Spirits Bar & Grill

Nothing special here. Standard fare. It’s a typical pub with televisions and sports playing. The food looked fine. My friends had a burger and one had the cheese balls and both looked ok. This is a decent place to meet for a drink after work and maybe grab food if your hungry.

They no longer have happy hour and food specials. In the past two months they have been flip flopping with their menu and prices. Drinks have gone up significantly. They can’t seem to get it together and the huge jump in drink prices is nuts. Skip this place! Not worth the hassle and disappointment. One month ago I was paying under $ 6 for a pint of Rebel and today I paid close to $ 9 for the same pint! After I wrote this post, I received several messages from people telling me to check out the Firkin on Bloor. It’s new, with a great ambiance and good food and drinks specials.

Pretty nice spot, went here on a Sunday night around 830. Waiter/​Bartender was a nice guy, the food was really good. Thai Chicken bowl was delicious. My wife generally doesn’t like Blackbean Burgers, but this one was excellent.

Amazing bat. They even give me free chips and sausage. And the Cuba libre is very good.

This place has really improved over the years. I’m a big fan now.
Food is pretty good
Nice patios (x3)
Nice staff
Super clean
Some good beers
Brunch is pretty good now too. Had a pulled pork eggs Benny. Awesome. Too small for my ‘morning after partying’ hungries though.

Been here quite a few times for drinks, comedy, dinner, brunch, as it’s in my ‘hood. It’s okay for beers. The food is meh but better than usual pub grub. Comedy is not worth travelling for. Service is hit or miss. Brunch is empty. I like that they have an arcade game now but it’s about the most boring one I have ever played.

Cozy neighborhood restaurant. Visited it many times when working on Charles Street. Always found wait staff to be friendly and the food choices to be abundant and tasty.

If you don’t have plans on a Wednesday night and want to get out for a great night come here! FREE comedy on Wednesday nights! The line ups are always different, and you are sure to find a comic that will soon become one of your favourites!

They have the worst burgers ever. Dry beef patty with rock hard bun to go with.

Food was weak especially for the prices. Service was lacking. Was not asked how the meal was at any time. No cutlery was brought. Had to ask for it. Not very busy. Only a few tables. Staff was all sitting inside at the bar watching a movie the entire time and they had the movie’s sound piped loud through the bar speakers.

Avoid if you can. There are much better bars in the area than this place.
The service here is absolutely terrible. After not knowing where my party was upon arrival, I was met with a waitress who had such a condescending attitude. She was very rude and unhelpful — and quite frankly, didn’t seem to care despite our party being quite large and helping this place pay their bills. Strike one. Oh, and tip for those who actually want to try this place: order your drink at the bar, because the waiters take FOREVER to come to the patio. Not that the bartenders are any better in attitude, but at least you’ll get your drink as soon as you walk in. Strike two.
As if that was not bad enough, one of our colleagues had to ask the waiter THREE times for his bill. Yes, the waiter forgot twice to bring his bill. Strike 3. How is this place getting better reviews here? I don’t get it.
The final straw came when I asked how to get to the back patio (I was at the front patio). The waitress instructed me to go all the way to the back and turn left. I did that, when I turned left, I accidentally walked into a corridor only for the waiters. Now, a civilized person would say, ‘Excuse me sir, the patio is this way.’ That’s not what I get. I get «HEY THE PATIO’S OVER THERE WITH A DOOR YOU CAN USE.» Thanks buddy. Great service.
The only positive about this place is that the patio in the back is nice, with lots of sun — an unfortunate rarity. That would be the only reason to visit… no wait, there really is no reason to try this place out.
This place needs new management and better staff. Maybe the show, Bar Rescue would help. I will never be coming back to this place. Good luck Spirits! You’ll need it.

Nice cold beers time and time again. The front patio is nice and quiet and the bar’s an arm lengths from the village. Food can be hit or miss. There’s also a back patio, both are equally nice. Across the street from Starbucks and near the corner of Church and Bloor.

Decent pint, service can be slow from time to time so I usually just order from the bar and grab a seat on the patio. The food is only ok, standard pub fare with nothing special, so Spirits is not a place I eat often.
There are two patios, one at the front and another at the back, so Spirits is ideal for a cold pint on a warm day. They have open mic comedy night on Wednesdays which looks like fun. There are also after work drink specials from 4−6pm.
Overall three stars, would rate higher if the food was better and the service a little faster.

Pretty terrible overall.
First time we went we just had the wings and a beer and it was solid and left us satisfied.
Second time our fried pickles were rotten. As were the replacement ones. And I don’t mean ‘kind of off’ I mean straight up rotting and rancid. We had those and a few beers. Service was nothing of note.
Third time we said it was the final chance. We always enjoy a caesar at brunch and when we ordered 2 they told us it was their «Make your own caesar» bar special. We thought ok that may be kind of fun and were curious to see all the options we would have available to us. We got up from our chairs, walked all the way over to the bar, and had 2 shots of vodka poured into a cup and handed to us. The «make your own» bar consisted of 1 almost empty jug of Clamato, Worcester sauce, hot sauce, a couple of pickles and that’s about it. It was strongly lacking creativity or options and quickly became a major pain in the ass to do something a bartender could have done for us in less than a minute.
The food was mediocre, the breakfast buffet looked horrific, and our service again was nothing exceptional. Won’t be returning.

