calendar note: on October 1, 2016, Rex hosted a special ‘pre-Thanksgiving’ event. Read reviewer comments below:
"pretty amazing”
ValleyMilkman: Front entrance a bit of a challenge—you have to hoist yourself up 5 vertical feet to get in the front door (is this Rex’s strategy for keeping older clientele away?!!). Food worth it though—scrumptious salmon, fabulous kale/ falafel side-salad. Will be back!
calendar note: on Tuesday, November 29 the Rex owners hosted a dinner party of seven. Reviewer comment(s) below:
“Stephen Potter would be so proud”
C.Joad2016: Dined at Rex the other night. Wonderful food—cheeses personally selected by the Rex owners in Paris only two days before our meal, and an exquisite poulet main with a fancy French name—but what stood out was the service. It wasn’t just the shine on the silverware and the attentive refilling of our wineglasses during the meal. It was the way the waiter, who ate at the table with us, saved the rest of us from a fellow diner’s long-winded story (something about being trapped in the middle of a street performance during which he was forced to “roar like a lion”) in a way that was so subtle that the rambling raconteur didn’t even notice. It was an old ‘gambit’, updated and made part of what might just be a new category of gamesmanship—‘Restaurantmanship’—and here’s how he pulled it off:
While other diners at the table stifled back yawns our storyteller, inflamed by PTSD, began to itemize every tedious detail of his “torment and distress”, pausing only occasionally and only long enough to re-fuel himself with another gulp of wine. And then I noticed it… the Rex waiter, whenever the customer started to put down his glass, would tactfully slip a coaster under it. The inference—that the customer was showing a woeful lack of respect for the hand-polished teak of Rex’s tabletop—was subtle but effective. The customer was thrown off, a little at first and then more so each time the coaster was attentively placed beneath his wineglass, and eventually our storyteller completely lost his train of thought and feebly asked when the Senators were next playing.
Such a relief, and I intended to leave a nice tip. Waitress forgot to bring bill, though, so what can you do.
calendar note: on Thursday December 29 Rex hosted a party of ten for a multi-ethnic feast. See foodhippo review below:
"Eating 'globally' at Rex—all races, creeds, colours welcome!"
rattlesn8: Such a wonderful, diverse mix—male and female, rowdy and restrained, young and, well, not so young, long-haired and short-haired (that last one is a reference to the dogs under the table). And it didn't stop there. To my left a mathematician from the Maritimes, across from me a Toronto-born jazz aficionado, next to him an up-and-coming furniture designer, then a warm and wonderful social worker from New Jersey and next to her, a dashing photographer from La Belle Province. And rounding it all out, two young refugees from Mongolia (whose 'long march to freedom' took them by way of Vietnam, Cambodia, India and finally, to Canada).
But the icing on the multicultural cake was when the fair-skinned dinner guest to my right revealed that she was a black woman. So inspiring!
Why can’t Tweedsmuir’s be as inclusive Rex?
calendar note: on Sunday June 18 Rex hosted a party of seven in their garden patio. See foodhippo reviews below:
"Shootout at the OK Corral???"
GuinnessPig: Evening was a warm one so we ate outside on REX's back patio. Very nice and civilized—until tempers flared when two customers at the same table both claimed to know the plumpest baby. iPhones were quickly drawn from the hip as if in a wild west duel and, in a flash, shots of both contenders were launched. Bystanders were thrilled and no one was hurt, and the title was given to (drum roll please)... both babies!
"real estate uncertainty"
pinknoise: Yes, the plump-baby shootout was exciting, especially in light of what followed—an intense and depressing neo-Gothic saga about real estate, recounted by Diva's owners (who happened to be sitting at our table). It turns out that, after selling their restaurant a few weeks ago, their plans to rent their next kitchen were suddenly scuttled by Gastropub's owner, who suggested they buy instead. That's where the story darkens. Since that particular 'plot twist' Diva's one-time owners have been outbid on a chop-house on Rochester Ave. and out-maneuvered again when they tried to buy a seedy All-Night Diner on Armstrong Street. Conflict, character and suspense... and no resolution in sight!
"Guys ... (shakes head)"
anonYmouse: Why does this place just have two stars (out of five. Or is it ten?)?!! Ate there last night and it was grate. Apps included REX's signature Peppered Radish Slices, followed by a very nice Potatoe Salad and a show-stopper of a main: plump, Glazed Salmon hot off the cue. REX should have 4 stars at least, if not 9.
