The Midtown

I went to the midtown under the impression it was a mixed crowd with a cheap drinks. Drinks there run about 8 – 10 $ each so be prepared to fork over some cash. This is by no means a dive bar and by no means a bar where drinks can be purchased dirt cheap. I went on a Friday night and the crowd was not mixed and instead was mostly «urban» and a variation of «urban style». I am uncertain if that is the typical crowd of just a coincidence. Music was great they played R&B, REGGAE, RAP and club hits in the those genres — Lil wayne, Drake, the Weekend, Sean Paul, Fifty Cent etc. Dj was on point, properly transitioned and let the songs play out. Very dance-​able. The place is a bit tight, and there is limited dance space. The front features seating /​booths, followed by a long bar, food bar, then the dance floor and some pool tables. Bonus they served Jamaican Patties, I did not get one but boy was I tempted. As previously mentioned the dance floor was a bit small due to the pool tables and dining tables. I would imagine on busy nights these are removed or pushed aside. There was coat check. However, most of the patrons of the bar kept their winter jackets on? I found this very strange as I was dancing and heating up. Regardless, fun night, could be good for dates, play some pool, sit, dance, talk, grab a bite. The place has nice décor, and the bartender was on point, she was fast to serve, polite and dressed respectable. The only thing stopping me from going to this bar /​club would be the drink prices. I docked a star for the drink $$$$ and a star for the limited dance floor.

The Weeknd — Gone
This song goes out to all the ladies out there I’ve been blessed to mount. Light one up for your boy ’cause I’m ridin’ with you baby. Play it loud and watch the snow fall. Let’s get it.
OVOXO
My goal of the night was to find a local spot and kick it with the indigenous. I had Saturday night fever and wanted to boogie, so I swung through The Midtown where the DJ was cookin’ up hip-​hop all night baby — old school and new — and I left 2 kilos heavier after munching on those tracks. Definitely a feast to remember. Yum.
The staff there in my experience were very professional and spoke to everyone as a person and not a patron. One of the bouncers actually checked up on me once or twice throughout the night to make sure I was having a good time, knowing that I was from out of town. It was a cool gesture and greatly appreciated. Canadians are so nice, just don’t mention hockey allegiance.
I’ll definitely be back to The Midtown late this summer to claim my prize, the Asian cutie with a booty I just missed on the dance floor. Until next time, Toronto!
GO RED SOX.
–Bean

So this was our spot like 7 yrs ago. Sure it doesn’t get rammed like before but that DJ threw down sick beats.
I have to say… I’ll be back (Arnold voice)

Mouais… J’aurais du me méfier quand les videurs eux mêmes vous proposent de rentrer dans le bar ! La raison pour laquelle on nous a laissés rentrer était le fait qu’on était bien accompagnés.
Une fois à l’intérieur j’ai vite compris que la population féminine était en voie de disparition.
Après m’être littéralement frayé un chemin à coups de coude et d’épaules pour atteindre le vestiaire qui se trouve tout au fond du bar de l’autre côté de la piste de danse??? (logistique allo allo?) Je me retrouve sur le dancefloor.
Côté musique: je dois avouer que c’est pas mal, bon hip hop, RNB, Ragga. Bön sound system.
Côté club: entre apprentis ganstas et meufs ultra vulgaires déjà ivres à 23h j’ai vite fait le tour.
Bref: le midtown, c’est pas pour moi, nexxxxt!
/​/​Hum… Should have seen that there was something fishy right from the start when the bouncers invite you to walk in the bar. The only reason why we were invited is that we were with nice ladies.
Once inside you just realised the situation, the endangered species is the woman here, all men around looking to hunt with their beer in hand.
So after literally making my way through the dancefloor to reach the coat check??? Logistics here??? I finally end on the dancefloor.
Music is pretty good i have to say: Hip Hop, RNB, Ragga, good sound system.
On the crowd side itself: gangsta wannabes and wasted mini skirts girls, it’s not even 11pm…
Well, time for me to take off after one hour…

2.5 Stars really!
As with most people reviewing this place I tend to avoid King West/​Richmond clubs. Do not get me wrong those clubs are fine once in a while but I find the whole «meat market”/pretentious feel of those clubs too irritating for an every weekend affair.
I like College, there are some decent places to party. On two occasions I have been to Midtown and both times had an excellent night but I completely believe that was due to the people I was with. I like top 40 when I go dancing… so Midtown get’s a star there. No cover, another star.
$ 8 + for the weak drinks… not so good. The washrooms I have managed to avoid but I hear not so good.
As to the crowd who appear to frequent this establishment, yes some are young but I have experienced a bit of a mix bag. What I will say is the place get’s very busy. On the dance floor but want to get a drink/​go for a cigarette… be prepared to face one of the most epic bar crossings of your life, it is so packed you can literally not move. Someone mentioned the place get’s disgustingly sweaty… most definitely.
Would I go back again… maybe but there are definitely better options on College

