This place has Moxie to Grill

Had lunch at Moxie's Grill & Bar (4950 Yonge Street, Toronto)  for an adventure for some good food.  We entered to no one at the front desk.  But at least they left a note saying to head toward the main restaurant area where they would be more than happy to see seat you. 

We were greeted by a hostess who ushered us to our seats, waited for us to sit down, handed us the menu and then speeled on about how Moxie's had chef Alex Chen.  She also pointed out that Alex cooked in Beverly Hills, yadda, yadda, yadda, etc. etc.  She then told us our server would be "Monica" and then dissappeared. 

We perused our menues and made a decision on what to eat and drink while waiting for Monica to appear.

Monica stopped by to review again the menu with us including the Saturday specials on drinks and, of course, how great Alex Chen was. 

Really, Alex is that good?  Between the hostess and Monica, it seemed Alex Chen was rattling the pots and pans in this very three quarter empty establishment. However, don't dare ask to speak to Alex as he really is only probably paid royalties for his recipes crafted for Moxies and the use of his likeness in all the over top marketing. I bet you Alex has yet to set even 1 foot inside a Moxies in Canada.   But I digress....

Monica, our server, is an interesting person.  She is quite bubbly in an over the top "I'm trying to hard to please you..." type that seems a little to fake for my liking.  But she was quick to ensure our order was taken right and brought to our table.  But while taking our order I lost count the times she said the word "sure" when acknowledging what we wanted before asking us if we wanted bacon, cheese, etc. that she could upsell us on with our meal.  She was also a fairly noisy person as we could clearly hear her conversation with the manager while she gathered drinks at the bar even though we were a fair distance away.  So much for a nice quiet afternoon lunch with my wife before enjoying some nice weather in the north end of Toronto.

Our Order: Classic Beef Burger with fries and water and The Mediterranean Burger with fries and Coke

Monica dissappeared (Edit: "travelled to the bar", can't really dissepear if I can hear you the entire way to and from the bar) and returned with our drinks in quick order.  She also took this time to inquire if we wanted anything else like appetizers, etc.  We politely declined but it seemed she was just doing her job in attempting to upsell us on additional menu items. 

Ten minutes later Monica returned with our food.  On first observation it seemed Moxie's had skimped on quantities.  Our burgers looked delicious but the fries came in  metal bowl like structure to ensure they didn't splay across our plate.  The bowled fries made the plate look mostly empty. Add to this the ketchup comes in a small condiment bowl instead of in a bottle to put on the table.  I wonder if this method of ketchup serving is to make the place look upscale or an easy way to cut condiment costs.  

But the quality of the food makes up for the skimpyness on the fries and the lack in appearance in quantity of food.

The Mediterranean Burger was delicious with tastey pesto dripping out of it.  The burger meat itself was juicey yet taste.  A well prepared burger.  The fries rivalled the burger in taste being freshly cut and appeared to be carefully prepared.  However, the fries were way to salty which caused me to go drink loads of coke.  But perhaps the saltiness is on purpose as it usually ensures customers drink more beer and thus increase the restaurant's profits. The ketchup though proved a little skimpy, I was having to carefully wipe the last dregs out of the small stainless steel cup when finishing up the last few fries.  A little more ketchup could be provided or perhaps, horrors of horrors, a Heinz bottle could be offered to allow the customer to apportion their own ketchup.

The Classic Burger was exactly the same as the Mediterranean Burger however, sans the pesto and some other toppings.  No worries, the same salty fries are offered in the exact same portions as it's European styled counterpart. 

Overall, Moxies is a nice place for a Saturday afternoon lunch.  Normally it is a quiet place to eat overlooking the waterfall to the Extreme Fitness Centre entrance and decent people watching of the passing pedestrians on Yonge Street.