Prohibition Social House — Restaurant in Toronto

Excuse the long rant, but just had a pretty awful experience here, so please excuse my grammar:

My partner and I went out to our first date night in a long time, so needles to say we were very excited-- we saw the reviews for the place, and since it was close to part 1 of our night, decided to give it a shot. We arrived at around 8:10, without a reservation, and were seated at a bar until the next table opened up. So far, pretty normal stuff. We were told there was only one table waiting to be seated before us, so while there was no "time frame", we figured it couldn't be too bad. We had a seat at the bar and about 10 minutes in we decided to order an appetizer, the "1/4 Pound Cheesy Bacon Hasselback Garlic Bread". 1/4 pound of cheese? How could you go wrong?? We waited over 20 minutes for a loaf of skinny little garlic bread, with bacon and a sprinkling of cheese. Needles to say we were pretty disappointed. The bartender couldn't give us any indication to when or even if our table was going to be ready (meanwhile there was an empty table behind us that had not been cleared for a good 10 minutes at this point). The hostess passes by so we ask her whats going on, and she says she will clear the empty table behind us and seat us in a few minutes. So far a little frustrated, but understanding since the place is busy. We finally get to our table, hungry and wanting to order our mains. It takes another 10 minutes before we even see our waitress and order our meal. We order a couple of drinks and continues to wait almost 40 minutes for our food arrive. At this point I am so pissed my eyebrow has started raising itself involuntarily, and my partner has gone silent from sheer frustration. When the food finally arrives, my partner who ordered the lamb shank, could eat the lamb, but the potatoes were oddly lumped together and it was totally under-cooked. My "Sloppy Josephine", was completely unappetizing and inedible, and I had to send it back all together.

After returning the dish and asking for the bill, our server went to speak with the manager and let us know that there would be no charge for us this evening. As nice as that gesture was, our night was pretty much ruined. We are now stuck back at home, all our usual placed closed, and eating fruit for dinner.

Overall, Understaffed/ not great service, flat out BAD food, will not be ever...

UPDATE: I don’t live in the area but this place is worth coming to. Also there are several vehicle dealerships across the street and slightly to the west towards the Don River. If you are having your vehicle serviced, come here to spend your time until your vehicle is ready. I do this everytime my vehicle is being serviced am at the dealership and also on other days with or without my wife and family. Been back here many times since my original review below. Always friendly and great service from all staff. Tried many food options and all have been stellar. Love this place. Thanks Michael, Chris, Peter, Natalie, Laura, Sierra, Morgan, David, Leigh, Ava, Kennedy

Original review: My daughter and her boyfriend have been here many times as he lives across the street. I was here once 4 months ago for a mid afternoon lunch and celebration with my adult son and we loved it.

My wife has always wanted to come here so we came here for lunch and drinks. I made reservations (just in case) for 1:30pm the same morning. We were seated right away by the friendly greeter at the front. Our server was Sierra. She is so kind, helpful and attentive without being bothersome. I asked the bartender a question and he too was very kind.

My daughter loves the pesto Gnocchi and recommended it to me knowing I was going there.

Everyone around us was having breakfast/brunch type food and the portions were generous, looked great and smelled so delicious. But I ordered the Gnocchi but upon seeing their breakfast/brunch servings, we will be back even though we do not live in this area.

My wife ordered the fish and chips. Her portions were huge and she said it was very good. No complaints. My Gnocchi was also very good and I gave my wife a taste and she commented it was fresh and very good. I tasted her fish with tartar sauce and I loved it. I think the tartar sauce was homemade.

We had beers and I also had single malt scotch.

This pub/bar/restaurant does food sooo good! What a gem of a place. Now I know why when we’ve been driving by this place the past few years or so, it was always busy.

Thank you Sierra for the wonderful service and the chefs for the...

We ate at Prohibition as part of summerlicious. Overall, it was a good experience but I don't know if we would go back there. Great selection of alcoholic beverages and some great deals there too. We were stuck sitting in the bar area and it was really loud! The table was super small and we were right beside the stairs to go to the washrooms (yes, washrooms are in the basement).

Beautiful interior with really nice washrooms but I feel like this place is trying to be too hip.

On to the menu... As mentioned, drink list was extensive. And we arrived at "hooch" hour so there were deals on certain items. I ordered a rootbeer and the glass was mostly ice. Really wasn't worth $5.09. My husband got a "flight" of 5 mini beers. He enjoyed that for the most part.

For the set menu, Starter: I choose the fatoosh salad for my starter. It was tasty. But the presentation was odd. It was on a long, narrow plate which made it very hard to eat. It kept falling off the plate (see my too hip comment). My husband had the shrimp cocktail which kinda tasted like shrimp in salsa. It wasn't amazing.

Main I had the Salmon Poke-Eh bowl. It wasn't bad but I found it very oily which aggravated my stomach. The salmon was also on the warm side. I expected it to be more sushi like. My husband has the "Le Can Can" which was the most amazing piece of pork cooked in duck fat. It was by far the best part of the meal. It had a tasty crust on it and was tender and just so so yummy. We were sad to hear that it is not part of the regular menu. The dip that came with the pork was completely unnecessary.

Dessert I ate the Eton Mess which was tasty but served in soup bowl? My husband had the tiramisu which was good but again, the presentation tries to be too hip.

Our server was really sweet and seemed to be working very hard.

So while it was worth a trip, don't sit in the bar area (unless you want to pile your dishes on top of each other and don't care about hearing your guests) and just order the "Le Can Can". While I am sure some of the other summerlicious items must be tasty, this...