Symposium Cafe Restaurant Milton

Symposium Service and Quality you can count on

I have had the pleasure of going to the Symposium many times in the last year. Although there has been the odd hick up. The manager Manny stepped up and made it right and then some. Consistency and a nice relaxing atmosphere, at a good price. What more can you ask for. Always a pleasure and will frequent more.

I love this place! Or do I?

I've been here a couple of times. Their pizzas great, waffles pretty good...cheesecakesto die for, and tea fruit smoothies excellent. Although those items are good, it would have been better if they were at least served up warm (waffle and pizza). The service is extremely slow. I understand it may take a while to cook the food, but at least have it served to my table when it's ready. I went a few days ago and had the chicken pesto sandwich with a vinagarette salad side. The salad was delicious as always, beautiful dressing and just enough of everything. I was expecting the sandwich to be warm, full of flavour, maybe some garlic..? Or melted cheese? Possibly a nice bun or panini bread. What I got was something like a pre cooked subway chicken breast (barely warm) on what seemed like a very very light wide hot dog bun with tasteless pesto (ironic) and the tiniest amount of goat cheese (was it even there?). I have to say I was very dissapointed. Gorgeous place, I just was not satisfied.

Food was good, but i agree with everyone else, service is too slow. I have gone to symposium a couple of times. Our server kept going to the bar with the other servers and would stand there. I had to get up to get her attention. Atmosphere is nice, and the drink specials are not bad, but with soo many other places in milton now, this is not the only option anymore!

Without great customer service at any restaurant, you run the risk of losing repeat customers. I went to Symposium this past weekend for the third time. The first two times were not enjoyable, but I thought I would give it another try, considering that there are not many places to eat in Milton. The food, although a bit over-priced, is good. I have no compliants there. The service however, is horrible. We hadn't been here for a while, so it took us a few minutes to choose what we wanted. Our server kept coming around a lot asking if we had ordered yet - even though he saw our menus were still open. Once we ordered the food, our server kept coming to our table. You don't need to come ask us if "everything is ok" or "if we need anything" every 2 minutes - if everything was ok 2 minutes ago, it probably will be ok two minutes later. It seemed that he was trying to rush us, and that was not appreciated. We weren't in a booth - just sitting at a table, and it was not packed - so why the rush?

The service was great - people were friendly and attentive. I ordered the salmon and it was relatively bland, definitely subpar to anything I could've made at home, and a further disappointment given the price. One of the things people seem to like about Symposium is the atmosphere. To me, it looks like they're trying way too hard. The fake cracked murals make the restaurant seem less authentic and give it the typical look of a chain restaurant. I'd take paintings by local artists over blown-up fake Raphael paintings any day.