Le Papillon on Front Street, Toronto: Not So Good
 

Recently we had dinner at Le Papillon on Front St East, Toronto.
We used to love going there but it appears to have changed & not for the better. We are wondering if this was just an "off night" or if Le Papillon is heading south.

The dinner crepes were too sweet. More like a dessert crepe instead of a French dinner crepe. The Maritime seafood crepe had very little filling, tiny little scallops & tiny shrimp that resembled canned scallpos & shrimp. The sauce was very thick, like canned soup.

Filet Mignon was ordered Medium but served very, very pink/red, rare actually.

Service was abrupt and rushed with the server trying to whisk away the plates while we were still eating. The server was arrogant. The lighting was too bright. And, the tables are too close together.

Not at all like the "old" Le Papillon where we had enjoyed many wonderful dinners in the past.

So, have you been to Le Papillon recently? If so, what did you think? Any other restaurants in the area that you would recommend?

Ocean

I think it was a couple of years ago that the owners of Le Papillon split up their business interests. So now there's the restaurant you went to, and another restaurant (I think it's called Papillon on the Park) closer to the Beach on Eastern Ave. Totally separate owners. I've eaten once in the latter, and thought that it was pretty good.

OceanBreeze1
So sorry to hear about your unpleasant experience with us. Wish you had contacted us directly. In any case would appreciate you contacting me at [email protected] to get details and remedy any problems you encountered. You are right, it must have been a bad night as thankfully most of our guests leave extremely happy, which is the only way we have stayed in business for over 38 years. Waiting to hear from you at your earliest convenience.

Nice to get a response from the manager.

I was at the new Front Street Papillon a year or more ago and I don't have much of a memory about the food but I too miss the old place. The new one is essentially one big room where the old one was broken into more intimate, homey areas. When we went there in the winter we always requested the table in front of the fireplace and we were always seated there. It was lovely. In fact, a group of us had a small GTG there when Dukey was in Toronto.

Also, at one time (I don't know how long it lasted) they had a fabulous Sunday brunch which included a crepe and omelet station.

I was down there the other day and the old location is now a huge hole in the ground awaiting a condo.

I haven't tried the one on Eastern yet.

I'm not so sure the bad experience was a one-off. I ate at the new Le Papillon twice, not that long ago, and found the food mediocre, and the service lax. A bigger space means bigger overhead, so perhaps corners have been cut.

There are many restaurants around it. I am planning to come to Toronto and there I will be having food at Hernando's Hideway.

We really hated the big open room, the tables so close together, the bright lighting, the abrupt service.
We asked the server for a crepe appetizer. She rolled her eyes & said "We do not serve crepes as an appetizer" as she pointed to the crepes section of the menu. It was not clear to us that that was a "main course only" section. At one of our favorite Montreal restaurants we always order a crepe appetizer & we were hoping to do the same at Le Papillon.

To LePapillononOnFront:
Thank you for your reply.
With all due respect, we attempted to contact you through your server. She shut us down. We also spoke with a couple of your employees about your "open air, too close, bright lighting" seating arrangement & they said "That's all we have".