The Ceili Cottage

There is something charming about the venue that keeps me coming back. A quaint neighborhood spot. Food is good and reasonably priced. Limited seating… The atmosphere at the bar is fun! Can be chilly by the entrance directly into the bar which is where the three tables are. Worth a trip!

A cool space with really friendly staff (who appear to all be authentically Irish). Good space to go for a drink with one friend or many friends. When we got there around 7pm on a Saturday they were already sold out of a few things food wise. And by the time we ordered they were out of even more stuff. They were out of things like chips even. Cauliflower. I tried to order the mussels but they just sold their last order. So I got the veggie curry. It was pretty heavy on the potato, maybe because they were out of cauliflower… Also they didn’t have potatoes to make chips but you could getmashed potatoes… So I wondered if they were instant or how far advance do they just make a huge pot of mashed potatoes. The food that did come was fine, but nothing worth recommending. I wouldn’t go for a meal again here, but a drink sure!

Great spot in Toronto’s East end. Feels like a home away from home. A Lil taste of The green isle, britanny and pei all wrapped in a snug blanket. Great selection of fresh oysters, amazing freshly baked bread and the eggs benny is nice and buttery but not overly heavy. ⁵⁄₅ for sure. You need to go here at least once in your life.

This is one of my most favorite, go-​to places in the east end. Cozy atmosphere goes really well with delicious food.
Highlights: The «Yurt» (goes up every fall) and their Oyster platter ($ 35 for 3 types of oysters)
P.S the «C» I’m Ceili is pronounced as «K»

In reading the petulant, annoyed reviews from patrons who wouldn’t eat unless they were in the yurt, I figured it was my turn to write about this wonderful place.
It’s more than the yurt, people. It’s the food and the atmosphere. If you insist on sitting in a space that’s packed when there’s room in the main restaurant, I’m not surprised that the servers aren’t bending over backwards to get you in there. They run a tight ship, and the way to enjoy the Ceili Cottage is to take a seat wherever there is one, order something and enjoy the food and the ambience. If you can’t survive without being in the yurt, pick a quiet night. And be patient.
I’m gonna back up.
One of the reasons I moved to this neighbourhood was this place. It’s quirky and the food is consistently good (if occasionally oversalted, but only occasionally). The soup and bread is almost always just the right thing for dinner in cold weather, the sticky toffee pudding cannot be beat, and there is often something in their specials that I can’t pass up.
Did I mention the bread? Their bread is exemplary, served with rich butter topped with flakes of salt. It’s a meal on its own. The side of mushrooms is delicious enough for a main, paired with the bread, and I’ve had that for dinner more than once. The smoked salmon is light and perfect in summer. Their mash is delicious; friends often have the bangers as a main and I’ve never had anyone NOT love this place.
I’ve never been rushed out of the restaurant, and have spent hours in at my table with pleasant service. If you treat the servers well, surprisingly, they’re not pissy in return. What a concept, eh?
Regarding the yurt, it’s an awesome place for a cozy date in winter. On a quiet night when it’s not full of revelers, they play music, check on you frequently to see if you need a drink or something else, and are friendly as hell.
So there. I’ve been to this place countless times and have NEVER been rushed or treated rudely. I think you get what you give.
/​Git

Regularly solid restaurant year round
Great rotating beers
Perfect patio
Chalkboard interesting specials daily
Appeals to all diets — but has lots of hearty options for meat eaters and seafood lovers
Great oysters
Service could be more consistent and friendly — but it IS generally quite busy. We’ve never needed a rez tho.
Try it!

This is a great local, fun casual atmosphere. Had the mushrooms on toast as an ap… delish! It was so tasty! Love Yorkshire pudding and was excited to this on the menu with mashed potatoes but was disappointed with when I tasted this… Potatoes and gravy extremely salty (I love salt and found this salty!!) and the Yorkie was very dense, not light and fluffy.
Since the atmosphere was great, I would go back to try other items on the menu!

This place was largely part of the appeal of buying a house in leslieville in a somewhat industrial pocket before the area blew up into a Brooklyn style cool vibe on queen St east. This place was one of a kind when it popped up and in many ways still is.
Years ago In the winter before they put up the yurt for extra seating (that they definitely need) you could see their cute mini skating rink on the cement slab out front and smell the wood-​burning stove —truly incredible
You felt transported to Ireland and really happy to be in Canada in the coldest months at the cutest best hidden secret bar!
It is still awesome now but I don’t recommend sitting in the yurt, personally I find it hard to breathe, no oxygen flow in there. But just make your way to the bar or table.
In the summer their patio is one of the very best in the city
Non-​pretentious even though it’s pretty hipster now
great staff awesome oysters great scotch, beer and wine.
Food is all fresh have the land last week it blew my mind I’m usually too cheap to get a full meal because it is expensive when I can cook myself but their food is so high grade it’s always well worth the money
This is an amazing spot to go for St Patty’s especially if you don’t want drunk 20-​year-​olds all over you
Usually have a great Irish bands and Irish dancers on that weekend
I’ve also seen some tours come through looking like they’re having the best time and never want to leave Kealy on their bar hop
Favorite dishes that pop up as daily specials include the Collie flower soup spicy salmon soup muscles are always good the lamb as mentioned below and any house fresh made burger but they always run out because it’s too popular lol
Very pleased to have this spot in the hood

