Le Papillon On Front

Nice ambience and very friendly staff, but the food wasn’t the most appetising. Giving it 3 stars because the wait staff and deserts made up for the disappointing main course.

Went to le papillon for dinner tonight. The wait staff were really friendly and so was the chef. Food was absolutely amazing– my partner and i both had:
*French onion soup
*Pea and broccoli soup
*Crab cakes
*Casoullet (omg YUM)
*Lamb loin
Great selection of wines too. Premium dining experience. Menu had so many delicious things to choose from, and was so innovative.
⁵⁄₅ would definitey come back for a meal!

Went a few weeks ago and it was abysmal, but given our history with the place were willing to give it a second chance… big mistake. Right across the board, our party of 6 all described the food as disappointing. It’s a shame when a formerly awesome restaurant slides into mediocrity, sadly this is very much the case with Le Papillon. I will say that the service was absolutely incredible both times we went, however even this isn’t enough to get us to return.

I really was expecting the food to be great, but left very disappointing.
The seafood crêpe has a good amount of scallops and shrimp but the bechamel sauce was tasteless and bland. At some point when the seafood ran out i felt like i was eating crêpe with thick cream.
The seafood fettuccine was less than average.
The apple crumble was mushy and had a strong taste of baking soda.
Really bummed out :(

Winterlicious 2016 — food was delicious :) One of Toronto’s oldest restaurants I was told. Had the choice to upgrade to their classic french onion soup (which did not disappoint) for a starter, the mushroom medallions for my entrée, and the pouding chomeur for dessert — didn’t go wrong with these choices.

Came for winterlicious and found it to be of great value. They’re in the $ 25 dinner range but the quality and service is above average. The portions are also pretty big — I left the restaurant stuffed.
I would recommend going for the soup of the day because the other 2 appetizer choices are less than impressive. They served a sweet potato and apple soup on the day I went — I wish the soup was served a little warmer but it was still acceptable. Unfortunately I didn’t taste much sweet potato, and the «apple» portion was definitely apple sauce. The soup was good, but for sure there’s room for improvement. You can also upgrade to the French onion soup for $ 4.
The lamb shank and duck confit were great mains! I was surprised at how tender and soft the meats were. Only drawback is that I wish there was more sauce to accompany the meat and mashed potatoes.

Winterlicous tonight. For $ 25/​person you won’t go wrong. We had lamb shank and duck breast. Portion not huge but you get appetizer, main dish, and desert. Environment is what you expected in a class A French restaurant. And it is casual so you don’t have to wear tux.

I came here with some friends and found the service to be nothing special. The beef bourguignon crêpe was fine, but not amazing either. My friends felt similarly about their dishes, as well. Bottom line is that it’s good, but there are better places to go for the price point that would offer better flavours and dishes.

Friendly staff and timely service. Recommend the Caesar salad but not so much the crêpe. At first the crêpe seemed to spark my interest however it lacked flavour and quality. The menu does offer some interesting options and I would consider coming again. Beautiful brick building inside and out.

We had high hopes based on the simple bistro menu, the lovely ambience and the friendly service. But the food quality is mediocre and overpriced.
We ordered mussels and escargots to start and both were good, not remarkable.
The duck was ok, not very tender, flavour was a bit off. My steak frites had a charred flavour I couldn’t shake, not melt in your mouth like the best examples of this dish.
The crepes dessert was the nail in the coffin for me. Crepes should be soft and a little spongey. This was crispy and tough. Really poorly executed.
We got the feeling that they have become lazy from a steady business of visiting tourists and its proximity to local attractions. As locals, we were hoping we would find a regular bistro we could visit regularly. This isn’t the place.

My first visit to this French bistro was for a weekend brunch.
Considering Le Papillon’s long history in this city, and the premium it charges compared to the cheap-​and-​cheerful brunch places that abound downtown, we were woefully disappointed by the food.
The daily special appetizer, dough-​wrapped goat cheese served with jam and mixed green salad, was excessively greasy and sloppily presented. The salad was an overly dressed soup of romaine and iceberg lettuce.
The mains were only silghtly better. Eggs benny were unremarkable. The croque monsieur sandwich was drenched in melted cheese, but seemed to contain no ham whatsoever.
Even the bread served at the table failed to hit the mark. Based on the Papillon’s brand, we were hoping for a warm baguette with whipped or churned butter, but instead received cold dinner rolls with tiny diner-​style packs of butter.
Cocktails were mediocre. The $ 8 mimosa special was small, and seemed to be mostly concentrated orange juice.
Service was inattentive. We had to flag down a busboy each time we needed a drink refilled or a plate cleared, and our server never bothered to ask how we felt about the food.
I won’t be back for brunch, but I may reluctantly give Le Papillon a second chance with its dinner menu.

