Restaurant: School Toronto
Location: 70 Fraser Ave, Toronto, ON M6K 3E1
Price Range: $$
[wp-review]
It is never too late to go back to School, and it isn’t too bad when they offer you lunches that aren’t pizza and days old lasagna (true story at my highschool). School is another one of those hipster and quirky brunch restaurants that is located in Liberty Village – seriously, I think I should move to Liberty Village, there are lots of excellent restaurants (i.e. Mildred) and coffee shops out here.
Since they don’t take reservations, the lineup at School can get quite long, hence I strongly recommend you to arrive here early. With that said, they have a great system where you can leave your phone numbers with the host, and they will send a text once the table is ready! So you can take your time and explore other areas near the restaurant.
Naturally, the first thing I noticed is the decorations that reflect the “school” theme of the restaurant. All the clocks are set to 3:30PM, there are papers with scribbles hanging on from the ceiling, and of course, an apple on each table!
The restaurant is spacious as well, with two patios located at the front and back. Unfortunately it was quite windy that day, so they closed the patio at the back.
Their menu are printed on lined papers and on clipboards, how cute! There are also chalkboard walls that explain the different meat cuts of a cow/pig.
I have always gotten sweet biscuits/scones so I was surprised to receive a savoury biscuit. It was hot and flaky, super delicious with a small hint of chives, and you can definitely tell these were homemade. A+!
My friend ordered this and although it was a bit expensive, she really liked it so I give this a A-!
The omelette was exceptionally tender, light and moist. While the omelette itself is bland, the gorgonzola cheese is quite salty so make sure to get the melted cheese with every bites :). Gorgonzola cheese is an acquired taste as it is a type of bleu cheese, so if you don’t like strong taste of bleu cheese you wouldn’t like this dish. In addition, I didn’t think the omelette was worth $16 so I give this dish a B :(.
A B- for this pancake! I have had pancakes for brunch in the past weeks, (first one was at Mildred) that I’m trying to take a break and go back to savoury dishes for now.
These pancakes were ah-okay. I found them to be a bit denser, doughy and not as fluffy as the ones at Mildred. The pancakes were more of a plain pancake as they didn’t have the blueberries incorporate within the mix, and the sauce is sweet with a hint of tartness. If I have to choose, I would definitely pay a bit more and get the pancakes at Mildred. Nonetheless, I appreciate that they offer the syrup in a short glass as I can control how much sweetness I want. Also, the brown sugar butter was not needed, it served no purpose and didn’t add any flavor to the pancakes for me.
Our servers were attentive and delightful, and the restaurant’s atmosphere were really nice, but our food took quite a long time to arrive. Due to that, I don’t think I would return to School for brunch, as it is quite a far trip for me, and I found the food to be mediocre yet very expensive.