Love this place! Seafood is so fresh. It’s close to the beach so I come here after playing volleyball. I’ve had their mussels and oysters and they’re really tasty and fresh. My friends also really like their bangers and mash.

The Ceili Cottage is a simple little place with great service, great oysters and a very good whiskey selection. I’ve been here with friends, with my teen boys and on my own after a late night at work for a quick meal and I’ve never been disappointed. If I lived a little closer I’d call it my «local».
Love the bar, love the service, love the brunch.

Popped in here while bar floating around Leslieville and it was bar far the coolest bar in the area. Authentic Irish vibe. Tons of whiskey’s and pretty sweet beer selection on tap. Kinda place you can drink with no one noticing you or bothering you.
Didn’t look at a menu and it was too cold for what looked like a sick patio. Kind of a spooky night but that’s when I like to go out. Bartenders seemed like badasses who don’t care if you live or die and I like that. Oysters seem to a thing they do well.
I’m a ghost and I haunt this place now.

I was delighted by the Ceili Cottage. There’s all this hype about the yurt. I don’t understand the yurt. Couldn’t get into the damn thing and there was a private party going on the other time I tried. So, I’m reviewing it independently of its famed tent.
I went to Ceili Cottage twice during the coldest weekend of the year. The dining area is tiny but very, very cozy. The bar is great. Flat screen television, huge selection of spirits, wonderful fresh Guinness and a lovely array of local draft beers. Friendly bartenders and staff, many from Ireland. The menu focuses on oysters and Irish fare. I really appreciated the passion about the selection and shucking and presentation of the oysters — it reminded me of similar thatched roof pubs near Galway in Ireland with similar focuses. The food was quite good — we opted for one of the roasts. My only complain was that the Yorkshire puddings were overdone and rock hard. We unfortunately were too cowardly to complain about this. Everything else was pretty ace… from the atmosphere, to the Guinness, to the crowd. Felt at home and will be going back! A good but crowded place to meet up and watch a football match.

The food is quite quite good and they have a yurt on their front patio in the winter.
How can you argue with that?
It’s best put as an «Irish bar for grown ups». The kind of place that they probably never have to check anyone’s ID at the door. Which is totally cool, because if you wanted younger people you’d venture farther west on Queen. It feels wooden and organic in a warm and comforting way. More timber, less Tinder.
The vibe is great. Arguably the heart of this part of the neighborhood.
I had duck confit and waffles. God bless.

Read about the yurt in a magazine and went that evening to check it out. Whether or not the yurt is open seems to be dependent on many factors — thankfully we chose a Friday night and it was.
Like: Well, first of all, the yurt. What a cool, and definitely unique, concept. A great way to spend a cold winter evening — in a cool environment with good music. Our food was pretty good and the beer selection has some different draft options than the typical offerings around town. The ambiance of the main building is pretty cool too — it’s absolutely a cozy neighborhood pub.
Dislike: Right at the top — the service. The woman seemed put off that we wanted to wait for the yurt instead of dining indoors. After 30 minutes when we asked if a spot had freed up yet (we were #1 on the list), she told us to wait because she couldn’t do everything at once like talk to us and check as well (yikes). Steak night was also a little overpriced at $ 28 when everything on the menu seemed way cheaper than that.
This place gets four stars on the yurt alone. If that didn’t exist, I would give it three for shoddy service and off-​pricing. Not sure I’d go back unless it was to bring company to check out the uniqueness as well.

