Gary & I ate dinner tonight at Johnny Rockets in the Toronto Life Centre at Yonge Dundas Square. Although this was our first visit to this newly opened location, I was familiar with the chain, having previously eaten at other locations in South Beach, Florida, at the Fallsview Niagara casino and up at Vaughan Mills. The chain also boasts locations aboard select Royal Carribean cruiseships.
Upon arrival, we were surprised to see how sparsely attended their dinner service was for a Wednesday night, given their prime tourist mecca locale, allowing for the built in "curiosity factor" that usually drives diners into an eatery following a recent opening. The diner was, at best, half full and we were able to be seated in a booth with no wait.
The decor tries to mimic a 50s malt-shop atmosphere, a la Happy Days. The booths and tables feature red leather upholstered seating and jukeboxes are prominent. If you don't like 50s style doo-wop (I do) this is not the place for you since it will feature prominently in your mealtime audio entertainment (unless you come equipped with an ipod and noise cancellation earbuds)! 70s era dance music (Donna Summer and BeeGees) does spell off the 50s heavy songlist on occasion to allow the wait-staff to show off their disco line dance performance skills (much to the amusement of pedestrians passing by and peering in the picture windows!)
The one page menu is heavy on burgers, fries and onion rings. Grease abounds. There are some salads on the menu but its surely not a prime destination for calorie counters. We ordered some fries, rings and buffalo wings as starters to share and then each ordered a St. Louis burger for our "entree". We selected the St Louis burger, which came with bacon, cheese and sauteed onions dressed with a special sauce (that the waitress described as a cocktail sauce). The burger (1/3 lb) was fab and reasonably priced at $7.99. The onion rings (served with a ranch dressing) were also good (although the price ($6) was a tad high for the serving size). Meanwhile, the wings disappointed (very bland-- no choice of sauces-- just mild) and the fries were likewise non-descript. We ordered colas from the soda fountain. Beverage refills are free and you can add lemon, cherry, vanilla or chocolate flavour shots to your cola. They also offer shakes. Although the desserts looked tempting, (esp. the chocolate brownie and NY cheesecake) we passed, having already over-indulged our junk food fix.
The service was attentive (even allowing for the dance breaks). Our drink glasses were refilled without request. The servers, in addition to mastering line dance steps, are also required to possess the basic visual art skills necessary to paint a happy face on a dinner plate with the squeeze catsup bottle when serving fries!
Our total tab, including tip, was $45. We were forced to pay cash because their debit/credit connection was down (and had been for several days, according to the waitress).
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment