I hate to stereotype, but who else finds restaurants located close to live performance venues meh? Their strength is their location, while the food is merely decent and service passable. Dine along the strip of King West where the Princess of Wales Theatre, Roy Thompson Hall, and TIFF reside, and you’ll know what I mean.

Sadly, Danforth Sidebar fits the stereotype… being close to the Danforth Music Hall has its downfalls. Perhaps the dish that best showcases my point is the pan seared scallops ($23). The dish’s presentation was pretty but look closely at the scallops and they are unevenly done. Ultimately, they are a tad overcooked, but tastes good.

Yet, good luck trying to add another scallop onto the dish if you arrive as a table of five. The answer is simply, “no”. At first, I thought it was a joke, but it’s sadly not - the reason being the dish hasn’t been priced out per piece. Perhaps it’s my finance background, but can’t the equation be simply solved as $5.75 each ($23 divided by 4)? Rather, the answer is no as Danforth Sidebar doesn’t care to keep guests happy or increase their bill totals.

Their menu’s naming convention could also use some work. It lists the cauliflower cotija ($17) as “corn puree, pickled cactus leaf, jalapenos, cotija cheese, hot honey, warm corn tortilla”. Sounds like an incredible vegetable packed queso dip, sign me up! What arrives is a skillet of watery stir-fried vegetables sprinkled with cheese… what? Why was this not listed as ‘cauliflower tacos’ when there’s a similar item called ‘barbacoa tacos’ on the menu? It’s in fact tacos and not a dip.

If that weren’t bad enough, the cauliflower was too mushy and for something listing corn as the first ingredient there wasn’t much of it in the dish. Once I got past the queso disappointment I found it made an okay taco - at least it had nice flavours from the pickled cactus leaf and hot honey.

The short rib poutine ($21) had the makings of a great dish with a large slab of tender short rib, thin potato fries, large chunks of cheese curds, and a beefy gravy. The beef just wasn’t seasoned enough so the poutine didn’t elicit that sinful richness you normally find in the dish.

Under seasoning was a similar sentiment for the striploin in their salad. Thinking a 5oz steak was too small for a main, we added on more steak (another 4oz) to the steak salad (total cost of $27 with the addition). Steak salad plus steak was a great hack as the kitchen ended up substituting the hanger steak (what normally comes with the steak salad) for a full striploin instead. And the steak could have been delicious if it just arrived saltier and hotter.

The salad itself was delicious combining cherry tomatoes, crunchy cucumber, avocado chunks, and a creamy dressing. With a full steak, the kitchen should have plated it on a larger dish as the tiny side plate made it difficult to cut the meat. Also, having the cold salad on one side and the striploin on the other would also mean the meat wouldn’t cool down as quickly.

One draw to Danforth Sidebar is their reasonably priced wine – a bottle of prosecco was only $36! So maybe it’s less of a pre-show dinner spot and more apt for a round of after-show drinks.