The Kennedy Public House

This is a quaint little but famous pub in Bloor West Village. Place was fairly busy when we got there but really filled up later on in the evening. The food we decent but not outstanding. Had a couple of Steam Whistle Lagers which are always good.
The appetizer was a standard Caesar Salad but this one was a little dry but I find most are. The main was the «Stinky Italian» Pizza. Had blue cheese/​Prosciutto/​green olives & lots of garlic. Delicious but a little salty. Otherwise this was a decent place with good food. It’s a do-​over.

First of all, have a good set of lungs because it is so loud you’ll be speaking over everyone and guessing what your company has to say.
The nachos, which were recommended as one of the best in town by a couple of places, were a tremendously dull disappointment. Their chopped romaine was good, we enjoyed the extras and it is not your average ceasar salad. I would not recommend going just for that. They have an extensive drink menu — lots to choose from on tap.

This place was a real disappointment. Very expensive. Looks real pretty, but there are plenty of hipster bars in the area to pick from. Took forever for our waitress to take our order and then we ended up placing it with another one.
The drinks were good, but incredibly expensive for three mouthfuls. The gin and tonic taste like your average gin and tonic, but the pear and tequila margarita was delicious. Beer was beer.
Tacos were extremely disappointing as they were dry and under-​flavoured (strange as they were the daily special). The muscles in garlic white wine sauce were tasty, but the bread was stale and untoasted, and they were tepid. The only fluids that are tepid are bodily ones!
Their online presence is not an accurate representation of their current menu, which was very disappointing.

Sadly we have been repeatedly disappointed here. The last thing we ordered was the pakoras which were a mash of gross, and the veal sliders. .They don’t seem to know how to make ceasars anymore unfortunately, and often we have waited ages to be served but staff who seem more interested in socializing by the kitchen. And then there’s the amount of children in the place. It seems to now focus on the hipsters with kids sect, and let them run wild through the place while your trying you enjoy a martini. We aren’t going again.

The avocado sandwich was magnificent. Wow. I loved it. We added a fried egg on top which made it extra good. The service was terrific as well. I will do itself be back soon.

The Kennedy is a local standby when you’re pals are in town (or the hood) and you want to grab a reliable meal. They change things up periodically, but I stick to the Kennedy Burger, any of the pizzas, or the mains.
Their brunch offerings are great as well.
Important note for those dining on the cheap: they have deals every weeknight. Monday is especially good! 2-​for-​1 pizzas!
Finally, I don’t recommend venturing to their newer menu items. For example, some of the new sandwiches are awful. The Best in the West Steak Sandwich tastes like burnt everything. I don’t recommend that.

I came here this past weekend for my boyfriend’s birthday dinner and although the food was nothing to complain about, we both agreed we had the worst service of our lives. Aside from the table being strangely sticky, our server simply «forgot» that we had ordered our entrees, so after an hour of wondering where our food was, we let her know we were still waiting and she denied that we had ordered it in a very rude tone. Toward the end of our meal, said server left without telling us or switching us off to another server. No one would come bring us our bill, so we might as well have dined and dashed! However, we have more courtesy than that, so we tracked down another server who then also was rude to us as we asked for our bill. Not planning on returning! (The two stars is only because the food was good and the live band was very talented).

