Dinner Party @ Tilde (Greek Town & The Danforth)

I run a food group in Toronto through Meetup, and I am regularly contacted by restaurants and asked to consider visiting their establishment, or holding an event with them. When considering a restaurant for an event, I take several factors into consideration:

Is the food delicious?
Is there value for money?
What are people saying about the restaurant (e.g., Yelp, Urbanspoon, etc.)?
Is the staff easy to work with? Do they get back to me within a reasonable amount of time?
Is the restaurant in downtown Toronto (I rarely do events outside of the city)?

And Tilde was able to meet all these requirements, and even surpassed my expectations.

How it began….

Tilde reached out to me in late 2014, and after some consideration I thought it would be fun to hold a Mexican-themed event in early 2015. I had a menu and image of how I wanted the restaurant to look like in mind, and Tilde was more than happy to make my vision a reality. Throughout the planning process they were receptive to my needs, and were incredibly patient when attending to all my questions and requests. This party was going to be for over 60 people, and not being an “actual” event planner (I make it up as a I go along), I could become a little demanding and bossy (there! I admit it!) – but at the end of the day my goal is always for my guests to have a great time while indulging in delicious food.

Service

I have held several large events in the past, and the biggest hiccups have been service-related. Either the food takes too long to get to the guests, the food comes out in waves, or the communication between the kitchen and floor staff is missing, and I have to step in to assert my expectations. At Tilde however, the service was spot on! I was able to comfortably mingle with my guests because the staff at Tilde had everything under control – food was fresh, hot, and came out on a timely and organized fashion. This is even more impressive considering that they had a full house to contend with.

I want to note that one of my guests has a gluten intolerance and we did not tell the restaurant in advance about this (totally my fault!). Yet rather than panic (I was already researching restaurants in the area that had gluten-free food that I could pick-up for my guest), they told me that there would be a slight delay because they did not want to contaminate the food for my guest while they were cooking from the event menu (gluten cannot touch my guest’s food or she could get sick), but as soon as they were done serving everyone, they would create for my guest a special three-course meal that would be gluten-free. How awesome is that?! Very!

Vibe

I asked for a “cheesy Mexican-looking” space, and they did a pretty damn good job. They were able to deliver on the Mexican decorations, while still staying true to the Tilde vibe – clean, spacious, warm, and lively.

Food

Each person enjoyed the following:

Guacamole and Chips
2 Tacos – 1 Korean Chicken and 1 Bengali Fish
3 Chicken Wings
2 Churros with Chocolate Dipping Sauce

Tilde also created a special cocktail for the event, and discounted all cocktails and beers.

Every dish was cooked to order, and arrived at the table steaming hot and loaded with fresh ingredients.

What we loved:

The chicken wings! Man, those were some ridiculously good wings – large, juicy, and perfectly seasoned. You can’t ask for anything better.
The mango sauce. I could have eaten it with a spoon. Bottle that baby up and you got yourself another successful business. You gotta put it on everything! Trust me! Thank me later.
The tortillas were real tortillas! And they doubled them up! Which was necessary since those tacos were loaded! Thank God, cause there is nothing more that I hate than stingy portions.
The cocktails! I did not have one, but while walking around the room, people could not stop talking about how amazing they were.

The Prizes!

I wanted this event to be extra special, so I reached out to a few companies and inquired about whether they would be interested in donating a prize. I was shocked by the interest! So much so, that I even had to turn down several prizes because I already had too many! My guests won prizes from…

Verdict

Working with Tilde was such a pleasure, and a shockingly smooth process. But most importantly, my guests had a great time, and loved the experience. This is what some of my guests had to say….

Ann

“Excellent time! Food was great, service was great – Itanni did an awesome job! I was jealous of the winners of the prizes ‘cuz they were also cool prizes! Had an awesome time.”

Toya

“For my first meetup with this group it was great! Itanni was a welcoming hostess and I enjoyed good food & good conversation with my table mates:-)”

Vanessa

“Thanks Itanni , I had a great time! There were a lot of great people at this event, thanks for hosting!”

Rob Y

“Good service, good food, and lots of fun! Well organized Itanni!”

….. For more reviews check out the event page here