The Federal located at 1438 Dundas St W in Toronto

After realizing that the original spot that we wanted to enjoy brunch on a sunny Saturday was closed, I quickly looked up on Google and found The Federal, also located on Dundas Street West, had positive reviews for brunch and we went there.  The Federal serves brunch every day from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.  

To my surprise, when I walked into The Federal, I faced a long line-up and wait.  It was a small restaurant which you could see its entire space from the front door.  One of the servers there told me that the wait would be 20 minutes or so which was fine for us.

The restaurant from the entrance

It did indeed take about 20 minutes for us to get our table during which Sherry and I caught up and chatted.

When we did get our table, the server informed us that there was a long wait time for the kitchen to prepare our food but that we could order anyway if we were ready.  It definitely took a long time for the food to arrive after we ordered so I was glad that at least the server informed us of that.

The Federal menu

Drinks menu

I ordered the Cubano Sandwich after seeing really positive reviews of it from Yelp.  It contained roast pork, cheddar, ham, avocado, mustard, pickles, and aioli between two slices of sourdough bread.  It was served with greens and potato rösti.

Cubano Sandwich. $14
-roast pork, cheddar, ham, avocado, mustard, pickles, aioli, sourdough. Served with greens & potato rösti

Sherry ordered the Curry Chicken Sandwich which had chicken, chutney, curry aioli, pear and arugula, also on sourdough bread and with greens and potato rösti on the side.

Curry Chicken Sandwich. $12
-chicken, chutney, curry aioli, pear, arugula, on sourdough. Served with greens & potato rösti

Cubano Sandwich close-up. You can see the mushy avocado and slices of ham here

I really enjoyed my Cubano Sandwich.  The smooth and ripe avocado really tied in all the flavours of the roast pork, ham, and cheddar all together.  It was a very flavourful and scrumptious sandwich that you eat with two hands (otherwise it was very easy to have the ingredients fall out).  It was incredibly tasty!  The greens were fresh and the potato rösti went well with the sandwich.

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Curry Chicken Sandwich close-up

We split the two sandwiches actually so I got to try Sherry’s Curry Chicken Sandwich too!  This sandwich was unique because I had never had such a dense and rich curry chicken sandwich before.  The curry sauce was very heavy and covered the chicken meat in the sandwich thoroughly.  I found it also interesting, texture-wise, that there was pear inside the sandwich.  It was really good to have chunks of the juicy and soft pear in the sandwich.  It was a very good sandwich if you like curry.

I think that The Federal is really a local spot where you head for lunch, brunch, or dinner.  I can’t see too many people heading here just for the food from afar even though it was tasty.  I don’t think the servers were too miffed about serving abundant customers either because they started turning customers away due to their kitchen being overworked.  (When customers entered the restaurant at the time when we were enjoying our sandwiches [past 2 p.m. or so], that was when the servers told the incoming customers that the wait time from the kitchen would take around 30 minutes.  Most of the customers didn’t want to wait for that so they left.  I wonder why The Federal isn’t so intent on serving their customers?)

Really cute layout of their restaurant and two chairs in front

With that said, I still wouldn’t mind returning again to try the rest of their food including the more traditional brunch items like the egg plates.  Yum. 🙂