Factory Girl

I was headed to the east end of the city to meet a friend, and I must admit I am not too familiar with this part of the city, so obviously I had to try eating at a restaurant in the area. It was raining, so I ducked into one of the first places that caught my eye.

Restaurant: Factory Girl
Location: Riverdale
Meal: Lunch
Day: Tuesday
Son's Age: 9 months

The menu here is Italian but the vibe is clearly rock 'n' roll. There are posters on the walls of all the great rock stars and the music is all classic rock. Did I mention that my son is a Bon Jovi fan? I was a bit apprehensive about how receptive the staff would be to a baby, but thought I'd try my luck anyway.

Accessibility: ⭐
The setup is not designed to be stroller friendly at all. For starters, there is a step at the front or before you enter. At least I was able to get a high chair for my son.

Yes, his shirt says "(future) foodie", in case you were wondering. Since there wasn't enough room for him to sit beside me and keep the stroller at the table, his stroller was moved to the front. 

The washroom is also located downstairs, and there is no change table provided. At best, you could use the counter between the sinks. 

I don't know that the space is wide enough, and your baby cannot be super mobile. One other thing to note if you are trying to avoid exposing your baby to screen time: there are TVs everywhere, and there is really nowhere your baby can sit without being able to see one, whereas every other restaurant I've been to with TV screens still had a space or two without one. 

Service: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

What the place lacks in accessibility is certainly made up for by the service. When I first arrived, my server helped me navigate into the restaurant and initially parked the stroller beside my table. Once he realized I wanted my son beside me (I can't reach across the table to feed him), he offered to move my stroller for me. It turns out that there is a kids' menu, so I suspect the staff is prepared to work with families. The server also brought hot water for my son's food. 

While the cup looks small, it was just big enough for me to fit my baby cube in. The server offered to find something wider but since this worked fine, I figured it was easier to keep a small cup away from my son's wandering fingers than a large bowl. My server also checked in with me regularly to make sure I had everything I needed, and he nicely interacted with my son as well. 

Food: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I have to be honest - when I opened the menu, nothing popped out at me and I was worried the food would be dull. I noticed, however, that the mac and cheese appetizer was described as "almost famous", and since it was lunch time I figured an appetizer portion would be substantial enough. 

So we need to talk about this mac and cheese, because oh my God. It's rigatoni, alfredo sauce, mushrooms, diced tomatoes, mozzarella, cheddar, and bread crumbs. I ordered it with the optional house made spicy sausage. As you can see, this is not your traditional mac and cheese, and it was amazing. Everything just worked together, and the sausage added a touch of heat. I was right about the portion being good for lunch but I also wished there was more because I didn't want to stop eating. If you are in the area, I highly recommend you try this. 

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐½

The restaurant itself isn't very accessible or, in my opinion, suitable for babies and strollers, but if you are in the area, the service and the food will make the visit worthwhile. 

Nodo

In case you didn't know, the Junction is actually a really baby friendly (and vegan friendly) neighbourhood, with lots of great restaurants that I frequented before I became a mom. I was taking my baby to the early years centre and thought I would grab some lunch first.

Restaurant: Nodo
Location: The Junction
Meal: Lunch
Day: Friday
Son's Age: 9 months

I remember coming to Nodo for lunch when I was pregnant and noticing a couple mothers with babies, which was surprising because the place is a nice Italian restaurant that seems more hip than baby-friendly. Since then, I had been meaning to review the place, so I was glad that I finally got the chance to come again.

Accessibility: ⭐⭐
While the neighbourhood is now baby friendly, the restaurant was clearly not. Ugly with babies in mind. The good news is, they have high chairs.

The washrooms are downstairs, so definitely not stroller friendly, and there is no change table.

I would say this counter might be your best bet if your baby doesn't roll? But even then it might be a bit precarious. Also, as you can see, the washroom isn't very big.

Service: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The good news is that I found the service to be phenomenal. To be fair, I came at lunch time on a weekday when it was quiet, so my server was able to put two tables together so I could sit beside my baby and still park my stroller next to me. He also brought me some hot water to heat my baby food.

Everyone was extremely pleasant and the host held the door open for me when I was leaving with the stroller.

Food: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
I'm a sucker for gnocchi, and Nodo does gnocchi two ways. I ordered the old school gnocchi, with lamb ragu, lemon-mint ricotta, and reggiano.

The gnocchi was delicious, and the perfect portion size for lunch. Unfortunately, Nodo doesn't have a separate lunch menu, so I'm not sure this would be as satisfying as a dinner portion, but for me it really hit the spot. The gnocchi was soft and pillowy, and the lamb ragu complemented it so well.

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐½
The food is delicious and the service is impeccable, but the place itself isn't easy to navigate with a baby. Still, I think it's worth checking out, especially for a weekday lunch when the place isn't too busy.

