The Tulip

The server almost made my wife crying over there tonight because of his rudeness.
Here is the story, today is my son’s 100 days and my wife hasn’t had rare steak for a long time since her pregancy. A friend recommened us Tulip, and we went there around 6 to have our steak dinner.
A mid age white male served us. We order 2 midium rare steak dinner (tenderloin and striploin) with house wine. I should say everything was ok and we were happy until the steak came up. My wife’s steak was still pretty good and she let me try a slice, its well flavored and juicy. I gave her a slice of my striploin steak and after a couple of slices i realized that its over cooked almost cooked as a well-​done. I had ¹⁄₃ of the steak and i can’t push myself to finish a steak like this. i called the server and he said «you almost finished half of the steak, you should cut you steak to check it when it was served onto your table!» I was a little bit shocked by a server talks like this, because I used to be a server too and i could never talk to a customer like this. so i thought there must be some misunderstanding and i explained that if i cut it open it may turn cold faster, the edge has fat and i didnt expect a midium rare can be that well done. He replied that he can get me a new steak but repeated what he told me earlier again by adding «I’m telling you», so it was like «I can get you another steak but I’m telling you, you’ve already had almost half of your steak and you should cut…». Now I can clearly see the judgement from him and I told him I dont want a new steak anymore just put my plate back onto my table. My wife dropped tears at that moment. We were there to spend mony to celebrate but it turned to be a disappointed and depressed dinner. He took my steak out of the bill after all, but it doesnt change the fact that our 100 days celebration was ruined, we left without the dessert which comes with the dinner. Guess not in having a dessert mood.

Long ago this place was one of the great remaining greasy spoons — great value, great comfort food — and as an added bonus was known for phenomenal steak and eggs.
Well it’s clearly gone through some ownership changes in recent years (decades) and it is no longer what it once was. The steak is tough, overly spiced and not cooked to perfection. The service is good enough — an easy thing to do since it’s nearly always empty. After ignoring it for about 5 years I recently returned for a visit, was unimpressed but decided to give it two more chances just to be fair. Sadly, it’s just not worth it anymore.
There’s just nothing redeeming about The Tulip. Too bad.

It baffles me to no end that this joint manages an average rating of ³⁄₅ stars on Unilocal.I can only charitably conclude that the place is riding on reputation from its glory days of yore. Those days are clearly over.
I ate here with my wife as we were passing looking for a decent place to eat. I ordered a burger with a Greek salad, my wife ordered the fish. If you fancy hospital cafeteria food served in a dirty setting, this is the place for you. My «Greek Salad» was basically a gigantic pile of lettuce sprinkled with cheap feta. My burger was tough and grey — I only felt safe eating it because it had clearly been cooked into lifeless shoe leather. The bread came pre-​buttered (WTF?) and appeared to be wonderbread, or maybe the generic kind you can get at No Frills.
On the plus side, we didn’t get sick after eating there. Won’t be returning to tempt fate…

Another great meal! The Tulip never disappoints! I don’t know of another place with over 90 years of quality! Opened in 1928 and current owners since 1988. Just constant good food.

Good for what it is.
It’s an old school diner. Prob one of the few of its kind left near the beaches. Food is basic and very reasonably priced for the portions. Nothing fancy for sure but it’s decent.
Service is also good though all the servers are a little rough around the edges.
This is not a date place. It’s the kind of place you might take your family for a simple Sunday meal.

Used to kind of like this place but not anymore. Fell for their menu item called ‘Chopped Steak’, was expecting slices of steak but in reality it was ground beef.
Lots of flies everywhere making the place look dirty. Last straw was seeing the owner barking at one of the staff members (that was working hard and always did when we visited) being lazy in front of customers — while repeatedly doing nothing but sitting on her ass and checking her phone herself.
Simply can not support a business like this despite some of the food being ‘good value’.

I’ve been going here for years and it’s always been great. I don’t even live in the area anymore but I make a point of coming here when I can.

