Old School

Hello from 🐳 Mrs. Fancy and 🐋 Mr. Fancy,

Today we went to Old School for a Sunday Brunch. It’s a famous place which caught our attention due to raving reviews and beautiful photos.

Service was ‘OK’. Not that different from what you could gather from the Google Reviews. This is a busy place! If you want to get a table, do reserve in advance or get there early! We’ve arrived at around 10:00 AM with a reservation and it was empty with a few tables taken. But all of the sudden, when the clock strikes 10:30 AM, a huge line started to form outside of people trying to get a table. The restaurant offers patio sitting and regular inside tables. The patio is open during winter; they offer a covered space with blankets in every chair and a propane heater that worked out quite well.

🐳 Disclaimer about the ‘walls’ of this patio. As the door is quite heavy, opens and closes quite frequently, it would shake the plastic walls next to the tables around; Which was our case. Not a dealbreaker, but it could be annoying over time.

🐋 That in conjunction with a rocky metal table that wouldn’t stay in place, It was annoying.

🐳 The chairs were also very cold to the touch as they were made of metal. Yes, you have a blanket and a cushion, but those would only cover one side of the chair. After some time it would be OK as you would heat up the chair, but if you want to just enter the restaurant and enjoy a hot beverage: DON’T CHOOSE THE PATIO AT ALL!

🐋 I know I am the picky guy, but hear me when I say: the plastic ‘walls’ were dirty and damaged. It was pretty bad to look through it. If you want to enjoy a nice view from the patio, that’s not the case.

Overall the food was Great, when you are hungry and you want a warm meal in the winter, this hits the spot. The butter of the pancakes and the beans we good. But, the experience of eating this beautiful food is diminished by dishes that are not new anymore and a bit dated, which shows in marks all over the place - we didn’t expect this in a place that costs that much. We were very put off by the tip ‘suggestions’ starting at 18%; We understand that it is possible that people would like to tip a bit more, but starting at 18% is too much.

Our server was friendly, but she wasn’t going above and beyond - far from it. The place was quite busy and we understand it’s quite hard to have good 1:1 time with the customers. But again, it wasn’t cheap.

🐳 The servers would exchange their problems in front of the customers. You definitely don’t want to see their ‘back of the house’ in the middle of service. Yelling at your colleagues to ‘do your job and change the propane tank’ next to us is definitely not worth of 18% of $56 for two people.

🐋 I have to add: the food - while good on the basics - was just OK. I would definitely make better pancakes with more filling of bacon at home for a fraction of the cost. Asking for a 4 dollar markup to add a Costco Croissant at the english breakfast is a bad taste joke. Mrs. Fancy didn’t get to visit their washrooms so I can’t attest for the ladies, but the gents’ were ok. Just the trash can that wouldn’t open the lid and you’d have to open it by hand: Massive dealbreaker for me.

Overall, we would think twice before going there again. If you don’t have a place to go, and you are nearby with a table that you don’t have to wait for: go for it. Don’t expect excellence, but you will have a full belly and a warm bottomless mug of coffee.

Now! We had Brunch with nothing but black coffee; but there was a mixologist there for making drinks. We don’t know how good those are, please let us know if you have an experience with that. This could change everything! If this is a ‘drinks’ place that also serves brunch/food. Maybe we are inclined to change our perspective. Until then, this is barely at the 2 star mark for us.

Mr. & Mrs. Fancy