Symposium Cafe Restaurant & Lounge

Me and my friends went here for a few drinks and some appetizers one weekday night. Our first drinks took 45 min to come out onto the patio. Service was alright after that, however we asked for a discount on our first drinks because of the incredible wait. When we got our bills, we saw that our drinks had not been discounted.. and the server lied and said that they were, even after we showed him that they were the same price as in the menu. We then asked to speak to a manager. The server came out 10 minutes later and told us that if we wanted to speak to a manager, we could go in and find him ourselves. Incredible. We were now very angry and went to go talk to the manager, who yelled back at us, swore at us, and was incredibly rude. Two servers were also beside him doing the exact same thing. They tried to excuse the drink wait time by saying that we ordered "too many" drinks at one time, even though we only ordered two pitchers and two drinks for a table of 8. The manager also refused to give us the contact information of a general manager or the owner of the restaurant. Avoid his hassle, and don't go here.

Visited with family , loved the food & Deseret . The staff are extremely friendly makes you feel at home .

A friend and I visited this location in early March as it's central between the two of us. With a large wide menu I figured that there would be something that we would enjoy. When we arrived there was one table occupied so we didn't have to wait for seats. The waitress took us to a booth and I noticed that the bench seat hadn't been wiped down and was covered in crumbs. She was very quiet and barely made eye contact with us. She checked on us a few times, but we were too chatty to order right away. I ordered the J.D. flat iron steak house salad and my friend ordered the butter chicken rice bowl. The waitress did ask me how I wanted my steak cooked, which is proper. Food came and it looked great, however there were issues. My sliced steak was overcooked and not the medium I had asked for, but it was still edible. The overall flavour of the dish was tasty and I would order again if the steak was cooked correctly. My friend's dish was definitely not butter chicken as it was far too turmeric yellow, so they served her a curry chicken rice bowl (which isn't even on the menu). My friend was too polite to say anything to the staff. The portion size is good and I feel it was reasonably priced for what we got. Our waitress seemed to ignore us/disappeared after our food was delivered and we had to flag down other staff for assistance. The others were helpful but we had to ask for things instead of being checked on. The location wasn't overly busy for a Saturday night so the waitress shouldn't have been overwhelmed by their tables. It did get busier over the time we were there, so perhaps it's more a very late dinner/dessert place?The ladies bathroom was freezing cold and I had to wrap myself in my winter coat to warm up again. I've been to other Symposium locations before, and have had much better experiences there. Perhaps it's a management/staff issue, but I will not be returning to the Markham location.

What a delightful place. Visited with family for dessert and drinks. Great service, friendly staff and a choice for all.

I live close by which is why I have been here five times trying different things hoping I find something good but have not. I tried the salmon which was over cooked and was clearly frozen. They use sauce to cover up the poor fish quality. I tried pasta and the sauce was tasteless. I tried breakfast but despite few patrons my breakfast took forever as the cook didn't start setting up the kitchen until well after the place opened. When I have been there for breakfast when it was busy the owner who always sits at the end of the bar with his paperwork, he never helps out. He just wells the waitress what to do. I am done giving this place more chances.