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!

Maha's

My sister had the day off and asked me to meet her for brunch. I had wanted to try Maha's for a while but it's out of my way and they don't take reservations. My sister agreed to get there early so I wouldn't have to line up with my baby, so I jumped at the chance.

Restaurant: Maha's
Location: Leslieville
Meal: Brunch
Day: Tuesday
Son's Age: 9 months

The space is quite small so I can see why there is usually a line. The restaurant serves Egyptian food, and my appetite was sufficiently whetted after watching the Egypt episode of A Cook Abroad on Netflix the night before.

Accessibility: ⭐⭐
This is a really small space, so strollers are pretty much out of the question. The entire restaurant also has only one high chair, which was already in use when I arrived. Luckily, I didn't have to wait long for it to become available.

The washroom is also very small and in the back of the restaurant.

The good news is that the toilet has a lid so you can change a baby there (yes, I realize my standards for accessibility have decreased with time).

Service: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Despite the lack of high chairs in the restaurant, our server was very attentive and brought over the high chair as soon as possible. We were also given a table for four so that in the meantime I could put my car seat on the chair next to me. We were quickly able to get hot water for my son's food too.

Food: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I'm not sure where else in the city you can get Egyptian brunch - it is a pretty specific niche. I started with the signature honey cardamom latte. 

This is a perfect level of sweetness and if you like cardamom I definitely encourage you to try this! It's a great way to start the morning. For my meal, I ordered the Cairo classic. 

The standout here is the foole, which is fava beans mixed with tomatoes and onions. It is also served with a sliced boiled egg, falafel, creamy feta, and balady bread. I would order this again for sure. Egyptian falafels aren't quite the same as the typical falafel that I'm used to, but it is delicious. Everything works well together and they recommend that you use the balady as a vessel to eat a little bit of everything at once. If you are looking to try something different for brunch, you have to come here!

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
While the accessibility is less than ideal for bringing a baby, the food and the service really make this trip worthwhile. Just make sure you send someone ahead to wait for a table, because even on weekdays there is a bit of a wait!

Oliver & Bonacini Café Grill

I was meeting up with my cousin to discuss planning my son's first birthday (EEK! ALREADY!) and we decided to come to Bayview Village, which is a nice baby friendly place to walk around and also catch up.

Restaurant: Oliver and Bonacini Café Grill
Location: Bayview Village
Meal: Lunch
Day: Monday
Son's Age: 9 months

I have previously reviewed this restaurant but it's been a while. I used to be able to say I knew the chef de cuisine, but he has moved on to Jump (don't worry, future blog post coming up). Of course, while I dropped the "I (used to) know the chef here" line on my cousin, she calmly responded by reminding me that she knows Michael Bonacini, so oops.

Accessibility: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Upon arrival, I was provided a high chair and my stroller was moved out of the way.

On this visit, I actually went to the washroom inside the restaurant, and it was not as accessible as I had expected. For starters, the washroom was located downstairs, so definitely not stroller friendly.

There was also no change table and no counter space, so actually changing a diaper here would be difficult. I still give accessibility 4 stars, however, because there is an accessible washroom with a change table and a nursing room just outside the restaurant in the mall, which I don't consider to be a major inconvenience.

Service: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The server was very accommodating to the baby, and was happy to provide hot water for me to heat his food.

The server also made sure to keep hot items out of baby's reach, which is always helpful.

Food: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐
In case you didn't know he, I am a sucker for gnocchi and also for lamb, so when I saw lamb gnocchi on the menu, I had to give it a try.

This was delicious, and it was so good I had to let my son have a bite! The gnocchi was light and the lamb was tender, and the flavours complemented each other nicely. My cousin ordered the spinach and ricotta ravioli.

This came with wilted escarole, bacon, and caramelized onions. She said it was delicious. Everything was so good we decided to order dessert. I ordered the vanilla bean crème brûlée.

I have rarely met a crème brûlée that I didn't like, and this was no exception. My cousin ordered the phyllo wrapped cheesecake.

She said she really enjoyed it. Overall it was a very successful lunch.

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐½
Based on my experience, the food and service were perfect and the restaurant is quite baby friendly. I'd recommend coming with your baby.