Not realising this restaurant had moved we went to it’s old location, luckily the new address was quite close by :) The service was prompt and friendly. The outside patio was a bonus; it faces Front Street so it is a tad busy but not bad by city standards. The escargots were YUM, the «De La Mer» crêpe was tasty, but my crêpe the «Jean-​Pierre» was unremarkable; it was kinda dry and bland truth be told. Unfortunately we didn’t have time for dessert, nor did I have a chance to scope their washrooms, but this place earns 4 stars for an overall good dining experience, well, maybe more like 3.5.

Beautiful space, but the food isn’t good. Had the soup of the day (broccoli purée), which was certainly no purée — very oily and thin. The server did make an effort to make it right, offering a salad to replace it, which was much appreciated! Club sandwich had overcooked chicken and burnt bacon. Café au lait was very good though!

Very disappointed about my dining experience here. The first red flag was the bacteria infested rags they provided as napkins. Was like wiping my mouth with dirty socks and was totally nasty. Second red flag was when I ordered my veal medallions, they didn’t bother to ask how I want my meat cooked. The meat came medium-​well and was totally overcooked. The side potatoes were completely overcooked, but only warm on the inside. They must have been pre-​cooked and reheated or sitting under a heat lamp for hours. The meat pie looks like they microwaved to heat up as the outside crust was soggy and not crisp. Pity as the inside meat filling was quite tasty. Not only was the food quality worse than what I would expect from a fast food joint, the portions were smaller than a typical tapas dish. Horrible quality food, small portions, and 5 star restaurant prices just don’t add up. All this and they have the audacity to give a note with the bill suggesting a 15 – 18% tip. Clearly the management is the problem. Cutting costs hiring cheap untrained kitchen staff and chefs, not properly washing napkins, using subpar ingredients, reducing portions, and trying to get more tips by leaving a completely unwarranted tipping guide. If the customers have a pleasant dining experience, the tips will come naturally.
Unfortunate as our server was very pleasant and attentive. But that doesn’t make up for all the other shortcomings of this restaurant. Never coming back again…

I came here with some friends for Summerlicious and had a decent to mediocre experience. The crêpe saucisse I had was slightly overcooked but the dessert, Pouding Chomeur, was deliciously moist and not too sweet. However, having said that, I did not fully appreciate the signs that kept reminding us to tip. I’ve worked and dined in classy restaurants before and one is usually not pressured/​reminded to tip. When I commented on this on Bookenda, the restaurant’s reservation website, I got quite the snarky reply in return hence the 1 star rating. It would have been nicer to receive a more polite explanation instead of the passively aggressive one I felt that I got — upon looking at other comments on the site, mine was the only one they replied to. Feels a bit targeted. They have ensured that myself and my friends won’t be returning there. Find a better place in the city!

I came here for lunch on a Saturday before heading over to St. Lawrence market. Right off the bat the service was fantastic. My friend & I split 2 dishes. We had the Croque Monsieur which was Amazing. The bechamel sauce was out of this world. We also has the Salmon Crêpe, which was nice but a little underwhelming. The quality of the ingredients used was truly top notch. The smoked salmon itself was heaven. But the actually crêpe was slightly overdone. I did order it without onions which may have been why it was also just a touch bland, but it could maybe use a little sauce/​dressing/​cheese to pull it a little more together. Overall the experience was definitely enjoyed & I would give this restaurant another shot.

Carte limite, cuisine basique, sans vraiment de goût. Personnel très sympathique et cadre agreable, service rapide. Dommage que ce né soit pas plus gastronomique.

If you feel like paying a lot of money to seem super awesome to that date of yours, then go here. But — honestly — the food’s not that great, the portions range from small to adequate, and they nickel and dime you for everything.
You’re trying to be a fancy place? Don’t charge people an extra two bucks for maple syrup on their crêpe. That’s just ridiculous. It’s as embarrassing as hotels that charge for WiFi.

