Indie Ale House

Before I became pregnant, I was pretty much a regular at Indie Ale House. I don't even like beer, but for some reason I really enjoy some of the beer here. It's local and original and there are so many options to choose from. Bonus - the food is fantastic. You'd think a place that focuses so much on beer would treat food as an afterthought, but not here. If you asked me where to go in the Junction, hands down I would have said Indie Ale House. Fast forward to pregnancy and birth, and I hadn't stepped foot in here. I assumed it was inappropriate to bring a baby to an ale house, and besides, people might judge a breastfeeding mother for indulging in a flight of beer. Then, one day, after taking my son to the OEYC, I decided to pop into the bottle shop to bring some beer home. I noticed a stroller parked in the front and commented that I'm clearly not the only parent bringing my kid here. The seller, totally serious, proceeded to inform me that there were always children here, and that was in fact their stroller parking area. So what do I do with this information? Immediately plan dinner with my husband and son!

Restaurant: Indie Ale House
Location: The Junction
Meal: Dinner
Day: Saturday
Son's Age: 12 months

We decided to go at 5:30 on a Saturday and discovered that they weren't kissing - the place was packed with babies and kids! Immediately I felt better knowing that I wouldn't need to worry about my baby being out of place. Please note that the place does fill up and they do not take reservations so if you want to come a bit later you may have to wait.

Accessibility: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The entrance was full of strollers that were parked at the door.

There were actually more strollers but someone was standing in front and I didn't want to photograph someone without permission. Even with all the babies, we were still able to get a high chair.

Yes, that's my kid with all the beer. We are teaching him good values at an early age, obviously. On top of all this, the washroom actually has a proper change table!

The actual layout of the washroom is not the most convenient, because the change table blocks the entrance to one of the two stalls, but given how many families there were, people were pretty understanding.

Service: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Our server was great and very accommodating to my baby. He brought extra coasters which my son loved playing with, and he brought a little teapot of hot water to warm my son's food. 

I think he is more accustomed to older children rather than babies, however, because he seemed surprised that we didn't want to order something off the menu for him (they do not have a separate kids' menu) and then brought an extra plate for him to share our food (given his penchant for banging and throwing plates, he can't really be trusted with anything breakable). I totally get why restaurants expect you to order off the menu but I think that, unless they specifically have a baby menu, allowances should be made for babies who are just learning how to eat. 

Food: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Since I hadn't been here for so long, my husband and I agreed to buy a flight of beer and split it.

They rotate their beer so what we had isn't always available, but from left to right you are looking at: Spadina Monkey, Ritual Madness, Broken Hipster, Breakfast Porter, and Rabbit of Caerbannog. Disclaimer: I am not a regular beer drinker so I don't know all the proper lingo, but Broken Hipster and Breakfast Porter are my usual go-tos. The Breakfast Porter is similar to a Guinness but with a hint of coffee flavour, while the Broken Hipster is a Belgian wheat beer. The Spadina Monkey is more of a sour cherry flavour, and Ritual Madness is also a fruity flavour (I don't recall what it tasted like exactly, just that I wasn't a fan). The Rabbit is a white IPA that my husband really enjoyed. For our food, I ordered the short rib royale burger with a side salad.

This burger is not kidding around. I'm taking the description from the menu, but it's stout braised, shredded short ribs, quarter pound patty, gruyere cheese, crispy onions, and roasted garlic and thyme aioli. I love this burger and it is ridiculously filling I highly recommend you order this. The side salad was underwhelming on its own but worked well to offset the heaviness of the burger. My husband got the BBQ duck pizza.

This came with pineapple, caramelized onions, fior de latte, tomato sauce, cilantro, and chillies. The pizza was pretty good and my husband liked it, although I must admit that I'm not a fan of pineapple on my pizza. Otherwise, it's very good, and definitely not your average pub fare.

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐½
There's a reason I used to come here so often, and discovering that the restaurant is in fact very baby friendly is such a great bonus. If you are looking to try a great craft beer with delicious food, but you don't want to bring your baby to a pub, this is definitely the place to go. 

Oh Geul Boh Geul

For my mother's birthday, my sister took a day off work and I brought my son to meet them for lunch. She decided that she wanted Korean food, so the Yonge & Finch area seemed like the most convenient place to go.

Restaurant: Oh Geul Boh Geul
Location: Willowdale
Meal: Lunch
Day: Monday
Son's Age: 11 months

The restaurant has limited customer parking in the back, where you can enter through the back entrance right by the kitchen. Free parking is definitely a nice bonus along Yonge.

