Coppi

Well this will be my first review of three restaurants for Winterlicious.

Coppi, which is located at 3363 Yonge Street, about half way between Lawrence Ave W and Wilson Ave.  I took the subway to get here and it worked out very well.  My guest drove to the location and parking was not easy to find so make sure you give yourself some time.  Coppi does have a valet car service, but we didn't use it.

We were greeted upon arrival by a man in a red coat.  No idea who he was at first.  He was wearing a ball cap at unshaven.  I found this odd but continued in.  We were then greeted and seated very promptly once inside the restaurant.  Our young male server approached the table and introduced himself and got a drink order from us.  The orginal bottle of wine that was ordered wasn't cold so we had to enjoy a different wine.  The wine came out shortly after and we began to enjoy.  We ordered our meal shortly after the wine arrived and it wasn't long before our appetizers came out. 

To start my guest had the soup of the day which was very good,  Cream of Cawliflower, and considering how cold outside it was that night it was perfect and I had the air cured beef tenderloin with grilled radicchio, topped with shavings of parmigiano reggiano.  It was presented nicely and no complaints.

For our entrees we had the ½ cornish hen stuffed with vegetable farce served with rustic mash, french beans & cranberry demi and the grilled aaa beef tenderloin served with rustic mash, asparagus & mushroom demi.  The cornish hen was amazing.  Full of flavour and appointed very well.  As for the beef tenderloin I wish I could say the same.  The server only offered it to me to be cooked at either medium rare or rare.  So I opted for the medium rare but arrived almost blue rare.  The edges were cooked but the inside was still very raw, warm but raw.  For most, they would have sent this back but having been in the industry and one that can handle a rare steak I decided to eat dinner with my guest.  The presentation was accurate but nothing exciting and they had pre cut open the steak for the display effect.  You would think if they had done this they would have cooked it properly.  This raise alarm bells for me regarding this restaurant.  It is very common that a chef believes he knows what a steak is supposed to look like when cooked to a specific degree but as I am sure you all know this can change depending on what restaurant you go to.  So make sure you are clear about how you want your steak to come, describe it if you have to.

For dessert we enjoyed the tiramisu and the lemon flavored sorbet.  Both were very good and very much enjoyed.

Other then my main course they did very well on the food part of the dining experience.  It is the service that is in question for this restaurant.  There were 4 servers and 1 bartender and each of them served or cleared our table.  Don't get me worng it was great knowing that things were being cleared when finished but when it comes to the server that first introduced himself to us for drinks, we never saw him again, even for the bill!  The problem here is that one server told us he was going to get us more bread and it never showed up.  It became a running joke between my guest and myself as to which server was going to bring us something next.  To me this shows that there was not enough servers on the floor and that our server who must have been new or less experienced couldn't handle the amount of tables in his section.  Also we weren't asked once if we would like fresh ground pepper of parmisan cheese on any of our courses.

Our wait times between courses was also out of line.  We waited about 5 minutes before our appetizers came out, then 20 minutes before our mains, then another 5 minutes for our desserts.  Some bleieve this is the kitchen's fault, but in reality it is your server that has control of when your courses are sent through to be made.  Usually the kitchen won't start making soemthing until they are told becasue they cannot see the table whereas the server can.  This determines whether they are slow or fast eaters.

The atmosphere was too bright.  They had plenty of candles throughout the restaurant and on each table and the lights were on full blast.  There was also no background music.  The mood was not set and the feel of being in an italian restaurant did not exist. 

This restaurant did well with the food other then the beef, terrible on the service, and terrible on the atmosphere.  I am giving this restaurant a 5 out of 10 and I would never go back to this restaurant.

Oh, and the guy at the front that greated us in the red jacket and ball cap, yes you guessed it, the vallet.  Glad I didn't use that!

Happy Eating... somewhere else.

- The Hungry Ginger