We went there to warm up after St Patrick’s day parade last year. Good beer, friendly staff, the nachos were very good and the spicy thai beef with rice was spicy and tasty. Didn’t like the sweet potato fries. They were out of irish stew, hence the wild food choices :) …

We had about 65 people meet here for a 20^th anniversary reunion (the company we worked for closed its doors for good 20 years ago), and I have to say that the wait staff was stellar! They consistently got our orders right — food, drinks, and accurate billing — even though there were only 3 of them serving our large and sometimes rambunctious group! We were talking and hugging, and mingling around, and it could not have been easy keeping tabs on us. Some of us have kept in touch over the years, but most of us, many of us have not seen each other in all that time!
This was an awesome gathering, and I’m so pleased so many turned out!
I had a small glass of red wine (about $ 7), and a veggie wrap with a salad on the side which was about $ 13.00 and quite delicious! It may sound odd getting a side salad with a veggie wrap, but they were prepared differently than one another — the veggies in the wrap were sautéed, and goat cheese added to the delicious flavouring. I would certainly order this again, and I would go back! It was a great experience all around.
Bravo to the event organizers for choosing this great spot, and getting so many of us to attend.

I don’t know about this place. I feel like the owner has given up or something. They are decently busy, but the food is mediocre, service is poor and the drink selection isn’t great. It just feels like a local watering hole and a pure cash grab with no passion for their food or business.
Last time I was here was a few months ago with a client and we both ordered burgers. It took almost 35 minutes for both our orders to arrive. While I can tolerate slow service for exceptional food, I find 35 minutes is a bit too much for two burgers. Worse is that the fries tasted frozen as did the patty. Maybe the patty wasn’t, but it tasted that way. Not a fan.
So why I am giving them two stars instead of one? They have a fairly good sized patio for downtown. Yep, that’s it.

Place is very close by to me! I always stare at the sign of the restaurant and who’s smoking on the patio when I walk by so I finally got some food from here.
Bartender and servers are very personable and friendly, I enjoyed the company of the employees more then my actual food. is that bad thing to say?
I had the poutine and another rice dish that came with beef (wish I remembered the actual name of it) The portions were pretty big so you def get your money’s worth in that sense. The basmati rice was good, I didn’t eat the beef, I just ordered it so my rice has some sort of gravy because I was really craving some rice that night. The poutine was huge, wish they used beef gravy instead of chicken tho, I hate when places do that. If it was beef, I would’ve loved the poutine because the fries and cheese were great. I had leftovers for 2 days from my order which I think is pretty good. Bill was no more then $ 20 and oh I forgot to add that the rice dish comes with a salad and naan AND this place only accept cash, so don’t bother with debits or credit cards.
I will most likely be getting food from here again, it’s just way too close for me not too.

As another Unilocaler mentioned, Spirits Bar & Grill is home to Jo-​Anna Downey’s «Open Mic» Stand Up Comedy show every Wednesday night at 9 pm.
She just had her 15 year Anniversary Show, and WOW what a show!
It is not really an «Open Mic», as comics are booked in advance, but you never know who will be on…
Here is an excerpt from her website:
«Spirits is known as the home away from home for out-​of-​town comics who drop in from all over the globe and one never knows who will visit our stage.
There have been many memorable shows over the years:
* Mitch Hedberg came by to hang out and Jo-​Anna performed his material for him.
* Harland Williams and his cousin Kevin Hearn (of Barenaked Ladies fame) rocked the mic during the only show that Jo-​Anna has ever co-​hosted — with Kevin’s dad Pat!
* Jo-Anna’s 40^th birthday show was notoriously crashed by Robin Williams and Lewis Black.
* Patton Oswalt graced the Spirits stage before becoming one of the «King of Queens» gang and a Comedy Central hero.
* Jo-​Anna stood in fear while a random clown rushed the stage (that everyone in the room thought was a planned stunt) and she’s also been upstaged by her own niece.
* Michael Moriarty (from Law and Order) is credited with the most surreal experience in the history of Spirits Open Mic Night.
Mike Wilmot, Sandra Shamas, Sean Cullen, Kenny Robinson, Nikki Payne, Debra DiGiovanni — the list of amazing performers go on and on.

This is a fairly sizable place on Church just south of Bloor. For a pub it seems pretty clean and there was a good vibe about the place on the night I visited.
The food was really good. Probably 4 stars. We ordered a plate of nachos which was piled high and had lots of toppings with sour cream and salsa on the side. For dinner I ordered the pulled pork. The sandwich was good and my only complaint was that the pork wasn’t pulled enough, it was left in slightly large chunks which made it a little hard to eat. The twist they add with their pulled pork is that they serve the coleslaw on the bun with the pork.
The service was the thing that stopped this place from being a 4-​star experience for me. It seemed like they were short staffed but the waitress wasn’t in any sort of a rush nor was flustered which makes me think that maybe they weren’t short. Every time we wanted a refill of our drinks, or even to pale our meal orders we had to try to flag the waitress down. Only once during the evening did she come to ask if we were doing alright.
Note: They don’t take debit but there is an ATM to use at a cost of $ 2.00.