Come savor a delicious meal at Rundles Restaurant. Their atmosphere has been described as casual. They offer an extensive wine list and are reachable by bicycle and public transit. Come visit them in a location known as stimulating.
Visited this past September, 2011, just before they closed for the season. This place keeps getting better and better. Nothing comes close in Stratford to Rundles.
In the days of yesteryear Rundles was a culinary hotspot. This is no longer the case. Our meal was a disaster—one unforgivable blunder after another. I had the pork picatta (basically “dolled-up” weiner shnitzle) and it was dry and tasteless. And the portion sizes were comical…you’ll need a pair of tweezers instead of a knife and fork. The snooty servers treated us with disdain. As we ordered our food, they kept smirking and exchanging smug glances…
Also, our austere “know it all” sommelier was a little bit tipsy…I think he had been into the schnapps.
We dined in the lower dining room in a space which felt more like the entrance to a museum of modern art than a restaurant. It's not that it's not a nice space, I just prefer something with a little more warmth.
The whole place had kind of an off-putting vibe for me. The wording in the menu is pretentious. The host was pretentious. The service is pretentious. The metal plate covers are needlessly overwrought. Everything about this place was pretentious to the point of being silly. That may play to the elderly tourist crowd that seems to go there, but I found it a bit much.
Where to begin with wording your soup of the day like this: "An IMPROMPTU SEASONAL SOUP to be announced" Impromptu?
That said the food here is very good, although I have had comparable meals, and better meals in and around a number of Toronto restaurants, for half the price. But I knew what I was getting into before I went there so it's unfair to complain about the price.
I had the ROASTED GOLDEN and RED BEETROOT TERRINE. The sweetness of the beets went well with the tartness of the goat cheese in the croquettes. Nicely executed.
For my main I had the VEGETARIAN, GRILLED EGGPLANT "in the style of Capri" (another needleasly pretentious wording) which was excellent, very subtly elegant and well seasoned.
My companion had the COLD-SMOKED ALBACORE TUNA and the halibut, both of which she said were very good.
All four dishes were dusted with chopped chives for some reason. Odd.
I had the seasonal fruit (peaches) for dessert, which was nice. My companion had the cheese plate, which was plunked on the table without so much as an explanation. After over ten minutes we finally found someone who was able to explain them all. Marks against them for this.
Overall it wasn't a bad experience, they just need to not take themselves so seriously. If they did manage to do that and dropped the prices in half I would go back. Otherwise, not so much.
ETA: After reading Richard Maloney's condescending and rude responses to the reviews on Trip Advisor, I wouldn't take a dump at Rundles, much less eat there again.
The food was very good and the service was excellent!..I really liked the fact that they hire a lot of young people an train them in the proper way to serve food. The service was really impressive and the food was among the best ive ever had. Yes - it was expensive so i dont go there weekly - but once a year to be able to go to a fine restaurant as this is a treat!
I love restaurants. I love good restaurants but I do not go for the architecture. I go for the atmophere, to be made to feel welcome. Otherwise I could just stay home and eat!
Rundles is way to pretentious for me.
The funniest part was when I looked for my potatoes that were suppose to come with my meal. There were 5 of them all the size of blueberries!