I was here tonight for a first date. My date and I split 3 appetizers: the Pickerel Tostada, Smoked Chili Tiger Prawns, and Sweet Potato Fries.
The Pickerel Tostada was rich with flavour and ingredients and was my favourite of the bunch but the Smoked Chili Tiger Prawns were a close second. The actual prawns themselves were excellently seasoned and tasted amazing with the spiced honey and tomato cilantro vinaigrette sauce but the lentil quenelle that came with it left something to be desired for me. Perhaps if you get a really good dollop of the spiced honey sauce on the quenelle the flavours improve but eating the lentil quenelle alone left a bland almost cardboard like taste. I think the key is to get some of everything on the fork and then maybe the flavours and consistencies blend nicely together. The plate would have satisfied me much more had it been all prawns and sauce no lentil. The Sweet Potato fries were ante’d up a notch with a dip I’d never had with sweet potato fries before. Unfortunately it’s not described on the menu and I didn’t think to ask the waiter but it tasted almost like a ranch and blue cheese combination with what looked like green onion mixed it. It was delicious and a welcome change from the traditional chipotle mayo sauce we’re all used to.
Not sure if management pushes the staff to get people in an out ASAP but our waiter brought us our bills while our plates were only half eaten (we had been there maybe 30 minutes) and came back ten minutes later and grabbed our plates (which still had food on them) in a manner that lead me to believe our time was up. He did ask before he walked away with the plates but when the waiter’s hand is possessively holding your plate and then they ask you if you’re done you say «Yes master! Sorry master for being so slow». This as I said was with food still on the plates AND half consumed beverages. I left that restaurant having not finished my cider; a feat that I assure you has never occurred before.
It was nowhere near closing time and it was a Monday night.
Though hustled out the evening was enjoyable and we went on to a pub nearby for more drinks. Had we not been rushed, the restaurant would of got at least one maybe two more rounds out of us.
I’d go back but I won’t be hurried out like that again.

The Mac and Cheese is overpriced. Portion size is TOO small.
Hostess is very attractive.

I came here last night for dinner and was pleasantly surprised by the atmosphere of the place. Looks gear on the inside and they have a nice patio. We decided to sit inside right by the patio because they had opened the doors so that you got a little bit of both!
All the waitresses were very nice and friendly. We ordered vegetable pakoras to start, which were delicious, but I thought $ 10 for 4 small pakoras was a bit much.
For entees, she ordered the Kennedy Burger and I had the Mac and Cheese. Both were VERY good. I had a bite of her burger and the meat was very tasty. My mac and cheese was also delectable — waitress said it was the most popular dish they have. So creamy, I highly recommend it. Portions were very generous, I couldn’t even finish my meal.
Not sure why my Mac and cheese was $ 18 when her burger and fries was $ 16. That’s my only complaint, some of the pricing.
We both decided we might come back if we are in the area again.

«Meh», I believe is the appropriate expression. Place survives due to the limited choices in Bloor West plus the largish patio’s a draw. On the pricey side with portions on the small side, though usually the food is well prepared. Beer selection is slight especially if you want something aside from the usual roadhouse taps.
I’ve lived around here for years and, in context, it being Bloor West, there isn’t a lot of choice so this review should be read as an «OK — nothing special». Some competition would improve things.

I found this place lovely. Our server was lovely! And the atmosphere was such a great environment! I loved how on the hot hot day they open up the siding beside patio so even if you aRe not sitting outside you get the nice breeze and open air. The food was delicious and huge portions! For very good pricing too! Drinks wize I was nicely surprised that it was a very good deal, some more expensive than others depending on what you get which is typical. Overall it was a lovely lunch we had! Extra points for our service giving us the option to still have brunch when it was edging close to it finishing and she let us know beforehand so wed silk be able to grab something breakfasty!

We stopped in today for lunch as a group of 4. The décor is nice and the space is big. The lady that sat us was rather unfriendly. No big deal. Our server made up for the hostess as she was cheerful and friendly. As a group we ordered the two hamburgers on the menu, the pig out sandwich and the crudo salad. The burgers were great — the cobbs sesame bun was amazing and the quality of the meat is top notch. The fries unfortunately were just adequate as half of them were soggy. The pig out sandwich looked pretty good. The crudo salad, at $ 14, is the size of a side salad and not worth it. I want to say rip off but that seems mean.
The burger is worth coming back for, but with so much choice out there, I probably won’t.

The Kennedy is typically the spot I recommend if I have to meet a friend close to the subway in Bloor West Village. Food is OK, they have a decent beer selection but all are extremely overpriced (happy hour specials are a good deal, though!)! That being said, staff are friendly, and you can’t beat the patio in the summertime, as well as the location, so I’ll likely be back again.

On the weekends they serve Brunch from 11am till 3pm. Brunch options were so so, they didn’t have anything Kosher and there were no substituted available like Turkey bacon etc. Food arrived after 35 minutes and it was Disappointing. The only thing great was our waitress who continuously apologized for the food delay and topped up our coffee.

