One Of A Kind

The menu is huge which is a red flag right away. If you have so many items on the menu, you can’t possible do them all well.
The green salad I ordered was swimming in so much oil that the leaves were wilted and drenched. The pasta was «meh», a bit bland. The pasta was not homemade either and they did not have fresh parmagian cheese. (Sp?). The people at the next table were brought food that they didn’t order and the waiter said for them to eat it anyway.
The server had some sort of argument with the kitchen staff and was yelling at them in front of customers. Not pleasant to listen to.

Ever since Captain John’s was towed for scrap I was wondering what Toronto’s worst restaurant is, and unfortunately I think I accidentally found it tonight with One of a Kind.
We ordered spaghetti Bolognese (spelled wrong on the menu) and a grilled chicken dish. The restaurant was anarchy, no one was getting their orders in any kind of reasonable time.
Eventually the dishes came out; without asking they had substituted the garlic mash in the chicken dish with a Pomodoro spaghetti (and this is a dish that comes with a chicken gravy, am I supposed to pour that on the spaghetti??). They also announced that they had no meat sauce for the other pasta order. And remember, this was nearly an hour after we ordered. Couldn’t they have let us know when we placed the order?
An attempt to recover the night with another dish revealed the toughest meatballs I have ever tried to eat. Reminded me of the little rubber balls I play squash with.
Also, this is a pasta restaurant where all the pasta dishes are made from dried noodles out of the box, like you’d buy at No Frills. There is absolutely no authenticity or effort to the cooking, nor any respect or customer communication on the part of the staff

I brought my friends in the hopes of reliving past excellent experiences. This time appearances were not deceiving, but right on point.
The summer has clearly been unkind (or their old lousy air conditioner has been) and the place smelt vaguely of wet dogs. Personally I’d prefer the smell of pasta. The wine prices were outrageous (I clearly must have kept a blind eye to that in my last review) but I will say that the food was still tasty.
The real issue was the service. The service during dinner service was subpar and often we were forgotten. This is particularly frustrating when you consider there there was only 5 tables taken (including our own), so it wasn’t very busy. But I guess our waiter felt that chatting with his friend was more important.
When we went to check out he noticed that my friend had tipped him lower for his poor service. He then asked her if his service was bad and got after my friend for tipping him low. Whatever your thoughts are on tipping, I shouldn’t have to worry that my waiter will get after me or my friends for the tips they give. Needless to say, the experience at this restaurant was poor.

Wandered in here a couple weeks ago and the pasta is surprisingly good.
Quite a reprieve too from the area hipsters, as they don’t go here since it’s not a trendy place, just good food and prices

Well another night another attempt at finding a good Italian delivery place. And another failure. The meat sauce was decent, albeit smelling pretty sweetly of nutmeg or cinnamon. The pasta was store-​bought, not fresh. The same kind that comes in bags marked «italpasta». The carbonara sauce was full of cooked chunks of egg and little cheese.
Be warned when you order a side dish of broccoli, what you get is not cooked broccoli with olive oil, or garlic, lemon or Parmesan like you’d expect from
An Italian place. You literally get a takeout tray of plain, steamed broccoli. For 895. Yeah.
But here’s what gets the bad revirew: gets me is the meatballs. Not only horrid lumps of processed, condensed meat the consistency of wet mud, they were actually sour on the inside. They were disgusting, and immediately tossed in the trash. I have my suspicions they are the reason I’ve spent much of the past two days on the toilet. If you enjoyed that image, you can thank «one of a kind».

Not sure what people are looking for out of a $ 10-​$ 20 dollar dinner, but this place is amazing, even when you don’t consider the reasonable prices. They have some of the most flavorful and interesting pasta dishes I’ve ever had. I don’t care how «authentic» Italian they are or not, they hit the spot. I find myself craving this over any other Italian place I’ve ever been to. The menu items range from delicious cheap pastas to more expensive dishes with great combinations of ingredients, so you can really eat as cheaply or expensively as you feel like.
I usually get take-​out, but it’s actually a pleasure to dine in here. It’s dim and cozy and romantic, but doesn’t feel stuffy or annoyingly upscale. It’s unfortunate the sign makes this place look like absolute crap, because if you can look past it, it really is a gem.

There’s a universal truth when it comes to food: Never grocery shop when you’re hungry and food always tastes better when you’re hungry.
A friend of mine was visiting from out of town and after a long day of shopping and walking around, we found ourselves back in my neighborhood and hungry. She wanted pub food, but the closest pub to me was one we’d both been to and weren’t crazy about, so we finally agreed to give this pseudo Italian joint a try. I call it pseudo Italian as it’s sort of a steak/​seafood/​pasta joint. It has one of those ‘been here awhile for a reason’ vibes so I thought why not try it out, could be a hidden gem.
The menu is a bit confusing, but it’s generally straightforward after a bit of inspection. There seems to be two levels of dinner specials: One with a side and one with a side and desert. They’re listed on separate pages of the menu so I wasn’t sure right away that they weren’t just the same thing. I’m not a desert guy so I went with option A, which was $ 15.95 I think. I ordered the Fettuccine Alfredo with chicken, and a side Caesar. Both were very good. The sauce was a bit thin and tasted a bit watery which I thought might be a red flag of it being powdered, but I think it was just a lighter cream. The pasta itself was excellent. Also, it was fresh pasta, I assume made in house or brought in but either way, I always appreciate fresh pasta when eating Italian. The Caesar salad was average (no bacon) but good, and came with a side of garlic bread. Total bill for two pasta dishes (one was Chicken Parm) and two glasses of wine and a Pelegrino was $ 65’ish. Very reasonable.
Service was decent. The server had to cover the entire dining room so he was busy. Although he had a very serious demeanor, he was professional and even smiled a few times and laughed once he could tell that we were good customers. A bit slow on the wine, but otherwise good.
I’d say it’s worth the trip!

