The Burger Bar

Garthicus · Post by **Garthicus** » Tue Oct 25, 2011 10:08 pm

My favourite 'other' Toronto bar - what a place!!!

Great food, great beer, great space, great service. Just a great all round pub! A great addition to Toronto.

andrewrg · Post by **andrewrg** » Wed Oct 26, 2011 12:57 am

I love the beer selection at Burger Bar, but I've had really hit or miss service here, and it's somewhat discouraged me from going back. That and I like the atmosphere of Smokeless Joe's a bit better.

Gedge · Post by **Gedge** » Wed Oct 26, 2011 1:52 pm

Word on the street is that a number of places are looking to move into the College/Kensington area ("sniffing around" is how it was put to me). Makes sense. Can you imagine if T.O. had a beer district?

andrewrg · Post by **andrewrg** » Wed Oct 26, 2011 1:57 pm

Since I live in that area, my vote would be strongly in favour.

TheSevenDuffs · Post by **TheSevenDuffs** » Wed Oct 26, 2011 2:00 pm

Gedge wrote:Word on the street is that a number of places are looking to move into the College/Kensington area ("sniffing around" is how it was put to me). Makes sense. Can you imagine if T.O. had a beer district?

That would be great. Smokelss Joes has already made the move ... perhaps others will follow.

Wray77 · Post by **Wray77** » Wed Oct 26, 2011 2:04 pm

Like everyone on this board.

Belgian · Post by **Belgian** » Thu Oct 27, 2011 2:02 pm

TheSevenDuffs wrote:
Gedge wrote:Word on the street is that a number of places are looking to move into the College/Kensington area ("sniffing around" is how it was put to me). Makes sense. Can you imagine if T.O. had a beer district?
That would be great. Smokelss Joes has already made the move ... perhaps others will follow.

Smokeless has taken a very competitive stance, with several (22 or so?) good Ontario taps, with ideas to possibly doubling them in the near future. It's serious. They have abandoned stocking every can or bottle you can just go buy at the LCBO, because people coming there are already past this level.

So the Cloak, the Burger and everyone will have reason to stay on their "A" game. It's also great you can actually park in this area & go buy groceries in Kensington after having a nice beverage.

RayOhm · Post by **RayOhm** » Mon Nov 14, 2011 6:53 pm

I have a class at the UofT on Sundays so a friend and I decided to try this place for lunch one day. We walked in, weren't greeted by anyone so we took an open table. Sat there, mauled over the menu and the tap choices and waited for about 20 minutes. We wound up leaving without buying anything as there was no service to be found. Pretty disappointed, not likely to go back.

By contrast went to Volo last Sunday for a beer after class and the service was great.

JeffPorter · Post by **JeffPorter** » Mon Nov 14, 2011 7:39 pm

andrewrg wrote:I love the beer selection at Burger Bar, but I've had really hit or miss service here, and it's somewhat discouraged me from going back. That and I like the atmosphere of Smokeless Joe's a bit better.

I think the service has improved in the last couple of months. my last two visits were really positive in terms of service.

midlife crisis · Post by **midlife crisis** » Mon Nov 14, 2011 9:55 pm

Sat there, mauled over the menu and the tap choices and waited for about 20 minutes

Just curious -- why didn't you just go up to the bar?

Belgian · Post by **Belgian** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 9:16 pm

midlife crisis wrote:
Sat there, mauled over the menu and the tap choices and waited for about 20 minutes
Just curious -- why didn't you just go up to the bar?

*sigh* This is a Toronto Thing. Always good to greet servers / someone / anyone when you come IN - and say 'hey is it OK if we sit over here?' and 'what's great / special on tap today?' Get someone's attention. Don't assume all people are great servers because we know these aren't good betting odds in this town and you will waste time being Overlooked Invisible Guy.

When you get used to having better service by attracting the right attention, you can stop 'mauling' those poor defenseless menus, which are for display only. Hope this helps the reason you posted RayOhm!

RayOhm · Post by **RayOhm** » Wed Nov 16, 2011 9:38 am

midlife crisis wrote: Just curious -- why didn't you just go up to the bar?

The bartender seemed busy enough with the server's orders so we didn't want to bug him further.

Belgian wrote:Always good to greet servers / someone / anyone when you come IN - and say 'hey is it OK if we sit over here?' and 'what's great / special on tap today?'

Is this normal practice in Toronto lol? The tap list wasn't good enough for me to beg for service. Especially when customer service is extremely important to me.

Belgian · Post by **Belgian** » Wed Nov 16, 2011 11:48 am

RayOhm wrote:
Belgian wrote:Always good to greet servers / someone / anyone when you come IN - and say 'hey is it OK if we sit over here?' and 'what's great / special on tap today?'
Is this normal practice in Toronto lol? The tap list wasn't good enough for me to beg for service. Especially when customer service is extremely important to me.

Course not, it's 'normal practice in Toronto' for people to wait too long, get mad and then leave (to go vent on bartowel).

And trust me I DO agree Burger Bar can have crap service, it's just that I don't settle for it. < < See what I did there?

Maybe you were unwilling to ask for service and, therefore missed out on having a good time, all 'on principle'. Only a suggestion & I hope your next experiment is more fun.

Liverdie · Post by **Liverdie** » Thu Mar 15, 2012 9:19 am

I'm going to be in this neighbourhood tonight so I think I'll check this place out, despite all the warnings I'm hearing in the media about red meat

I've been to the Cloak, good beer selection there, not sure if they do food?

Cheers,

Liverdie · Post by **Liverdie** » Sat Mar 17, 2012 7:26 pm

Hello all,

I went here and food, service and beer were all good. I had Harry Porter on cask and a Railway City Stout I can't remember the name of. This stout was smoky.

They have a nice selection of interesting burgers; mushroom, lamb and salmon for instance and from what I saw of the empty bottles above my head, I'm betting a fine fridge. Brewdog Tactical Nuclear Penguin, no less, I'm impressed

Cheers,

The Bar Towel

The Burger Bar

The Burger Bar

training lazy servers to love us, one at a time...

Let's train bad servers to be cooler people.