Dave’s... On St Clair

I group of us went here on an early Sunday afternoon. The place was not busy, the staff was friendly and attentive, and they have a really good selection of beer.
The Mac and cheese was bubbling, and brunch was on (’til 4pm).
I ordered the Dave’s burger. It came out well done, served on a potato bun (nice!). Slight let down as there was very little of the garlic aioli or tomato onion jam to add to the flavour profile of the burger.

I’ve come here a couple times now with the Hubster for pub trivia night. Tip for that… COME EARLY. The place isn’t very big and it absolutely fills up on Wednesday nights.
The service is very friendly and they have a good, varied menu. I’ve had the salmon and the burger and both were good. They always have interesting beers.
There’s a real local vibe to this place, which I really enjoy. It’s an easy 30 min walk from home, so we’ll definitely be back again and again.

Review would be five stars of not for one bad experience. Came here a while ago with a friend who asked for vinegar to put on her fries — vinegar bottle we were given was filled with water with, uh, stuff floating in it.
Otherwise, it’s great for what it is. Passable pub grub, fun, slightly off the wall atmosphere, one of the better beer lists you’ll find above Bloor.

This place is such a gem in this neck of the woods! Super casual and comfortable atmosphere. Not to mention solid beer selection on tap for fair pricing. The owner is very friendly and conversational and creates a very welcoming cheers-​ish vibe to the place making you feel like an automatic regular. Great burger and its massive! The toppings were fresh and delicious. No complaints here!

The girls are I were aiming to go for Saturday brunch at Stockyards but they were completely slammed so we headed here instead. The friendly bartender told us to take a seat anywhere so we chose the bar. We all got sandwiches and they were all decent but nothing really blew my mind. My club was not on sandwich bread and it was only composed of two pieces of bread. But I will give them four stars because the girl serving us was so nice and also umh good-​looking.

We used to live in the area and went to Dave’s on a regular basis. We had not been back for a couple of years. We decided to have a pre Christmas party with about 9 friends while we were back in town.
My wife and I had dinner before everyone arrived and it was a mess. We ordered medium rare hamburgers — one with fries and one with salad. We received 2 well done hamburgers both with fries. I ordered a second vodka and soda but a rye and ginger arrived. And so it went for the night having to go to the bar to get the waiter, asking for extra napkins, water jugs, etc.
There was only one male bartender/​waiter on when we arrived at 630pm on a Monday night and the place was about half full.
To make a long story short: the service was abysmal resulting in me asking the waiter if this was his actual job. He said yes and that he had been doing it for years. Never saw him smile or apologize for all of the errors during the evening and there were so many we sort of gave up. The food was mediocre at best.
I was going to leave no tip but instead I asked the waiter what he felt he should be tipped considering all the problems we had. He was shocked that we had had such a bad experience. Wow. We left 15% as he requested. Shrug.
My feeling is that this is a great place for locals as the wait staff spent a lot of time tending to the group at the bar who seemed to all know each other.
Rating: won’t be back.
Advice: get the wait staff some customer service training or more wait staff.

Fun, friendly and reasonably priced.
Burgers, any of them, are tasty.
Beer on tap is clean and I’ve never had a problem.
The servers try their best when it is ridiculous busy hour but take the time to chat with you.
When it isn’t so busy, this place is a good place to have lunch, drink a beer and read.
High five, Dave.

This is my second review of Dave’s. The first time I hated the burger buns which are made from potato flour and are basically dry and crumble far too easily.
This time I tried the chili and what a difference. It was one of the best chilies I have ever had. Rich, thick, and delicious I highly recommend it.

I think perhaps people talked this place up to me too much when I moved to this neighbourhood… my expectations were HIGH! «The best burger in the city» friends told me. That. was a bold and false statement.
The burgers are dry… taste like frozen ones… the buns. oh lord the buns are so dry that no amount of condiments could save them. So sad… I really wanted to like them.
The 3 starts are for the fries, the beer selection and the so so service. The fries I will go back for anytime… in fact… they need to make a poutine out of these fires. for real Dave’s.poutine the hell out of those fries and you will have a best seller!

love Dave’s! found it just after it opened and visit whenever I’m at my parents place, just down the street. had my engagement party there, love their beer selection. love their food. patio is nice in the summer. trivia is fun, used to go regularly, May start again. keep up the good work Dave’s…On St. Claire!

