The One That Got Away

Before I get into this, I feel I need to make a disclaimer: I did not intend to come here. I had planned on going to the Good Fork and pigging out on red velvet pancakes; however, turns out the Good Fork is packed on a Tuesday afternoon to the point where there is a 25 minute wait for a table. Given that I was meeting my bestie and her 11 month old baby for brunch with my 8 week old baby, there was no way we were going to be able to wait 25 minutes. Since we had both already paid for parking, we went looking for the next viable option, and here's where we ended up!

Restaurant: The One That Got Away
Location: Bloor West Village
Meal: Lunch
Day: Tuesday
Son's Age: 8 weeks

This is primarily a fish and chips spot. You place your order and then you sit down, and someone brings you your food.

Accessibility: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Luckily, there was space for me to park my stroller next to the table without blocking other patrons.

Additionally, there are high chairs available, and since my friend's baby is older, she parked her stroller on the side and put her little one in the high chair provided. That seems good enough, but it was a bit of a struggle just to get our strollers through the door in the first place. More importantly, there is no change table available.

The good news is that the washroom is big enough to fit the stroller if necessary. The foot pedals to operate the sink are also quite handy. That being sad, I was lucky that my son did not require changing because the only viable option here is the floor, and I'm not a huge fan of putting my baby on a washroom floor.

Service: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Credit where it's due: the server was extremely friendly and helped us get set up so that we could enjoy our lunch with the babies. He was very happy to interact with my friend's baby, who was full of energy and crawling around the restaurant.

Food: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Let me preface this by saying I'm not sure what you could do to make fish and chips a mind blowing experience. I had ordered the haddock and chips.

The haddock was fine - as you would expect for fish and chips: satisfying but not memorable. The fries I found were a bit on the soggy side, and also quite bland. I added salt and vinegar which helped a little but didn't fully salvage them. 

Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️½

The service really pulled up the rating on this one. Other than that, the experience was okay. I wouldn't object to eating here again, but based on food and accessibility, it wouldn't be my first choice.