Review Ago Bistro - Toronto

One of the nicest spots for food in Toronto. Friendliest service and the tastiest menu items. We take in the latest highlights in the gallery then we're steps away from the dining room and a super meal. Highly recommended.

Came here after a show at the AGO for the first dine-out experience post Covid. At the time, still needed to show proof of vax. The service was excellent as was the food. It felt so good to go out for a meal again. Returned for dinner just recently. Again, great service and food. It will be great to come back regularly in the summer. Only suggestion is for the hostess to drop the haughty attitude. Her behaviour was unlike all the other servers who were extremely friendly and welcoming.

Nice ambiance to hangout for a date especially while visiting the Art Gallery. They have a team event location for meetings and parties. Good for corporate meetings and parties. Food selection is good with variety of choice for Vegetarian and Vegetarian

Stopped by for lunch and tried the mushroom toast that had assorted mushrooms and a fried egg over toast with a side of salad. Food is pretty good and fairly priced. The dining area is bright, service was friendly but the space was a bit loud since I think there was an event nearby.

Nice atmosphere and the list of food looked pretty tasty. Burgers or bowls. Their soup was good but I’ll be coming back to ponder an exhibit whilst chowing down.

A stylish restaurant inside the Art Gallery of Toronto. Good service, good food and drinks. Moderately priced.

Wow. I have never experienced the flavour combination they had in that rice bowl. I usually don’t eat out because the value just isn’t there for me. This place was a tad on the pricey side, but the portions were actually fair and the quality was amoung the best i’ve ever tasted! Also, i’m the pickey and crankey type. This is probably the best review i’ve ever given.

Stopped by to get out of the heat and was pleasantly surprised by a great meal and fantastic service. Our server was friendly, on point and top tier. I had tomato soup and the grilled cheese which was perfect, my partner a very nice salad that was very tasty.

My friend and I recently dined at the AGO Bistro after a stroll through the AGO. Wonderful food! We were especially SO impressed by the service. Our waiter was friendly, helpful, fun and went above-and-beyond when it came to answering questions as well as accommodating dietary needs.

Have a special dinner at Frank then roam through the mystical art collection, and finish the night off at AGO First Thursdays – your guide to healing together. Frank has a prix fixe menu, it’s like an extension of the Mystical Escapes exhibit.  . Before your adventure, have dinner at Frank Restaurant located in the museum, where you can experience the “Monet’s Garden” cocktail: Hendrick’s Gin, Creme Yvette,  chamomile-infused rum, lemon juice, wildflower honey syrup, lavender bitters, orange blossom water – it’s a must.

Two of us came for dinner at the spur of the moment. We didn't have reservations but fortunately it was early and the hostess was able to squeeze us in. Note for future must make reservations.<br/><br/>The food was great and artfully presented. The portions are not too big so you can get through all courses comfortably. There's a Prix Fixe menu which was nice. I started with the heirloom carrot composition. This was very artfully plated and had great textures. Carrots prepared in multiple ways. I only wished there was more. For my main, I had the duck breast which was delicious and perfectly cooked. I finished off with the custard tart. The citrus marmalade was wonderful.<br/><br/>This was my second time coming here and it was just as good as the first time. I will definitely be coming back

Year 1 Unexpected Anniversary Dinner at Frank. My partner and I had a lovely experience at Frank this past Saturday. We ended up coming to Frank as we were late for reservations elsewhere. It was a very special night for us celebrating 1 year of being together. The host was charming not to mention humble. I usually experience a lot of age discrimination at most of my favourite restaurants here in Toronto. This is never the case a Frank, very friendly staff all around they welcome the younger crowd quite well. The host was very involved at our table and checked up on us several times throughout the night commenting on our attire and offering some friendly conversation, a very warm gentleman. The waitress was very kind and respectful to us. I do not have much to say about the food itself because it was excellent as always, amazing quality control across the board. Its always a treat eating and being serviced at Frank.

Fabulous!!!. It is rare to have a meal that just delights you from start to finish be it the super friendly and dotting serving staff to the ways all the flavours of each course dance across your taste buds bite after bite. The menu is carefully crafted to be as creative and as expressive as the art within the AGO itself. It never dissappoints.