I’ve been wanting to check out the Ceili Cottage for a while and made plans with friends, who have been there before, to attend on a Friday evening. They put their names on the yurt waiting list (seeing as how we all wanted to experience the supposed magic of the yurt), but we somehow never made it far enough on the list. We were also never told where we were on the list, despite very specific requests.
I had the steak special, which was $ 28 and a perfectly cooked tenderloin. The sides were fine, if a little sparse… but the meal itself was fairly bland. For $ 28 I would expect the steak to have some seasoning to it. There wasn’t even salt and pepper on the table in case you wanted to add more flavour.
Much like others have commented, the server was aggressive about turning the table. We had two friends come after we ate our steaks, and had yet to order dessert and the server was already asking us to move to the bar if we wanted to have another drink. We asked where we were on the yurt list, and whether giving up the table would move us to the top of the yurt list, but she just shook her head before flouncing off. She seemed annoyed that our friends were standing at our table (it was a high top), even though they were out of the way and were spending money. They likely would have spent more, or ordered some snacks, had they not felt so rushed. We put our dessert order in, as our friends really wanted the sticky toffee pudding, finished our drinks and settled up the bill.
There was a group performing some short highland dancing to raise awareness of Robbie Burns and it was fun to watch — I just wish our server had waited until between numbers (the songs were about 30 seconds to a minute long and there were four in total) or after the performance to take our order.
I love that there’s a reasonably priced (~$ 6.20/pint) cask program here and would probably return just for a quick drink before eating elsewhere in Leslieville. There are far too many restaurants in Toronto to explore before returning to one so mediocre.

A favourite unless I (or we) experienced grief. Great food, great atmosphere but service (though some have been there a long time) can be very spotty and not responsive and then the next day they are great.
Was there for a wedding reception and they rocked it and a week later service was iffy at best.
Patio in the summer is awesome!

Outstanding. !!!
We’ve been meaning to come here for over two years — there’s always a line when we go by but this week we decided for sure we’re going !! I am so glad we did… and were going to have to go back at least 10 more times just to make sure it’s okay !
We started with a dozen Irish Oysters and they were AMAZING. The freshness was incredible and they’ve paired it with three sauces plus freshly grated horseradish ! Dozen oysters $ 43 worth every penny.
Two of us had Bangers & Mash — creamy mashed potatoes with two homemade sausages that were just incredible soft & delicate very nice — topped with an onion sauce — superb
Two of my other dinning companions had Corn Beef with mustard herb sauce, mashed potatoes with spinach and heirloom carrots. They really enjoyed it and the corn beef was unlike any other corn beef I’ve seen or tasted just so delicate and fell apart it was so soft, melt in you mouth yummy.
It was a beautiful dinner — unlike any other Irish pub dinner I’ve ever had… and I’ve been to a couple of pubs here and there. I’d heard rave views about many of the menu items and really can’t wait to go back and try a few more.
We did order bread-​and-​butter which was freshly baked, served warm and just outstanding.
To top the meal off, my three friends shared the dark chocolate Brownie. They devoured it in no time with fighting spoons and lots of hmmmms & yummmmms. They said one of the best brownies they’ve ever tasted !!!
Now we regret not taking photos of the food, it smelt so good when it arrived at the table we just started to eat and before I knew it I forgot to take a picture.
Next visit will be brunch I can’t wait :-)

The Ceili Cottage is just so low key, I drove by this stretch of Queen East quite often and never realize its existence.
But I am glad that I finally got to drop by for a drink: Beer!
I just could not take my eyes off from that Yurt! What a brilliant idea to utilized the patio area during the cold season for extra seating and even book the whole yurt for a private event and celebrations!
The outside looked quiet and dead on a Tuesday night, but inside the bar was packed! I really want to have a drink at the bar, but just could not even find any standing room! There were though some empty tables…
There are a few selection of imports and local craft beers which is quite nice. And of course whiskey and scotch, if you want a pick me up.
All beers are $ 6.20 for an English pint. Our McAuslan Red Ale and Denison’s Dunkel were both enjoyable.
Just love the deco and vibe: classy and cozy. And yes they have Oysters!
Beer and Oysters? That’s my kind of Cottage Life!
I will be back!

Great at the bar, with the Leafs game playing. Bartenders were friendly and efficient.
Mussels, pâté, and green salad (surprisingly) were all good.
But…
BEST OYSTERS I’VE EVER HAD IN MY ENTIRE LIFE. Plump, fresh, salty, well shucked, great additions on the side if you needed to add anything to them (which I didn’t).
Cannot say enough, especially following the foul oyster experience I had at Bestellen recently.

My favourite burly bartender of all time works here, and he is always telling it like it is.
Our First Encounter:
Pepper: What kind of white wine do you have/​would you recommend?
BB: I’d get a beer. We’re a fucking Irish bar.
Pepper: Touché. Guinness, please.
Our Second Enounter:
Pepper: This Yurt in the patio is so clever for the colder months! You’ll probably miss it.
BB: Fuck that. I’d burn it if I could, I can’t wait to tear it down. I never want to see it again.
Pepper: OK…
I’m not going to name names, because some people might find the above encounters to be painting a rude picture of this employee. Those people would be wrong. This guy is a bad ass and he can pour my stout any day.
This place is known for their mac and cheese and in-​house hot sauce, and there is a reason for that. Order those things, along with your beer, it is an effing Irish bar after all…
PEPPER POINTS: For their patio and winter Yurt. Great outside seating by some very clever folks.