Victory Cafe — Restaurant in Toronto

It's always good times at Victory Cafe. I remember going to the old location down the street from Honest Eds back in the day.

Since their "newish" spot on Bloor has been opened now for a couple of years, we've also been here a few times before and usually sit on the patio. However, for NYE 2023, we booked a table inside for seven of us.

THE VIBE: Firstly, let me just say that our server, Ben, was AWESOME! He had such great energy and really took care of us. Victory should feel fortunate to have such a great team member.

The decor here is cozy, the music is not too loud, so you can actually have a conversation with people.

You can chill at the bar and have some drinks or at a table. During winter, you'd be lucky to get a seat at the back near the wood burning oven, where I suspect it is nice and toasty.

THE FOOD: Wow, man, the food here is super yummy. Here's what we all had: Poached pear salad (big) Mushroom pizza (yummy) Steak (OMG...so good) Salmon (one of the best I've had) Fries (plentiful, hot, crispy - nice) Risotto (my friend had two)

THE DRINKS: We had a few drinks like the Tiki, which was very yummy - highly recommend.

DISAPPOINTMENTS: 1 - Both the Risotto and Salmon dishes were shockingly small portions.

My salmon dish had very little veggies, and the sweet potatoes seemed to be missing until I realized there was a little smear of it - like a garnish - below the salmon. Unfortunately, I left feeling unsatiated and "cheated" by such a small meal.

My friend's Risotto bowl portion was so small that he had to order another one.

2 - A couple of Tiki drinks were loaded with ice. I swear, my wife scooped out two-thirds of a glass of ice.

Because of the small portions and ice issue, I've deducted a star in the food category.

We will definitely return to Victory Cafe, BUT not before I know they've addressed these above issues.

RECOMMENDATION: Before ordering the salmon and risotto dishes, you may want to ask your server if the portions are still super tiny.

Also, when getting the Tiki drinks, ask for less ice.

WRAP-UP: I'd highly recommend Victory Cafe to anyone in the Annex area and beyond if you are looking for a cool and cozy place to:

Grab drinks with your peeps Dinner with the family An intimate place for a date Or just a cool place to grab a...

Went in for a girls night out. Nice tables, nice patio decor, needed music definitely. Some electro soft pop. Maybe some nice European pop. Local beers are too hoppy. They don’t have regular beers. They don’t have any special drinks, at least not on the menu and no one advised of it. The butcher pizza had no cheese, because they think, well, if we put meat, than we don’t have to put cheese, just a sprinkle. Well wrong, the meat tasted bland, and the sauce very bland. Did not like it at all and the meat was too thick & very hard to chew. All the other pizzas looked very good actually but the tomato sauce very bland and sour, needed maybe more time to cook or more garlic for sure. The classic pizzas looked very cheesy and my girls enjoyed The cheese he used. Quality cheese. I had my girls try a slice Of mine and they all agreed it wasn’t good. The chef was working hard though, I could see that. One thing I didn’t like it that Parmesan wasn’t offered right away with the pizza or even Chili Flakes or chili oil. Please do not serve Tabasco. That’s a sin and very vinegary, very distasting. Most people like fresh Parmesan on top and chili oil. Most authentic Italian restaurants serve chili oil blend with roasted garlic. I mean for a $20 pizza. The staff kept by passing our table and never showing up. Waited 25 min for my bill. I really had to leave. Every time I made eye contact or put up my arm or said “excuse me” no one responded or attended our table. No eye contact. As a server myself, that’s a big no no. They kept choosing to go to the same table. I tip 20-25 percent every time so it’s not fair to us. The server was very good in the beginning to sit us down, very friendly staff, not going to deny that, but than disappeared. Not nice. I couldn’t even order another drink I was so thirsty. I needed a box for my pizza and had to wait 27 min and I’m not exaggerating. There were two other tables only. Well that’s my review. I do recommend but be aware of the butchers pizza and...

Went by late and the patio was still bumpin'

Too late for the kitchen but we were still able to get pizza for takeout and I'd say it's a good value: roughly a medium sized pizza for approx $11 across the board, but from a curated and relatively sophisticated menu of flavours/topping combinations. I can't remember exactly what we had but something like "The Lumberjack" which was steak prosciutto onions roasted garlic parm or something along those lines. It was fairly tasty but the steak was somewhat tough and a little fatty for my taste. We also had an "Annex white" pizza that is normally vegetarian-friendly with cherry tomatoes arugula and goat cheese wih a white sauce instead of red and we added chicken as well and it was awesome I preferred it even tho the steak was my first choice. Overall I was quite satisfied with the service and the available menu and the quality and the price. There were some details that could have been better mostly to do with the quality of the food prep (in addition to fatty steak for example the prosciutto was for some reason laid on top of the pizza after it had been cut so we had to tear it and redistribute it onto the slices. Also one pizza was cut into extra large quarters while the other was sliced into more normal - seeming 8ths for some reason?) But I attribute these slightly negative details mostly to the fact that we were ordering late and the kitchen was closed so I'm assuming the servers were required to make up the pizzas which is likely not normally their responsibility, or some similar type of contextual explanation and I would absolutely go there again at the same time or any other time in fact as I'm also interested in menu items available during kitchen hours like what appeared to be elevated elevated pub fare as well as a similarly thoughtful selection...