Roux

Food is bad. Service is sub-​par. Arrived at 1:15pm for a reservation. The restaurant is small and the ambiance was pleasant. We ordered our food pretty quickly but didn’t get it until 2:25pm. There was only one other table of 8 who have not received their food at the time we ordered and a total of two other tables that had already received their food. 4 tables total in the entire restaurant. There were two cooks in the kitchen. It shouldn’t take one hour to serve two tables brunch food. We’re talking eggs, burgers, fried chicken. It was clear where the kitchen messed up. A single patron walked in after we ordered and he ordered, got his food, finished it and paid the bill within 45 minutes. We still had to wait for our food for another 10 mins after this guy left the restaurant. Same thing happened with another couple that sat at the bar. They came after this one patron and also paid their bill before we even got our food. Not once did the waitress come check on us. Food finally arrives, and waitress misunderstood one order so that one had to be redone.
The food was bad. I like my fries salty. When I mean salty, I don’t even need to taste one and I will always add salt to my fries. The fries that came though we’re even waaaaayyy too salty for me. I felt so bad for the rest of my group who like their fries normally salted. It was like bathing your tongue in a pile of salt. Inedible. Did the waitress come check up on us? Nope! The scone that was served to me was crispy and burnt. The waffles were also burnt. Maybe because the cook was too busy trying to hide in a blind spot to eat instead of pay attention to the waffle maker. It’s really unfortunate because I like the décor of this restaurant and its in a good neighbourhood. Unfortunately, they don’t take their food seriously and the staff lacks any skill or professionalism. When the restaurant has an open kitchen with a mirror on one side of the wall so that guests can see all the action going on, the cooking staff needs to stay professional and clean. When I caught sight of one cook eating away and not washing his hands after only to continue prepping, I wasn’t super disgusted like most people would be, but it was a clear sign that this restaurant has no intention to maintain proper kitchen etiquette. I did not tell the rest of my party what I saw because they were already angry enough at the wait time. rate 1 star. Give me fries that are edible and I might bump up to two stars.

Stopped in for some oysters and clam chowder with a couple friends, service and atmosphere were great, prices were reasonable especially considering the quality of food. Will definitely come back next time I’m in the area.

You can tell food is prepared with the best and freshest ingredients! Great atmosphere, interesting menu!

Interesting fresh take on southern french food. Great service and cocktails. Have visited 5+ times. Beautiful ambiance, delicious small meals and perfect for a date or out for a casual lunch. Lively but moody. A must visit. Oyster bar is a must see.

This is my first time eating at Roux since it donned the name. I’ve been in previously since the renovation but only for drinks
The new décor/​atmosphere feels more casual yet also more upscale than before. It isn’t just the room that’s had a makeover; the waitstaff, while never subpar, are well dressed, polite and very professional.
The only thing that hasn’t changed is the quality of the menu.
The food here has always been top quality. Derrick (owner and chef) has always provided specialty food and delicious dinners for a reasonable price with a generous portion.
Tonight was no surprise.
I ordered the Flatiron Steak. I usually like my steaks rare, however our waiter recommended I try this particular steak medium-​rare because it’s thinner than most and might be chewy at rare. I took his advice and was quite pleased in the end. It was exceptionally tender and served on a bed of spinach.
I have to apologise. I hadn’t used Unilocal in quite some time and this review was unpublished. This review is approximately 1.5 years old as of now.

Here for brunch a couple weekends ago. Having worked in the restaurant industry for years, I can tell right off the bat when a restaurant is set up badly for the servers. This is one of them. Mind you, they were trying. Atleast one of them. Our server who seemed to be newer did a great job with us-​the other larger woman stood behind the counter talking loudly while ours was running around. Our server was unable to answer some of our questions about the food.
This place has a kitchen that allows you to look right in– reassuring to see the cooks making our dishes with care. The food was outstanding which is what will bring us back in the end. Highly recommend the Chicken and Waffles.

I absolutely love the brunch here, haven’t tried dinner yet but am very interested. Staff are friendly and food is delicious. Try the pulled pork eggs Benny or brisket hash and eggs and you won’t be disappointed!

I have had brunch there twice and ate every morsel on my plate both times. This last weekend I had the pulled pork eggs bennie… ridiculously delicious. When our server came to ask how we were doing, I was speechless, in a state of bliss eating my unbelievably yummy meal!

