I know, I know.. it’s an Irish pub and really isn’t a restaurant place and is more catered to the drinking crowd.  But they have a menu, and on a recommendation of a co-worker, Ashley and I decided to head over there for lunch.

We usually walk by it every day seeing as how we work right around the corner.  During the summer, Fionn’s is packed on the front patio.  I think we tried to check it out in the summer but were always told we’d have to wait 15 minutes for a seat.  Well it’s November now and the patio is put away, so we decided to check it out for lunch.

You’ll notice with this review, the photos look really well done.  I know I tout that I use the iPhone to take my “incognito” food photos but this time we had Ashley’s gigantic SLR with us and decided we’d take some nicer photos.  The waitress did comment on how nice Ashley’s huge camera was, so yes, they do realize you’re taking photos of their food.  Whether or not they think you’re going to review it is up for debate.

With the waitress’ recommendation, I ordered the Prime Rib burger with cheese, while Ashley went with a chicken caesar salad (without the chicken) and a side order of french fries.  There are a few vegetarian options on their menu such as a veggie burger but a lot of them contained mushrooms which Ashley is allergic to.

Tall glass of coke

As for our drinks, I stuck with water while Ashley had a coke.  One good thing about the drinks is that they are pretty tall.  One thing I hate about restaurants is when they give you tiny glasses of water.  When I drink water, I usually do it in huge quantities and down it pretty quick.  So if I get a tiny glass and I have to call someone to refill it every 5 minutes, it’s a bit of an annoyance.  Any how, the glasses here are big!

Prime rib burger

Our food took about 20 minutes or so to arrive.  My burger looked tiny at first glance but was actually quite filling.  The crispy onions on the top added a nice bit of flavor, but be prepared to buy some gum after unless you don’t mind having your coworkers endure your dragon onion breath.  The meat of the burger had a nice smokey flavor, much like if it were done on an outdoor charcoal barbeque.  It was also a  pretty thick burger and you could tell the patties were hand made.  I grow tired of the standard flat frozen burgers so having a thick hand made patty was most excellent.

Fries sprinkled with sea salt

The fries were pretty good and had a light sprinkle of sea salt on top of them.  They were nice and crisp on the outside while fluffy on the inside.  Probably one of the better thick cut fries I’ve had in a while.

Caesar salad

Ashley said her caesar salad was huge (well it was $9!) and was okay but was a little bit on the dry side.  The croutons appeared to be pieces of sliced texas toast which were toasted then placed in the salad.  They weren’t like the regular croutons you usually get but I guess it’s nice that a place is taking it upon themselves to make their own ingredients (if that is the case).  But because of that, they lacked the taste of seasoning that croutons usually have.

For all this food, our bill came to $34.  Ouch!  Overall the food was okay.  There were no major faults but it wasn’t the best I’ve ever had.  But I guess coming from an Irish Pub chain, I can’t expect too much… I just wish the bill was about $10 cheaper.

Average Price: $9 – $15 per entree
Hours: Sun-Thur 11am to 1am, Fri-Sat 11am to 2am
Address: 235 Bloor St. East
Phone: 416-966-3006
TTC Directions: Get off at Sherbourne Subway station and walk west two blocks to Jarvis.