The Toronto Star published a less than favourable review of Pick 6ix today by restaurant critic Amy Pataki.
Everyone is entitled to their own food opinions, and restaurant critics are experts in giving them, but the write-up seems to spend a considerable amount of time focused on the toilets and plumbing. In fact, they’re as many points about the facilities as there is about the main dishes on the menu.
You can’t help but wonder if she went into the review with higher or unfair expectations since it’s Drake’s spot. We hope to eat there one day and we’ve spoken to a few people who actually had high praise for the restaurant. And it seemed sincere. But perhaps, again, it was because it’s Drake’s restaurant and they’re Drizzy fans. A lot of fans will be going their for the experience regardless of how the food tastes. But the point is their opinions are no less valid than someone getting paid to eat there. We’ll go in with an open mind, as should you.
Pick 6IX is located at 33 Yonge St. in Toronto is also owned by Nessel “Chubbs” Beezer, head chef Antonio Park, and the Sabah Nisan Group.
Chef Antonio Park, Drake & Chubbs (Photo: Johnny Nunez/Getty)
Pataki estimates that dinner for two, including cocktails, tax and tip, would run you over $200.
Her view of the main part of the menu is less than flattering but, again, we’ve heard the exact opposite about the first target on her list (a colleague said the dried-out Korean ribs are “to die for”):
“Two of the three meals prove disastrous: dried-out Korean short ribs ($36), raw hamachi ($28) lost under sauce and banal cheesecake ($12) that’s a hard pass. A $39 spaghetti bolognese wearing a poached lobster tail is as far-fetched a collab as October’s Very Own cutting a record with polka king Walter Ostanek. (That pasta dish is no longer on the menu.)”
And then provides about as much detail about Drake’s private bathroom:
“The facilities themselves are in no way special. The toilet is a plain white model — no heated seat or Japanese spray attachment. Toilet paper is plain, too; you’d think someone worth $100 million like Drake uses the quilted kind. The pump soap beside the sinks is ordinary, as is the paper towel roll for drying hands.”
Oh, and enough with the super-cliché references to “Started From The Bottom” in titles and captions already… please. The song came out in 2013.
Click here to read the rest of the review.
