Symposium Café Restaurant & Lounge – Thornhill

This was a pretty good symposium, service and food-​wise. We didn’t have to wait for a table and it was Saturday night. We were celebrating a friend’s bday and wanted to order some dessert. We got the chocolate divine with waffle and east meets west crêpe. It was very good. How can you go wrong with ice cream, brownie, fruit and waffle & crêpe? The server was attentive and friendly – he would frequently check in on us to see how we were doing.
All in all, very similar vibe as other symposiums in the city. I’d return for dessert anytime!

Great food at great prices. I’ve taken my staff there few times now and the food is always great. The service is not great, but the food more than compensates for it.
Over all I would recommend it

I don’t think I’m ever gonna go back to this restaurant. We went there with a couple of friends we decided to start with coffee and cake and then go for a meal, but the service and the quality stopped us at the first step! 2 times I had to go and asked the waitress to come and palace our order!

I’m not a fan of this restaurant. The waitstaff are not friendly and the menu is not great. They do not accommodate anyone with food allergies. I’m both lactose and gluten intolerant and the only beverage I can purchase is tea. How difficult is it for a restaurant to purchase a milk alternative?
In addition to the above, this location does not carry any lactose & gluten free desserts. I find this ridiculous. If you are a café, I honestly think you should have options available for people with food allergies or intolerances.

Please do not expect any quality service from this restaurant.
1. It took more than one hour for the food to arrive.
2. The waitress rolled her eyes constantly when we needed the simplest things like water refills. In addition, she muttered random inhospitable words to us thinking we couldn’t hear her.
3. The manager arrived after one hour and explained that it was their printer malfunctioning which caused orders and cooks to be slow. (Whats wrong with handwriting down the orders instead??)
Three families left the restaurant during the whole ordeal.
When the food finally came, it was okay but not spectacular. Our group ordered breakfast items that you would see in other breakfast establishments.
I cannot give this place more than 1 star as the service was absolutely abysmal. Avoid this place at all costs. You will thank me later.

3.5/5~ This is a nice restaurant to go to with a few friends and chat over a meal or dessert. I have been to the location in Aurora and I would say the waiters here are much more friendly and helpful. Chris was my waiter tonight. He was super nice and was helpful with the menu options.
Tonight I ordered the BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwich with a side of caesar salad. The pork was so delicious! The flavor and seasoning was just perfect and it was so juicy. The ciabatta bun was perfectly toasted. Soft and crispy on the edges, not too tough ir chewy. The caesar salad had too much dressing on it. I think they forgot to serve the coleslaw that was supposed to come with my order but didn’t bother to ask.
Ordered the East Meets West waffle dessert to share with my two friends. It is their «classic favorite» on the menu. Came with one scoop of vanilla and chocolate ice cream, whip cream, strawberries and bananas. Tasted fine, nothing special. I wish they would have put more ice cream though.

Perfecto all together! From variety of choices to service and atmosphere … Everything is great and very reasonably priced.

First time here and the experience wasn’t too bad, we ordered a Jack Daniels Flat Iron steak with mashed potatoes, veggies. We asked for medium and it came out the cut of the steak was not good and dried and a bit overcooked. But my friend still try her best to chew on it but had to throw out some, then one of staff came and asked if everything was OK, we honestly tell him. the steak was over cooked and dried. He said we will cook another plate for us and we should have told them and they would not let us suffer trying to chew the dry meat. He insisted he will have the chef to make another plate which came out perfect. We were very impressed with his attitude and friendly suggestion, he said he would rather see us have a good experience than leaving the restaurant with a bad review and impressions. So overall I think. this restaurant worth a try and staff were totally friendly and polite.