Accessibility: ⭐
The restaurant itself is quite small, so both the front and back entrances are narrow. This is not the place to bring a stroller. They also do not have high chairs, although they did provide a booster seat to secure to the chair.

The washroom is located in the basement down a narrow set of stairs, and there is no change table or counter space.

The good news is that the toilet has a lid, so diaper changes can still be done, but it's not convenient.

Service: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I have to give the servers credit because they were clearly not prepared for a baby, and they were even less prepared when I asked for hot water to heat up my son's food. They started by bringing a teacup with too much water so that my baby cube would cause it to overflow, then they brought a banchan dish that was much too shallow. After bringing another bowl that was too large, they finally brought me a small bowl of hot water.

They also came back to check that we had everything we needed, and they were quick to refill our banchan. In fact, we discovered that my son really liked the cold tofu, but we had to navigate carefully because there was some chilli soy sauce on it that we wanted to avoid giving the baby. When we asked if we could have another without sauce, explaining that it was for the baby, they quickly brought out a large helping of the tofu with sauce on the side. While they didn't know what the baby needed, they were more than willing to accommodate us, and I really appreciated the effort. 

Food: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I must say, of all the Korean restaurants in Toronto that I've visited, I think this must have the most banchan. 

What I found particularly unique was that they had a green onion pancake and fresh broccoli, which is a nice change of pace from your typical kimchi, bean sprouts, and japchae. And yes, you can get refills on all of them. For my main, I ordered a bibimbap. 

This was served with some miso soup. The bibimbap was very good. I generally enjoy bibimbap and haven't had a bad version yet, so this is a good example, although it also doesn't stand out in my mind as being especially remarkable or anything. Still, the meal was satisfactory, and the banchan was great. 

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐½
This place itself is not designed to be baby friendly, and given my experience, it would seem that the staff does not see a lot of babies here. That being said, the banchan is great and the servers are so cooperative, really doing their best to make things easier for me. If you are feeling brave and want some good Korean food, this is not a bad place to try. 

Beaumont Kitchen

Some friends wanted to meet up in Etobicoke, so we decided to try Beaumont Kitchen, located inside Sherway Gardens.

Restaurant: Beaumont Kitchen
Location: Etobicoke
Meal: Dinner
Day: Sunday
Son's Age: 10 months

This is another Oliver & Bonacini restaurant, and Sherway Gardens is an extremely baby friendly mall. The nursing room is quite nice (although I personally prefer Yorkdale), there's lots of space to navigate a stroller, and there's a Lego store with the larger Duplex blocks that my son could play with while we were killing time. Generally speaking, restaurants located in these malls tend to be baby friendly as well.

Accessibility: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
There is a handicap accessible entrance to the restaurant from within the mall, so we had. I trouble getting our stroller in. Right away, we were presented with a high chair, and we were also able to park our stroller next to the table.

I did not get a chance to check out the washroom here, but there are plenty of washrooms inside the mall that are large and have change tables, so there should be no trouble doing diaper changes.

Service: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Our server was quite pleasant and brought us some hot water to heat up my baby's food.

One of my friends actually showed up late (we thought there was going to be a no show), so we were able to move our stroller to the front of the restaurant to accommodate. My baby also got restless during the meal, but luckily we were there early so we weren't disrupting other customers.

Food: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
For my dinner, I ordered the lamb bolognese.

This is made with lamb shoulder, tagliatelle, and fontina. I really enjoyed it, and it was definitely a proper tagliatelle. The flavours met my expectations, as I've previously mentioned that O&B is known for quality food. My son was still hungry after his own dinner, so we also ordered the bread and dip.

I wasn't actually a big fan of the crisps, but the bread and dip were quite good. My son was a big fan of the bread. The portion was also much larger than I expected, which was a pleasant surprise but unfortunately we were unable to finish.

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐½
If you are coming for early dinner, this is a nice upscale restaurant that you can feel comfortable bringing your baby to.

Antler

My husband had made reservations to go to Antler for my birthday, but the entire household got really sick so we had to postpone.

Restaurant: Antler
Location: Dufferin Grove
Meal: Dinner
Day: Friday
Son's Age: 10 months

Antler is a restaurant that specializes is game meat. My husband called ahead to let them know we were bringing a baby, and they informed us that they did not have any high chairs but we were welcome to bring our own booster seat. I was already a little concerned to hear that, but hat hasn't stopped me before and I appreciated the heads up.

