Black Irish

Updated. A few months back the silent partners took over, or so we are told. They know advertise that domestic pints are $ 5.50 between 2 & 8 pm. However remarkedly all the domestic lines are down on a very regular basis.
They had daily specials. No longer. Staff have been changed. Not unusual when there is a takeover of course. Not a bad group but do not draw like the old servers. There is clear frustration from things not working like the lines for domestic lines. No Bud. No Blue. No 50. None of their own labelled pints… On a regular basis. If you happen to like Magners, Boneshaker, Delirium and a few other different and more expensive choices, the lines may work, although the beer might be old… In fairness you can get a bucket of five Corona for $ 25 if you consider that a special.
The inside seems to be in decent shape and quite clean.
This has gone from a 4+star to a 1 – 2 star. Perhaps they will get it back together soon.

Come here for a beer, but don’t bother with mixed drinks or food. The service was really slow on a Thursday night, especially considering that there was only one other table of people eating food. Everyone else was sitting at the bar drinking.
Oysters — Not bad. Not great. Served with horse radish, hot sauce, vinegar and shallots, and cocktail sauce on the side. They were pretty small and 2 of them had shell fragments in them. $ 1.50 before 7:00. Be sure to check your bill at the end of the night. I was charged full price, but the waitress changed it when I notified her.
Spinach dip — Really good. I especially liked that is was served with pita triangles for dipping instead of chips, like in most bars.
Fried calamari — Awful. The calamari was really over cooked and the breading tasted like it had been fried in old oil that had never been filtered. I would stay clear of anything deep fried.

Came in for a drink and was greeted by the bartender and owner. The patio wasn’t fully set up yet but they let us sit out there in the sun on the most beautiful spring day we’ve had yet! We were then greeted by some other friendly employees who brought us some free Jameson shots! We decided to stay for a bit and ordered the calamari as an appetizer. It was absolutely delicious and crispy! I’m super impressed:) I highly recommend trying this joint out. Such a great staff with delicious food and plenty of beers to choose from!

Excitedly, after scanning the menu, I ordered the lobster mac and cheese here. I mean LOBSTER? And MAC AND CHEESE? What could go wrong?!?
When the food arrived, this giant hot baking dish filled with mac and cheese fresh from the oven, and I noticed that a) the portion was HUGE, much bigger than I expected, and b) (after I was finished burning my tongue with some overzealous bites), it tasted pretty good. But it’s LOBSTER and MAC AND CHEESE. You can’t really make that taste bad. The longer I ate my meal (and it took quite a while considering it was huge) I started to notice that the food was a little under-​seasoned, and came to the realization that I just spent 25 dollars on macaroni with some measly pieces of lobster.
At the end of the day, you can’t really mess up LOBSTER and MAC AND CHEESE, so considering what it was, I wasn’t too wow-​ed. Reserving my judgment of this place overall until I wind back there and try more of their food, but I’m going to be honest, I’m not clamouring to go back.

Decent pub food — the burger is well-​seasoned and juicy, ample portion of serviceable fries. Nice beer selection. Servers were professional and personable.

Funny that all the negative reviews I read are the exact same as my two experiences. Recently moved into the neighbourhood and had been meaning to try this out as it advertises daily specials and from the outside had a nice vibe.
Way off. Ordered our drinks (wine before 7:00 was on special). Finished our drinks before 7:00 and waited, waited, waited, until finally AFTER 7 the waitress finally came back to get us a refill, and by that time it was «after 7:00 so not on special anymore». Hmmm, coincidence?
We ordered food (seafood pasta for me, lobster gnocci for my partner). Came back to be told they ran out of lobster gnocci. Went with the curry. Almost an hour went by, nobody came to check on our drinks, and still no food on the table, yet other patrons (clearly regulars) were getting frequent service.
Went in to ask about our food and told «it’s coming up, 5 more minutes». So in other words, you forgot. 10 Minutes went by and still no food. Went in AGAIN to ask. Was told «it’s coming right up». 5 minutes later, still no food. Asked for the bill and was told it’s coming and the cook was really busy. Keep in mind, there were 4 people on the patio, and 2 people in the bar, no excuse. A girl, who was an off-​duty employee, came to apologize to us. The excuse was «I’m really sorry, our cook is having a bad day». We say «it happens» and she said «no, like really bad. He woke up this morning on my floor. He had a really rough night etc etc. Can I buy you guys a shot?». It’s a Sunday evening, we clearly are not there to party. And why are you telling me your cook was a disaster the night before? That’s not putting confidence in the food I’m about to consume.
At the very least they comp’ed our food which was nice. However it was the most boring meal I’ve ever had. Seafood pasta was essentially water with tomato and mussels (in the shell) on noodles.
Tried again another time. Same slow service. Ordered lobster nachos for $ 22. Portion size was good, except, there was almost no lobster! We had to pick around in the nachos to find it!
Never going back.