For my first time in Bloor West village, I got to try this place out, thanks to a suggestion from my friend. It’s more like a bar, as the name suggests. The interior is quite nice and the ambiance of the place was fun.
At first, we both ordered an entrée and also nachos for the 2 of us. The waitress politely told us that the nachos were huge and asked if we were sure that we wanted to get them. We decided to save the nachos for another time and we were glad — our entrees were more than enough!
I had the pork two way sandwich with a side of romaine salad. I really like how they offer you different sides with your sandwich — fries, two types of salads — for no extra charge. I feel that sometimes restaurants offer fries as the side, but if you want a salad they charge more! Also, these salads are smaller versions of their regular salads on the menu. So my romaine salad came with bacon, roasted artichokes, and cheese. It was sooo delicious. I love having variety with my food. The sandwich was quite good too, but messy. There was roasted pork belly and also pulled pork in it. A huge portion! They also included a small cup of coleslaw on the side. This was $ 15.
The washrooms are also quite clean and spacious. They have a communal sink, too.
Service was average as I think the server could have been friendlier. Overall a good experience, though, because of the food. I definitely want to come back again and try their nachos as an entrée to be shared!

Why do I like this place? It’s so loud at times you have to YELL to have a conversation yet I keep returning whenever I’m in the area. This visit occurred on a Thursday – we came specifically for $ 5 martini’s and to listen to the DJ who got us moving in our seats when he started his set with Prince’s Raspberry beret – nice choice.
We ordered the Duck bucatini and chicken nachos. The duck was impressive with roasted garlic and caramelized onions. The garlic/​onions didn’t overpower the duck but gave the dish an delicious savory flavor.
The nachos, were serviceable – the portion size was enormous – more than enough to share between several people. Service was a bit slow but we were so well entertained by the DJ we hardly noticed. Martini’s were a good deal for $ 5 the lemon drop and strawberry rhubarb we ordered were well prepared – the bartender knows her stuff.

We did not have a good experience at Kennedy this past Sunday.
We arrived for brunch just after 1. It was busy but not packed. We ordered the French toast and a club. When the club arrived we noticed that the bacon on top of it was barely cooked. Pink. Raw. Gummy. We pointed it out to the waitress and she made the comment «some people prefer it that way». Who are these people? Please raise your hands.
She took the sandwich back and you can tell all they did was just — I want to write re cook but seeing as it never really was I’ll just leave it as cook. The rest of the sandwich sat soaking the bread and wilted the lettuce so needless to say it wasn’t any better off when it returned. (I won’t get into the French toast. It was okay but hardly worth the price) At this point the waitress was obviously avoiding us so when we final caught her we just asked for our bill.
This is actually a good spot for some drinks. Too bad the food is such a hit and miss.

Bar Crawl #4: Kennedy Lager ($ 6) and Kronenberg Blanc ($ 7.75)
Love the set up and the deco of Kennedy Public House. The Communal tables set up at the bar area are just perfect for big groups!
Drink menu is quite diversified including imports/​local wines and beers. There are even some interesting mixed drinks (Martinis and Cocktails) from $ 8.50.
On this snowy Saturday evening, there was even a live band!

I decided to check out this gastro pub with my meetup group. The place has a modern décor to it while still attached to its heritage. The wall are decorated with photographs of the area long before modernization, but remember, Canada is not old, so the photographs are from early 20^th century. The bathrooms are unisex with a common hand washing station — again, a modern touch and quite lovely.
I ordered the Kennedy lager which was light and refreshing, and the grilled chicken tandoori sandwich. It was well cooked — still tender and juicy and the tandoori marinade only added to the flavour. It came with chutney, which unfortunately no longer recall what type. But it was complemented the tandoori. The sandwich can get a bit messy given the amount of food in between the bread slices. You’ve been warned! The dish comes with chicken fritters (overkill), a coleslaw served in one of those small butter dishes, and I ordered fries. It was delicious and filling.
The other meetup members ordered the steak and tomatoe salad, and judging by the dish and their reactions, I am ordering it next time.
All in all, if I lived in the area, this would be my neighbourhood pub!