I’ve been anticipating going to try this place out for the longest time and to put things simply, it was quite a disappointment.
I had high expectations for this place since I was surprised with the décor and atmosphere from the moment I walked in.
It’s really unfortunate that it was this location I went to; it was evident they had a number of new hires and so they were busier than I’d usually expect for a Thursday night.
I ordered their spicy garlic mussels that were on special for 10.95 which were okay and their «signature» 10 oz. new York steak which was mediocre.
The server paid absolutely no attention to us since we were sat in a corner. 2 people at a large booth meant for 4.
When he finally got around to us for dessert menus, the carrot cake which was another one of their «signature» dishes wasn’t even available. So I settled for a strawberry shortcake. The overall presentation wasn’t that great… Syrup sloppily poured over the plate. Like pancakes. Needless to say, the icing on the cake was stale. Gross. Bill came to about $ 60 and it was totally not worth it.
Before leaving I paid a visit to the restrooms and they haven’t renovated it since lick’s. Ugh. It looks like a diner in there. I won’t be coming back to this location.

There seems to be a few Symposium Café locations popping up all over the GTA. Both Iriana and I came here to meet up with some of my old friends for a nice dinner night.
Firstly this location has a beauitiful patio and its in a busy location along Yonge just south of 407.
The ambience of this place is nicely layed out with a rustic European/​Mediterranean look with murals, décor, and statues. Our server was extremely polite and attentative to our order. Noise level is moderate, and most of all its clean!
For food I had their Banquet burger which gave you a choice of cheese, and it was BRIE! What I admired most about my dish
aside from overall portion and size was my brie, any thicker and it’d be a cheese-steak…that actually put a (fat kid at a buffet) SMILE on my face haha. The overall dish was enjoyable and the fries were not salted, nor oily.
I’ll be back for another Symposium episode!

A group of friends/​coworkers (5 of us) and I decided to try another Symposium, as we are noticing more of these Bar/​lounges are opening up everywhere now.
We visited Wed night just after 7pm to have desserts only. The restaurant was busy. pretty much all tables full. We only found out later that there was a special for mussels on that evening.
Our server seemed grumpy and annoyed. didn’t seem to want to be there. It was the first time for ³⁄₅ people eating at this restaurant and they needed more time to decide on what dessert to order.
Our server seemed to only be recommending drink options and really pushing for us to order specialty coffee beverages. She asked us at least 4 times when we sat down. even though we clearly mentioned we came here only for dessert.
I asked what were the cake options today (as I know last time from previous experience they don’t have them listed on their menu and they don’t have all different types every day). She just said that «I can go look at the cake display.» Gee. thanks for the help. I got up from my seat to look at them and OF COURSE IM A CAKE EXPERT… (not), NONE OF THE CAKES WERE LABELED. So, you can had to GUESS the types of cakes they had available. I stood there with another guest in the restaurant and we both didn’t know what each of them were.
Nevertheless, I went back to ordering a fruit festival again, this time in a crape. which was hardly one (super thin and burnt). It was alright. It tastes much better with the waffle. My friends had the super 5 layer chocolate cake, a waffle dessert and a brownie. Everyone seemed to enjoy their dessert– thus the rating I gave for only this reason.
The server did come back and ask how everything was which was great and again asked us if we wanted one of the specialty coffees again. and asked again when they cleared our plates. Then when we said no, she just brought us our bill even though we were still chatting, didn’t ask for it, and wasnt planning on leaving yet. We just felt rushed.
In the end, as like the other location, this one seemed much better. Unfortunately though, they need less grumpy servers. ones who will smile and need to find a way to label their cakes or have their servers let their guests know what they are instead of playing the guesing game.
Atmosphere was café like. décor was European, Roman like, dark with only neutral colours.

