Walrus Pub & Beer Hall — Restaurant in Toronto

TLDR; If I was running the Walrus, I'd want to know:

1. If a waiter as far out of their depth as we experienced was being given sections on a busy Saturday - sections that they were clearly unable to manage

2. Staff were clearly not communicating with each other (to cover sections and give support) and/or patrons who are owed an explanation or update (when elastic bands are found in their dishes). Floor managers should always be aware of the types of issues we were experiencing (no quality check, no table contact, elastic in food, confrontation from other patron, etc. etc.) and be ready to speak to them if one of their staff is preoccupied.

3. Patrons were being confronted and yelled at by other patrons as a result of staff's inability to manage their section and/or patron-patron interactions On Saturday night (September 21st) two of us walked in with no reservation for dinner at 6:30-7 PM, and were seated at one of the two-tops (high-tops) along the wall across from the server POSs with a view into the kitchen.

During our meal, I found a dirty elastic band in the the koji caesar salad I had upgraded to as a side. I was able to flag down our waiter and point out the elastic band in my salad, and they took it wordlessly - no apology, no promise to fix it, no communication whatsoever, aside from taking the salad away. Upon taking the side salad back to the kitchen, we were able to watch one of the kitchen staff pick the band out of the salad and exclaim "Holy sh*t!". We assumed this would mean an urgent replacement of the side salad or, at least, a prompt table touch to ensure that we, as diners, knew the situation was being addressed.

However, we continued to finish what was left of our meals with absolutely NO contact from any other Walrus staff for the remaining duration of our meal. Finally, 45 mins. later with a table full of empty plates, empty glassware, and dirty utensils, we flagged down the nearest staff to ask for our bill as we had a show to get to and had not seen or heard from our waiter since he took the side salad away.

A few minutes later, our waiter came by, quickly (and wordlessly) brought our bills to the table, and almost left before we noticed that there was no changes to our bill - we mentioned that if we were going to pay for an upgraded side salad, it would have been nice to have at least gotten to eat it (I was halfway through when I discovered the elastic band). He then mentioned that he forgot he was going to comp the meal (which we appreciated) and turned back to the POS to make this change and reprint our bill.

In this time, another Walrus patron walked up to our waiter and the table we were sitting at and proceeded to attempt to usher our waiter away back to his own table because "this guy [the waiter] had told them he would cash them out but kept disappearing and they had a show to get to", I mentioned that we also had a show to get to and this patron then turned to our table and berated us for not understanding his situation - all the while the waiter stood back at the POS without intervening, deescalating, communicating or saying a word. At this point, we encouraged the waiter to go back to the angry patron's table, but not before feeling like we should never have been put into a situation where a patron is arguing with us about a service issue with...

I’ve walked by Walrus several times and haven’t had the opportunity to give it a try. Went yesterday for dinner and drinks.

The place is quite loud. They have their own DJ and it was pretty crowded at 7pm on a Wednesday night, so you have to force your voice over the music and the overlapping conversations.

The space is pretty big and has a lot of different types of seating. There’s a set of stairs that goes down as well that I didnt get to check out but I’m assuming there’s even more seating there.

The decor is interesting. It has a lot of unique pieces like a sign post near the front pointing to the different sections, a lot of picture frames on the walls, neon signs, etc. One thing I found kind of funny but also a bit odd to eat beside is this big glass case with tree branches suspended inside with what looked like taxidermied birds inside. Because it’s suspended on strings the branch spins slowly around. Maybe it’s an interesting thing to look at from a table farther out, but eating within a few inches beside what felt like stuffed dead birds is not very appetizing to me.

Our server was great, pretty attentive and felt welcoming. I asked for suggestions on their cocktails and described the kind of drinks that I like and he took that away for the bartender to make a drink for me and the cocktail tasted nice.

I had the quinoa & avocado bowl which came with a grilled chicken breast. I was hoping for something light because I wasn’t that hungry. When I saw the dish come, I was pretty surprised because it was like a mountain of quinoa and salad with the chicken breast and sliced half of an avocado garnished on top. The chicken breast was so dry that it was so hard to chew in your mouth and was a literal choking hazard to try to swallow. I actually had to wash it down with water each time. Otherwise, the salad was quite bland and the avocado was just sliced. I didn’t really get much seasoning.

I barely touched it, and when our server came around he asked about it. He did take it off my bill which was great of him.

I asked for a flat white as well, and this also fell flat for me. The drink was flat from a texture standpoint instead of the added volume and silkiness you’d expect the steamed milk to add to good espresso.

Overall, I think it’s a good spot to meet someone for drinks and chat. I am not so sure that I’d return...

For the majority of 2023 I was living in Burlington at my Dad’s house. As his youngest child at the age of 27, my Dad has been waiting for me to get my life together.

I moved to Queen West in November of 2023, and since then my Dad has continued to ask me the same questions most parents do:

When are you going to get a better job, when are you going to get a better place to live, why don’t you have a girlfriend.

Being the youngest of 4, with 3 highly successful siblings, in long term relationships (2 siblings married and 1 siblings engaged), it has been hard for me to meet my dad’s expectations.

Today, he was coming to the city for a reception at the Royal York Hotel, and he had a couple of hours to meet before. I knew I needed to pick the perfect place.

We met at the Walrus at 6 PM, where we were seated in a quaint, well lit 2 seat table by the bar. Our server made his expert recommendation to my Dad when he teetered between the dumplings and the tacos.

This recommendation would prove to be life changing for me. Shortly after ordering our appetizers were delivered. As a vegan I was pleased to enjoy the brussel sprouts and shoestring fries with slight adjustments.

My Dad was delighted with the dumplings, each bite discovering more and more flavour. As he was halfway through his dish, he looked at me and he said to me for the first time, “ Noah, I am proud of you. Thank you for bringing me here. After eating these dumplings, you are now my favourite child”.

Now we are with his lawyer and my Dad is writing my brothers and my sister out of the will. THE DUMPLINGS...