"pretty sure its out of five..."
missmarpleX: ... and even though you say REX should get double (or triple) the stars, where does that leave Eden Street (1 star) or Diva's (1.5 stars) or Vive la bouffe! (half a star FFS!). You gotta keep the playing field level.
"WARNING: if stars can given, they can also be taken away"
mrmagoo: Campaign underway, btw, to have Diva's stripped of its 1.5 stars, based on rumours about a certain pike recipe that two of Diva's chefs served for dinner a week ago. Was the fish—á la REX—1. gently massaged with a sesame-oil marinade before being 2. towel-dried, and then 3. bbq'd on a hand-cut, western red cedar plank, and finally 4. drizzled with a piquant, red-pepper glaze? No. The pike was boiled whole, face-down in a big pot of plain tapwater. I kid you not.
"Man Overboard!"
Sweaterpants: Was at REX last night and witnessed a heated argument between a young hipster at the bar who was saying donairs are as good as shawarmas and an old guy across from him who insisted (loudly) that the sale of donairs should be stopped immediately, and any shop that tries to sell them shut down and padlocked. As he got madder and madder, he got more and more personal and insulting, finally likening donairs to rural Appalachians, calling them "inbred, cross-eyed and backwards". Really!?? A bit of shaved meat and sweet gooey sauce stuffed in a pita, and suddenly it's Dueling Banjoes on the Cahulawassee River??!! Ridiculous.
"ya, guy went on a real tirade"
greypants264: Kinda sad actually. REX wasn't even serving donairs so why go off the deep-end like that? (okay, if they tried serving donairs I would have been upset too but they served really good glazed salmon for christs sake).
"donair texts sent & receiv'd. Not pretty"
rattlen8: Was eating at bouffe! tonight, and recognized the old guy, same one I'm sure who was at REX last night—seems he's a waiter at bouffe! (not surprising that he eats out whenever he can LOL). No rants tonight, in fact he seemed very subdued and spent most of the evening looking down in his lap, text messaging. Anyway, when he went to the washroom I took a screenshot of the messages that were right there on his iphone. Kinda confirms what Sweaterpants said in his 'Man Overboard!' post. Waiter's posts are on the right, btw, in blue, other texter (who was clearly at REX last night too) replies on left of screen. Funny that both of them have trouble remembering what made him go off the deep-end!—
At 10am of Saturday morning October 7 (2017), REX hosted a special Thanksgiving Weekend Brunch for seven customers. Read reviewer comments below—
"came for the brunch sandwich, coming back because no bill!"
Elduro: Came... for REX's famous brunch sandwich (bacon, sausage, fried egg, cheese, pickle and whatever else encased in a toasted English muffin slathered with mayo). Left... without a bill (waiter forgot). Will be back!
"is mayo hallucinogenic or something?"
Cap'n: Egg and sausage sandwich good and all, but why is it that at a brunch in the middle of the day, when no one was drinking alcohol, people still end up making such crazy confessions!?! Like buddy at the next table who seemed to us to have perfectly regular teeth (believe me we looked) who confided that when he's asleep his two front choppers protrude like a beaver's. His girlfriend says the sight is so disturbing that she has to wake him up and get him to roll over (teeth are fine by the next morning she says).
Mayo was out on the counter the whole time we were there btw, which makes me wonder if REX kitchen staff don't ever bother to refrigerate it and its affecting the customers. Thoughts?
"like Cap'n says, but also have to question the clientele this place attracts"
rattlesn8: Cap'n prbly right about the mayo, but his (her?) story about the guy who gets buck teeth when he's tired can't compare to the guy sitting at my table who does reserch at a Toronto hospital and was talking about the "complex wave-form algorithms" he uses to analyze mesoscopic MRIs (I'm paraphrasing here because it got a bit complex) to check on the health of livers taken from skeletons (or something). When a customer from the next table interrupted to point out that if a liver's taken from a skeleton it's prbly too late to help the patient, dude seemed genuinely surprised. All of that fancy math... for nothing!
On the evening of Monday, October 22, 2018, REX dazzled six dinner patrons with a Steak-and-frites extravaganza. See reviews below—