For many reasons Frank at the AGO is almost one of the best 'night out' restaurants in the city. Starter bread basket with sweet butter and sea salt on the side is always interesting. Menu of local and Canadian ingredients keeps changing but always yummy. Duck, lamb, fish, vegetables always great. Wine is local best and not overpriced!!! Desserts are good proportion but not stupidly sweet or Death By Anything. There's a really good cookie tray option. Fabulous teas. Professional service and not someone killing time till they get a better job. Negative: open concept is stark and lower level is temperature chilly. Seats at bar are too public. Recommend duck, meats, chicken mains, all salads and cookie plate with white tea. Four people with too much to eat, cocktails and wine spend $360. Figure on $100 person and you will be gorged with delicious food and way over .08 legal alcohol limit! $50 with no cocktail and just two courses with glass of wine.

Excellent food and great service. When we first walked, the maitre d was MIA and we were waiting for over 5 minutes before anyone acknowledged our presence. I was already wary, but Adrian our server was excellent. His friendly charm won us over. The prix fixe menu was a little limited, but we were allowed to sun our mains with the main menu. The wine list is exclusivly Canadian (mainly Niagra with a few BC), nut serviceable with the variety of Whitsun and reds. The food was excellent. The Osso Bucco was fall off the bone and wonderfully prepared. The lamb with Cuscous and prune reduction was absoloutly heavenly. The portions were generous and our entire party was full. The dessert of spong pound cake with marscaponi and fresh figs was a little uninspired, bit again the flavours were perfect. Prices were reasonabe of a restaurant of this caliber and location. We would definatly recommend and visit again.

Very good food at a fair price (22 to 30) per main course. Vegtables are excellent and none of us had a complaint with the food. We all felt that it was high quality for money spent. Not a "warm" enviroment. Beautiful design but missing an intimancy found at other similar priced restaurants. Wait staff unfortunately tried hard yet was not knowledgable of the ingredients within the dishes (she had to continually check). $60 per person for food plus tip and tax plus drinks.

No one cares who came first when you have this monster sitting in front of you. It’s your rich man’s McChicken sandwich with buttermilk fried chicken, slaw, garlic mayo and a fried egg lovingly embraced by giant brioche bun. It was messy to eat but no one was complaining! Now I don’t know who Robbie is but I can get behind this dish. Garlic Fries with sausage, tomato, bacon, scallions and aged cheddar (the 5 major food groups). Oh, and don’t forget the fried egg!

Summerlicious is probably one of my favorite culinary events of the summer. It is currently running until July 21, 2013, and allows diners to enjoy three-course meals at affordable prices.

I liked lunch at Frank. Despite the temperature-challenged desserts and a few small misses, we quite enjoyed the steak, crab cakes, octopus, and risotto. For an area that’s a little short on nicer restaurants, I think it’s a very respectable option. I’d definitely go back to taste more dishes both at lunch and for dinner. Read full review...

The brunch offerings at Frank were fantastic and well complimented by a fantastic local beer and wine list.

After exploring the AGO, I think Frank Restaurant is a great place to grab lunch or dinner after. They have some really amazing food on the menu and it's a little pricey considering the portion size, but it's delicious. The only downside of the experience was the service: our waiter was ridiculously slow and slightly oblivious, so the bus boys were being completely overworked to compensate for the slow wait staff.

My friend convinced me to do brunch last Saturday at Frank Restaurant , conveniently located inside The Art Gallery of Ontario. When we arrived, we were asked if we wanted to go with the Winterlicious Lunch menu but we opted for the brunch menu. Our server was funny and welcoming. He had no problem when we wanted to switch to a quieter area of the restaurant. (Photo below) I love the windows that stretch from ceiling to floor – its very inviting when there is a lot of natural light pouring inside the eatery. Also, I took this photo when we finished brunch- so around 4pm which probably explains why the restaurant was empty. Breakfast Pastries  freshly baked in-house, served with house-made preserve of the day, FRANK’s famous bacon jam

They've got tasting menus that are created in collaboration with featured exhibits. Awesome idea!! Really brings the art to life. I went a couple months back for the "Florence at FRANK" tasting menu; solid. There were definitely some standouts for me in this tasting menu including the wild mushroom truffle tea (perfectly hot and pungent), the spaghetti puttanesca (oh that scallop couldn’t have been meatier!) and the affogato.

