Canton’s Portside Tavern

Absolutely love this place. My wife and I come down from Pa. to Canton often and try to make a stop here every time. Cozy place, great drinks awesome appetizers (especially the Asian wings and the mussels) All of the servers/​bartenders that have waited on us were terrific!!!

Great food, great drinks and an outstanding staff.
I can’t say enough about how much my friends and I love Portside. It’s slightly off the square which is a plus for me and usually has a great crowd that only grows.

Great neighborhood bar with friendly staff. Have only had appetizers here but the pulled pork nachos are delicious and a huge serving (definitely could feed a group). Wednesday night is half price bottles of wine which is great… but was thrown off when I felt like I was expected to tip on what the amount would have been had the bottles not been discounted. Despite that though, I will be back!

Came here with my gf today to watch the O’s game, drink a couple crushes, and beat the sweltering July heat. Ended up enjoying some of the best food and drink we’ve had in a Canton square bar in recent memory. The ahi tuna wrap was one of the best sandwiches I have ever had. The tuna was perfectly blackened and seared, while the bacon and pesto aioli were the perfect complement for the palette. Served it on flatbread roll, not a big old kaiser roll, so it was the perfect amount of bread. Baltimore style mussels were excellently seasoned. Edamame was just as tasty. The orange crushes were «as advertised.» One the best we’ve had in Charm City. The bar was not stuffy and packed like it normally is on Friday and Saturday nights. Overall, great experience! Will certainly be back for more!

I always have a good time at Portside, and come often.
Brunch: I came with a group of ladies and was very touched that the staff seated us upstairs before they normally allow it (which contrasted to the bad reception we got at other brunch places on the square). On top of that, the food was everything we had hoped for!
Dinner: recommend the sandwiches and burgers, fries are delicious, and wings come in lots of different delicious sauces
Bar: never had a bad night here — good crowd and fun dancing area

Great Baltimore bar! It is cozy, long and narrow, like most neighborhood bars in Bmore, and it does have an upstairs too, which on the weekends is often the place to dance and get wild with friends. It can get SLAM packed and uncomfortable because of the small size of the place.
I often don’t want to stay long on a very crowded Friday or Saturday night, but when it isn’t that busy it is really nice to sit down and have a conversation and a bite to eat and an orange crush! Definitely some of the best orange crushes here (I think the offer grapefruit too)! Also, great tap selection, and they change it often!
The food is incredible. My favorites include… awesome cheesesteaks, juicy burgers (Thursday is build-​your-​own-​burger night, starting at $ 6), yummy fries, and the arugula salad is amazing (I don’t usually like salads, but I LOVE a good salad, and this is a very good salad).
Tuesday night is Trivia and half priced mussels! They get a pretty good crowd for trivia and give away gift cards to 1^st and 2^nd place!
Also, they often have live music which is so much fun! Again it is so long and narrow that it isn’t the best venue to watch some music but I love that they do it anyway, they make it work!

Great service from the bar staff and great beverage selection. I split the wing appetizer with my brother and they were perfectly cooked and had a great flavor. I ordered the burger next and it was cooked to the correct temperature that i ordered and was very delicious for a reasonable price. Im new to the area an I will most defiantly be a frequent customer to try out what else they have to offer.

Wife and I had a Philly Cheese Steak. The bun was great crunchy yet chewy. Excellent sandwich. Others had Wings, endame. Fun place lots of TV

Great prices on beers and food, especially if you find the special of the day. Great bar to watch sports (they are quite willing to accommodate any recommendations as well), even European soccer leagues.
Great food! Highly recommend the cheesesteak!
Crowd is mid 20s to 30s, noise level not bad during the day, and the staff is fantastic.

Vegetarians often get the short end up the stick when it comes to bar food, but I just have to say that I love their veggie burger! It actually comes as a wrap and is deee-​licious! Please never take it off the menu. I heard the fish tacos are yum, too.
I’ve been here several times, always drawn by a great a local band. It’s a long skinny place, making it a bit awkward a times, but it helps you get friendly with your neighbor quite quickly.
All of the bartenders are great, but Cara is the truly the best, so you should pop in to see her and she’ll treat you right!
They have a surprisingly yummy and cheap red wine selection, as well as those heavy-​duty citrus crusher thingies for really fresh orange or grapefruit-​crush type drinks.
This place is a win in my book…

Overall: Packed to the brim mid to late 20s bar.
Drinks: We ordered liquor drinks and they came in big glasses — i’m ok with that! Lots of beer options as well. It doesn’t seem like the kind of place to drink wine but I’m assuming there’s a box somewhere if you’re interested.
Atmosphere: It was super packed on a Saturday night (not surprising) but I think my tolerance for elbow-​to-​elbow bars is growing thin. However, I still had a good time and everyone around me seemed to be having a good time, too. Not a place I would expect to see fights.
Tip: Good luck on parking. I’m not from Baltimore but I hear the area is notoriously awful for it. I’m from Chicago so I get it… but… come on. This is ridiculous. There’s got to be a solution.

I’m afraid to mention it here. because word will leak out and we won’t have a table there anymore!
HALF PRICE steak night. Sunday night. Every week.
The same steak you see on their menu for upwards of $ 18-​$ 19, you can get for half the price on Sunday nights, which includes a generous side of french fries and sauces for both the steak and your fries. All sorts of combinations can be found using the sauces, and the steak is always cooked perfectly. always tasty!
So there’s that. Then add the fact that it’s IN canton, but not right on the square. so while it’s there, it’s easy to keep hidden, too :)
Shall we talk drinks? Yummy crushes. orange and grapefruit. $ 8 a piece. Beers are generally under $ 6. maybe 6 or 8 taps? I can always find something to drink. Are you a wine drinker? Get yer butt here. Why? Because they don’t use those tiny stinkin’ glasses and fill them to the very very tippy top. No. You ask for a nice red wine (and their wine selection is decent!), you’ll get a nice big red wine glass and a generous pour. Red wine doesn’t deserve to be put in a tiny glass, and they get that!
Chris is usually behind the bar. taking orders for 8 without a thought of writing it down, and still nailing it dead on. Cara was great one sunday night we popped in. keeping the music entertaining and lively, along with a nice group of folks who live around the corner and also found out about the (shh) steak night.
Want Cheesesteak? hots? with Whiz? or a more non traditional? Come here on Wednesday nights. it’s cheesesteak night. They rock.
I’m one who was a convert to this place. I hated our first time here, but decided to give it another whirl and really saw the greatness that can be found. We live a 10 minute walk away. see you at steak night!

This is a nice two floor establishment. While the bar is a little narrow and gets full and crowded easily; the patrons are beautiful. Sometimes the girls dance upstairs and other times downstairs. Drink prices are par for the course. Portside doesn’t really stand out as extrordinary… it’s really about the people who come here.

My boyfriend and I love this place. We often grab dinner at the bar while we’re waiting for our dog to be groomed at the nearby Hair Off the Dog. Very reasonably priced, great service, small but good wine list. We’ve tried the sandwiches, wings (50 cents on Thursday nights!), fries, clam chowder and salad, and have never been disappointed. Casual atmosphere.

I can’t believe I have to give this place one star. Never go to Portside on St. Patty’s day.
I paid my $ 10 cover, got my hand stamped, bought 2 beers, and hungout inside for a while. I stepped outside to grab more cash, and the bouncers wouldn’t let me back in without waiting in line again. I showed them my hand stamp and reminded them I’d already paid cover to get in. I also told them my friends were waiting for me inside. Bouncers didn’t care at all, didn’t apologize or explain to me why they weren’t letting people in. They just told me to get to the end of the line. After waiting 25 minutes, my friends and I just left. I wouldn’t spend another night here if you paid me.

Beware of upstairs bartender. He’ll charge you more than downstairs. When I called him out on it, he gave some BS excuse. So no tip for him! Other than that, the downstairs bartenders were much better.

Full disclosure: I live in the local area — so when the new menu was debuted local residents were given a free mussel entrée.
That said, I went there with a few friends and really enjoyed the mussels. They were plump, fresh, and delicious tasting. I recommend the blue cheese, pork belly combo. Also on Tuesdays they are half off — a steal! Warm bread is served to accompany them — but sadly no fries.
The other menu items were average — the pulled pork came on old stale bread. So stick with the mussels.

Went there for a Holiday party. Really, I want to give them two stars, but i think that would be mean. the staff was great, but the food was horrible. We had a buffett of pizza pockets, or pre-​made freezer eggrolls, and some goop, I don’t know what it was. looked like mushroom gravy. i didn’t taste any of it. one look was all i needed.
i thought maybe the guy hosting the party was cheap, but the food coming out of the kitchen didn’t look that hot either. i suspect they get everything from sisco. The fries looked like they came out of a big freezer bag, the burgers. .. well the buns at least. .. looked very mass produced. etc. not what you’d expect in canton.