I was there for Saturday brunch with four others at our table. It was not very busy, and there were two servers on duty. Wish I could have been more positive, but like the Junction Eatery before it, Roux falls down in its service and ill-​trained staff. Four out of five dishes arrived fifteen minutes before my sister got her food, with no explanation or apologies from the servers. We had a child with us who ordered the granola & yoghurt, which came in a very tall tippy glass, so we asked for a dish to go under it to catch the spills. The dish she brought was about half an inch wider than the glass, so useless for the purpose. One table would get coffee refills, but then the server would return without checking on the other tables. I ordered the brisket hash and couldn’t remember if it rested on potatoes, or some other veggie. Neither could my server. The french toast was a disappointment, as was the bisquit (bit stale), but the croissant was delicious and the pulled pork benedict and the cheesy grits were excellent. Mixed feelings, but will probably try again.

I have been to Roux twice now, and can say quite confidently that I have enjoyed the oysters, food and beverages both times.
My most recent venture there was for brunch. I had the eggs and brisket hash, and my sister had the frittata. Both meals were beautifully prepared, arrived quickly, and were consumed to an embarrassingly plate-​licking degree :)
My previous experience there for dinner was in a group with a vegan who had additional dietary restrictions. Seeing predominantly meat-​based offerings, and feeling sentenced to ordering yet another restaurant salad, he inquired with our server as to whether his particular limitations could be accommodated. The chef made him a custom vegan plate (not on the menu) that featured 10 different types of vegetables, all prepared in unique and deliciously-​spiced ways, and only charged $ 14 for it!
Beyond this, the cocktail list is short but well-​curated, and the overall pricing for the food and beverages is quite reasonable (it’s cheaper than Indie Ale House, that’s for sure!)
I will be back.

I didn’t feel like this place lived up to the expectations. I was more excited to come here but was let down. It took them too long to serve us our apps and mains. Our apps took about half an hour while our mains took about an hour to come. People came in, ate and left before we even got our food. The food itself was okay. I ordered the fried chicken and waffles — the chicken was way too fatty and the waffles just tasted, odd. Let’s just say I’ve had better southern food.

The décor is outstanding. The bourbon sour tasted like it had a coconut base. Not very appealing. The $ 5.00 at 5 appetizers were okay. Not great. The sevice was so inattentive that we decided not to order main courses and went to another restaurant for dinner. I really was hoping for a better experience. Roux is kind of expensive too.

Went to Roux for New Years Eve, where they had a four course prix-​fixe menu for the dinner service. For the mains, my wife had a potato cannelloni and I had beef tenderloin with crab fritter. Both were excellent. Despite the place being completely full, the kitchen seemed completely in control, and the wait staff were very attentive.
We have visited his neighbourhood eatery many times, and particularly enjoy their «happy hour» menu where they have drinks and dishes available for $ 5.

You always here about how tough the restaurant industry is. At least ¹⁄₃ make it and there are many reasons why they fail… this place fails for all the right reasons. Ambiance — fail. Food quality — fail. Say no more!

So my boyfriend and I went out to dinner last night at Roux. We’re both big fans of southern food, and since we also live in the Junction, we were pretty excited about it.
The service was ok, it took a long time to get even a greeting from our server. The table next to us was seated 20 minutes after we were and we all finished our meals at the same time, if that gives you an impression. However, they couldn’t have been more concerned or gracious when I had to send back my meal.
I don’t generally send back meals. I usually just eat it and never go back, But this was inedible. I ordered the fried chicken with rustic mash and spicy slaw. The slaw was ok. The «rustic» mash was peeled white potatos that were boiled then half-​ass mashed with big hard chunks in them. They were not seasoned. Just potatoes.
The chicken was the reason I had to send it back. I’m a big fried chicken girl, and never in my life have I had anything as fatty as that. The meat was two thighs and a drumstick, which are interesting choices for a $ 16 meal. There was nearly no meat to be found, and what was there was surrounded by globs of fat. It was gross. The breading was very sweet too, which I found strange.
My server came back to the table and suggested that I order something else, because the chef said it was all that fatty. So I got the mussels. They were ok.