Poor performance on all counts. Service was friendly but terrible.
Food was inedible — four different dishes. All of them were dreadful. Calamari was tough and flavourless. Irish poutine — cold, about 4 cheese curds, topped with very stringy, low quality corned beef. Shepherd’s pie — zero flavour. Steak & fries — steak was cooked to shoe leather (ordered medium well… not sure what you’d get if you ordered well done), served with what appeared to be the frozen vegetables from Costco, boiled, and some cold string fries. Absolutely no ‘presentation’, even for a pub. Looked more like meals served at a school cafeteria.
Server was friendly… but really didn’t need to hear that I couldn’t have an order of mushrooms because they didn’t have any left, because it was her birthday last night and she was really drunk and she’s the manager so she can eat whatever she wants so she ate all the mushrooms. Yeah… maybe just stop at «I’m sorry, we’re all out».
And really didn’t need to know that you were screaming at the kitchen staff.
Very unprofessional.

Liked the fish and chips, loved the burger, large portions, yes!!!
Friendly service, nice vibe, cool tunes, yes!!!
Not near enough to go regularly but will stop by again to be sure to be sure!!!

Where to begin?!
The bartender displayed some of the most unprofessional behaviour I’ve ever seen at a bar. She was talking extremely loud and was drunk. She even admitted it to the patrons, dropping her phone repeatedly and getting the bar patrons to drink an Irish car bomb with her. Her outbursts even managed to overpower the loud music. She was going on and on about herself, that she hates being in her 20’s, how she had to find her self, decide on her career, blah, blah, blah — pity party central! No thanks!
We had our drinks quickly and left.
The drinks were cold and the service here was friendly. The menu is extensive and deserves 3 – 4 stars. But without eating here, I can’t say. But these positives do not neutralize some of the staff’s poor behaviour.
Management needs to fire this employee. I felt embarrassed for this 27 year old woman.
Instead head to the Sibin, Irish pub at Broadview and Queen, 3.5 star experience there.

The Black Irish was disappointing for me.
I’ll start with the good. This place looks like a great watering hole. Cool look, solid selection on tap — definitely come here for a drink.
The bad — I didn’t like the food. I got the jerk chicken sandwich. Maybe I’m spoiled thanks to the amount of good jerk chicken in the city, but this was a major bust for me. Essentially, it was a grilled chicken breast with jerk sauce on top. That’s not jerk chicken.
A friend got the veggie green curry which I tried. For a green curry, it was spicy and there was no protein (chickpeas, something, anything). Again, there’s better curry around.
If you’re looking for a drink, drop by here. But there are better options for food in the neighbourhood.

Cozy Irish themed pub an offshoot of the same named restaurant in NYC.
Shaun our server was prompt, off the wall and delivered «interesting» banter while attending to my brother and my needs. That’s not a bad thing BTW.
We both ordered Steak Frites, and the meal was most excellent, including the vegetables.
For some reason the Bearnaise sauce didn’t arrive, but the steak (and fries) helped us forget that rather quickly. The NY strip loin was aged perfectly.
Being that this was my 1^st visit, I’m going to visit again and try some other menu items. My recommendation may thus change accordingly.
Definitely worth a visit.

Like others have said, it took a while for this place to finally open up, but it was worth the wait.
I have been here a number of times and it is fast becoming my local place to go, the staff is great and the $ 2 oysters are just as amazing. this coming from someone who was previously not a person who indulged in oysters.
By far the best pub in the area. Live music on Friday nights is always entertaining, but get there early to get a seat.

