Room at the Top

I can’t believe this is happening but … I am actually really liking Ratt lately!
The view is still great, the place smells a lot better than I remember, and the food no longer tastes like dirty socks! They have a reasonable selection of food; gluten-​free, vegan, and vegetarian options are marked on the menu. OK, it’s still got the same cheap wine and slow service, but Ratt has really stepped up in terms of the food quality, and for the price it is actually pretty good!
For the price, convenience, and improved menu, Ratt has actually evolved into a good option for dining on campus!

Cheap beer. Sports on the big screen. Good food. Great view of the city.
The service is not so hot.

RATT needs to step up its game a bit, but I can tell it is trying its best to turn itself around. New menus, new drinks and new staff are slowly making RATT a better place.
Regardless, it’s still RATT, the bathrooms aren’t the cleanest and the tables and chairs wobble but you get what you pay for. Cheap beer and cheap food means you shouldn’t expect 5 star food.
I love the onion rings, the fries are good fresh but get a bit more gross over time. I liked the chicken burger, and greek wrap.
Salt and pepper wings were a bit over done but were edible. Nachos are big and have everything on them, just need a bit more cheese.
Bartender is a swell guy, willing to chat and not force drinks on you. They have monthly specials that are actually very affordable and worth it ($ 5 for burger and fries). They need to advertise a bit better and they’ll get more people there for lunch.
RATT has a bad rap, but it’s turning itself around slowly, so 4 stars for the improvement. :)

This is the campus dive bar.
We’ve had decent service lately, but the grade of food (i.e. ingredients) is low, and the only thing this has going for it is the proximity to campus.
Certainly not my favourite place to eat or drink, but it is handy when you’re looking for a quick bite or pint and don’t want to wander too far. We haven’t gotten food poisoning (yet), so this still gets two stars.

RATT! What happened? Whatever it was, it was a great improvement! Renos, service, and food improvements… I’m impressed!
I’m not positive of what all the renos are but I would guess, almost a complete overhaul with new wood, brick, tables, and chairs. Anyway, looks good. However, I am much more interested in the entire package.
This review is in regards to the last two times I’ve been in. Both times, the service was pretty good and I was actually repeatedly attended to (unlike the time I wrote my first review).
Now, for the shocker… the menu has been updated! I swear! I couldn’t believe it either! It now has vegetarian options that are actually appealing, and clearly labeled vegetarian, vegan, and gluten free items! Not only that, but the food quality has improved. My fries, which came with my veggie wrap full of fresh crispy veggies, had SEASONING. I KNOW, RIGHT?
Mature student’s advice: skip Dewey’s. It’s grungy and outdated and the food is near gag-​worthy.
RATT is the new place to be on campus!

RATT is easily one of the worst places to go for drinks.
I strongly advise going to RATT for any reason. RATT used to be a pretty good place to go for a quick meal or a drink a couple of years ago, but now it is terrible. I have no idea what changed in regards to either management or staff but now it doesn’t have any redeeming qualities. When you get up the elevator you’ll be asked to show your ONE Card to prove you’re a U of A student and then asked for ID. Pretty inconvenient initially, and then you get the joy of attempting to find a clean table. Or you could sit at a dirty table and wait for half an hour before you see a waitress who can clean it for you. Then if you had the idea that you would be waited on, you’d be sorely mistaken. The wait service is so poor that you will have to get up from the table and go to the bar to order drinks. I assume this would still be the case if you were the only table in the place as the waitresses are more interested in talking to each other than they are of their customers. The quality of the food is more hit or miss than anything else, probably varying with cooks and the freshness of ingredients.
If you choose to go to this place, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

With the RATT, what you see is exactly what you get. You want a grungy campus bar? You got it. Subpar pub food and reasonably priced beer? No problem. Great view of the city? Sure! They don’t call it the Room at the TOP for nothing.
The RATT is fantastic if you’re looking for a place on campus to watch the Oilers games now that the NHL lockout is over (though as a die-​hard Flames fan, I can’t fathom how that would draw anyone in…) They also offer karaōke and «name that tune» events. It’s a pretty eclectic place which is perfect for a campus-​setting.
Long story short: if you go to the RATT looking for a gourmet dining experience, you’re going to have a bad time. However, if you go there acknowledging that this is a campus bar whose only niche it needs to fill is a place on campus for bored, stressed students to find some semblance of alcoholic relief then you’re in the right place.

The food is bad, the service is worse, and really the only redeeming quality of this bar is you can to it from ETLC without going outside. Everyone that’s attended the UofA has spent countless hours and dollars here just because it’s convenient, not because it’s good. I hate to say it, but despite it’s flaws, I know I’ll be back — because it’s RATT and it’s just there.

After midterms, finals, or just a long week, RATT is the place to go.
The service is hit-​or-​miss, but usually terrible. Be prepared to wait a long time to place an order, sit at a table with the previous people’s cups etc still on it, and then wait some more for your food. Beer usually comes pretty quickly though.
The food is average. My go-​to is the grilled cheese, though their wings are decent too. I’ve been told some other things are okay as well, but haven’t been too adventurous myself.
The view is nice in the afternoon if you can get a table by the windows, but getting a table period is often a challenge. Waiting up to half an hour in line for the elevators (no stair access) and then finding there’s nowhere to sit can be disappointing.
I wouldn’t go out of my way to go to RATT, but I’ve enjoyed it every time I’ve been there!