First stop of Summerlicious at Frank Restaurant (AGO) was really not a good start given that I've half given up on winter/summerlicious. I've had quite a few good experience with "licious" but it seems to be going downhill year after year. I've heard of some great things about Frank and I've been meaning to try it out, so I made my reservation on the first day for AE card holder for 5 person. Ben and I arrive just on time but 2 of my friends have already arrive while one of us couldn't make it last minute... I arrive with the Maitre d' not finding my reservations while I told her that 2 of my friends have already arrived and she actually ask me to look around for them; then when I finally found them, my friends told me that our table was meant for the 5 of us since there was an extra chair at the end of our 4 seats table when they got there. I just can't believe they accepted my reservation without mentioning that there was only a 4 person table left or did they only realize that they

Weekly prix fixe menus are available for lunch and dinner at FRANK that are themed around the current exhibitions completing the gallery experience.

Frank supports local producers and wine makers. Their wine list consists of Ontario wines (exclusively) and menu is based on seasonal ingredients supplied from local farmers.

art, overeasy :Dundas and Beverley: I love Frank Gehry . He's on my list of people who amaze me. I also love Frank Newjiyen. He's on my list of people who exasperate me. But we're here to talk about Frank, all caps. It's inside the AGO and presents exactly as you would imagine. A contemporary space that's inviting and chic with lots of natural light and modern decor. I particularly loved the chairs. They were comfortable and they swivel. Frank takes reservations, and that is a bonus considering there are very few places in Toronto that will take reservations for brunch (Boiler House brunch buffet and Hot House brunch buffet are two others. Both of which I love, for the endless food and the live jazz.) Yesterday afternoon a group of my favouritest friends joined me downtown. They're the type who don't question the cost of food because they enjoy quality. Always being "cheap" is a necessisty when you're in your 20s. Always being "cheap" in your 30s is just sad. My dad once told me (becau

Since the Art Gallery of Ontario re-opened about a year ago, I hadn’t seen anything more than its curvy glass exterior. And while I still haven’t been through their redesigned galleries, I did recently manage to hit up their not-a-cafeteria restaurant, Fr

Restaurants at Art Galleries are (just in my experience) best avoided - but not this one. Usually, the food is overpriced, underflavoured, and you're surrounded by "ladies who lunch" who make you feel uncomfortable for not being on the board of trustees.

Between 2 AGO exhibits, I knew that I wanted to have lunch on the premises at a decent location with an excellent lunch menu.  Frank Restaurant was clearly my key choice to try out.<br/>It was a super busy day but luckily we only had to wait a mere 20 minutes to have a table based on the estimated expectation.<br/>By observing the personnel, I could tell that they were all properly trained for this demanding service sector.<br/>The menu had a $35 prix-fixe menu selection yet I always like to venture into the options that I really want to try.<br/>For the appetizer, I had the braised octopus with achiote spice, citrus spicy mayo, and a warm peruvian (purpleish) potato salad.  The flavors balanced each other very well.  The octopus pieces were  chunky enough as this was no baby octopus.  the portion was just fine so that the main dish would not be a challenge.<br/>My guest had the pan-seared salmon with cauliflower couscous, butter sous vide asparagus, roasted pequillo pepper, and mustard seed butter.  The cauliflower was intermingled with the couscous and it could have benefited from an extra notch in flavoring.  The asparagus were thin enough making it easier and more pleasant to enjoy.  Too often, restaurants tend to offer the bland boiled think vegetable chunks which are tasteless.  Frank focuses on delicate cuisine.<br/>My steak was served as suggested initially by our server: medium-rare.  I liked that we don't have to waste time thinking about how we want it.  The AAA striploin was served with grilled mushrooms, peppercorn & cipollini onion jus, and spicy chimichurri aioli on the side.  I really loved the mushroom addition to this classic dish.  They were of the more exotic variety than the generic white mushrooms.  The frites were slightly brown and those who know me are aware of my philosophy on proper belgian frites.<br/><br/>Frank has a wonderful wine menu.  You can see bottles adorning a transparent wall in this modern decor.  I chose the Kingston Estate shiraz as you can't go wrong with a good shiraz with the steak dish....or anything else for that matter.<br/><br/>The bread rolls were nice and warm and served with butter and even high quality salt crystals on the side for those (like me) who enjoy semi-salted butter on their crusty rolls.<br/>The portions were reasonable enough that a good cup of hot coffee was all we really needed to complete the meal.<br/>The next time I drop by, I will definitely try the chocolate charcuterie to share with chocolate salami, caramelized white chocolate sweet brioche, chocolate corn nuts, banana passion fruit cream, fresh berries, and fruit preserve.  Anyone interested?<br/><br/>The kitchen is set-up in an open concept and is located on the upper area of the restaurant.  It made the atmosphere a bit more bustling than a quieter place.<br/>They are also open for dinner and if you happen to catch a special exhibit at the AGO, then a combo dinner/exhibit experience might just do the trick.<br/><br/>The service was organized and professional which is what you would want to expect from a restaurant like Frank.