Not good for groups of 6+. It’s too small of a place with slow service. Gratuity of 15% automatically included, which is okay IF the service is decent. We waited about 40 minutes to get our bill and another 15 to pay for it. I had to get our server’s attention both times.
The moment we came in, they seemed too preoccupied to give us a table. While we were waiting for drinks I saw someone sit at a table, wait for 10 – 15 minutes, and eventually leave because he was never served.
The food was okay. Not bad but not great. I got the burger of the month. It was a bit dry and didn’t have a lot of flavour. The fries were good. The calamari was a bit rubbery. My friend’s nachos were definitely burnt at the top and greasy at the bottom. Another friend liked her wings.
The service is where this place definitely lacked. I had the following interaction with the server:
Me: I’ll have the Tom Green beer
Server: Do you even like stout?
Me: I like beer so I’m sure I’ll like it
Server: Are you sure it’s a lot of beer
Me: Yeah I’ll get it
Server: Do you like Guiness
Me: Not really
Server: So you’re not getting that (starts talking to someone else and completely disregards me)
I wanted a beer. It’s fair that she suggested against a beer I probably wouldn’t like, but she didn’t offer an alternative so I was without a beer the whole time here. Oh well I loaded up on beer after I left at another place.

Love coming here, Liz and Sarah are the best. Try the signature Dave’s Caesar. I’m addicted to them!
They have a huge collection of craft beers as well.

Really fantastic staff. Know how to make great classics which is sadly rare at bars. Excellent vibe and intense selection of beers and ciders.

I love coming to Dave’s. I always feel warmly welcomed by staff. The food is not your average bar food — it blows any bar food away! They really put in a lot of attention in the preparation of their food; whether that be a burger, pizza, salmon. Everything I’ve had to eat here has been delicious.
Try them out, you won’t regret it :)

Had take out/​pick up from here. Service was great when we went to pick up. As far as the food goes– For pub food it was good.
The Dave’s Burger and the mashed potatoes that came with the salmon were the highlights of our meal. The wings were spicier than expected, yet A bit on the soggy side but it doesn’t help that we did take out. I’d recommend staying with the ‘greasier’ more traditional pub fare (I.e. instead of the salmon which was just OK) but we will definitely go in and eat (and drink!) here again.

Nice local spot that I decided to try out on a whim. Food took a bit long to come out and the waiter forgot to bring out chili flakes for my pizza when I asked for some but everything tasted great so I really can’t complain too much. Would definitely come back if the opportunity came up!
I got the sausage rapini pizza. Delicious!

This is a great local hangout with good music good food and friendly owners.
Great selection of beers and the only drawback in my opinion us the lack of high definition TV.
I do recommend it for a fun night out.

What a great hangout spot. We came here to celebrate with friends and were thoroughly impressed. Great beer selection, great food, great music, great live music, and great décor.
We had the nachos and they were delicious, I appreciated the take on conventional nachos by using a chipotle sauce of some sort on the chips and including feta and marble cheese.
Also the bathrooms were beautiful and really clean. Bathrooms can tell you a lot about a place and this one left me admiring how wonderful this little place was. We will definitely be coming to this place more often.
Cheers!

This review is entirely about brunch.
Apparently ‘brunch is back’ at Dave’s, and it’s a good thing. Being new-​ish to the neighborhood, I didn’t realize that brunch had taken a hiatus.
Visited on a bit of a whim on Sunday, and was suitably impressed. All the breakfast dishes are $ 10, and while the selection isn’t vast (5 — 6 options), the ones myself and my partner had were executed quite well.
The omelet let’s you customize with 3 ingredients of your choice. I would have preferred 4 or 5, but three is fine. Mine was a touch dry, but was pretty good.
The dish came with home fries the likes of which I hadn’t had in the city before — deep fried and crispy, much closer to a potato wedge chip than other home fries.
As well, the dish came with a slice of toast that could only be better described as having a grilled-​cheese feel to it … a welcome surprise.
And fruit — can’t forget the few pieces of pineapple, orange slice, grapes and some strawberry.
For $ 10, can’t get much better than this.
My partner had poached eggs, which came on a bed of spinich and on top of a potato-​type English muffin. Was good, but hard to describe/​recall.
Not to mention, there wasn’t a crowd (maybe 10 other people in the space), the tables were nicely spaced, and the background noise of a British soccer game was quite soothing.
Would definitely visit again.

Good place for food and pints. They do fun trivia on Wednesdays with stiff competition. Burgers and Nachos are very good.