I visited Symposium last weekend as a friend wanted to check out the 2 for 1 cake promo they offer on Sundays.
it was Civic Holiday weekend and the patio was maxed out, but just under half full inside, which should have been the first warning.
Our waiter was a fellow by the name of Omar, or at least that’s what the receipt stated. He was very rushed and didn’t seem to know what he was doing. He took my friends to the cake display and they decided on their cakes. For whatever reason, he seemed to ignore another friend and I because we decided to order off the menu since we had not eaten dinner. I ordered the Gourmet Cheese Burger, my friend ordered the Symposium Burger. Once I ordered, explaining twice what I wanted and which cheese, he returned within 2 minutes to ask again which item I ordered. He then left before we could also ask to order a beer to drink.
When he returned with our food, my friend was finally able to order a Sapporo. The issue with that? Omar said «sure» and never bothered to ask if he wanted a bottle or if he wanted a glass and what serving size… I just skipped the beer once ain’t realized the server seemed to want to half ass the service. The beer arrived in a glass and was told by my friend that there was no carbonation and it was almost sour. This guy is a beer lover and always gives me great recommendations since I know nothing about beer, so it’s not as if he just didn’t like it.
The food itself was just below average. The burger was frozen at some point and the fries had soaked up all the oil they were fried in, very soft.
My other friend ordered a slice of lemon cake, and said that the cake had no taste of lemon whatsoever.
I’ve been told that this was an exception and not the rule from what Symposium generally offers it’s customers at other location but definitely disappointing.
In all with tip, $ 17 bucks for a burger, sigh.
We were also looking for salt shakers for our fries, however, there was not a single shaker on any of the tables in our proximity and our server didn’t return until we were done eating. However, the manager was very friendly when he came over to touch the table, so that earns a 2^nd star!

First time here and I found the food and service excellent. I ordered tomato soup with grilled chicken wrap. Quite tasty! Caters to everyone from food (salad, vegetarian, steak and chicken), drinks (alcohol and non alcoholic) coffee, tea and dessert. Arrived around 9:00 pm on Friday and it was pretty busy but we had no problem finding a seat with a party of 3. It got busy later in the evening with maybe 10 people waiting. I forgot the waiters name but thank you for the wonderful experience.

I gave this 1 star but only because that’s the lowest Unilocal lets me rate a restaurant.
We got there at 10:30 and ordered the warmed brownie and ice cream, crêpe with fruits, and a cake. Our waiter comes back after 30min to tell us what we ordered wasn’t available. We thought it was strange that it took them 30 minutes to realize this, meaning they haven’t started on our order. Finally, at 11:45, our food arrived.
I had ordered the Mini Warmed Brownie with Vanilla Ice Cream and Chocolate Sauce. My plate came with just the brownie, and 2 dobs of whipped cream. I was already skeptical because there was nothing warmed or heated radiating from my plate but I decided to at least tell the waiter the menu says it comes with vanilla ice cream.
The waiter replies «does it? I’ll check» (Its written on the menu, this should be easy). He comes back in a bit to confirm that it does and tells me that he will get it for me. While I was waiting for my ice cream, I decided to confirm my suspicions by physically touching the brownie. It was ICE cold. I can get that I didn’t touch the brownie as soon as it arrived, but from it arriving to my touching it could not have been more than 10 minutes.
So when the waiter returned with my ice cream, I told him the brownie is supposed to be warm. At this point the waiter is completely confused and tired of fielding my (warranted) demands, and gets his manager. The manager comes and says the brownie has already been heated. I tell him its cold and he replies «I can only heat it for 30secs bc it will melt away if i do any longer.» I was confused– brownies shouldn’t MELT after heating for 30 seconds, what were they even serving me?! So I asked «your brownie will melt?» He confirms and says «it’ll drizzle all over the plate». I didn’t really believe him, so I told him the brownie feels ice cold. He begrudgingly offers «I can heat it for 1 minute if you want. But it will melt all over the plate. Is that okay?»
Is this something that a customer should ever have to answer? Obviously it’s not okay to serve me your shitty brownie melted. But I gave him the go to heat it up for 1 minute anyway since I figured I’d rather have it warmed than not at all (it was a cold night). He returns with my original plate with the whipped cream on it and another smaller plate of BROKEN APART brownie. He didn’t even bother to put some effort into putting the brownie back on the same plate. Instead, hands me two plates which I had to fit onto the table myself. And of course, he had to have the last word so he noted «I told you it was going to melt».
BUT THE BROWNIE WASN’T MELTED. AT ALL. Instead, it was broken apart into perfect cubes. There was nothing melt-​y about these heated brownies — like normal brownies, their form stayed intact after being heated.
To finish off a horrendous first experience, after we got our bills and were ready to pay, our waiter took another 45 minutes to come back to our table. Mind you, the restaurant wasn’t packed at all… there was at least half the tables empty with 4 – 5 waiters on hand. How can they be so inattentive on such a slow night?
To sum up, DO NOT COME HERE. SAVE YOUR MONEY, GET WAFFLES AND CAKES ELSEWHERE.

