Civil Liberties — Restaurant in Toronto

Crowded standing atmosphere, an uninviting attitude, and underwhelming drink portions but tasty drinks. Was meeting a group of friends at Civil while we waited for our reservation at Miracle bar across the street. As I walked in, I told the host where our friends were by the projector screen, which was showing sailor moon episodes. We walked over to our friends and joined the group. It was standing room only and the place was very busy. People kept bumping us as they walked by and I was even told by one of the servers to not block the laneway which I was already trying to not do but literally had to be hanging on to my girlfriend to cram as close to the wall without disturbing others. We weren't going to be there long. My girlfriend wanted to go vape, so we stepped outside. When we came back in, we found out that the staff had checked to see if we were actually friends with our group. Not a very nice thing for the staff to be doing on the holidays. And I wouldn't have pushed into someone's space if I didn't know them as it was tight enough as it was. It took a while to track down a server as they were busy. Thought the mixologist theme was good until I ordered and received the tiniest goblet, which looked about 2.5 ounces of liquid could fill. I made fun of the glass as I'm a big Guy and it looked like a shot glass in my hand as it was only half the size of my hand. I figured the mixologist would at least make me something that was in a glass more suitable to my size. I didn't get a garnish on my drink either. My gf's drink was in a regular highball glass, which I would have preferred. The drink was well made despite the two sips it took to consume it. The price was a little more for the mixologist concoction and falls in line with most bars $17 a drink these days. There was a really nice mixologist there that helped my gf as she got dizzy when we were about to leave, most likely due to low sugar levels. My gf needed to sit down, and this nice mixologist provided her with some orange slices and candied ginger. After nibbling on these, my gf felt a bit better, so I'm happy that she helped us. If that hadn't happened, I would have most likely given fewer stars for the service. Atmosphere was dark but the place didn't have any standout features besides the bottle wall behind the bar. Never saw a menu, but we were only in there for drinks, so I don't know if they have food. Posting a pic of the receipt...

I highly recommend to visit this cocktail bar! To start of when coming in, the place from the street looks like a typical bar. You could easily miss it if it weren’t for the pineapple logo. As soon as you go in, you are greeted by the bartenders or a hostess almost right away. First impressions of the place walking in is it looks a little grunge and hip. Totally was not what we were expecting the place to be like. We opted to seat in a high table just in front of the bar as the bar itself was full of patrons. Opt for the bar if you can as there’s a lot of action going on all the time with the bartenders. As we were seated, our server Kas/Kaz came by and gave us some water. She then explained the concept of the bar which is a no menu bar and basically the server will ask what we liked and what we didn’t like and pass it on to a bartender. We were a bit skeptical about this concept going in but damn, we were stunned with the drinks we were given. Anyway, Kas/Kaz ended up being our bartender as well. Our first drinks were outstanding. Instead of opting to her make me a drink that I didn’t know of, I asked for a sidecar just to see if the drinks even come out good for a classic/easy cocktail. This was the probably one of the best sidecars I’ve had. Anyway, fast forward to our second drinks, we ordered a gin and cognac based cocktail with other requests and the second drinks were even better than the first. It was an amazing experience drinking all the cocktails. Kas/Kaz was attentive enough to check up on us when we needed water without us asking for a refill. Additionally, a colleague of hers actually filled our water glasses when noticed they were both almost empty. Nice touch. In the end, we did not feel rush at leaving the place and the bill came in at the correct time as she could read our body language that we were ready to go.

Overall experience, one of the top bars in the city...

Perhaps the accolades were warranted in the past for it to be an industry darling, but the standards that would make for a good bar, were severely lacking.

The service was poor, perfunctory — a mix of green inexperience and disinterested awkwardness. We walked in 1-hour before closing on a Tuesday to see four people behind the bar and five patrons.

When we were seated, after five minutes, the bartender informed us of the "no-menu" format. Our first experience here, our party was still taking in the information. However, in the same beat, they then expected us to answer them. Without any prompts or chat to engage, they just stared at us. We were still deciding among ourselves, but the bartender was noticeably irritated.

They then asked me what we had been drinking earlier. My two guests were still deciding. I answered first: I had a couple of martinis before. I hadn't answered the bartender with a clear drink order or any other information, but they muttered, I'll just make you a martini and walked away.

Bold move.

A second bartender approached our party and took the last two orders. Mezcal - two separate offerings. Both missing something, an egg white maybe, or more thought and care altogether.

When they came to do check backs, more than half-way done our drinks, they had lost us for us to want to meaningfully engage.

We would have ordered a few more rounds, but decided one was enough. When we had already paid (one bill), another bartender was confused when we informed them that we had done...