Jamie's Italian

Just because you have a baby doesn't mean that you can't celebrate New Year's Eve! To be fair, I actually rang in the new year at home, watching the ball drop on TV (yes I saw Mariah's "performance") and sipping champagne quietly while my son was asleep in his crib. BUT I still wanted to have a good dinner to say goodbye to 2016, and we knew Jamie's Italian would be both delicious and baby friendly so we went back to one of our favourite spots.

Restaurant: Jamie's Italian
Location: Yorkdale
Meal: dinner
Day: Saturday
Son's Age: 9 months

Another perk about Jamie's Italian is that it is attached to Yorkdale, which has covered parking, which means I don't have to worry about running through an outdoor parking lot in the snow with my baby. Jamie's also had a special New Year's Eve prix fixe menu for the evening.

Accessibility: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Obviously we have been here multiple times so you can refer to my other blog posts for details about accessibility, but this is pretty much as good as it gets. They also allowed us to park our stroller next to our table, even though they had brought a high chair for my son.

I love the little NYE message they had on the chalk board, and as you can see, my son was pretty excited too. 

Service: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The servers are always prepared to work with families that have babies. They were extremely helpful and attentive, and they brought a bowl of hot water for me to heat my son's lunch up as well. 

The server was also smart enough to place the bowl of hot water on the exact opposite side of the table from where the baby was sitting. 

Food: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The prix fixe menu actually came with a glass of prosecco, which is exactly what I wanted to kick off  our New Year's Eve dinner. 

For my appetizer, I had the egg raviolo with mushrooms and Parmesan. 

This was fantastic! When you cut into the raviolo, the egg yolk just oozes out like a delicious sauce. The pasta tasted fresh, as was to be expected given that they make the pasta in house. The mushrooms and cheese were just the perfect complement. Next I ordered the branzino.  

It doesn't look special in the photo but the fish was perfectly cooked and the flavours were not overwhelming. Finally, the dessert was served family style, and my husband and I ordered the panettone. 

This tasted like a cross between a fruit cake and a bread pudding, and I mean that in a good way. It was such a pleasant way to end a beautiful meal, although I do acknowledge that I would have preferred if we could order our own separate desserts.

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

There's a reason why I keep coming back here, and that's because, not only is the restaurant food amazing, but I always feel at ease bringing my baby here, so it's not like we are disturbing a romantic meal for anyone. 

Fabbrica

I found myself in the northeast region of Toronto one day and in need of some lunch. It was just me and the baby, so I decided that the Shops on Don Mills were probably a pretty safe bet. From there, I decided to give Fabbrica a try.

Restaurant: Fabbrica
Location: Don Mills
Meal: Lunch
Day: Thursday
Son's Age: 7 months

Fabbrica is owned my Mark McEwan, aka Canada's version of Tom Colicchio, as far as Top Chef is concerned. So far, my experience with celebrity chefs' restaurants have been relatively good (a couple of exceptions that I will not name now but probably suffered from too much hype), so I was actually really looking forward to my meal.

Accessibility: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The first tip off that accessibility would be good was location - the Shops at Don Mills are both baby friendly and wheelchair accessible (which generally also means stroller accessible). I brought my son in his stroller and the hostess made sure I got a table where I could easily park him next to me.

The next table over had three young children - one in a car seat, one in a high chair, and one in a booster. Thus, I was able to determine that this restaurant is prepared for children of all ages. There is also a family washroom available.

While there isn't a change table per se, as you can see, there is a long counter spot which you could easily use in lieu of s change table. The front entrance also has a handicap button to open the door automatically, which is nice when you are pushing a stroller alone.

Service: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
As I mentioned, the hostess was nice enough to find me a table where I could park my son. I was also able to check my coat at the front, which is always useful when I'm going out with baby and don't want my coat in the way. My server also brought me a little pot of hot water to heat my son's food.

I like that there's a lid too - it makes me feel like I'm heating the food up quicker (not sure if it's actually true but the placebo effect can be surprisingly useful sometimes). When I was torn between two different dishes for lunch, my server helpfully let me know that I didn't need to make a decision because I could order half portions of both! He was very interactive with my baby, which I always appreciate. I couldn't ask for better service.

Food: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Moment of truth. I really wanted to like the food, and we were off to a good start with the bread.

Served with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, the bread had a nice crunch to the crust but was soft and warm on the inside. For my main, I ordered a half portion of Nonna McEwan's ravioli and a half portion of the pappardelle.

The ravioli was made with veal, pork, beef, tomato sauce, and reggiano. I figured this must be a signature dish because of the naming, but it was shockingly bland. In retrospect, I wish I asked for some chilli flakes or oil just to add any kind of flavour to it. The pappardelle, on the other hand, was more promising. This came with braised short rib, tomato, and basil. The short rib was delicious but a touch saltier than I'd like. This actually worked in my favour as it balanced out the boring ravioli. The pasta itself was good but a tad thicker than I like my pappardelle. Flaws in this dish were minor, and if I had only ordered the pappardelle, perhaps I could give a more generous rating, but I just can't believe how underwhelming that ravioli was!

Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½
While the food didn't live up to my expectations, the restaurant is extremely accessible for families with babies, and the service is impeccable. If you are in the area with your baby, I would say this place is worth a try.

Pizzeria Libretto

I really like stroller fit, but when moms want to go out for lunch together after doing a workout, they typically want something healthy and it is unlikely that you are going to convince anyone to grab a pizza with you. Since I wanted pizza, I took the one date I knew wouldn't judge me for it: my baby.

Restaurant: Pizzeria Libretto

Location: Trinity Bellwoods

Meal: Lunch

Day: Tuesday

Son's Age: 18 weeks

This was my favourite pizza place before my son was born, and it was my first time taking him here, so I was pretty excited. I walked in to find that there were other families eating lunch with their kids, which means I didn't feel out of place bringing my baby. Also, the noise level is good so that a baby won't disturb anyone but you can still hear people, which is pretty much the optimal noise level for taking a baby out. 

Accessibility: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I just want to start out by saying that the internet informed me that this place is wheelchair accessible. I don't know how they think wheelchairs work, because getting into the restaurant involves one really massive step, and it was not easy for me to get the stroller up. Once I was there, I was able to park my stroller next to my table. 

I should point out that while my stroller was not in the way of any of the patrons, it was obviously in the way of any servers that had to go behind the bar, since I watched them all either side step or step over the stroller wheel. More on that later. The washroom was located down a set of stairs also, which again seemed to go against being "wheelchair accessible", so I wasn't very hopeful considering my baby actually needed a diaper change. Lo and behold, there was in fact a change table in the washroom!

There was actually quite a bit of space in the washroom too (albeit not completely necessary given that my stroller wouldn't make it down the stairs anyway). I decided to give the place four stars because, despite the difficulty with the stroller, they do provide a decent change table and high chairs if you need it, and they were able to accommodate my baby without any issues.

Service: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

As I mentioned, it became painfully obvious that my stroller was not parked in the most convenient location for the servers. I want to commend them because no one said a word about it or gave any indication that they were upset (although I'm sure they were), so kudos to their professionalism. My server was extremely helpful in going through the lunch special with me (more on that later) and did not rush me. In fact, I felt like a valuable customer. He even checked to make sure there was in fact a change table in the washroom before I took my son, as I didn't want to lug my diaper bag and baby downstairs without the stroller if there was no place to actually change him. The only room for improvement is that I would have appreciated a little help entering and exiting the restaurant considering the giant step outside, but other than that, service was great. 

Food: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Apparently on weekdays there is a fantastic lunch special that includes a salad and a dessert with the pizza. It is not even some lunch size pizza - it's a full size pizza. It's completely worth it. Before my food arrived, my server brought me some bread. 

I love that I was offered rosemary focaccia and whole wheat bread despite eating alone. Both are great, although I personally prefer the focaccia. For my starter, I had the caprese salad. 

To be fair, I love caprese salad, and it's so simple that as long as the ingredients are fresh, I'm happy. Libretto did not disappoint. Of course, the star of the show was the pizza, or more specifically, a duck confit pizza with Bosc pear. 

This photo does not do it justice. This is such a fantastic pizza. The pizzas in general are fantastic but this is so unique and scrumptious and fresh out of the wood oven the way a good pizza should be. If you're a fan of spicy food like me, you can add some chilli oil to kick it up a notch too. For dessert, I chose the espresso cinnamon gelato.

When I asked what flavours were available, my server monotonously listed off vanilla and chocolate, then excitedly said they also had espresso cinnamon. I feel that he strongly wanted me to choose this one, and I'm glad I did, because similar to the duck confit pizza, the flavour was so interesting and delightful. It was a perfect end to my insanely large meal.

Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½
The restaurant isn't exactly stroller friendly but if you park nearby, they are very accommodating to babies and small children and the food makes it more than worthwhile. 

Jamie's Italian

My mom and I were trying to figure out where we can have lunch, and since she had never been to Jamie's Italian before, I decided to do a repeat visit!

Restaurant: Jamie's Italian

Location: Yorkdale

Meal: Lunch

Day: Monday

Son's Age: 17 weeks

I know I've already reviewed this place, but since the food ordered was different, I thought I should give this a second go.

Accessibility: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I didn't take photos of the restaurant again since I feel the last post should suffice. Once again, they were able to accommodate the stroller by removing a chair and allowing me to park the stroller next to the table. As I mentioned in my last post, there is an accessible washroom on the first floor with a change table and plenty of room for the stroller. This is one of the best restaurants I've been to in terms of accessibility.