We enjoy this place a lot: decent food and nice selection of menu options for a good value. The ambience is comfy. There are a number of interesting décor features.

The food at One Of A Kind Pasta & Grill is excellent! Surprisingly excellent!
Our meal started out with complementary garlic bread, which was delicious and very fresh. We ordered the Butter Chicken spagetti and the Mac and Cheese and both were top notch. These dishes were completely different, but both were prepared with a level of skill that I was not expecting. My companion, who is of Indian descent and a self-​described butter chicken snob, was very impressed with the flavour of the Butter Chicken sauce. The Mac and Cheese (rigatoni with Black Forest Ham and Peas in a Brie Cream Sauce but I got it without the ham) was fantastic, but quite different from what most people would expect when they order such a ubiquitous dish. The flavours were very nuanced; not bland but not obvious It’s a bit hard to describe, but don’t expect cheddar cheese sauce and a breadcrumb crust!

The portions were reasonable — not Olive-​Garden massive but you definitely won’t leave hungry — and the prices were great. Dinner for two with drinks (but no dessert) came to about $ 55. We found the service quick and attentive, although the restaurant was not very busy on the night we were there.
I have to admit that I was a bit wary of this place initially — it doesn’t look like much from the outside and I’m always suspicious of a large menu with seemingly random influences such as Indian and Asian (in addition to the obvious Italian theme), but somehow it all works. I would definitely eat here again!

Hmmm interesting restaurant. Not what I was expecting but it was recommended by someone so we decided to check it out. It’s not quite Italian as the staff are Chinese. and it’s not quite a pasta bar as their menu is quite diverse.
Let’s start with the ambiance. The candlelight makes it romantic and cozy but the décor on the walls, the flashing lights outside the door and everything else make it not quite romantic just dark and cozy. We walked into an empty restaurant at 8pm which really isn’t assuring.
The menu is diverse. They have the standard pastas, some fresh pastas which sound interesting eg the zebra pasta, the jalapeño pasta, etc, and they have the meats and fishes.
The most important thing about a restaurant is the taste of the food. Next is the price. The first is «meh». The second is good. So depending on what kind of diner you are, this restaurant could be a hidden gem for you. I tried the exotic mushroom soup which to be honest I can’t figure out what was exotic about it. It tastes like Campbell’s soup with another kind of mushroom tossed in. I also got the lasagne which tasted unconventional, no red sauce, quite meaty but the cheese on top was burnt and chunks of burnt cheese is no fun to eat. It was a $ 16 meal. Nothing to break the bank over but I’m not sure the value is there. In this competitive market, there’s too many options that are within that price range. The portions were big enough though I’ll give them that.
My partner had the conch soup, shrimp cocktail and the duck pasta. He seemed to enjoy his meal So there you have it. I’m always on the lookout for hidden gems but this one didn’t work out for me.

From the outside, the place looks like a crappy restaurant. I wouldn’t have walked in on my own if a friend hadn’t taken me there. But once you’re inside, you realize this place is cosy and welcoming Italian restaurant.
I used to be on the fence about ordering pasta at a restaurant. Why pay money for something I can make myself for cheap? That is, until I came to One of a Kind. There is so much choice, I always end up spending 30 minutes narrowing it down to one dish. The pasta is always done perfectly, there are so many options depending on what you want/​like (meat, poultry, seafood, veggies) and I have to admit their pasta making skills are way superior to mine, which I’m not too upset about.
I’ve never had a bad experience with service. Our waiter (always had the same one) was always attentive and speedy. I’d definitely recommend it.

First off, if the owners of the restaurant are reading this — PLEASE take down those horrible neon signs outside your restaurant. From the outside, they make your lovely, cosy, intimate Italian restaurant look about as authentic as the Subway across the street. Honestly, my boyfriend and I came here a year ago and last night we travelled all the way from Queen East to Queen West just to try this cute little place again, but we ended up walking past it three or four times before realising that the flashing, neon-​lighted fast-​food looking place actually was the delightful restaurant we had remembered. Misleading!
At least the gross signage outside means you get a pleasant surprise when you walk in. This is a tiny, dimly lit, relaxing Italian restaurant complete with a mini-​waterfall fountain and real Italian music and staff to boot. Gorgeous. The menu is expansive with some really creative pasta options. There’s also plenty of non-​Italian dishes for those who want something different.
I had the Caesar salad followed by ‘jalapeño pasta’ — which was linguine with Italian sausage, chicken, stir fried vegetables in a creamy sauce. It was delicious! The spiciness of the sausage and the creamy sauce balanced each other so well. My boyfriend had the pizza bread, which he loved, and then the beef stroganoff with linguine, which he said was great. Unfortunately the stroganoff wasn’t his first choice — the pork loin special he wanted was all gone by the time we ordered.
The service was typically nonchalantly Italian, which I sort of liked! Definitely a bit on the slow and shrug-​your-​shoulders side, but it adds to the experience! I thought it was weird how the server placed my napkin on my lap though (he did this last time over a year ago as well). He seems to do this with all the females in the restaurant — odd! It was also slightly annoying how he didn’t rub off the pork loin special on the blackboard once it was gone. But no big deal. He was polite and helpful, and I loved the free garlic bread that comes as an appetizer!
This place is as good as you’d get in Toronto in terms of value for money. There are deals all over the menu — e. g: 14.95 for starter and main course from a certain selection/​16.95 for starter and main course from another selection, etc. The portions are HUGE. I was full after my Caesar salad (which didn’t even have chicken), and I had to take at least half of the pasta home in a take-​out box for the next day’s lunch.
The wine was delicious and similarly reasonably priced.
Will be back!