So... another freezing cold weeknight, another hankering for a comforting, warming supper. I made a reservation at Quince, a Yonge and Eg casual-chic restaurant that has had predominantly good reviews online. My friend was not happy when I told him where it was... it was just a Monday night and he didn't feel like going far, but I talked him into it. We got in a cab only to find that there were issues on the subway (as usual) and yonge st was totally packed with traffic. Great. My friend started to complain, warning me "this better be the BEST meal ever!!" Well, I knew it wouldn't be the best, but I closed my eyes and prayed to the chowhound Gods that it would be acceptable. Our cab ride up was... interesting. When our cab driver asked what we did, I told him I was studying nutrition and food. He continued to tell me that if he were a dictator, he would have all the people who make nutrition labels and ingredient lists killed. Oy- thank goodness he's a cab driver.After about 25 long minutes in the cab, we finally arrived. On a Monday night they were pretty much empty.. I think over the course of the evening there was only 3 tables including us, and another couple who my friend actually knew (small business world).<br/>The service was superb, our server was very friendly and knowledgeable and the owner even came by to chat near the end of our meal.<br/>The room is very cozy.. the tables aren't too close together, which you all know I like, and it was warm and inviting. The temperature of a restaurant is incredibly important to me, especially in the dead of winter because I completely lose my appetite when I'm cold.<br/><br/>Okay, so the food, I apologize for no photos, it was just too dark in there to get anything good. We tried:<br/><br/> <br/>Pate of the day: A Duck Liver with Foie Gras middle, served with crisps and grainy mustard<br/><br/>I don't think it was the most inspired foie dish we've ever had, but for $8, it was pretty good. Ginormous portion of liver, could have used a bit more "toast".<br/> <br/>Sweet onion and potato tart, smoked bacon, gruyere cheese and tomato jam<br/><br/>Very delicious, light, flaky pastry. I loved the onion and would have eaten just the onions alone. My only complaint would be that the bacon lost its "crispiness" when it was baked inside the tart. It would be been much better if the bacon was cooked first, then put only on top where it could retain its crispiness in the oven.<br/><br/>Pappardelle with tomato white wine braised beef brisket, pine nuts, arugula and grano padano<br/><br/>Tender beef, and perfectly cooked pasta. Probably the best dish of the night.<br/><br/>Gnocchi with Berkshire pork sausage ragu, parmesan<br/><br/> <br/>The gnocchi themselves were massive, and as a result I found them a bit dense. The ragu was a little dry and grainy, but the spices were perfect.<br/><br/>Vanilla Creme Brulee with Shortbread cookie<br/><br/>Shortbread was meh, but brulee was amazing! Incredibly creamy with the thickest, hardest crust I have ever seen. They must have done "layers" of criminalization to get it that thick.<br/><br/>After our meal, the server brought over two small glasses of ice wine, complements of the owner we had spent some time speaking with. Now, you don't have to give people free stuff to be doing "good business", but it certainly helps. For all of the above, plus a bottle of sparkling water, a beer, and a tea, the bill before tip was about 89$- we spend more on take-out sushi! Quince is really a great weeknight low-key date spot that I'm sure we will definitely go out for again- even if it means being stuck in traffic with a chatty cab driver.