I have lived in the Stouffville area now for several years and have always thought about dining at The Cornerhouse, but it just never happened; that was until Valentine’s Day. So, it was with high hopes that my wife and I made reservations and eagerly awaited our meal at The Cornerhouse. When we first arrived it was very busy so it was a good thing that we had made reservations. We were seated in about 5 minutes and proceeded to wait another 15 minutes before our server greeted us.

The fixed menu was a Valentine’s Day special and consisted of soup, appetizer, entrée and dessert. We ordered a bottle of wine and another 20 minutes later our dinner order was taken. The ambience of the Cornerhouse was a bit chaotic with servers running everywhere but, seemly, going nowhere. The lighting was good but there was no music.

The soup (cream of broccoli) came and while piping hot, had no distinguishable flavour, but I thought you can’t win them all. The bread, while tasty, came about ¾ of the way through the soup course. The presentation of this course was also very dull, there was no garnish and the bowl was barely half full.

For the appetizer I ordered the shrimp cocktail and my wife the mixed green salad; both were very uninspired but good if you were at the old Ponderosa steak house restaurant.

The entrées, of which I had grilled chicken in raspberry sauce and my wife salmon in phyllo pastry, were pedestrian and showed little imagination. The plates were burning hot which dried out the meagre amounts (about a tablespoon) of sauce. The presentation of the entrees was also poor.

While the dessert presentation was superb, the flavour of the chocolate ‘torte’ was mediocre and did little to help me recover from a disappointing meal.

The final blow came when I received the bill. The bill came to $170.00 (before tip) which was 50% more expensive than what was advertised on their website. I am not opposed to paying high prices for good food but everything went wrong with this meal from the slow service to the highly disappointing taste to the poor presentation of the food. So, if you are looking for a fine restaurant in Stouffville don’t try The Cornerhouse unless you want mediocre food at exorbitant prices.    [23 Feb 2004 13:11:13]

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     ­Anonymous   

Go Early!
Go early on a Saturday night as they tend to run out of the main dishes (Filet Mignon and Creme Brulee) by 8:00pm. Beautiful and warm atmosphere, great music, good wine list but the beef entree seemed like it had sat under a heater for too long.    [29 Feb 2004 16:15:19]

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     ­Anonymous   

Great Restaurant
It's nice to find a good fine dining restaurant out of the city. The Corner house offers great food with the added bonus of a great price. Would recommend the restaurant to everyone! We go as often as we can.    [09 Jul 2004 10:37:44]

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     ­Anonymous   

We have dined at the Corner House in Stouffville on several occassions, including Valentine's Day 2004, and have no idea what you are carrying on about. It seems we must have been in different restaurants.

As usual, the service was prompt (no, you didn't wait 20 minutes), attentive, not chaotic, and the food was excellent. Sorry your soup dish was only half-full; as in many other fine restaurants it was oversized. Perhaps you feel you should have gotten a tureen. The main courses were delicious. Sorry to hear your plates had been warmed, but no, you didn't get "about a tablespoon" of sauce. You seem to be very poor at your perceptions of time and volume.

As to your comment about the bill being higher than the advertised price (which is probably the real issue here): I don't suppose you had anything to drink?

None of what you complained about happened to us and yes, we were there.    [13 Dec 2005 11:12:43]

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     ­Anonymous   

Like the first reviewer I too had a less than ideal experience at this restaurant with my wife. We made a reservation knowing this restaurant can be quite busy at times and thought we lucked out when we arrived on a busy night. When we were greated we were told they were booked up and there were no tables available. When we mentioned we had a reservation we got the "oh, okay it will be a couple of minutes", which wasn't a problem we were there for the night. We had nothing but time. While waiting another couple came in, without a reservation and asked for a table. We were led into the restaurant first, walking by a perfectably comfortable looking table for one tucked into the back corner, by a fan and an open window that was being used to cool the place. The couple that arrived after us were led to the other table. After sitting and waiting for about ten minutes we had to ask for someone to take our drink order ... our dinner orders were taken after another 20 mins or so ... after we had actually asked for someone to come and serve us another beverage. The other couple got prompt service and was well into their appetizer course before we even ordered. I couldn't help getting the feeling that maybe we were new comers and everyone else was a regular, or the fact that we were the only couple who appeared less than middle aged. It felt like we were banished to the kitchen to sit at the kids table. Anyways it was a very awkward feeling ... being basically ignored and left to ask for service. My wife and I are both professionals and regularily dine out, its not like we walked in wearing cut off jeans and flip flops. The treatment we got was just odd. We have never been back. The food was good, but the experience was entirely lacking.    [04 Jul 2006 18:19:03]

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     ­Anonymous