Cluny Bistro

Happy three year anniversary to my husband! We were determined to have a lovely anniversary celebration and bring the baby with us, and we remembered that Cluny had a large space that could surely accommodate a stroller, so we gave them a call.

Restaurant: Cluny Bistro
Location: Distillery District
Meal: Dinner
Day: Wednesday
Son's Age: 8 weeks

We made a reservation for 5:45 (ah the "early bird special" dinner time - I guess I'm really not in my 20s anymore) and let them know there would be a stroller, since our son was not old enough to sit in a high chair. They told us not to worry and they would have a table for us. Of course, I am feeding my son on demand and his schedule required us to call and move our reservation to 6:15. Luckily, there was no problem in doing so. We found out on our ridiculously long drive home that Beyoncé's concert was the same night so I guess there weren't too many people having fancy dinners.

Accessibility: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
They weren't kidding about the table - we were seated in a quiet corner near the patio so we had a perfect view of both inside and outside the restaurant, and we parked our stroller easily beside us.

There was also plenty of room between tables for me to push the stroller through without interrupting any of the other patrons. The washroom was easy to get to, with one large stall that housed a change table.

From an accessibility standpoint, this was definitely the best experience I have had to date.

Service: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I already mentioned the change in reservation, which was much easier than I anticipated. Everyone was polite and seemed happy to accommodate the baby. This was our first nice dinner since the baby was born, and I had tons of questions about the menu and what to order. Our server was patient and thoroughly answered all my questions.

Food: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This was definitely the perfect place to eat! We started with a fresh bread basket; Cluny has a beautiful display of fresh bread in the middle of the restaurant so you can see your server preparing the basket as soon as your order has been taken.

Okay, I also indulged in a glass of Pinot Grigio. I think I deserved it! It nicely complemented our meal, starting with the ginger chilli fried frogs' legs. 

This is probably a good time for me to mention that my photography skills are not the greatest. The frog legs were succulent with the perfect hint of heat. This was quickly followed by the lobster poutine!

I love the shishito peppers with the lobster. Of course a poutine isn't a poutine unless there are cheese curds, and this did not disappoint!  Even though these dishes were already amazing, the best part of the meal was the seafood tower. 

This consisted of east coast and west coast oysters, crab salad, shrimp, and salmon tartare. I had not eaten raw oysters since before I was pregnant, and let me tell you, these tasted like heaven! People always talk about how you'll miss sushi but no one ever mentions the oysters! The crab salad was really elevated by the mustard grains, and the salmon tartare was fresh. The shrimp was not particularly memorable, but never mind that because did I mention the oysters!

Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Based on this visit, I have to say that Cluny is an excellent restaurant to take your baby! The place is very accessible and stroller friendly, the service is impeccable, and the food is delicious - no need to sacrifice quality to find a family friendly restaurant! I would absolutely want to come back here with my son again. 

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. 

The Beet

Okay, I'm aware that this second review makes me look like a health nut. I swear I'm not! This is totally a coincidence. I have been eating like a pig at home. Full disclosure though: I have been coming here a lot before baby was born, so I know for a fact that this place is baby friendly. Oh, but this time I took pictures!

Restaurant: The Beet
Location: The Junction
Meal: Lunch
Day: Friday
Son's Age: 7 weeks

It was such a nice day that I decided to take my son out and run some errands all by myself. That's right - for my second restaurant, I went out for lunch alone. I was playing it safe though - I had seen many people come to the Beet alone with a book or a laptop, and I knew they have a baby menu, so I wasn't particularly worried.

Accessibility: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The place is definitely stroller accessible if you are eating inside. I had called ahead and they assured me on the phone that I could fold up my stroller and leave it in the foyer while my baby sat in his car
seat (they offered to provide a high chair but he is not old enough for that yet). Upon arrival, it turns out that they did have a table where I could park my stroller without blocking anyone! Another mother arrived after me with her baby in a stroller and they were able to seat her easily as well.

The washroom was also big enough for me to bring the stroller in, and there is a dresser that could easily be used as a change table, which is extremely convenient.

I took off one star because I can't see how they could have gotten either the stroller or the car seat on the patio, but I could be wrong. Also, it appears I lucked out in getting the table that accommodates my stroller.

Service: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Full disclosure: the service isn't always consistent. But on this occasion, service was excellent. They brought me to a table where I could park my stroller (see photo above), and they were great in answering questions I had about the menu. Service was also quite prompt, but not hurried. In fact, I ended up having to breastfeed after I finished my lunch and even though I felt a bit awkward (still getting the hang of nursing in public), they cleared my plate, asked if I needed anything else, and brought me the bill - all as if I didn't have a baby's face attached to my boob.

Food: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This is my favourite place for healthy eats. My husband hates anything that "tastes healthy" but he likes the Beet. Food has yet to disappoint me, although I will admit the prices are a tad high for what you get. I started with a small omega shake, which is made with mixed berries, banana, flax oil, chia seeds, and vanilla rice milk.

For lunch, I got the fully loaded avocado combo, which includes half an avocado stuffed with brown coconut Thai rice and veggies, topped with spicy peanut sauce, avocado, and sprouts, served with salad, toast with house pesto, and daily soup (in this case it was mushroom soup).

Not going to lie - despite the fact that I know how big avocados are usually, I was a bit surprised to see that the avocado looked so small on the plate. Frankly, it looks like the star of the plate is supposed to be the salad! But I promise that this was actually the perfect amount of food for lunch. The avocado itself was very filling, and the house pesto was delicious and happily not made with pine nuts (I'm allergic)! The mushroom soup was the perfect texture, so you don't need to chew your soup but it isn't puréed down to pure liquid. Plus, I always love the house salad with the cilantro chilli dressing!

Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½
Based on this particular visit, this is pretty much an ideal restaurant to take your baby to. They even have a baby menu if your baby is old enough to eat solids. I know this place touts itself as catering to vegans and vegetarians, but they also have quite a few meat options on the menu. I will definitely be coming back here again!

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.