Accessibility: ⭐
As far as accessibility was concerned, my hunch was correct. The entrance is a bit narrow so bringing a stroller would not have been a good solution. Luckily, I had a booster seat that clips to a regular chair.

I love how this makes my son look like he is just sitting at the table like an adult! As for the washrooms, they were downstairs and cramped with no counter space, so diaper changes are pretty much a no go.

If you are really desperate, there was a table and chairs right outside the washroom, but I wouldn't recommend using them if you don't have to.

I suppose that, given the concept of the restaurant, they did not expect a lot of kids to come, and they designed the restaurant accordingly.

Service: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Despite the restaurant itself not being baby friendly, the service here was phenomenal. Our server seemed delighted to meet our son and was very warm and helpful. She was able to get us a container of hot water to heat up baby's dinner, too.

She also made sure to put all hot plates on the table as far out of my son's reach as possible, which was very considerate.

Food: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Since we were celebrating, we started with drinks. I got the rose canseco and my husband ordered the hunter.

The rose canseco was made with elderflower liqueur, mulled pomegranate seeds, lemon juice, egg whites, sumac bitters, and prosecco - and yes, it tasted as good as it sounds, but then again I feel like you can't really go wrong with prosecco. The hunter was bourbon, herring cherry, amaretto, and bitters. I find bourbon to be too strong but my husband enjoyed it. Since there were so many things on the menu that we wanted to try, we decided to split everything. We started with wild boar gyozas.

If you like dumplings then I definitely recommend this. The chillies added a small kick, and the wild boar gave the pan fried dumpling a nice, gamey twist. We followed this up with a Jamaican venison patty.

This was piping hot when it arrived at our table, but once it cooled down it was so delicious. The dipping sauce is also legitimately spicy. My husband preferred to forego the sauce but the patty tastes great either way. Next, we got the pappardelle. 

The pastas are handmade and made with braised rabbit, buttered leeks, apricot preserve, Parmesan, and sautéed greens. The rabbit was tender and my son actually ate some and enjoyed it. I would say this was the least exciting part of our meal, and it was still so good. The best part, on the other hand, was the spiced ash crusted rack of deer. 

This was served with parsnip purée. If you only order one thing and you are a fan of red meat, you have to try this. It was perfectly cooked medium rare, and it made me wish I could eat deer more often. Who needs steak when you can get this?

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐½ 

The food and service make this restaurant worthwhile, and if you come for early dinner, there aren't a lot of customers whose dinner your baby might be disturbing. That said, you need to be prepared with your own booster seat, as this place is clearly not designed with babies in mind.

Norma Ridley Members' Lounge

For Family Day, I decided to grab a Museum + Arts Pass (MAP) from my local library and take the family to the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO)! If you don't know, the MAP is available for anyone with a library card to borrow, and it allows up to two adults and up to five children admission into several different attractions throughout the city. This post isn't actually an unpaid advertisement for the library, however; I also met up with my best friend, who has an AGO membership, and she recommended having lunch in the exclusive members' lounge.

Restaurant: Norma Ridley Members' Lounge
Location: Downtown Core
Meal: Lunch
Day: Monday
Son's Age: 10 months

Given how crowded the AGO was for Family Day, the members' lounge was a nice reprieve from all the chaos. They don't take lunch reservations; however someone in the party must have an AGO membership. The lounge used to primarily serve tea and coffee, but they now offer food as well.

Accessibility: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
To be honest, I didn't ask for a high chair, so I don't know if they have any. There is plenty of room for strollers, though, and all the chairs are comfortable bench seats, so my husband and I seated our son between us, while my best friend and her husband did the same with their daughter.

The lounge somehow succeeds in being both cozy and roomy, which is very relaxing. There is no washroom located inside the lounge, but most of the washrooms throughout the AGO have change tables and are also wheelchair accessible, so strollers don't present a problem. I know the public café in the AGO has high chairs so I can't imagine it being an issue in the lounge if you really need to strap your kid in, but the tables are quite low so I suspect you are better off keeping your child in the stroller.

Service: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The server was pleasant and didn't seem to mind that my best friend's toddler was running around. I had no trouble getting some hot water for my son's food, either.

Service was pretty quick as well, as we didn't wait long when we added to our food order since my son turned out to be particularly ravenous that day.

Food: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The menu is quite simple, which isn't a bad thing, especially since this is more of a lounge than a restaurant. I ordered the eggs benedict.