I’ve been here a few times, when it was the Junction Eatery and Roux.
Derrick is a master in the kitchen and I’ve never been disappointed in any meal there.
If you’re there for brunch, get the waffles. You will not be disappointed! And his Huevos Rancheros? SO MUCH BETTER THAN Cool Hand of a Girl’s.

Roux is probably a bit better than three stars, but the service needs help to get there. In the wide-​open race for «Best Restaurant in the Junction», Roux does well enough to enter the race, but not enough to separate from others, such as The Hole in the Wall that has (very surprisingly) similarly priced and possibly better food. Here are a few notes from my experience.
1. The Mac n Cheese is much bally-​hooed, but really just penne pasta in a cream sauce. If you must, order the 5 $ side and not the 15 $ meal.
2. The scallops were good. However, the «creamy» grits were as coarse and chunky as any grits i have ever had. Also, the dish had unpitted olives. munch with caution.
3. The service is below average. Like many small restaurants, they are probably working with a small staff. However, if you are paying 50 $ for a meal, you should be able to get water refills or general acknowledgement without being a young female.
4. The bar seats are uncomfortable. Half overlook the kitchen, while the rest overlook the bar.
5. There is usually one specialty cocktail. otherwise, beer, wine, and two mix drinks (gin and tonic, etc) are the alcohol options. The wine list is limited. The white wine list features wines clustered in a narrow price range −37−48 $.
in conclusion, you can have a decent meal here, but don’t expect to be blown away. Service doesn’t deliver the experience that invites a quick return.

We dropped into Roux for brunch on the long weekend. I was totally expecting it to be packed and a line out the door but it was relatively quiet with only one other table of patrons.
They didn’t have a high chair for the little one which was fine as we just kept her in the stroller. Brunch menu looked fantastic so we went with the poached eggs on hash ($ 11) and the pulled pork quesadilla ($ 10). The eggs didn’t come with toast or any sides so I also ordered a croissant ($ 3). They have some great local brews on tap so we went with Junction Brewery’s Conductor’s Ale ($ 6).
The eggs and hash were coated in this fantastic mushroom gravy. Just yum. And I was surprised by the pork in the quesadilla. It had a really nice smokey flavour to it and wasn’t just dosed in a super sweet BBQ sauce.
Service was friendly and love the décor of Roux, especially the cool bar seats. Will be back for another brunch/​dinner/​drinks. This new-​ish Junction restaurant is a bit East of Junction proper (aka East of Keele on Dundas) so maybe that’s why the hoards haven’t descended on it yet.

We had an AMAZING dinner here for my birthday last night. I would highly recommend Roux for dinner!
We were a party of seven that was initially six. (One thing I will note is that when I called to change our reservation, they didn’t pick up the phone or call me back. However, they sat us right away even though we were early and just looking to have a drink at the bar, and accommodated our seventh person, so it wasn’t a problem.) The floorspace is small, but they fit us in, and we definitely didn’t feel cramped.
The service was awesome. Everyone we spoke to was polite and friendly.
The food and drinks were also phenomenal. I had the house cabernet and a lot of my friends had the house chardonnay, and both were excellent table wines; some people had the Mill St. Organic on tap and mentioned to me that it was amazing. Our water glasses were never empty and we got our drinks about as quickly as possible every time.
I can’t speak to the oysters myself, but my friends who like them said they were great. I did try the goat cheese popover, and it was excellent. A friend got the sliders and loved them, and another got the ceviche and said it was great.
We were warned that the food wouldn’t come out quickly, but since we were a larger party we’d expected that, and while it wasn’t fast, we didn’t feel like we waited a really long time either. For my part, the chicken and waffles were AMAZING — the chicken was fresh out of the fryer and perfectly seasoned, the waffles were light and fluffy, and the bourbon syrup with berries was unbelievably food (and not very bourbon-​y, which I appreciated — it’s more a hint of flavour). I tried the catfish, which was lovely, and the steak, which was amazing too.
For dessert, they had coffee chocolate cheesecake, which had the most amazing chocolate crumble crust I’ve ever tasted.
We loved Roux and we’ll definitely be back! They have a happy hour from 4 – 7 with $ 5 «apps and taps» — I don’t think it’s every day, but it’s worth checking out.

Came by to sample the food, but impressed with what they did with the décor. This new bar looks interesting, and will write a more detailed review in the coming weeks.