Taste of Dominican

Note: I went here in May just after it opened, but since Unilocal didn’t have a listing for it, I posted this review somewhere else.
I went to Taste of the Dominican today. It’s run by an engaged couple w/​the man in the back and his fiancée up front. The interior is bright with salsa and merengue music playing quietly in the background.
The food is pure comfort. It’s like eating at your Dominican friend’s house. Nothing ground breaking or haute about it, it’s good, solid food. We tried sancocho, platanos, and chuletas w/​moro de gandules. I asked for a fried egg to be added to the rice and beans since this was doubling as breakfast. Everything was good, nothing was over-​salted and the portions were filling. As for the prices, two of us got out of there for $ 40 including tip and soft drinks. You could easily spend under $ 10 and still be full.
The service is friendly, but not perfect. Think of it as leisurely.
tl;dr: It’s the best Dominican food I’ve had in Toronto. That’s not saying much and since I’m from NYC, I’ve had better, but it hits the spot when you get a craving.

The first 3 reviews of this restaurant look very suspicious… all 3 reviewers are first timer reviewers, the time of reviews are about a week or two from each other, they are all 5 stars, and look how similar they all sounded! definitely suspicious… i wonder why the Unilocal auto-​filtering system isnt picking them up. especially the review by Pedro and the pictures he posted. Do the pictures really look like they came from regular customers? or do they look like they came from the owners?
Alright. now onto my actual review. The waitress is friendly and warm on the surface, but her service definitely is not applaudable. We came into the restaurant finding no one to greet us. Then, there were no menus. After some pointing at the pictures on the wall, we finally made our orders. The waitress is courteous and chatty. But when we said «just water» to «what would you like to drink», she brought us bottled mineral water instead of water from the tap. Not that it is a big deal, but she could have clarified if it wasnt clear to her. When she brought us our food, she warmly told us that the right way to eat the Dominican way is to put the bean gravy onto the rice, and that if we have finished the gravy, we can ask for more. Sounds good, except that when we actually finished the bean gravy, we couldnt get the waitress. After she served our food, she went back to her counter and never once came to check on us, not even to refill our glass bottles.
As for the food itself, the portions are big and filling, however the taste is just so-​so. Anyone with some experience in the kitchen could have done an equal if not better job at home. I definitely didnt feel there is anything uniquely «Dominican» about the food.
This is a new restaurant, so i definitely hope the owners can do something to improve. and come on, asking your friends to write a 5-​star review just isnt the right thing to do.