Their version offers a choice of smoked salmon or portobello mushroom (I chose the salmon), served on a brioche bun with truffle hollandaise sauce and market greens. The dish was delicious but unremarkable and easily forgettable. My husband ordered the crab and shrimp niçoise salad. 

This was a Dungeness crab and shrimp cake, fingerling potatoes, French beans, olives, smoked tomato dressing, radishes, lemon and dill aioli, and market greens. I'm usually not a fan of Niçoise salad and I'm definitely not a fan of olives, but all the flavours really complemented each other and the dish was delicate and delicious. I would highly recommend ordering this one. In addition to our mains, we also ordered a starter of flatbread and dip after baby finished his food and was still hungry. I didn't take a photo of this, but it was served with roasted squash hummus and house made chips. My baby certainly enjoyed it and the portion was generous, but it wasn't particularly outstanding.

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
This is a nice relaxing lounge to escape to when you are visiting the AGO. The service is great and it seems baby friendly enough. If you have a membership or you are with someone who does, it's worth checking out (plus it's way better than caféAGO - just saying). 

Emma's Country Kitchen

I finally had a chance to visit one of my favourite brunch spots at the new location! I was doing a trial boot camp class nearby, and of course, what better way is there to treat yourself after bootcamp than with brunch!

Restaurant: Emma's Country Kitchen
Location: Corso Italia
Meal: Brunch
Day: Monday
Son's Age: 10 months

I've been obsessed with Emma's buttermilk biscuits pretty much ever since I moved into the neighbourhood, so I was really excited to see what the new space looked like. The place is definitely bigger, so it can accommodate more traffic, and I believe they now have a liquor license. How was the experience, though?

Accessibility: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Heads up - this is another restaurant that has an IKEA high chair!

I always prefer these high chairs because they just feel more secure than the typical wooden restaurant high chairs. The downside is that if your baby is too small to sit up, you can't just flip it over to set your car seat down, but I've probably only done that once ever so the lack of that feature doesn't bother me. The other good news is that the washroom has a proper change table!

It's in a spot that I suspect could have been another stall instead, but I applaud the accommodation. The one downside is that the washroom is now located downstairs. That's right - the new location is no longer stroller friendly. 

Service: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Service here has always been excellent, and the new location did not impact that. I asked for some hot water to heat up my son's food, and they brought me a coffee mug. 

It was actually the perfect size for my baby cube! Overall the servers were always extremely friendly, and either they all really love their jobs or they're really great actors. I always feel welcome whenever I come. 

Food: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Did I mention the buttermilk biscuits? I ordered Emma's benny, which is my favourite thing here. 

Poached eggs are served over peameal bacon on the infamous buttermilk biscuits, covered in mousseline sauce. Usually they are served with red skin potatoes, which I highly recommend. I chose to substitute them with fruit salad. I like to pretend it's because I'm healthy, but who am I kidding? My son really loves fruit, and he actually ate almost that whole bowl! Don't worry, I cut all the grapes in half before I gave them to him (sidebar: moms really love to judge other moms, don't they?). There was a great mix of fruit, so if you do prefer to be healthy, this is a great alternative to the potatoes. 

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐½

This is one of my favourite brunch places in the city and you really have to come here and give it a try. The restaurant is very baby friendly, albeit not stroller friendly, and everyone on the staff is so helpful. One important thing to note: I don't know what the weekends look like at this new location, but in the past there was always a significant line up and they don't take reservations. The weekdays seem pretty safe, though, if you prefer to avoid the wait. Don't forget to try a donut if you have the chance!

Jump

My sister was celebrating her birthday and wanted to go somewhere for Winterlicious with my mom, my husband, baby, and me. My friend had recently started working as the chef de cuisine at Jump and I had been meaning to visit, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity.

Restaurant: Jump

Location: Downtown Core

Meal: Dinner

Day: Friday

Son's Age: 10 months

I actually found out after the fact that there is parking available, but since I didn't know that, I chose to park at Eaton Centre and walk the Path all the way over. I figure this is worth noting if you are obsessive about keeping your baby out of the cold in the winter like I am. Jump is an Oliver & Bonacini restaurant so the expectation for food quality was quite high.

Accessibility: ⭐⭐
This restaurant is located downtown and is more upscale, so clearly the restaurant is not designed to accommodate babies. There are stairs to go up just to get to the door, so it's a good thing we chose to forego the stroller. The good news is that they did have a high chair available.

