Pearl Diver

I am so behind in my blog posts that I am only now getting around to blogging about Mother's Day brunch! My husband and my sister wanted to treat my mom, my aunts, and myself to a nice Mother's Day brunch, and seafood seemed like a good bet because my family loves seafood. We opted to go downtown because we heard something about a lobster benny that sounded pretty exciting!

Restaurant: Pearl Diver
Location: Corktown
Meal: Brunch
Day: Sunday
Son's Age: 13 months

As with any Sunday brunch, it was super important for us that this restaurant took reservations, since waiting in line with a baby is never an ideal situation. They actually have a back area with two larger tables so we didn't have to sit in the middle of a crowded restaurant, which is nice.

Accessibility: ⭐⭐
This restaurant is not stroller friendly. To get to the back table, the path is quite narrow, and there is a step. Once we were there, we were given the option to park the stroller beside us or leave it at the front, and we quickly realized that leaving it next to the table would make the area very crowded. They also did not have proper high chairs, but instead had booster seats that strapped to their chairs.

This doesn't seem like an issue, except the back of the chair is curved so the strap doesn't actually go around very tightly, and the seat ended up being slightly crooked. There is an option to attach a tray table directly to the seat, but space made it very inconvenient to use. (And yes, that is my husband's wallet that my son is playing with - blah blah hygiene germs blah blah - his grandmother was present so trust me I already heard the lecture.) The washroom also does not have a change table.

The saving grace is that the toilet seat has a lid so you could still change a diaper if you needed to.

Service: ⭐⭐⭐

Service was fine, but not memorable. When we were struggling with tightening the booster seat onto the chair, no one offered to help, which is fine, but it means you can't rely on the service to make your experience of taking your baby to a restaurant easier. 

Food: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
I am so torn about how to rate the food. We started with a dozen oysters for the table.

The special was supposed to be 6 east coast and 6 west coast oysters, but given the news about contaminated west coast oysters, we asked for all 12 to be east coast, and they obliged. The oysters were delicious, as expected, served with the traditional condiments of horseradish, lemon, cocktail sauce, hot sauce, and mignonette. For my main, I went with this famous lobster benny.

Let me tell you, these home fries were mind blowing. I could have just eaten a giant portion of home fries. Seriously, these might be the best home fries I've ever had. That sounds lovely, but I found the star of the dish was just okay and not memorable. There wasn't that much lobster, and it was so light that it got lost amongst the flavours of the egg, hollandaise, and bun. My husband ordered the PD classic breakfast.

This is a typical classic with eggs, bacon, toast, home fries, and salad. Again, amazing home fries, but also surprisingly the best toast I've ever had! I don't know what it is, but it was perfectly toasted and perfectly buttered, so it was just such a standout on the plate. So, overall I'm not sure how to judge the food, because if you like toast and home fries, you seriously need to come here. The rest of the food is fine but not great, so I've decided to net this out at four stars.

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐
This place is fine to bring your baby, and the food is pretty good. If you want the best toast ever, it's worth the effort, and being able to make reservations is definitely a plus, but I think there might be other places that are more worthwhile. 

Fresh on Queen

So we are off to a rough start - I forgot that I had planned on creating this blog so I failed to take any pictures during my visit. This will not happen again! I like pictures of food. I'd steal photos from the internet, but, you know, that would be stealing.

Okay, so on to my review!

Restaurant: Fresh on Queen
Location: Trinity Bellwoods
Meal: Lunch
Day: Tuesday
Son's Age: 7 weeks

I came to Fresh after an exhilarating mommy and baby stroller fitness class in the park. Mommies - fresh air is key to feeling human again! Since I was feeling relatively healthy, I decided to join a fellow mommy to try Fresh, which is a vegan/vegetarian restaurant. It was a beautiful day, so we decided to eat lunch on the patio. My son had just been fed so I was hoping he would be relatively calm during lunch, and boy was I wrong! He decided to be fussy so I ended up having to carry him in one arm while I ate my lunch! Luckily for me (but not so much for the other patrons), my lunch companion had the exact same issue.

On to the ratings!

Accessibility: ⭐️
I definitely give accessibility one star because I absolutely could not have eaten here if I was alone with my son. This restaurant was not designed to accommodate strollers at all. We both struggled just to open the door (which should have been our first clue), then asked to sit on the patio. I admit that I expected someone to let us enter the patio from outside, but instead we had to wheel our strollers through the whole interior of the restaurant, then onto the patio to get to the corner table where our strollers would fit without being in the way. If that sounds inconvenient, the space between the tables were not wide enough to accommodate strollers, and we ended up having to push all the tables out a little so that we could get through. This wasn't so terrible going in when the restaurant was relatively empty, but by the time we had finished our meals, the place was full, and we had to ask several people to stand up and move their chairs/tables so we could exit again. This is the epitome of interrupting other people's meals and I hate that I was that person.  The washrooms were also small and downstairs, meaning it would have been impossible to take the stroller down, and I definitely would not have been able to change my son's diaper if that had been necessary. Granted, I found out afterwards that there was a wheelchair washroom on the main floor, but navigating my stroller there would already have been a pain, and the fact that I had not seen it initially probably means it isn't very obvious to other patrons either. I also did not notice any high chairs, nor were any offered to us (although our babies clearly are not old enough to hold up their own heads so potentially this is why no one mentioned this), so not sure if this restaurant would have been more accessible for an older baby.

Service: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
To their credit, our server did quite a good job given the circumstances. She put together a four person table and removed two chairs so that our strollers could fit, and she was quick to come over and ensure our water glasses were filled and our food was served promptly. She also very patiently explained different aspects of the menu, since we decided to ask a bunch of questions despite trying to soothe our crying babies. I did not feel rushed at all, which is nice considering how quickly the restaurant filled up. That being said, no one helped us to move the tables and chairs out of the way when we were entering and exiting the restaurant, and no one told us about the wheelchair accessible washroom, so I had to take off one star.

Food: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I ordered the baby size Jerusalem bowl with falafel. I'm just going to quote the menu's description here: "flax hummus, grilled spinach, tomato, cucumber, parsley, red onion, sunflower sprouts, olive oil, tamari, lemon, mixed herbs & chili powder". Given my craving for healthy food, I very much enjoyed it, and I would definitely come back again and order take-out if I am in the area. Everything was fresh and tasty and it was easy for me to eat with just a fork (important given that my left hand was occupied with my son). The name "baby size" is very deceptive - this is definitely a perfection portion size for lunch.

Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Food and service were great but the accessibility factor is very problematic. I would recommend coming to get take-out and then enjoy a nice picnic in the park, but unless you can fold up your stroller and carry your baby in your arm, I would say this restaurant is not mommy-friendly.