Absolutely amazing. Had such a great time there and food was great as always.
The atmosphere was very lounge like and cozy. The décor was antique and brings it back to the 80s lounge/​pub style.
I went with my girlfriend twice for our mini catch up date and the waiters and waitresses were super friendly. I ordered the bennie both times and absolutely loved it. I don’t quite like the fried potatoes but the rest was tasty and the eggs were made just right– runny!

I wanted to like this place. I really did.
I went with a group of 13 and we were quickly seated on a busy night.
My friends had the deserts while I had a main since I was starving.
I had the Pesto Salmon which was unimpressive. I barely tasted the pesto and the salmon left a lot to be desired. I was also disappointed as the menu indicated rice as a side and I got fries instead. I would have mentioned something to our waiter but hew was almost non-​existent to our table so I just sat there and ate it despite it not being what I ordered.
I also had their café mocha which wasn’t something that was great. It was average at best.
I will say that the décor and mood that is set in this place is great and its one of the few reasons as to why I really wanted to like this place.
Here’s the kicker though. It was mainly 2 things that ruined this place for me. The bathrooms were small and lacking the facilities to support the amount of people in the restaurant. The floor was slippery when I used the washroom and felt like there was a thin film of oil on the ground.
But the worst part of what happened that night was that my friends ordered a pitcher for mojitos and they found a live earwig in their pitcher. Naturally the staff replaced the pitcher and didn’t charge us at all for it. But that should never happen… ever.
Their deals look great and I’ve heard their breakfasts are pretty good. I’m just not sold on it from my experience.

I visited the place for a small lunch with a friend. The décor and interior look very nice indeed. Comfortable seating is ample.
I ordered the steak house salad. The steak was perfect. Not too raw but not overlooked and was very tender.
My friend got the chicken Parmesan pasta. Huge portion and taste was descent.
Service was pretty good, but I ordered coffee after food and it was kind of cold.
Overall, nice place, amazing specials and lots to choose from (all day breakfast, cocktails, food, desserts and more)…
The service, however, is not the greatest. They usually forget what you ask them and are not very attentive, but the menu has a lot of variety and serves every need.

I originally wanted to come here for desserts but ended up having dinner with friends (and never ended up grabbing desserts because I was so full) and glad I did!
Coming into the restaurant, it smelled so wonderful as the whole place was filled with the scent of waffles and crepes. The menu offered a variety of salads, appetizers, entrees, desserts, drinks and more. We had a tough time choosing what to order because there were so many good options to choose from!
Though they don’t take RSVP after 6:30PM, we got a table with no problem for a Friday night. The beauty is that everyday there is some sort of special on the menu. Customer service is exceptional. My waiter Lance was so helpful in many ways and we took some of his meal recommendations. We thoroughly enjoyed our meal. It was so tasty and affordable. We will definitely come back for the $ 4 martini night and desserts in particular!

THE. WORSE. EXPERIENCE.
EVER.
I arrived with three of my friends and we waited to be seated. This process took maybe 5 minutes which was fine i suppose. During that time, a couple walked into the door. The manager knew the couple, and proceeded to greet them first and shake hands with them. The man asked him if they could have the booth seat, which I overheard. I interjected and stated that we were here first so we should get the last booth seating, plus we had more people. The manager looked at the couple and shook his shoulders and said sorry. At that time, and man proceeded to say, «that’s ok. I’ll eat your food off the ground its so good. I won’t let a few broads piss me off.» The manager did not reprimand his behavior, even though I’m sure that no other customer would have gotten away with disrespecting other customers in such a way if they weren’t personal friends with the manager. Clearly this manager has never had customer service training, because that is definitely not the way you try to build repeat customers. Not only do I have a negative view of this particular restaurant in Thornhill, but of the entire chain as well.
I wouldn’t recommend this establishment to anyone. Not even my worse enemy. I will definitely never be visiting ANY symposium restaurant again. Nobody deserves to be treated with such disrespect as a paying customer.

