Symposium Café Restaurant & Lounge – Ajax

I love it.
The food, ambience, service and the price.
Do check there daily specials which run a new promo every day of the week to save money.
I go there more often for breakfast and dinner.

Love this restaurant! Everything I have eaten on the menu has been great! Seafood pasta and the mussels were amazing. Great service, very friendly staff! I have never had to wait long for my food. The restaurant has a great atmosphere. Awesome desserts as well and on Sundays 2 for 1 desserts! All items are very reasonably-​priced for the quality of the food you get.

Been here a few times, this time for breakfast. The breakfast was ok, nothing really worth noting except some nicer fancy coffees. There are better places for breakfast in Ajax, but nothing wrong with Symposium.

Chicken parm tasted like it was heated up, California chicken sandwich was decent at best. Manager gave me attitude because I said the food was okay. Definitely not a dinner place more of a desert /​drinks place. Hopefully I don’t get the shits.

Went here on a whim because other brunch places were full. Haha what luck because it ended up being an amazing brunch with top notch service and great food.
We ordered:
Salmon Benedict with tomato infused hollandaise (what!!)
Chicken sandwich
Our server, Daniel, was excellent. Friendly, courteous and funny. I wanted to be his friend after the meal. Damnnnn Daniel!
Food itself was amazing! Good portions and the price was right. I would definitely go again.
The owner came by our table to check which was awesome. Highly highly recommend. Hidden gem for sure.

Great service excellent atmosphere delicious food. Definitely recommended
Ordered calamari, perfectly cook and good portion size for two people
Great selection of wine.
Pasta. Alfredo with salmon was delicious, and food was hot, tasted really good.

Ordered calamari/​bruschetta/​18 oz beer.
$ 13 for the calamari.
$ 10 for the bruschetta.
$ 7 for the beer.
The beer was worth it.
The 2 apps were not!
Located in a God-​forsaken place and their appetizers cost just the same as if you were in Toronto!
The taste & presentation were negligible!
Servings were pathétic too!
Waste of money that even the ambiance can’t make up for it.
Will not even think of going back!

I’ve been to this place a bunch of times and never had a bad meal. It’s a very interesting atmosphere — different from any other restaurants I’ve been too. Each day they have some sort of drink or food special. Sunday are the best for 2 for 1 cake ;)! My favourite menu items include the chicken wraps, flat breads, salads and obviously all of the cakes. The have amazing speciality coffees and cappuccinos as well!

Delicious! We have never actually eaten food here but the dessert is amazing. We come every other Sunday for 2 for 1 cake slices and they don’t disappoint. The specialty coffees and drinks are really good as well. No issues with the service either and the ambience is great as well. Definitely stop by if you are looking for dessert.

Love the calamari here
My fav appy
Burger is decent as well along with the wraps
Fav night is still Sunday for the two for one cake slices
However the Harvest Sensation crêpe is the cream of the crop for desserts here

Is your sweet tooth as hungry as your belly? Then go here to feed them. French fries come out fresh and the gravy is enough for three batches of fries. The half pound burger is truly a ½ pound never have I had portions this filling in a restaurant like this. The chicken parm is not for those with small stomachs. If you plan to have dessert this is a dish to share.
My sweet tooth unfortunately didn’t get to satiate it’s hunger. My stomach couldn’t get passed that chicken parm. But I will return!!!
The staff were friendly and professional. The atmosphere is very family friendly.
Go ahead feed that hunger!

We came to Symposium for late breakfast on a Sunday after reading nice reviews on Unilocal.The address was not exact, so we were searching a little. Restaurant will surprise you with decore, which is in old italian style. We wanted to sit on the terrace, but came too late and it was full. Inside was really chilly in my opinion.
Our waitress was very charming during the service, although we waited for a really long time for the bill, even after everyone was done eating.
I had a fladbread with grilled vegetables and I also tried the flatbread with chicken, pesto and artichokes. Both of them I would highly recommend.
We also shared a fresh mango juice which was absolutely delicious.
Everyone else had a breakfast meal and everyone liked it. Although its not one of the cheap options in the area, we all enjoyed our meal and we will come again.

Went here for breakfast one morning, decided to try something new. The service was good and it was decently busy. Décor is dark and modern, not very cozy for breakfast — definitely better for dinner. Prices are a little higher than other breakfast/​brunch places in the area and the portions are smaller as well. I had the eggs benny with potato hash. The one nice thing is that they deep fry the hash so it’s more crispy like fries. I can’t say the food the bad, but it wasn’t anything special. Would probably come here again if all the other places nearby were super busy.

Updated rating for listening to customer suggestion! The home fries are now fried separately from meat items.
Muslim sensitive*
Seating: This is a great place to go in the summer. My husband and I like to sit on the beautiful patio and there is always room for us. It’s a good way to get away from the music they play indoors.
Breakfast: The omelettes are cooked in a separate pan, so no worry about the mixing of meat ingredients with a veggi order. I chose to rate it 3 stars instead of my original 4, because the seasoned fries (which we loved!) are cooked with other meat items. Waffles are delicious. Coffee is great and bottomless, iced coffees and specialty coffees are something to be desired.
Service: Our server always checks on us, sometimes when it’s busy they forget to bring us parts of our order and we wait to remind them. This has only happened 1 out of 5 times.
Over all good breakfast experience and we go often.