The washroom is nice but does not have a change table. Luckily I did not need to change diapers, but if necessary, there is counter space by the sink.

Not ideal if you have a squirmy baby but it'll do in a pinch. 

Service: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
As I mentioned, this is an O&B restaurant so expectations are high, and the staff certainly met them. They had the high chair ready for baby and they checked in to make sure we had everything we needed. Our server brought a bowl of hot water to heat his food, which I forgot to take a photo of, but it's in the background of this photo of drinks.

The server happily interacted with my baby and was also very cautious to keep hot dishes out of his reach. I have a mild tree nut allergy (among other things but let's not dwell on that), and the server made sure my food and my husband's food was but free, since I mentioned I would try some of his. The chef also came by our table to chat, and he was so friendly (okay yes I said I know him! But I promise he's usually friendly too!)

Food: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
So unfortunately, since I am two months behind in my blog posts, I don't remember exactly what my drink was, but I know it was specialized for Winterlicious. I started my meal with the keys salmon and spinach turnover.

This was a great start to the meal, served with jalapeños and dill crema. The flavours all complemented each other nicely and the dish was light and satisfying. For my main, I ordered the duck confit.

This came with braised cabbage, currants, a cheese pierogi, and salsa verde. The duck was so rich and juicy, and it was a great offset to my appetizer. The pierogi was an interesting choice that I would normally not expect to be paired with duck confit, but it actually worked really well. For my dessert, I got the Ontario aged goat cheese.

I tend to have mixed feelings about cheese courses as desserts because I find that it's so easy to get lazy with them. This was served with caramelized honey and preserved fruit compote, with rosemary and a small biscuit. The accompaniments actually kept the dish sweet enough to serve as a dessert without muddling the taste of the goat cheese. I felt it was a nice ending to a delicious meal.

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The food is definitely worth the visit and the service helps make it easier to bring baby, but it's clear from the setup and ambiance that babies are far from the target market. If you do come, I recommend you visit at off peak times (we had dinner at 5:30). 

Congee Wong

I have somehow managed to fall behind on my blog posts again. I blame the hubbub around my son's first birthday - I can't believe he's one year old already! But I'm just going to dig back to when he was still not yet ten months old and I was having lunch with my mother.

Restaurant: Congee Wong
Location: North York
Meal: Lunch
Day: Friday
Son's Age: 9 months

My mother asked me what I wanted to eat and I said I wanted Chinese food. I don't have a big selection of Chinese restaurants in my area so since I was in the northeast end of the city, my mom suggested Congee Wong. The restaurant is located in a plaza at Finch and Leslie.

Accessibility: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
For the record, the plaza's parking lot is insane. If you have ever been in a Chinese parking lot, you know what I'm talking about. The parking lot itself is a bit cramped, and even at lunch time on a weekday it is busy. This doesn't affect the accessibility of the restaurant itself, but I feel that it's worth noting. As for Congee Wong, it is surprisingly accessible, which is pretty uncommon for Chinese restaurants! We were seated in a booth and my son was provided with a high chair.

Yes he has already started eating in this photo and you can see that he's pretty pleased about it. The washroom also had a proper change table!

The restaurant itself was wheelchair accessible (and therefore stroller accessible), even equipped with automatic doors. You really can't ask for anything more baby friendly. 

Service: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

When we arrived, we mentioned that we had a baby and we were seated in a back corner, away from the commotion of other patrons and servers weaving around the tables throughout the rest of the restaurant. The hostess indicated that this was better because we got a booth and the baby was able to sit at the end of the table without us having to worry that someone might bump into him. I didn't need to request hot water as I had brought a food pouch this time, but our server brought us a takeout bowl and spoon in case we wanted to share our food. 

She pretty much left us alone other than that, which I'm actually okay with - servers at Chinese restaurants are not typically chatty people anyway. 

Food: ⭐⭐⭐

Again with the disclaimers: I have had congee here before and that is what they are known for (hence the name), so I actually recommend that you try the congee. That being said, I always rate restaurants based on the particular experience, and in this case, I ordered ho fun with fish balls and beef balls. 

I had actually already started eating by the time I remembered to take a picture, so the presentation depicted is a bit inaccurate. This place is not known for ho fun (rice noodles), and you can definitely tell - the dish was unremarkable and a bit on the bland side. It wasn't terrible by any means, but you can get better ho fun elsewhere for sure. 

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The restaurant itself is very baby friendly, and the service is probably as good as you can expect from an authentic Chinese restaurant. Please order congee though, and skip the ho fun!