I also have mixed feelings about this place. I wouldn’t consider myself a club going type of guy by any means. However, this was one of the places I stumbled upon the Saturday night of my recent brief excursion to the land of Maple Leaves. It had the usual «I’m cooler than I really» am people, the dance crowd, the awkward groups of girls dancing in a circle, and the mostly good but some bad music. All and all a decent overall vibe to be in and flow with. While I would consider this a club, It is a bit of a lesser club, in my mind. I would compare it to many campus dance clubs in the States. Sort of a mix between a club and a late night bar. Can’t really remember the cost of drinks, but don’t recall anything exorbitant.
There seemed to be a generous mix of attractive females present. While most of them were pretty well socially lubricated, there were a select few that seemed to be classy and worth the time. Unfortunately one of the more quality females we met was unable to collect her coat from the check because the staff had already given it out to someone other than her.
At one point I didn’t like The Midtown, but at another I felt like this was a great place to connect with others. When it comes down to it, it seemed like a great place to mix it up with the opposite sex on a weekend night.

I have mixed feelings about this place. On one hand they are very accommodating and every time I have hosted events here they have done well and my last event there was early this year. Drinks are priced just right and the music is Top 40’s, HipHop, & House, so, very middle of the road –which can be a good thing and you get your fair share of attractive people coming out. Which adds to the vibe.
The other side of the coin is that the you get a relatively young demographic (for me) of kids in their early 20’s trying to be cool and ‘Yo, So Chill.’ Which nope, is not cool for me. Also their bathrooms are utterly laughable. Seriously, I am smirking as I write this. As they are tiny (one urinal and one toilet for a room full of hundreds of semi-​intoxicated bladders? Ya. That sounds like a great idea.
This bar is unique since the men’s line-​up to the washroom is several times longer than the women’s. For that alone it deserves a price for strangeness.
Also this place will get packed. Very packed. So it can get pretty hot, which again it can be could, but not always. It depends if you have a table at the front or not. As like in most small lounges the back is where the dance floor is and coming to and fro can be exercise in patience. However if you keep to the front and with your own crowd then the place can be rather fun.
As a funny note, along with a fly-​by on the disgusting, the very last time I was there as I was leaving the restroom, I saw some drunk kid, who after getting tired of waiting for the washroom to be available, gave up and did his business on the bathroom sink. Yup, nothing but class.
A few hours later, I was about to leaving and thought of using the bathroom one last time. Of course there was a huge line up, but when I peeked into the bathroom, I noticed that someone, in a fit of drunken rage, possibly as they were washing their hands and noticed a certain yellow stain on the ceramic got extremely angry and literally had RIPPED OFF THE SINK OF THE WALL! Yup. You don’t see that everyday.
With that, I decided to turn around and leave. I have not gone back since.

Usually I try to avoid College Street bars like the plague, but a really great event was happening here recently and I couldn’t miss it. I never heard of the place but had an idea what it might be like seeing as I walk past random locations on College all the time.
Two security dudes at the front door — it was a Thursday night but I realised what this place might be like on the weekend so I didn’t think much. ID was mandatory and I was carded, even though I am 35-​years old. I asked the very friendly bartender for some draft and was surprised they didn’t have any. They had several taps on display but apparently none were in service? I asked if they had just recently opened up and he said «no» and that they have been around for awhile. Curious.
My friend ordered a bottle of Budweiser which was SEVEN DOLLARS. For a bottle of Budweiser? I had a bottle of Stella which was EIGHT DOLLARS. These prices are outrageous in my opinion. Again, it was a Thursday night so I don’t really see the reasoning for extremely over-​priced beer on a weekday. Plus the place is not exactly fancy by any means, so I don’t see how they justify the massive mark-​up.
It was a muggy summer day and they had several industrial sized fans on the wall which made things super pleasant. The washrooms were a little gross and they didn’t even have a mirror, which always bugs me. Again, if they were charging less for drinks I would be forgiving.
Ending on a positive note, I would like to reiterate that all three of the bartenders I dealt with were super nice and courteous. And the sound system was fairly decent, especially considering I was witnessing some neck-​breaking hip-​hop producers who were going in deep and crushing it.