This is a great date night spot. Nice food beautiful atmosphere and solid food. Lots of drink, dessert and couples specials. The new little jewel in the Jax

Lots of new development in Ajax and it seems most food establishments are setting up shop in these suburban retail plazas. We have our son enrolled in the Northern Karate martial arts program and thought it might be nice to visit the swanky Symposium Café next door for some breakfast.
Ordered the Children’s breakfast: the French toast was burnt on the side facing up on plate. My son did not eat any… cannot really blame him… I did mention this to our server but she failed to provide any solution. Clean your grills… The single sliced strawberry and a cube of browned banana hardly provided any punch to the kids meal.
The cheese & ham omelet was below average on taste and was served cold. A meager portion of frozen, then, deep fried home fries were somewhat tasty and enjoyed by the wife.
I ordered the Cuban Breakfast sandwich that was rather tasty.
Upon receiving the bill I did notice a discrepancy in coffee pricing…$ 2.95 for house coffee and &1.95 for the House coffee. WTF!!!
I asked the nearest server why the difference in coffee pricing and her response was an unsure, «I just started working here, you can ask the guy in the blue Shirt». I then directed my coffee query to the blue shirted manager who pulled out a huge menu and showed me the gourmet coffee price that was $ 2.95 but a coffee purchased with breakfast was just $ 1.95???
Not that I wanted a quarrel over coffee pricing but it is one of my biggest disappointments about the food industry when items are over charged (seriously, unit cost on a cup of coffee is at best .25 to .32 cents.) Just keep coffee at one price and avoid the confusion.
Location was clean and nicely decorated, however, staff needs to be fully trained on all aspects of restaurant procedures and pricing. Try serving food that is not burnt.
Instead of trying to promote all the upcoming weekly specials, focus on keeping your customers happy and stop with the coffee price fixing.
At best, your establishment scores a 2.5 out of 5…

The first time I went here we had beer and flatbread on the patio and it was amazing.
My second visit for lunch however, was horrible. They had amazing pictures of Daquiris so I ordered the sour cherry one, instead I got a watery, foamy mess with no flavour. Asked the server to fix it and it wasn’t much better. The sesame chicken wrap I ordered was so ice cold it hurt my teeth.
On the bright side the mussels and soup we also ordered were good. Overall not worth the ‘finer dining’ atmosphere and pricing they give off.

Great atmosphere and delish big portions!
We ordered chicken wings, pulled pork quesadilla and fetichini Alfredo with chicken. We were stuffed but couldn’t pass up the BOGO dessert offer.
Both cake slices were so yummy and of the chocolate variety.
Some of the add on items like tea ($ 3) and adding chicken to the pasta ($ 5.50), I find a bit higher than average.
But overall, a good value.
I took advantage of the bar special and ordered a $ 4 vodka soda.
Settling the bill, tends to take a bit longer than necessary (both times I have been it is about 15 mins from the time the bill is dropped to the time the server comes back to settle).

I have been here a few times, it is honestly a real hit and miss situation.
They have great deals on drink, and the drinks are amazing.
As for the food they have great deals on some of the meals, I believe the last day I went it was the greek chicken, it tastes great but it wasn’t worth the money (but I could see how other people would think so)
The deserts and certainly small, well I think it came with the meal so I can’t complain.
As for the staff they are amazing and the okace looks wonderfull I love the way it looks.
Overall I have only been 3 times, the 2 times I had a heat experience and the 1 time not so much.
I am going to go there 1 more time and will update my rating and review because it was mixed. (First 2 times were great and the last time wasn’t).
Overall I am excited to go back and will try something different.

Last night my lady and I stopped in to get $ 4 burgers. I got a burger with smoked Gouda, bacon and mushrooms. My girl got a burger with cheddar and mushrooms. We also had an order of sweet fries. The burgers were decent, they were cooked good and were still juicy. It’s cool to find a spot in Canada that serves pbr beer.
Overall we spent about $ 50 bucks on $ 4 burger night but we ordered a lot of stuff and we felt like we got our money’s worth.

Cake, cake, CAKE! Sunday is 2 for 1 cake slices! HELLS YEAH! Know how much I love cake? I’ve never eaten anything else at this place… until now. I’ve been to different Symposium locations, but didn’t feel it was fair to only blog about one of the many options on their menu!
Breakfast sounds like a good place to start. It was a busy Sunday afternoon when we arrived. The place was stylin’ with leather seats and an ancient Greece type theme. Each one I’ve been to has the same theme, but they’re all beautifully designed including the most important feature… the cake display.
We didn’t make it past the breakfast menu before we had made our selections. I chose the Tuscan Benedict and my mom chose the Mississippi Benedict. The Tuscan had 3 poached eggs with Hollandaise sauce upon spears of asparagus on toasted English muffins smothered in grated smoked gouda. The Mississippi had 3 poached eggs with Hollandaise sauce upon spears of asparagus laying upon thin crab cakes.
Wow. Just wow. The eggs were perfectly poached and the Hollandaise sauce was rich; not too salty with a hint of sweet. Delish! The smoked gouda made my day! My mom, the seafood queen, was sad the crab cakes were so small, but she still enjoyed the meal. We both polished off all of the breakfast potatoes. Seasoned and addicting! We were both impressed with the quality of the food as well as the presentation.
It’s cake time! You will not be disappointed; they have a cake slice for everyone! When you ask your server for cake, they will take you on a CAKE TOUR! I’m not joking! You are guided to the aforementioned cake display case where they name off each cake and you are free to ask questions about them before making your selection. You know how most restaurants have the same desserts? Well, it looks like you have a new dessert addiction to feed (I know I do!). These are not your average cakes. The variety changes often!
Great quality and service! Check it out!