The Mizzen

Key points:
Gluten free options.
Soy milk.
Expensive.
Two people = $ 71 after tip.
They offer you orange juice with coffee at the beginning of the meal. Don’t take it unless you’re expecting the $ 11 price tag (for two). Kind of sneaky! We knew we would have to pay, but the people sitting next to use didn’t even drink it. Probably thought it was free!
It better have been squeezed by the hands of Tibetan monks.
Gluten free options were boring. French toast was fine, the toppings were way too sweet with even the most minimal amount of syrup.
Overall, what you’d expect from a Westin hotel restaurant.

When I was staying at the hotel, we had breakfast and dinner as part of our package of our stay, but I would NOT come here otherwise, especially if you had to pay full price.
Toronto has SO many different types of food to offer — and st Lawrence market is just steps from the hotel. I wouldn’t pay full price for this food, although dinner was quite good — but don’t go out of your way.
Breakfast
— buffet style
— if you’re gluten free, you’re out of luck because 80% of the food here is all bread, pastries, cereal, pancakes.
— they have yogurt, but nothing organic and full of preservatives and fillers (conventional)
— only one type of egg, scrambled with CHEESE — why?!
— asking for another egg style or with no cheese, was a big hassle and got some disgruntled employees huffing at me. Ask your server
— lots of fruit
— watery congee (very salty) but was actually okay tasting
Dinner
— dinner was quite good
— swordfish, pork, potatoes, pasta
— market vegetables that I saw everyday
— dessert was pretty good too
but if you have any intolerances, esp to dairy you’re again out of luck
Some other options for you include,
Coras, any of the pubs on Queens Quay, Against the Grain, Hot House Café, The Corner Restaurant, Hanks…

Hotel restaurants are a mixed bag — there are Zagat-​rated restaurants in Las Vegas that actual hotel guests can’t get into, and there are flavorless, dirty hellholes with flat beer nestled next to the highway in southern Illinois whose waitresses will smile as they ignore you because they’re the only game in town.
The Mizzen, nestled inside Toronto’s swank Westin Harbor Castle, isn’t either one — exactly.
Right along the bay, hotel guests have easy access to more restaurants, bars, clubs and hot dog stands than you can even begin to try unless you’re there for a month. And given Toronto’s diverse makeup, you can choose from anything you’ve ever heard of — and probably some things you haven’t — within a 15-​minute cab ride. So you might figure that any restaurant hoping to survive would want to stand out, or maybe impress.
But not the Mizzen. It’s as if they begrudgingly — perhaps because of government regulation (It’ll make sense in a minute) — are required to have a restaurant, and with a sigh and a roll of the eyes that seems common in the service staff of a few Toronto restaurants, agreed to provide the most tepid experience possible.
The food itself wasn’t bad. The fries were way above average — probably hand-​cut, fresh and tasty. The salad and sandwich seemed OK, and the chipotle tacos, pretty good. They came fast enough, too.
But the experience was more like stepping into the set of a sitcom.
The three of us walked in at high noon to find the place nearly deserted (Maybe that should have been a sign). We were guided to a table, asked for a drink order, and told we had the choice of ordering off the menu or the buffet.
A quick wander through the buffet line, revealed soup in a colander, a couple of vegetables looking overcooked and lonely under one lid, two empty trays, and another colander about a third-​full with warm water. Beyond that was what looked to be a pretty typical salad bar.
We asked the waiter if the buffet was open. «You want to have the buffet?» he presumed. We explained there wasn’t any food there. He nodded and walked away.
A few minutes later, he brought us coffee (fresh, hot and good), a Coke and an orange juice. Wasn’t what we’d ordered. He removed the Coke, but never did bring the rest of the drink order.
Then we got down to business. A salad. A sandwich. Chipotle tacos. Great. Then the burger.
«How would you like your burger cooked?» the waiter asked.
«Medium,» said one friend.
«We can only cook it well done due to government regulation.»
We all just looked at each other. I may have snorted.
Once the food came, everything was fine, though the burger was, not surprisingly, overdone, and the turkey BLT had enough bacon for the whole table. So we ate, sharing the fries and bacon, and then got ready to leave.
«You’d like to pay now?» the waiter said, motioning for someone to hand him a card.
«Can we get the bill?» said our other companion. The waiter walked away and came back. «One hundred and forty dollars.» he said.
We looked at each other. «OK… can we see the bill?» He paused for a second, plainly irritated, then brought a bill.
Only not OUR bill. Apparently, four buffets and some other goodies runs $ 140 (though how, with nothing actually ON the buffet, I can only imagine). Ours, once we asked again, was a little more than half that.
Mizzen, it turns out, is a nautical term, and the mizzenmast is typically the third mast back on a ship. Whatever they intended, the day we were there, there was no wind in the Mizzen’s sails, and the place was place was adrift and lost at sea.

We ate here on a Friday afternoon, which was a busy time in the restaurant.
I have to say first, that the food was great, everyone at our table enjoyed what they had and the menu was creative and had enough variety to make all six of us happy.
The bad part of our meal was the service. Once we were seated, our waiter came and gave us menus and then didn’t return to take our drink order for 15 minutes. We all ordered pop and water, which he came back with fairly quickly, but for some reason I didn’t get any water. When he returned to take our lunch order, about 20 minutes later I asked for water again when I ordered my meal. When the meal came (time had no meaning by now) I requested water again, but I had no luck. Again we did enjoy our food, but the service was very slow, a bit inept and it’s very pricy!
I wouldn’t recommend going here for a quick work lunch (as we thought we were), but the food was tasty, so it could be worth it if you have lots of time (or a better waiter)

Worst $ 27 breakfast buffet EVER! The baked goods were all stale, food was luke-​warm and just generally bad. The glasses for juice don’t fit under the dispenser either.