This place is a local institution. Exceptional food at amazing prices! Don’t trust some of these other negative reviews, this restaurant has been serving happy costumers since as long as I can remember. Without a doubt you must try one of their cuts of beef, but their spaghetti with meat sauce is also surprisingly good which you can order as a side. I always get sides of mushrooms and gravy to go along with my steak and it never disappoints. Come in for dinner but make sure you’re hungry, because you will leave stuffed!

Haven’t been here for a few years.
Service was good, waiter was attentive especially for my kids peanut allergy (doubled check and the apple crumble had almonds).
Food was decent for diner food. Plentiful. The extra star was for friendly service.

Shows good value for money. They have a very loyal clientele that manages to keep them in business after all these years.
I was definitely the stranger coming into the bar wearing a t-​shirt and shorts having just finished jogging, but they served me without issue at the bar. I had the steak, and it’s definitely a bargain.
You get a salad, bread, your main with bread and veggies, and a choice of dessert, all for $ 21. The menu and the décor could use some updating, but it’s the old fashioned charm of the place I suppose.
Steak was chewy and not what I would expect from a steak house, but it certainly got my fill of protein for the day.

It looks like a typical Mom and Pop and they do have some awesome homemade foods and specials, but what blows me away is the steak! Amazing cuts, juicy and tender! Way better than many steak specialty places.

What a great place for date night! Huge portions, courteous staff and enough room ti spread out a bit. The steak was awesome, as was the French onion soup. (Definitely have the soup!) We have leftovers for lunch tomorrow too. And bonus… free street parking after 6pm. We’ll definitely be back

The food is reasonable. The cost is very low. Service was very good. They do somewhat encourage a fast turnoverso don’t show up expecting a quiet date night. Steak was incredible for the price. The waiter was funny and efficient. Portions are HUGE.

Website menu prices & descriptions out of date. Big breakfast scrambled eggs over cooked, pancakes arrived at end of meal and under cooked, thick and lead heavy. No jams on table. Indifferent slow service. Slow to refill coffee, had to keep asking. When asked for jams for toast, was handed 2 strawberry jams… a selection given on a plate would have been better. Best to give this place a miss, there are others with similar menus with much better service. No point to return here again.

Horrible food. Ordered the burger, it was dense and flavourless. Also got the chicken parm on a kaiser, tomato sauce and cheese was bland. Frozen fries was the only thing we ended up eating.

Worst breakfast ever!
I would normally give this place a 5 star rating, but today my husband and I went there and felt very sick afterwards. Our Stomachs are sooo sore.
It wasn’t the reg chef Tony that works there on the weekends. Some other guy! Anyways, I ordered my usual eggs benedict and coffee. My husband ordered his usual the big breakfast substitute the pancakes for extra toast. It came really fast less then 8 mins. usually takes a bit longer… When it arrived to our table it Def didn’t look the same and Def was not Tony s cooking. We proceeded on to eat it. My hollandaise sauce was soo dark yellow and clumping. ewwwww.. The peameal bacon had a sour taste to it. my Home fries were cold. I couldn’t even eat it.. My husband’s asked to have his eggs over med. It came back over easy… His bacon was raw… His peameal bacon had a sour taste. His toast was burnt… The only reason it’s getting a 1 star rating now is for the SERVICE! ! Very friendly! All I can say is that if Tony isn’t working in the kitchen. DONT EAT THERE!!!