Maybe I’m just feeling nostalgic, but I can’t give anything less than five stars to Room At The Top.
Before its renovation, it was a typical campus pub with a little somethin’ something’ extra — an amazing nearly-​360-​degrees view of the city. Now *that* is a sunset that can turn a casual burgers-​and-​fries-​and-​beers dinner with the girl you’re trying to impress into something more.
After its renovations, RATT became actually, well, cool. The round tables were replaced by square tables so you could — shocker — push tables together! Finally! The floor was upgraded (can you imagine how much beer had been spilled on that baby in the past few decades?) and now there’s a cool selection of local beer. Oh, and they finally got rid of that stupid rat mascot in the logo.
The RATT menu is still weaker than its Deweys counterpart but it’s a cool spot that still has an awesome view and now, a great selection of local beers. Plus, Name That Tune! (I always win.)

Oh Ratt… I feel kind of bad giving it two stars because of a bit of sentimental attachment leftover from spending the last half of my undergrad there.
The obvious reason to go to Ratt is that it’s conveniently located and the drinks are … I guess on the cheaper side. Although I think their prices have gone up lately. But the prices are certainly not the cheapest in the campus area. If you find that beer at other bars just has too much fizz, Ratt’s got you covered. mmm flat beer.
The food has improved a tiny bit over the last few years, but it’s still not great. And while the prices aren’t high, I still feel like I’m not getting what I’m paying for when I order food at Ratt.
The quality of service can vary wildly, but if the place is busy, you can expect to wait a long time for some attention, and then another long while to get what you ordered.
Ratt also used to take reservations and arrange specials with large groups. Not anymore.
I’ve heard the view from the urinals in the men’s washroom is the best in the city. The women’s washroom is just tiny and kind of smelly…
Make sure you bring both your id and your onecard.

I dropped in a few times this week because my old U room-mate’s son’s in his first year. Man, I feel old.
Once it was a bare room with tables and stacking chairs. The «bar» was a table with a keg in a tub of ice and food was whatever could be reheated out of a mini-​fridge in a toaster oven. You drank out of plastic cups. Music was a cassette machine. The windows would fog up because the HVAC couldn’t handle the humidity if the room got too full. It’s been pubbed out since then. Someone even came up with the good idea of putting a safety rail along the windows so you don’t have to wonder if you’d get too drunk and fall out through the glass.
We used to come up through the stairs from the 6^th floor where the club offices were and bang on the fire doors until the bar guy let us in. I’m pretty sure they don’t do that any more.
Comparatively, it has a much nicer pub-​like décor now but it’s still pretty basic. Sure they have wait staff, glassware, a full bar, taps and bottles now, and a menu with the standard pubby finger foods, but it has no pretensions or aspirations beyond being a campus watering hole: plentiful inexpensive food and beer. Lots of undergrads binge drinking and having a good loud time and making memories (maybe) that will have them giving it four stars on Unilocal years later.
ONE card and ID to get in, even for an old-​timer alumnus like me.

I used to go here on occasion when I was a student at the University of Alberta. I was not much of a drinker in those days (and still not) but it was a decent place to hang out and have a reasonably-​priced meal. I headed back here when I had some time to kill before making an appearance on CJSR, the campus radio station, located in the basement of the same building, SUB.
The view of campus is spectacular and made me wish I took my camera out. There is still a great selection of beer and a menu full of inexpensive food like burgers, wraps, sandwiches, and finger foods. I had a pint of Sleeman (on sale that day) and shared a basket of potato wedges with my friend. For less than five dollars, it was a huge portion and not all that greasy considering.
I would definitely come to RATT again if I was spending time on campus.

Ok first thing to keep in mind: RATT is a campus pub. It is designed to accommodate students or people on a student budget. That being said, RATT offers one of the best views of campus. It is located on the 7^th floor of the student’s union building (SUB) and is just perfect for overlooking campus and the central bus terminal. You can see the city’s skyline during the day, and admire the city lights during the day.
Recently there has been some remodeling, although nothing has been tastefully done and it looks like a Hudson’s wannabe. They did at least put in a few more tables on their floor and more high-​tables and chairs. The atmosphere is still the same though; this is not the best location to bring a date to, however if you want to sit and socialize with others, there is no better meeting spot.
The drink prices are very reasonable, and are perhaps one of the cheapest compared to the Whyte ave area. They have a lot of finger food at a very reasonable price on their menu, however I would not come here for a food items. This may be the reason why it is so popular among students. During hockey games, this would be the ideal place to watch them. If you want to continue the partying, the Whyte ave district is nearby, so this makes it an excellent place to start.

RATT is your typical campus pub, it is located at the top of SUB at the U of A and is all windows so you get a decent view. I go here on Friday’s sometimes and it is packed with students pretty much all day. Beers, drinks, shots and backpacks are what you will see at most of the tables.
I have never ordered anything other than nachos and they go perfect with the drinks. RATT feels like the default spot that everyone goes to let loose after school. It is especially good because you can head to Whyte ave, which is nearby, after drinking if you feel like continuing the party.

RATT is located atop the students union building at the U of A and offers a pretty good view of Edmonton. It attracts students mostly, and most of them are after beer or drinks only. Which is good because the food here is not terrific.
It’s funny that the food in every campus pub across the country tastes similar in that it’s very plain, mostly deep-​fried junk. But it will do in a pinch, when you need something to soak up the liquor.
RATT is one of the cooler campus pubs I’ve been to though and I like it. You get what you pay for (the food is cheap) and that’s all you can ask…