Le papillion is a great spot for drinks and dinner after work. It’s minutes outside of the financial district just before St Lawrence market.
I came here after a work event with a friend and must say I was thoroughly impressed from start to finish.
We were greeted promptly and escorted to our reserved table closer to the back. Our server definitely fit the ambience. He had a french accent and was very pleasant the whole time. He gave us enough time to decide what to order and was on cue with the delivery of drinks and our courses.
The food was great. All my courses had great flavours. I am giving this a 4 because although the food was great, it didn’t blow me away. It didn’t make me feel like I could only go to this restaurant to get it.
Overall though, GREAT service! (Who says the French are rude?!-not here)
Lovely ambience!
And solid food. I will return even on a non winter licious occasion.

Love this place! Every time I’m in the area, I wish i lived closer to this place as I know it would become our go to but I’d so be broke. We’ve been a few times before for dinner and I hope to soon try their brunch but waking up on the weekend to go downtown from vaughan isn’t in my cards this winter. The prices here are reasonable for exceptional food. Entrees are between $ 20 to $ 30. You see different types of people, young families, seniors, couples, friends… Its a mixed crowd.
The staff is great, I called 2 hours before dinner time for a reservation and they were able to squeeze me in. We got there 10 mins late and they seated us right away at the window at the front! Super romantic especially as the Xmas lights are still on the trees.
We tried the winterlicious menu. $ 25 is an amazing deal. I got the chicken pâté, that came with a wildberey jelly. Yummmm, I wish I had more than four pieces of crostini, luckily we didn’t touch our bread yet. Dave got the escagot that came in a cream sauce. Loved it. Also four pieces of crostini, so he used the bread to finish the sauce as it was delicious! (We’ve had their escargot that comes in a pastry filled with the same cream sauce, that is amazing! A must try!)
For dinner I had the duck confit and Dave got the lamb shank. His came with a mixed beans and veggies while mine had mash potatoes and steamed veggies. Our meats were fall off the bone delicious. The duck was nice and crispy, I didn’t want to share. It also had the wild berry sauce.
For the dessert, I was hoping for their torte or sugar pie but they only had cheesecake and brownie or sobret to choose from. We opted for the cheesecake and brownie. Which was just okay.
I enjoyed the dinner. The waitress was excellent, very attentive and happy to be there. Actually I left my phone on the table and she ran out on the street to the corner to give it back to me! I really appreciate that!
Will definitely be back here.

I made reservations the same day on Sat night at 7pm through their website. The reservation system is called Rezbook and is similar to Opentable.
We were greeted with a «Bonjour» which reminded me of high-​school French classes. Our party of 2 was seated promptly. The chairs are comfortable, coat racks were pretty full so we just hung our jackets on the back of our chairs.
My date had purchased a Buytopia coupon for $ 49 for a $ 160 four course prixe-​fixe. There isnt any choice for the 1^st or 2^nd course. Two glasses of house wine were included, we both chose the white wine which was good.
1^st course was salad, it tasted great. Not much to complain about.
2^nd course is their onion soup which was excellent. I am not typically fond of onion soup but it had a deep rich flavour.
3^rd course for my main I chose the salmon and my wife had the duck confit. The portion was a bit small for the salmon but it tasted great. The lone broccoli piece was a bit hard. My wife said the duck was a bit dry and she would have wanted more of the tasty sauce.
4^th course I had the apple crumble which was good. My wife had the caramel cake, it had a mushy texty but still good. Both came with one scoop of vanilla ice cream.
The ambience and décor is nice. We were a bit close to the other tables. We got a bit hot in the place, but it could just be because the place was full. The table next to us complained their wine glasses smelled like bleach, the server (who was French by the way) got some new glasses.
Would come back again.

j’ai enfin trouver un restaurant à hauteur de mes esperences! je l’ai savouré mon filet mignon! La nourriture est très bonne, je me croyais vraiment en France le temps d’un repas! Déco typiquement France des années ³⁰⁄₄₀ très agréable, le service est à moitié francais, moitié anglais donc bien sympa!
Pour le prix bien sur on vous sert de la bouffe Française donc comptez environ 25 $ pour un plat principal, 10 $ pour un dessert, 10 pour une entrée et les cafés sont assez cher aussi!

Lorsque la France vous manqué rien de tel qu’un petit tour au restaurant Le Papillon, j’ai testé ! Et j’ai adoré retrouver les crêpes de France dans un cadre chaleureux, des serveurs très aimables et heureux de faire partager leur passion pour la cuisine française!