Service: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
As expected, service was top notch. The staff is well prepared to handle families with babies. In fact, at one point I was breastfeeding my son and a woman at the next table was breastfeeding her daughter. The server also notes when to serve food, so when I had finished my salad and gone to change my son's diaper, she waited for me to return before bringing my pasta instead of letting it get cold at the table.

Food: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The food was as delicious as always. I'm pretty obsessed with the superfood salad at Jamie's, but this time I ordered a full size to share with my mom.

It was just as delicious as I remembered, and my mom acknowledged that it was not like any other salad she had ever had, and she enjoyed it. For my main, I ordered a small portion of the crab spaghetti with garlic, capers, chilli, fennel, parsley, lemon, and anchovies. My mom had the small portion of the famous prawn linguine with fried garlicky prawns, fennel, tomatoes, chilli, saffron, fish broth, and arugula.

We both agreed that the prawn linguine was the winner here (perhaps there's a reason this is labelled as "famous"), but I also liked the crab spaghetti, which I found to be an interesting flavour for pasta. I should warn that my mom was not a fan of the spaghetti, so it might not be everyone's cup of tea, as it was certainly more of a seafood tasting dish than a traditional pasta dish. Nevertheless, we were both thoroughly satisfied with our meals.

Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Turns out my previous experience was not a fluke - the food and service were as outstanding as I remembered and the restaurant is well equipped for babies. 

Jamie's Italian

In case you haven't noticed, I have gone back and retroactively updated my overall ratings to include half stars. I decided that, with only three criteria, it wasn't fair to round it all the way to full stars. Anyway, on to the review: I had finally scheduled some time to meet up with my good friend and fellow foodie. Since we are both fans of Jamie Oliver, we decided to bring our babies to his first restaurant in Toronto: Jamie's Italian.

Restaurant: Jamie's Italian

Location: Yorkdale

Meal: Lunch

Day: Thursday

Son's Age: 11 weeks

My son was 11 weeks old and her daughter was 10 months, so I can actually evaluate how they accommodate babies at both these ages! I should note that while the restaurant is technically connected to Yorkdale Mall, the entrance is actually separate; you have to exit the mall in order to enter the restaurant. This is important if you are like me and like to park in the mall's underground parking lot, thinking you don't need to take your stroller outside at all. Not an issue on this occasion, but I had previously been here while pregnant in December when it was snowing.

Accessibility: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
We were clearly not the only mommies at the restaurant, and they were more than prepared for us. They gave us a table for four inside but near the patio so we could look out, and they removed a chair so I could park my stroller.

As for my friend, they brought her daughter a high chair so she could sit at the table with us, which seemed to please her.

I had no trouble navigating my stroller to the table as the aisle was sufficiently wide for me to go through effortlessly. They also have a wheelchair accessible washroom with a change table, and there is even a button for the door to open automatically, which I don't see often in restaurants.

The restaurant was clearly designed with the expectation that people would bring their babies, which is no surprise given how family friendly Yorkdale Mall is (note: I did most of my stroller research at Yorkdale while pregnant by observing others and occasionally asking parents about their strollers).

Service: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The service was great! All the staff were happy to help us get to our table and arrange ourselves, point out the washroom, and answer questions about the menu. Everyone was very friendly, even though my baby started fussing to the point where I had to carry him, and my friend's baby was very vocal about how excited she was to be there. I felt very comfortable taking my time to calm my son and slowly enjoy my food.

Food: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Speaking of enjoying my food, my experience here was stellar. The menu allows for smaller portions of the pastas and the salads, so I started with the small size super food salad, which had grilled avocado, roasted beets, pulses and grains, sprouting broccoli, fennel, pomegranate seeds, and spicy seeds, with harissa and cottage cheese.

This is the best super food salad I've ever had. I don't usually rave about salads but this one was quite substantial so I didn't feel like I was just munching on rabbit food. There was a nice kick of heat from the spice, offset by the harissa and pomegranate seeds, making a perfectly refreshing dish for the summer. I could have eaten a full size as my main if I wasn't so eager to try some handmade pasta as well.

I ordered a small portion of the tagliatelle bolognese. I used to think that there wasn't much difference between fresh and dry pasta if the pasta wasn't stuffed, but the tagliatelle proves me wrong. I could appreciate the freshness of the pasta, and it went well with the hearty bolognese. My friend ordered the small size porcini fettuccine.

She was very happy with her dish and declared that she would have to return to try other menu items as well.

Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
My friend and I both came here with very high expectations, and neither of us were disappointed. The food is delicious and the restaurant is perfectly accessible for babies of all ages. The music is at a good volume so that we didn't feel like our babies were disrupting other patrons, but we could still easily have a good conversation. I highly recommend bringing a baby to Jamie's Italian!