Average greasy spoon diner, definitely not in the Steakhouse category as it is listed.
Service was sub-​par. Was seating right away upon arriving with menus then waiting over twenty minutes for a waitress to come by with water & ask us what we wanted to drink. By then we knew what we wanted so we just simply placed our order.
Food arrived very quickly; 5 – 6 minutes from time of ordering. Quality of food was typical diner. My tomato & feta omelette was exactly what the name entailed & nothing more; flavour was quite bland & you could taste the added salt on top of the already salty feta cheese. Big breakfast special was large in size, yet everything tasted as if they had taken a salt shaker to it before bringing it out.
Once we were finished, we waiting another twenty minutes before someone came by to grab our plates & we asked for the bill. Fifteen minutes passed & we had no bill, yet every time we tried to wave someone down, they just walked past. You can tell that it is family run as most of the staff were just leaning around the kitchen & back room which you can see from our table & were talking between themselves. We overheard other customers talking about how they had been here for longer than we have & no one had even come by their table as of yet. Eventually got our bill, paid, & left.
Prices were mediocre: 27 $ for a big breakfast special, an omelette, & 2 coffees.
Would not go out of my way to visit again.

Great breakfast!
Okay, the service was a little slow, but you just gotta settle in, read the newspaper, relax and enjoy yourself. There’s nary a brunch line-​up at this joint, but don’t let that fool you. The quality is surprisingly good for an ol’ timey diner. Now, I don’t eat meat, so maybe I’m not the *best* person to review a steakhouse. But suffice it to say, I’m an expert on diners in Toronto and this one passed with flying colours:
Strong coffee (well, *diner* strong, that is)
Well-​cooked eggs
Perfectly toasted toast (hey, that does NOT apply to all diners, amirite?!)
Great homefries
Romaine lettuce and high-​quality feta in the greek salad
Oh! And the wife said the bacon was great (again, really not a guarantee at all diners)
Do it! Don’t let silly things like décor fool ya :)

Came here Sunday evening after a long day at the beach so having worked up a big appetite I was not sure what to expect.
Had a number of customers but not too busy and 6 of us were seated quickly.
The place itself is nothing fancy and is more of a casual diner and clean with friendly staff.
They had a special on so most of us ordered from that menu, $ 21.45 after tax included either a French or Italian style salad starter.
I chose Italian and it was very nice, the vinegar not too over powering. There was also a side of buttered bread which was not mentioned on the menu but we were not charged for it so it went well with the salad.
For mains I had the steak, medium rare. The steak was the highlight it was tasty, cooked perfect and had a unique coating and taste. I was not able to finish it as I also tried some of my friends lamb rack which was also on the specials. That was absolutely delicious!
The deserts for me were the let down area, choice of either rice pudding or apple crumble. Neither which I am a big fan of and I did not bother finishing my rice pudding.
The service throughout was great and it was a comfortable experience, the kind of no frills place I would enjoy on any day.

Grabbed a bite to eat with fellow Unilocaler Tony F. prior to the awesome WAYLA Unilocal Elite Event. It was not our original dinner location, but seeing as the Burger’s Priest had no seating available and it wasn’t exactly warm outside, we wandered down to the Tulip.
The Tulip is your typical greasy spoon diner. It is quite spacious inside. It was not extremely busy seeing as it was a Wednesday night.
We had originally wanted to order the White-​Wine-​Steamed Mussels and Calamari, but unfortunately had to sub the steamed mussels with escargots since they weren’t available. I also ordered a small Greek salad as I thought I should get some vegetables in my diet after a weekend of meat-​eating in Montréal.
The bread that they serve comes pre-​buttered, so if you are health conscious, you may want to ask for it on the side. Two slabs of cold white bread… Nothing to Unilocal about.
The calamari was nice and light, not oily nor greasy, to my delight. I didn’t care too much for the dipping sauce that came with though. It was a tomato-​based sauce.
The escargots were quite tasty, with mushrooms and breadcrumbs sprinkled on top. It went nicely with the bread.
I am glad I didn’t order an entrée-​sized Greek salad, as I almost fell over when I saw the size of their small. I asked for the vinaigrette on the side, and they brought me an entire rameskin-​filled portion of it… Suffice it to say, I only took about 3 tablespoons, and the rest went to waste :(
Our bill came up to $ 27 including tax and tip. It was pretty filling as I avoided most of the appetizers floating around at the Unilocal event after. My philosophy is «don’t eat unless you’re hungry.»