Spade Bar & Lounge — Restaurant in Toronto

Our uncle's band was playing there boxing day so I invited 20 people to go. I made reservations over a week before the event (Dec.26th) When I arrived there was no tables reserved for me. My Family was spread out at different tables which we had to put together. I got there at 5:15 the bar was opened or ready to serve people. We ordered food around 6, well it's a good thing I fed my dad who 97 before we left home. The event finished at 8:30 and our food still wasn't served to us. They put some tablecloths on the tables that looked like they were pulled out of dirty laundry...all wrinkled up. In the bathroom there was no paper towels to wipe your hands,the bathroom was also fifty,didn't look like it was cleaned from the night before. When I ask to speak to the owner who was there and I explained that the service and cleanliness of his establishment was not good. He stated making excuses for everything that I mentioned, they opened late, they only have 2 cooks don't know what happen to my table, which I then told him it's not my problem. The servers hold have told us there was a 2hr wait for food. we canceled our order, then they came and ask why we canceled our food order and told us it was ready, we explained why and they brought out some pepper shrimp and fried won ton shrimp as complementary some dad can have something to eat. Totally unacceptable and they need to get more reliable people and pay...

Spade is at a good location with free parking and modern and welcoming setting for partying or just hanging with friends, especially on Friday and Saturday nights. However, the music scale is highly tipped in favour of dancehall. Given the ambiance and potential to attract a very diverse and intergenerational crowd, I am somewhat disappointed by the lack of diversity in music genres and the monopoly of dancehall.

After all, R&B, hip hop, soca, soca-dancehall, chutney, reggae, reggae-dancehall, Latino, African, Bollywood, throwbacks, etc are all played by flexible DJs who appreciate the diversity of the dance club's patrons. Spade fail in this one area of appreciation for customer experience (this is obvious in it's lack of musical diversity as it relates to crowd diversity.)

As with most DJs who fail to appreciate anything outside of reggae/reggae-dancehall, DJs at Spade also conduct meaningless massacres on other cultures' music by constantly cutting songs every few seconds completely removing opportunity to dance and appreciate the songs and enjoy the lyrics and music.

Frequently, private events are hosted on Saturday nights there, but often appear to favour dancehall and that preference sometimes eliminates the opportunity for those of us looking for a diverse experience for attending Spade on those nights.

Great physical club, but can take a more...

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ for the gentleman owner, George – he's always respectful and welcoming.

Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for the service staff. I’ve had multiple unpleasant interactions, particularly with the woman who identifies herself as the manager. Her behavior is extremely unprofessional – confrontational, dismissive, and lacking basic customer service skills. She points fingers at guests and addresses them with a tone that feels aggressive and disrespectful.

Even worse, the overall attitude from several of the bartenders and waitstaff has felt discriminatory, which is deeply upsetting and unacceptable in any business, let alone a hospitality setting.

My honest suggestion to the owner: Please consider reviewing your front-of-house staff. It’s disappointing to see great management efforts from you being overshadowed by a rude and unwelcoming team. Customers deserve to feel respected and valued.

Additionally, the prices listed on the menu don’t match what’s actually being charged at the register. This kind of discrepancy is frustrating and misleading. It’s important to have transparency in pricing to avoid creating distrust.

I truly hope changes are made, as this could be a great spot with the right...