NBA Courtside Restaurant — Restaurant in Toronto

ATTENTION Basketball Fans, NBA Fans, WNBA Fans, Raptors Fans or just Foodies!

The world's first NBA Courtside Restaurant in Toronto is officially open to the public today (April 3, 2023). This is owned & operated by the NBA and they chose Toronto as its 1st location. It's located at 15 Queens Quay East underneath a new condo with a pay parking lot beside it so you can park there or take Uber/Taxi. For your reference point, it's along the waterfront facing across The Westin Harbour Hotel.

We got a chance to check out the resto, luv the vibe, lightning, interior design and some cool exclusive memobrilia on display such as Shaq's big shoes and other cool stuff. You won't see lots of Raptors stuff coz this is an NBA resto. We also luv the tables as each table top were made with various NBA all-star game courts pieces. For example, our table was from 2011 NBA All-Star game where the late Kobe was the MVP. I really like the NBA fireplace at the front, it has a silhouette of the Jerry West logo, however, peeps do make sure not get too close to the fire since it has no glass barricade so you could catch fire if you aren't careful.

We ordered 2 pints of beers. I ordered a Lot 9 Pilsner at 16oz. my bro ordered a Duvel Vedett wheat beer. For some reason, both of us felt our beers were flat and don't taste the way they should be. But it was late night, we were tired and don't want to make a scene for a quick drink. So, we were fine with it.

Anyhow, we assumed the flat beer maybe due to the relatively new pipelines (long distance) funneling from the keg to the bar, it will take sometime to get the beer flowing nicely for a brand new restaurant. So, we are very understanding. Remember, for any new resto and bar, it's important we are being patient and more forgiving coz the staff are new, every department is trying to work out the kinks and iron out the flaws so they can improve. Thus, we are very understanding.

UPDATE: We came for our 2nd visit in just within 3 days, this time, we ordered cocktails and food. Food overall is delicious, food coming out hot in temperature. We ordered the Ahi Tuna Stack and Firecracker Salmon Roll to share as starters. Both were delicious. It's like mini spring roll but instead of chicken or pork or veggie, it's salmon inside, it's tasty, although $19 for 4 mini rolls is a bit steep but it's tasty though. We ordered Dallas Smoked Bacon Burger and Memphis Crispy Chicken Sandwich, both equally delicious, the fries were amazing.

Special shoutout to our server, ROMI, she was very attentive, courteous and friendly and she also provided us with a few food recommendations so next time we will order those items to try. Thanks Romi! :)

UPDATE: Tonight, we had a boy's night dining and enjoying the meal. Kelvin C. was our server, super attentive, courteous, really hardworking, thanks for your amazing service, making a boy's night out an enjoyable time here at NBA...

As a huge NBA fan I was very excited to checkout the NBA Courtside Restaurant, especially because I'm very local to the area. NBA fans will love the memorabilia and basketball related interior design elements. While they killed it on the styling and authenticity to the NBA there is some minor room for improvement on the food and service end.

Some notes I took on their cocktails, apps, mains and desserts and service:

-Old fashioned, welll crafted, smooth, balanced, elegant glass and solid custom ice cube, tastes the almond and tea

-Laker maker, sweet but not too sweet, pleasant mouth feel, good balance between mango purée and Hennessy

-Good hip hop music, old and new school. kendrick, dr dre snoop dogg, lots of Drake (may get tiresome for non Drake stans)

-Cauliflower tacos, slightly disappointing, not too much flavour too them, subtle, focus is on the cauliflower favour, could use more seasoning/sauce, cheese portions could be increased, acidity with the lime helps

-Lettuce wraps, solid half head of lettuce, deconstructed, good if you enjoy putting your own dishes together, delicious flavour sweet chilli sauce, crunchy, lettuce is fresh and crisp, cashews and wontons nice touch and add to crunchiness and texture, good portion on the filling, our fav appetizer by far

-Wish they gave your water right off the bat.

-Wings, African Berber, interesting flavour, not spicy or sweet, wings cooked well, crispy, dry style wings with a ranch sauce on the side, might want to go with more traditional flavours for the unadventurous types

-Service could be better in terms of bussing. I was there on a Friday afternoon before it got busy.

-Swordfish, cooked well, juicy, acidic, fingerling potatoes could use a bit more seasoning, needs more cherry tomatoes and maybe a bit less potatoes, slightly too minimal for my taste,

-Braised short rib, beef moist, delicious gravy, solid portions, cooked perfectly, my friend really enjoyed this dish

-Amazing decor, unique memorabilia, strong attention to detail on the interior

-Plastic straws

-Chocolate torte, rich, dense, very chocolately, good amount of sweetness, pleasant texture and mouth feel

-Key lime pie, very tart, soft, pie crust not too hard, not too sweet, may want to go with another dessert for the sweet tooth’s out there

-Forgot to give us utensils for dessert

I enjoyed my visit to NBA CR and it’s worth visiting alone for the authentic design nods to NBA. While most of the food and service is mostly good, it could be elevated for the price with only a few...

For an NBA branded restaurant, I was fairly disappointed. For a regular restaurant, it met most expectations.

My friends and I came in to watch the quarterfinals of the In-Season tournament. We had made a reservation ahead of time. We asked for a spot when we arrived to watch the game and were seated in the dining area given it wasn’t busy. We had never been there before and assumed the BIGGEST thing in the NBA would be playing everywhere /accessible everywhere, and the audio would be on in the whole restaurant. (Similar to Real Sports, but dedicated to NBA).

Sadly to our disappointment, there were lots of screens but only ONE TV in the main dining area (other than the 1 massive TV in the bar) was playing the NBA game. The rest had a college game with a 40 & 30 seed D2 team playing, weird highlights, and videos of players walking into their arenas pre game from the season? No offense, but if the NBA is running and In Season Tournament they are desperately trying to make a success, and lots of tables are there to specifically watch it, why are all these other random games and highlights playing on main screens? No audio other than near the bar/big screen either.

We asked our server twice if we can make some more TV’s available to play the NBA game. Took about 25 minutes since we sat down to make it happen, and the restaurant wasn’t very busy. Didn’t change the one TV that was closest to us that was playing top 100 highlights of some sort though.

The food was decent and good portion for regular entrees. Beer selection was fine. Food service was good. However, there is not a lot of apps that are conveniently shareable (ie. Nachos). Some things like fries are shareable, but to watch the game over apps and beers wasn’t very easy to navigate the menu otherwise.

Just incredibly disappointed with the “NBA” aspect of an NBA branded restaurant. Sadly I think I’ll stick to Real Sports for...