Stopped in for lunch. Had the Murphy’s Irish Stew. The perfect meal for a chilly autumn day in Toronto. Stew was great, tons of fork tender meat and big potatoes and carrots. The «soda bread» resembled a classic Amoroso’s hoagie roll but the crust was perfect, so this was not a complaint. The bartender was wicked funny.

I visited this place today for dinner, with my boyfriend. We live a block away and I had been waiting for the place to be ready and open so we could give it a try.
For starters I ordered the ceasar salad and he ordered the soup of the day, which was leek and portabello. The waitress actually didn’t know what the soup of the day was and had to go and ask someone.
My salad came out as a head of romaine lettuce cut in half, covered in dressing and cheese, with NO bacon, and too many pieces of sun-​dried tomato (for my taste anyways). I was disappointed about the no bacon thing. I’m sure you can request to have it added, but you will probably have to pay extra. Personally I think it should automatically come with it.
Boyfriend said the soup was really good and it comes with garlic butter bread for dipping, which is nice.
For entrée I ordered the fish and chips and my boyfriend ordered the classic burger. He asked to have it naked, nothing on it. (Similar to a previous post here). When he received his burger, they had added the mayo on it. Even though, because he had read a previous review here about them adding the mayo anyways, he requested it three different times that no mayo be added. I don’t know what the problem is, but it seems like if you really don’t want the mayo on the burger, you need to ask for it on the side instead. I think that’s the only way they will listen.
Anyways, minus the mayo problem, the food is AMAZING! I had a huge piece of fish, tartar sauce was perfect, fries are crispy, coleslaw is yummy, and all for $ 14! I was shocked at the prices when I saw them. I thought they would be much higher.
We also tried the lava cake dessert. It was delicious, and comes with a vanilla ice cream that is stuffed with chocolate covered nuts. So good.
Just a heads up, the soft drinks are NOT bottomless. At least not ours, we were charged for refills. I hope our waitress just didn’t make a mistake. But I wish we knew that before going in because I would not have ordered the second one.
All in all, this place is definitely worth a visit. The food is high quality, and the atmosphere is nice. We ate outside/​inside because it started to rain. It’s located on the corner of a really crappy intersection, with crack heads everywhere, but once you step inside you feel like you’re somewhere else. Which is nice.
I highly recommend this place!

Just visited Black Irish the other day for a quick meal. The place is beautifully decorated. It felt like I was in a restaurant on king west. All the staff there were very friendly. I look forward to visiting again!

Like many others in this area, I was very excited to see something open in the long vacant spot at the corner. Finally had my chance to visit on ⁷⁄₂₈. I ordered fish and chips. My companion ordered the house burger with nothing on it, nothing at all.
My fish and chips were delicious. Tasted fresh, not frozen. The fries were very good too. Reminiscent of the old Swiss Chalet/​Harveys ones. My friend’s burger did not come totally naked however, had a chipotle mayo. She ate it anyways and said it was good but not the way she ordered it. She opted not to mention this miscue to the server because we didn’t have time to wait for another to be cooked.
Other than that, service was good. We sat on patio and had no issues with the ‘colourful’ neighbourhood folks. I look forward to returning and wish this business all the best as this corner of the city changes and evolves.

I live next door to the Black Irish and have been waiting patiently for them to open. It’s taken a bit longer than expected but it was definitely worth the wait. Things are still partially under construction but the general décor and ambiance is something I can dig (it’s shaggy sheik, as they say, and a much-​needed addition to the Moss Park neighbourhood). There’s not a bit of pretentiousness in the air.
I had the jerk chicken sandwich with fries ($ 14) and it was both amazing and immense. The jerk spice was perfect — a nice slow heat without being too salty — and the fries were crisply cooked to chip truck perfection. It even came with a surprise side of salad, which added a nice touch of colour to the plate and made me forget that I had skipped veggies for a meal. It’s tough to tell in the photo I attached but the portion size is quite large, which makes this meal a delicious value.
Guinness cans are $ 6, which is fine, but my hope is that their taps (not working yet) will feature this beer in draught form. It’s an Irish whiskey saloon, after all. Oh — my wife had a glass of the house Malbec for an easy $ 6 and she said it was tasty.
All in all, I’m happy and looking forward to the Black Irish running on all cylinders. I’ll definitely be going back in the future.