I have no idea what to rate this place… since it’s not possible to give a 3.5 then i’ll have to downgrade it to a 3
Has a college crowd feel to it (average age 19 – 20), lots of people drinking getting drunk and jumping around. Saw a few Snooky’s from Jersey Shore. Lots of drunk guys. I dunno, I am getting too old for places like this? Or maybe I would have had more fun if I wasn’t DD.
Oh, and lots of girls. Good girl to guy ratio! Extra points for that.
Derek

Been there a few times (3 – 4) on Saturday nights
As far as I know it is free entrance on Saturdays.
Crowd is very young (22 max for most of the people), plus a few weird guys.
The music is ok when it comes to house, but when it turns to hip-​hop it is a bit too «ghetto style» — well maybe it is because I am not that into this kind of music if I may say. Sometimes the D does some strange mixes and skip the track after it has been played for 1−2mins…
However it seems to be a very popular nightclub! And it has a convenient location. Once you get out, you can grab a pizza or falafel before heading back home :-)

This bar is much more fun than it looks. It’s very small and it gets rammed on Saturday nights, but they don’t charge cover which is great. Half the bar is the dance floor — mostly top 40. It did get disgustingly sweaty inside though, so I suggest bringing a hair tie…

I have a love/​hate relationship with this bar!
The Midtown is wonderful because it is in the heart of Little Italy, which is always a huge hotspot in Toronto — especially during the hot summer months.
For its positives, it has FREE cover, which is good when you either want to hit up more than one bar a night on the College Street Strip and if you want to keep some more cash in your wallet. he bar is divided into a seating area, a standing bar area and a dance floor in the back, giving its guests a little bit of everything. As well, it always offers up a combination of different music and different types of crowds throughout the night.
However, unless you arrive early or drop in before last call, be prepared to wait in line! And if you are in a group of both guys and girls, the bouncers tend to favour the girls. Sorry boys!

A horrific combination of suburbanites and the socially retarded.
You can’t miss this place. Generally on a Friday or Saturday night there are three to four awkward looking goons in front of the bar trying to get people to come inside. It’s one of the few places where «Hey, are you looking for a good time?» is actually a misnomer.
I’ve made the same mistake and gone inside on three different occassions. Each progressively worse.
High school chilrdren. Weak drinks. Terrible music. An empty void of human interaction.
The only highlight was watching some obsessive-​compulsive kid from Brampton go through EVERY SINGLE element of the Soulja-​Boy dance in front of a mirror near the bar.
It’s that kind of place.
Seems like a nice place to get roofied. It might actually accentuate the exoerience.
Avoid.

I guess I should start this review with a disclaimer. I am not a «club» girl. I don’t like wearing short skirts in winter without thick wool tights underneath, and I refuse to wear high heels to go dancing (OW?). I stay away from Richmond Street at all costs, and would much rather go to a small place and dance to real music, you know, stuff that doesn’t sound like a bunch of lasers are being shot around the room with a digitized girl’s voice repeating the same phrase over and over again.
That said, I had to accompany a friend to the Midtown once as a wing-​woman. This was before the most recent renovation they had, and when I went there, it was literally a tiny, unassuming door that I had always ignored when walking by (looking at cheap flights in the window of Flight Center next door is far more useful). Once you got inside, it was actually a huge space.
And the huge space was filled with probably a million people, scantily-​clad girls, guys in striped dress shirts and flare jeans, bad top 40 music… I decided I needed several drinks. And had to wait at the bar for years, because I couldn’t get past all of the people who were blocking it, the bartenders were busy flirting with said scantily-​clad girls, and I distinctly remember being grabbed inappropriately by one of the patrons. Not to mention you couldn’t even dance on the dance floor because it was so packed. I’m not sure what the capacity of this place is but they were definitely over it that night.
So, no thanks. If you like the typical College Street bar/​club, and you like Richmond Street, you’ll love it here. Not my kinda place.

The Midtown is a great hangout on the College street strip. It’s pretty unassuming from the outside but, like many bars and restaurants in this area, the inside of the place is pretty huge.
It’s always hard to review bar because you’re usually pretty hammied when you’re there, but I have to say if you can’t remember much it’s usually a sign it was a great night. That being said, my nights at Midtown are pretty blurry.
However, I do remember this place has a great dance floor and great music. There is some seating up front, but the bar is so dark and loud you won’t enjoy yourself if you’re sitting down. Drinks are standard bar fare and you won’t be experiencing any drink specials.
But in essence this is a great bar in Little Italy that has a strong following and attracts a huge crowd. Get here early if you don’t want to be stuck in line for an hour.