While it still serves as a rooming house and lays claim to being the oldest hotel in Toronto (founded in 1833), this establishment in the trendy Queen Street West area is best known today for its ground-floor tavern and gigantic 180-seat summertime patio. You'll find leather-clad bikers sipping beer next to tourists and the local business crowd taking a lunchtime break. The food, though simple, American-pub style with lots of burgers, chicken wings and steaks, is well-done with large portions and won't empty your wallet.
User Rating: 3.5
Food:[3.0] •
Service:[3.5] •
Atmosphere:[4.5] Based on 14 user ratings
Add Your Own Rating
Sep 9, 2007by mapo from manchester
Overall Rating: 8 Food:[4] •
Service:[9] •
Atmosphere:[7]
Banjo.
Night staff.
“Had a great time watching the football, banjo was amazing! Only problem seemed to be the staff after 8pm who were very rude? Back next year, but only up until 8pm map.”
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May 9, 2006by Valentine from London
Overall Rating: 1 Food:[1] •
Service:[1] •
Atmosphere:[1]
Nothing. Literally.
Everything. Literally.
“This is one of the worst pubs in the world. The food was so bad we couldn't believe it. We stood and waited to get a seat for 15mins, seeing all these business people looking quite smart. "Must be a nice place to attract all these smart people" we thought. We couldn't have been more wrong.
We asked the waitress if we could move to the patio, and she snapped "i can only do one thing at a time" and walked off. I had actually wanted to order a lemonade, but off she stormed. No one came by for another 10 minutes, or if they did, they pretended not to notice.
So another member of staff relocated us, a guy in charge of the seating, and equally as unfriendly. 20mins later, the first waitress came to our new table and shouted at us for moving without telling her, despite the fact we'd asked her before. She demanded (not requested) we pay her immediately for the drinks. And unbelievably all the other waitresses were miserable and bossy too. "I'm standing here waiting for you to pay" was about the last thing we decided to take from her. She got no tip.
Food wise, the Caesar salad my 1st friend ordered consisted simply of lettuce, a few slices of cucumber, some bits of tomato and a pot of cream. No croutons, Parmesan shavings, no caesar dressing, no anchovies, no grilled chicken, no bacon. A complete joke in other words. And technically something every waiter in the world would expect you to have taken away and replaced.
I asked for the Black Bull Burger priced at $9 - described as some lavish gourmet bacon cheeseburger with all the bit and bobs. Cautiously I asked what the cheese was inside. "Processed cheddar". When I asked if there was any chance of any mozzarella (which they did have on the menu in another dish) our new waitress sneered at us just like the first "No, we don't do that", as if this were a strange request. "Processed cheese or nothing I'm affraid". When the burger eventually came, overcooked and dry, the meat was so horrible I took it out and ate what was left, feeling all the embarassment of a well brought up man who discards his food like a child. Mc Donalds burgers ARE better and considerably cheaper although you'd never catch me eating anything like that. The third item we ordered, a pizza for my friend looked like plastic. It looked disgusting.
Then over the course of the meal, we asked 3 times for salt to be brought to our table, but our 2 baskets of fries went stone cold and no salt came. When she eventually brought the salt, in the same trip she asked if we were finished with our food!! Why even bring the salt if you're going to ask to clear the table? And why not say "sorry the salt took so long, were you waiting to put it on the chips?" She KNEW the chips were stone cold and she couldn't have cared less. Worst service I have ever seen in my life.
Never eat in this place. This place is for a beer and cigarette only, and ONLY then if you like rude waitresses who couldn't give a stuff about service or clients. In other words, there is nothing about this place that should attract you.
Extremely proud to have done Toronto the extreme service of taking a bit of time out to warn fellow diners about this TERRIBLE place.”
Sassafraz 100 Cumberland St
, (at Bellair St)
, Toronto, ON, Canada
User Rating: 5.5
Jun 7, 2006 by Marian from NYC — "I love this restaurant and was surprised to see a low rating for it. The food is great, the atmosphere is gorgeous. The" [more]
May 13, 2007 by Eddy from Toronto — "Bad food, and above all poor service - pretending to be upscale but fails miserably. So many other great restaurants in" [more]
Sep 9, 2007 by mapo from manchester — "Had a great time watching the football, banjo was amazing! Only problem seemed to be the staff after 8pm who were very" [more]
May 27, 2006 by danny from grimsby, england — "Really enjoyed drinking in the day. Met lots of other Brits here. Benji is the best barman in Ontario!!" [more]
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