Gourmet Food & Wine Expo

Anyone going this year/have words advice from prior years?

I'm going this Saturday for a tutored tasting...might or might no go earlier to check out exhibits. My impression is its way too busy and just not a pleasent environment on the floor.

Sartorialist in Ontario (including Toronto)

Service at Nota Bene

Hello fellow Hounders,

This post is about the service at Nota Bene, might do a seperate post about the food.

Had dinner this past Saturday at Nota Bene for the first time. After reading ample reviews on this board I decided to go in with an open mind in regards to the service and just see how everthing would go. My gf and I highly value the dining "experience" and service is definitely an important element of it. An evening can be tarnished with sub part service eventhough the food might be spot on.

Greeted very nicely and prompty taken to our reserved table. We brought a bottle of wine and placed it on the table. Very shortly the sommelier came and served us in proper fashion. We were very impressed by his attentiveness and his general service throughout the whole evening. His pouring was excellent, always at the right times, and after offering a taste of our Bordeaux he offered a tidbit of his knowledge which enriched the evening. A+

Not so fast though...
Our waiter came to offer us water and after pouring quickly stated he would be back to "detail the menu". 15, possibly 20 minutes later he finally returned and his "detail" was mentioning the special of the day. His attitude was very short, his eyes were always wandering around the room. Very annoying. Sometimes our napkins would be folded if one of us left the table, other times not. Very inconsistent. One incident that really bugged me was a "fake" sommelier who came and poured wine in my glass when it was already 1/4 full....when he finished pouring he was more than 1/2 full! I was very peeved. C-

Echoing many posts here, I would summarize with inconsistency! The sommelier was spot on, the rest of the service lacked greatly.

Eat on,
Sart

Sartorialist in Ontario (including Toronto)