The restaurant: STK Toronto (153 Yorkville Avenue, Toronto, ON)

The occasion: An ELLE team bonding dinner.

The vibe: The Toronto location (and first Canadian outpost of the group of luxury steakhouses, which turn into super fun dance parties after 10 p.m.) is in tony Yorkville, so come dressed up. But despite the chichi ‘hood and designer-bedecked crowd, the staff was friendly and warm, welcoming us into our so-comfortable-we-didn’t-want-to-leave white leather seats like we were old friends.

The food and drinks: We came for “social hour”—after-work drinks and apps and, tbh, were kind of worried that we’d leave with empty stomachs. Were we ever wrong. Over the course of two hours, we noshed on oysters, Caesar salad, bacon skewers, tater tots (confession: there may have been one or two standoffs over who got the last one), ceviche tacos and more. The fish was super fresh and the carbs eaxpertly fried. The cocktail menu was also on point–after bubbles (of course) and wine, we tried the STK mules and the cucumber stiletto, a refreshing mint, cucumber and Absolut and St-Germain blend that was sublimely perfect for a July evening.

The standout: The steak, of course, which was cooked with the perfect amount of pink and was so tender didn’t even need a dollop of the homemade sauce on the side of the plate. (Note: that didn’t stop us from eating it all.) And the sticky toffee pudding. Even though we complained to our server, Brian, that we couldn’t stand another bite of food, he called our bluff and sent this over. And it was gone in five minutes.

We recommend it for: We’d definitely come back for post-work drinks, and dinner and girls’ nights. But maybe not a first date. We’d probably be too busy canoodling with our plate of sticky toffee to pay any attention to anyone or anything else!