Commensal

Restaurant: Commensal

Cuisine: Vegetarian 

Price range: Depends on Portion

Location: Bay and Elm

Service: Below Average

Food: Good

Atmosphere: Average 

Suggested for: Casual Lunch, Vegetarians, and People on a Diet.  

Taro Rating: 5/10

My vegetarian friends and I wanted to check out Commensal since it is rated the best vegetarian restaurant in Toronto. Commensal is a type of vegetarian buffet where you can pick out what you want to eat from a buffet style table, but you pay by how much your plate weighs. 

Their food is fresh and natural, and most of their dishes are vegan. I wondered whether or not there was a market for a restaurants like these with the latest environmental shift and health craze going on.

They had a random tank of fish. They're lucky this is not a Chinese restaurant.

Their decor is very simple, with chalkboards to tell you where things are.

At Commensal, they charge you by how much you have on your plate. This can get pricey quickly, and if you're hungry, you better have a fat wallet.

They do have an interesting array of vegetarian food though.

Their salad bar.

Our plates came to a little bit below $12. If you wanted a second helping, you'd have to dish out more. The food was ok, there's nothing to complain or exclaim over. They have the usual array of vegetarian food, from chick peas, to vegetarian Indian cuisine, to vegetarian pasta. They also have several rice and potato dishes. I left feeling satisfatory.

Commensal left me unimpressed. The wait-staff were extremely unfriendly, as they did nothing to accommodate us. When you enter the restaurant, you pick your seat yourself and figure your way around, and it took us a while to figure out where to get our water. 

Although many people are choosing to go vegetarian, I'm not sure restaurants who run their business like Commensal will be able to thrive, especially because of their unfriendly manners.