels and frites. Once again, both dishes were amazing. Everything at this restaurant was great! We also had two glasses of wine. Our total was $150 before tip. Was worth every dollar. Would come back in a heartbeat.

Great food and good service. I did find it a bit noisy but all in all I really enjoyed my dinner. Highly recommended. I would go again.

All four of us enjoyed the food:, duck confit, steak frites and pork cutlet. Wine markups were among the highest I have ever seen - a major negative. Service was bordering on the unfriendly.

Excellent meal and perfect for pre theatre dinner when going to Crow's Theatre productions. Staff was accommodating, informative and friendly.

Great food but not so great service. We went to Gare de l'est for dinner before a play at Crow's. Our reservation was for 6:00 PM, and we were all there a little early. They asked if we were going to the 8:00 or 8:30 show right at the start, and they gave us the pre-fixe menu. The choices were good, and some of us ate from that menu, and others from the regular menu. Everyone enjoyed their meals and we thought the prices were good. But the service! It started strong, but then the wheels fell off. One main dish came out about 5 minutes later than everyone else's, and one of us ordered dessert at the time of ordering the mains...and we waited about half an hour for it! She ended up wolfing it down as some of us went to get seats for the play. I complained when we were paying and was then told that they were short staffed, but honestly, I don't buy it. There seemed to be plenty of people on the floor, and why does a shortage of servers lead to a crazy long wait for a piece of cheesecake? This restaurant is attached to the Crow's building, and getting people out for dinner before a show without causing stress needs to be a basic competency. We would try again, but I guess my warning is get ready to manage the heck out of your server.

Very good food. Authentic french menu. Great comfort choices for a wintery night. Perfect for before theatre.

Lovely food and ambience, great service. It would be nice if there were even one or two options for kids. The things we asked for “on the side” were ignored but not a huge deal, just a detail.

Really good food. Had Oyster, French onion soup, charcuterie board, steak frites and duck confit. All very good.

Was disappointed with the steak entree. Steak was flavourless and the green pepper sauce didn’t help much.

Great French restaurant, the food is excellent, nice portions and very reasonably priced for the quality. I saw they even have champagne by the glass. The waiters were very attentive and they even gave us two glasses of sparkling wine as I had mentioned it was anniversary when doing the reservation.

So delicious. We really enjoyed our time there! Truly authentic French food.

Loved the food; will be back to try other dishes. The servers were very attentive and professional.

The noise level was our only negative and seems to be a major problem in so many restaurants--except for those who having consumed sufficient alcohol that it renders them totally insensitive to their fellow patrons. Perhaps restaurant managers could have a small card on the table which says something like "when raising your voices, please consider the comfort of your fellow diners."

I also think there should be a ranking in the "Noise Level" review category above: "Too Loud"

Excellent food; service was a bit spotty. But overall, a good dining experience.

Comme d’habitude, tout était parfait

Cozy restaurant with quietly efficient service. We sat at the counter to watch the kitchen in action when we wanted to, and chat between us when we wanted to. It was a little dangerous sitting at the counter because everything looked so delicious that it was hard to limit our ordering! The trout was delicious and perfectly cooked. The coq au vin was comforting. It was a quiet Sunday dinner service, with no theatre crowd.

Nice ambience, good food, very attentive staff. A little pricey, but nice for a celebration.

excellent pre-theatre dinner; go to crow's, eat there first

Very good French food, perfect for pre-theatre dinner, nice prix fixe menu, very good service. Thoroughly enjoyed.

We were 4 friends at dinner, catching up. Tasty food, non-intrusive but friendly and quick service. Will be back

Great wine selection. Interesting twists on French cuisine. Always a treat.

Good for pre theatre. We were not rushed and easily were in time for the play. The food was delicious.

Very professional service and great variety of dishes.

Nice relaxing environment. Perfectly timed at 5:30 before the theatre. Amazing pumpkin soup. Decent steak/frites (but had better peppercorn sauce). Will try it again as other menu options do look good. Recommended before the theatre!

Excellent French cuisine style menu with a good variety, well prepared and presented. The service was outstanding -- we had to wait in the lounge a few minutes for our table and complimentary bubbly was provided, plus the serving staff were very friendly and attentive throughout the meal.
My only qualm is the wine list -- there didn't seem to be enough variety in the under-$100 range for either French or Italian wines to suit our table's tastes. We tried two wines recommended by the staff and they were only so-so.