In May, I was here three times for dinner. Marky's has been around for years -- it is a Toronto institution. It's the quintessential Toronto kosher deli. It's Ashkenazik comfort food. The service is adequate to good -- not great. The food is good -- not great. It's clean. It's got a very good selection -- from classic (tongue, fricassee, corned beef, pastrami), to veggie, to light (chicken breast salad).When the owner is around, he walks around, is friendly, and schmoozes a bissel. The prices are fair. In the 3 times we were there, the total, including tax and tip (for four people) came to between $50-$60 (but that was just for a main courses, no drinks and no desserts).
It's casually comfortable and consistent. It's a place you can take a non-Jewish client without feeling embarrassed. I took a client there about a year ago for lunch, and he found a "BLT" (beef fry, lettuce and tomato) sandwich. He even ordered it on white bread with mayo. He liked it!
The washrooms are downstairs and reasonably clean. Parking in the less-than-inviting strip mall is sometimes difficult. I was lucky 3 of the 4 times, and found a spot in front of the restaurant. The others in my group found parking spots a few minutes away.
I checked the DineSafe website, and found they have passed all inspections listed (from Aug. 06 to Feb. 08).
6 comments:
They served me green Lox and denied that there was a problem.
I have traveled the world and experienced kosher restaurants worldwide. Marky's is without a doubt the most disgusting kosher restaurant I have ever experienced.
My mother ordered a meal of chicken wings, that was served to her cold, greasy and not broiled as per her order. Additionally it was served with cold rice. I ordered a lean corned beef sandwich plate, that includes potatoe salad, coleslaw and a pickle. As it turned out the meat on the sandwich was full of fat and gristle and was loaded with pepper, it was inedible. I kept having to spit pieces out and pull pieces out of the sandwich and ended up eating mainly just the bread from the first half of the sandwich. In the hope that the second half of the sandwich would be better, I took 2 small bites from it and then realized that it was a lost cause. Furthermore the potatoe salad was also full of pepper and inedible. The pickle was approximately an 1/8 of a pickle. By this time I had completely lost my appetite.
I took my plate up to owner Erez Karp and showed him the fat and gristle piled on the side of my plate. I also asked him to taste the potatoe salad that was laden with pepper. He suggested that he would replace the sandwich with a different one.I told him that I had lost my appetite and did not want a replacement. I rejoined my mother who ate her meal despite the fact that it was cold and greasy.
When I asked the waitress for the bill, she brought a bill for nearly $30.00, it inlcuded the dish that I had ordered and barely eaten. I approached the owner and advised that I did not intend to pay for my meal which was inedible and that I only intended to pay for my mother's meal. He immediately insisted that I must pay for everything. I suggested that he phone the police, as I had no intention of paying, and so he did. I took pictures of the "meat" fat and gristle on my plate of food along with a picture of Mr. Karp standing behind the plate of food at his counter, see pictures below.
While waiting an hour and a half for the police (who never arrived). Mr. Karp sat staring me in the eye and smirking and making nasty comments. I advised him that he should be ashamed, I am a lung cancer patient and my 84 year old mother has been a patron of his restaurant since it was first established. (She now resides overseas and is visiting here and insisted on going to eat there).
After waiting an hour and a half for the police, I decided that enough was enough, I approached Mr. Karp at his cash register and put down $16.00 which more than covered my mother's meal and I told him that we were leaving. He then called me a "Ganev" in yiddish which means a thief. He came around the counter and began to physically push my 84 year old mother and I out the door while screaming verbal abuse at us the whole time. Mr. Karp yelled the following:
"Get the f**k out of my restaurant you f*****g b****h. F**k you, I hope you get your fat ass run over by a bus. I hope you drop dead from your cancer, you f*****g b***h. I pity your husband, if you even have one."
Once we were in my car, I phoned the police and they told me that he had cancelled the call for them to come out. They told me that I can lodge a complaint with them in the morning as he had no right to touch either one of us. They also suggested that I write to the Better Business Bureau, as I have done.
My mother is a religious woman, the daughter of a Rabbi. She is 84 years old and I have never in my life heard a swear word come out of her mouth. She was shaken to the core and had to take two Valium pills to calm down in order to sleep.
If you choose to dine at this horrible establishment you do so at your own risk.
My family ate at Marky's last week. Of the 6 of us, three family members ended up with food poisoning. We will never return to eat in this filthy restaurant.
Nobody who has ever met Erez Karp, owner of Marky's, would believe that story posted above in the second comment. Pushing an 84 year old woman, and telling someone to drop dead of their cancer chas veshalom, could only be fictitious statements by someone clearly trying to smere Erez's reputation. He is a Tzaddik by all counts, which perceptive people can immediately ascertain from his smile. Where else are you gonna find such a large and affordable menu that's even available late at night. Thank You Erez - your dedication to the community will be sorely missed.
As the original Blogger, I feel a responsibility to respond to the postings from May 2012.
I have eaten at Markys many dozens of times over the past few decades. As I said in my original post, the food is never gourmet, but it is always consistently good.
Regarding the comments about fat and pepper on the corned beef, I gotta tell you, there's nothing more unappealing to me than lean corned beef -- it needs some fat for flavour. And regarding the pepper -- if you don't want pepper, why did you order corned beef -- there's always pepper on corned beef?
As I said, I am biased, because I have ordered kilos of corned beef from Markys over the years, and have never had a problem. So, I take your complaints with a grain of salt (so to speak). So from the way I see it, if a you complain, and you were offered another meal, the owner has done something very reasonable to make amends. If you refuse to pay for a meal based, I am not sure I disagree with Mr. Karp (whom I do not know) with the Ganev reference.
Anyhow, ultimately, you got your wish, because this important Toronto Jewish institution will be closing for good next week. If you like a classic deli, and you want a kosher meal, my recommendation is to try it while you can. Markys will be sorely missed!
Complaining loser
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