Atmosphere: 3.0
Service: 3.0
Food: 2.5
Beer Selection: 2.5
Overall: 2.75
Canton’s Portside Tavern is situated on a corner spot just a stone’s throw from the hoopla that is Canton Square. The space seems cozy enough from the outside with a few tables gracing the sidewalk and an inviting little stoop. We arrived about 6pm on a Saturday and took a seat at the bar. There were three others at the bar and a couple sitting at one of the outside tables. Portside also has an upstairs area but since we didn’t wander up there I won’t comment on it. We were immediately greeted by the smiling bartender who took our drink order and provided the menus.
The beer selection at Portside is a bit, how shall I say, condensed. If memory serves, there were six taps, but to their credit, they had Breckenridge’s Avalanche Amber and Dale’s Pale Ale, two rather decent selections. From what I could see, just about everyone at the bar with us was drinking some kind of grapefruit drink, so I don’t think they cared.
The menu at Portside features your standard bar fare — wings, quesadillas and nachos as well as some more unusual offerings like cheese steak egg rolls and seared ahi tuna. There’s also a wide selection of salads, sandwiches, burgers and pizza. It’s my bet that there’s something for just about everyone.
To get the party started we ordered the calamari. It was a hearty portion served alongside some pretty standard marinara sauce. The calamari itself was cooked pretty well, crispy with just the right amount of breading. Although there were several of the larger tentacle pieces that were a tad greasy, the majority more than made up for them. There was one problem, though, SALT. My god was it salty. We had to use copious amounts of the marinara just to cut it.
For our main course we ordered the Portside salad and a pair of their pizzas. The Portside salad is comprised of mixed greens, red onions, tomatoes and goat cheese and is dressed with balsamic vinaigrette. It was fresh and the goat cheese pieces had a nutty crust that added a nice textural element. The dressing was a bit on the sweet side and the mix would have benefitted from some walnuts or pine nuts for some additional texture. Overall, not a bad salad.
The pizzas at Portside, available in 10 varieties, are personal sized (about 8 inches, six small slices) and are done on a thin, flatbread like crust. I say «personal sized» but between the salad and calamari we could have gotten away with ordering just one. I ordered the smoked turkey and jalapeño and my wife went with the tomato, bacon and portabella model.
Both pizzas had pretty well-​balanced toppings with plenty of cheese and fresh-​cut tomatoes. I liked the use of pickled jalepenos rather than fresh and the combination of the earthy portabellas and bacon was nice. Where I felt the pies were a bit lacking was the crust. With thin-​crust pizzas I expect them to be crispy throughout. While they had a nice crispy outer edge they tended to be pretty soggy in the center, so much so that when you picked up the little slices they wilted like (insert ED reference here). Maybe another five minutes in the oven would have done them some good.
The bar service at Portside was pretty good. While my beer was never empty for long it would have been nice to have been offered waters along with our dinner. Nit-​picking, I know. There was, however, one strange behavior on the part of the bartender that had me perplexed. She would promptly serve customers as they came in but once the deal was done she would retreat to a table in the back and begin pecking away on a laptop. What was she doing back there? Was she working on her novel? Tweeting her bartending experiences? I’m no service industry guru, but it just seemed odd and made us feel like we were interrupting something.
And one final gripe… what the hell’s up with the reggae music? First the Rowhouse Grill and now this? Setting a bar soundtrack to the Pandora reggae channel should be banned under the Geneva Convention. One would think that such a targeted genre of music wouldn’t make the best choice for a bar… unless you’ve got some kind of readily apparent theme that would prepare your guests ahead of time. Sure, maybe we should have asked them to change it, but the thought of offending someone’s fine musical sensibility overrode any notions of personal preference. Maybe selecting a genre that occupies a meatier portion of the normal distribution curve… just a thought.
I’ve heard good things about the burgers… maybe we’ll stop back in to give them another shot.

All aboard, next stop, Portside!
Originally came here on St. Patty’s day with friends. Now girlfriend and I have been going here pretty regularly for weekday dinners. Nice, quiet break from the square, but still enough traffic so you’re not sitting by yourself. We typically go on Wednesday nights, and the bartender is always attentive and good with suggestions. I’m a fan of the Jerry Garcia Burger, girlfriend likes the Chicken Quesadillas and Buffalo Chicken Wrap.
Love the fact it is on the end of the block and it’s got a great row of windows. Makes the place feel open.
They have an ad for brunch with bottomless Mimosas, which I’ld be interested to try.
We did swing by one Friday night, and the place was very busy with live music.