Toronto is one of my favorite cities, though I was only in for about 12 hours, with my first meeting at the Westin. I came to The Mizzen for breakfast. I’m a little amazed at the people discussing this being too pricey. Perhaps you’ve never actually dined in a hotel before? Prices were pretty standard.
Buffet was closed, so I ordered the standard ham & eggs with a side of sausage and some berries… I also had a glass of orange juice. Food was solid, eggs (overmedium) cooked perfectly, as were the meats (not dry, but also cooked through). I expected a good breakfast and I had one.
Absolutely for food options there are a ton of choices in Toronto, but if you’re at the hotel and in a hurry, this is a good option as well. It’s a solid restaurant in a hotel. Take it for what it is. Anyone finding room to complain probably doesn’t have much to do with the rest of their day.

Only reason I came here for breakfast was thanks to the fact that I was staying at the Westin and the Westin has a new policy that if you place a sign to deny maid service to your hotel each day, you get a $ 5 gift certificate to any restaurant in the hotel. And you can combine them. if it wasn’t for that reason, I would’ve walked over to Cocoberry or somewhere in Union Station’s Food Court and saved a lot of money. This is definitely expense account territory.
I came the front, grabbed one of the free USA Today’s and went to my table. Got a one hour certificate from the front desk for free WiFi and it does work here. So that’s a plus since I had work to do.
Servers heavily push the buffet and think you want juice and coffee right away. Considering the buffet is 26 bucks (!), I passed but I did take a look anyway. It’s a step above Shoney’s or Golden Griddle thanks to the Omelet Station and the Superfoods area but it definitely isn’t worth $ 26 or even $ 16 after my $ 10 from the maid service cards. There’s just no value there. Skipped the coffee too since I read here it was bad. And juice? I could beer at some bars for less than they are gouging for juice.
Instead, I ordered the Blueberry Granola Pancakes. Which is still $ 17 but with the discount, came out to seven. That I can handle. It’s actually a pretty good stack of four hotcakes with real fruit and good granola. Of course, it’s Canada so the maple syrup is the real deal.
I can’t argue with the quality of the food. It’s the quality of the service and the hard sell of the buffet and drinks and the snooty attitude. No wonder the place isn’t full. Just a pity there aren’t more or better breakfast options nearby.

I ate here twice during my visit. Once was complimentary, once I paid. Didn’t like the paid visit as much once I found out my total bill. Too pricey for a breakfast buffet.
When I called, the front desk told me that the breakfast buffet was $ 19.99. When I got my bill, it was $ 24.99 + tax + tip, I ended up spending over $ 30. For $ 30, I’d expect a pretty fancy breakfast buffet. But instead, what I got was a small step above a continental breakfast you’d get at Hampton Inn.
A varied selection of fruit, baked goods, pastries, cereals. Eggs, roasted potatoes, and pancakes kept warm on burners. Omelets to order. Meh…

Points for a nice menu concept. Fresh, healthy, organic, with a focus on «superfoods».
Three people in our party, business breakfast meeting. We made reservations for 9 a.m. and requested a table in a corner that would be calm and quiet, conducive to our cause. The table was literally back in a corner and worked quite well for us.
Opting out of the buffet breakfast ($ 25 per person), I ordered the bowl of fresh berries (raspberries, blackberries, blueberries and strawberries), and the others ordered the «market fresh fruit bowl and the organic eggs «Benedict» with Atlantic salmon, arugula, asparagus tomato salad — Mine and the fruit were each $ 15 (I think) and the egg dish was $ 19. Prices are ridiculous for what you get, unfortunately.
It was all… fine. Nothing particularly special, nothing terrible. Presentation/​plating lacks inspiration, but at least it’s a bit more interesting than your standard hotel breakfast fare.
Coffee sucked BIG TIME. ‘Nuf said.
If I was staying at this hotel and breakfast wasn’t included in my rate, I would walk down the block a bit to Cocoberry Café, but CC isn’t appropriate for a meeting.
So basically, it kind of sucks, but it may just be the best place for a business breakfast in the area… anyone have any other suggestions?

I went to Mizzen for lunch with a friend who was from out of town and staying at the Westin. I had the club sandwich and she had the quesadilla. The club was ok, not much you can do wrong with toasted bread, turkey cold cuts and some bacon. The quesadilla was pretty good, lots of cheese and substantial.
We were shocked though, when the bill came to $ 65 dollars before tip, with a large bottle of sparkling water and 2 coffees! Better value for the dollar elsewhere.

With all the other food options available in Toronto, I can see why no one has reviewed this place. It’s mostly out of town business travellers staying at the Westin (like me) that eat here, and for what you pay you can probably get a better meal elsewhere. However, it wasn’t all bad.
I loved the warm bread they brought out before our entrees arrived. It came with a nice warm cheesy spinach dip spread and a light drizzle of oil.
For my main, I had the sirloin steak with wild musroom risotto and sea salt frites. It’s hard to go wrong with steak, and I was not disappointed with it. It was cooked to medium rare just as I asked, and the risotto was made to the right consistency — not too rich and gooey, and with good subtle flavor.
If you’re in town for business and you don’t feel like leaving the hotel, this is a decent option. The food is of a good standard thought he menu isn’t particularly inspiring.