Back here for their $ 4 Martinis on Wednesday!
Love the experience this time as I sat with my friends at the bar and of course we have good services as the bartender made sure we have all the drinks we need tonight and more… I ended up having 4 martinis including one off the menu and my favourite for the night is the Almond Pleasure, just love those dark chocolate chips in the drink!
Calamari ($ 10.95) is on Late Night Happy Hour Special with 33% off was not bad. Sadly their 50% off Wednesday Special Mussel all sold out by 10:30 pm. so if you are into mussels.
I can drink 10 of those martini especially those creamy sweet one, they just tastes like liquid dessert…

Service was exceptional. The host, and waitress were extremely attentive and friendly. I had the white chocolate cinnamon French toast and it was delicious! The mimosa I had was so-​so, but not bad. Prices were good and portion siZes were great! Will definitely be coming back.

It is an ok restaurant.
Service was very friendly and attentive, but I would say too attentive. Our waitress came to our table to check if everything’s ok almost every 10 minutes during the first 30 minutes.
The food we ordered were so so. My bf ordered a burger but he could tell right away it was frozen burger meat. I ordered a fish & chips. The fish was ok but the fries did really disappoint me. They were fresh cut but not crispy at all. We tried the mocha coffee cake. It was not too sweet but definitely not a «wow» one.
We went there on a Friday night. The atmosphere was good but a bit loud. The restaurant offers special everyday. I might just come back for their special… hehe!

The spot is like R. Kelly’s remix to ignition because it’s «hot and fresh out the kitchen» — because it just opened Yesterday (how’s that for a fresh FTR). I’ve been a fan of the symposium brand (yes yes yes I know it’s a chain), since my years as a student in Waterloo when taking a girl you met at the bar a week earlier meant that things were «getting serious». Enough about my lusty days as a co-​ed (save those for another day).
The topic at hand Thornhill’s newest edition, Symposium Café. Taking over the location where the failed Licks Home-​burgers, Kenny Rogers Roasters AND even McDonald’s before that (ya I’ve lived around here for a long time) used to be, I’ve got my fingers crossed for this classy little joint,
First off walking up you cannot miss their huge signage, BUT your attention is quickly diverted from the signage to the elegance and sophistication that is their front patio. Black on Black neuvo patio furniture is surrounded by a black iron fence and large ornate gates also inscribed with the Cafes name.
Walking inside this place continues to be class class class all the way. Gorgeous fixtures, a mix of rich wood and marble table tops and tobacco coloured wing back leather chairs. This place is really done up to the nines!
As per the norm with other Symposiums the desserts and the bar are the main focal points with both on display and an impressive sit down bar area which is uncommon from other locations.
My colleague and I took a booth near the front to discuss worldly issues (the Olympics) and other things of that sort and were quickly offered menus. Being that it was likely 5 o’clock somewhere I decided on a Caesar (with a kick) and a flat iron steak house salad, while my friend ordered up a cappuccino.
The bevvies took time to come but when they arrived and while attempted to make a Caesar to my taste it was essentially just clamato juice and celery salt (forgettable) — the garnish was a lemon and lime wedge, not even a celery stalk. WTF? My coffee addicted friend seemed content with the Cappuccino but did mention that he prefers to be asked whether or not he’d like cinnamon or chocolate on top instead of it coming standard.
As for my Salad, I am honestly torn on which way to go with my opinion here. The handful of steak pieces I received were cooked and flavoured amazingly. YUM. But I literally got 5 teeny tiny medallions. The mixed greens and veggies were super fresh and there was a lot of them however I had to ask for dressing because the salad came bone try (other than the sauce which rubbed off the steak).
Lastly we shared in a slice of their Carrot Cake. Can you say MONEY MAKER!!! This is what Symposium is all about — wowza! This thing was 2.5 normal slices of normal carrot cake compacted into 1. It was moist and creamy and even had cranberries mixed in for a secret X-​factor. DAyyyuuummmmmmm girl!
The food and drink may have made Symposium take a hit on score, BUT given that it literally just opened yesterday they are A-​OK in my books and can only go up from here :)
I shall return and I know they will impress. I see this place being a new summer work spot and night time patio hang out, come with me :)
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