Birthdays

It’s a Friday night and what is a girl to do, except to party? My friend recently had her birthday, so what better reason than to go for a hip hop dancing club night!
Venue wise it’s not the prettiest place, it’s kinda what you called a grimy club, I guess. Toilets were kinda bad and the service wasn’t exactly fast. I did however like the massive choice of bottled beers, including one of my favourites — cusqena from Peru!
There’s a big floor for dancing which was totally needed! The place was heaving with hipsters wanting to bust some moves! It was a bit cramped, but it’s a club, you gotta expect that.
It’s a so so place, probably would come again for another club night, and I heard lucky chip have a residency here, so gotta come and grab a burger soon too.

Burgers are almost as terrible as the attitude of the staff that gave us some real grief when asking for cutlery.

Oh Birthdays.
Here’s what I really like about you: your food. You run some amazing pop-​ups and the food is great. I’ve had poutine and wings and burgers and it’s all been great.
And then I pretty much dislike everything else.
Birthday’s is not going to be my scene. It’s loud, it’s packed, it’s a boozer spot for people who like to drink and drink hard. But more than that, there are so many issues that even if you did like that, you wouldn’t like this. It’s gross, the staff are so unbelievably unfriendly, the people there are unfriendly, the beer game is weak, the bathrooms can be sickening, it’s just bad!
Come for the food. Run away after.

Great place to start the night!
Can manage a conversation and dance at the same time; well not necessarily at the same time.

Well, the place itself is nice, and convenient. Drinks here are expensive, as is the food.
The food is lucky chip burgers so I ordered the royale with cheese, then realised fries are extra so went for the chilli cheese fries.
Burger was overdone and the chilli cheese fries are about half the portion I get from meat mission. Also, it was all really salty, I rarely add salt to any meals so can really taste it. Added ketchup which helped a bit.
Staff seemed happy and friendly though hence the 2 stars.
So in summary, I’ll probably go back to meat mission or dirty burger next time, both beat this place by a mile. It’s a shame as I’d heard really good things about the food. At least it was a nice walk.

Specifically asked the price of drinks before ordering and was told the wrong price and then was served a pint after asking for a taste.
Service definitely leaves a lot to be desired!

As if Bushwick had taken over a bar in London.
We ventured up to Birthdays in search of a good Dalston burger. Ordered 2 cheeseburgers at the bar, along with a (small) basket of fries and 2 beers. For a hipster bar, the beer selection was not very strong, and I just went with 2 Blue Moons, a good beer for sitting outside on a nice evening.
There were some seats available at outdoor tables when we arrived around 7pm on a Saturday, which was great as it was a nice evening. The only downside was that we got to share some second-​hand nicotine and tar courtesy of the variety of dudes lighting up out front.
The Lucky Chip burgers were decent overall, but not as good as Bleecker, Honest, or Meat Mission, our usual go-​tos. The fries were okay, and the basket was small. My burger was delivered with lots of goop on it that I specifically asked to have withheld, but at least the waitress was nice about swapping out the bun.
Overall a solid 3 stars. The music was good (and not deafening, at least in the early evening), the crowd was hipster, the bartenders were cute (my wife agreed), and the burgers weren’t bad. But nothing stood out enough to get me clamoring for more.

Food is catered mainly towards people that love greasy American shit and there’s a duck burger with Foie Grois on it. In my mind that is too excessive. The drinks are expensive and they charge two pounds for soda water, something which is usually free or at the bare minimum 50 pence in most other places. Staff look bored and jaded, even though they’re probably about 12. Bouncers can be a bit heavy too and would probably ID a corpse. Giving it two stars mainly for the toilets which have fully functioning locks on them.

Birthdays, God love ya and the free poutine parties Stacks has thrown recently.
We, a group of four Canadians and a Brit, attended the Stacks farewell party last night. It was great fun! However, it was the staff who gave it a sour note.
Let me say, I always expect to get what I pay for, so a free poutine party is fair game. We all cashed in our free tickets for poutine and ordered drinks while we waited. Because of the £10 minimum for cards and £3 drinks on during happy hour, two of the girls put their drinks on one card to meet the minimum. When one of them handed in her ticket, she was told she had to buy a drink to get the free poutine. She had just bought one, but had to leave to bar with two drinks to get her free poutine. What?!
I’ve ordered many a-​Lagarita in the past couple of weeks and never paid more than £3 during happy hour for two measures of tequila and Coors Light, for a drink that always reminds me of my University days, ie. it’s not great and its completely different every time.
The second Lagerita I ordered of the night, was made by a girl who made it very obvious that she wasn’t happy having to show the new guy what to do. And I walked away over charged with a watered down drink with only one measure of tequila. I don’t mind paying full price if the drink is going to be made properly. My friends have had the same problem with the peach iced tea cocktail and have even sent it back. So I would say, if you want cheap drinks — Birthdays can help you. If you want consistency, Birthdays can’t help you. They need some help in that department, themselves. Stick to the cheap beer. You can’t go wrong there.
Now we get to the food. Stacks poutine is pretty good. It’s not proper poutine though, it’s London poutine. It’s made with chicken gravy, instead of beef gravy. The cheese curds are good, but are huge and don’t melt properly and it’s mixed with gruyère cheese for extra cheesiness. For me, poutine is all about the melting cheese curds, Stacks doesn’t do it enough for me. Having said that, I will gladly polish off two of these in one sitting. It’s pretty addictive. But its not *proper* Canadian poutine, ya hear me?
That’s all fine and dandy, but I didn’t get my poutine. Everyone else in my party got theirs. When she brought out the third poutine we said we were waiting for two more and she said she was coming back. She did with one. And never came back.
One of my friends went to spoke to someone about it after everyone else finished eating. Her reaction was pretty poor and if Stacks wasn’t leaving, I’d seriously question going back. When my friend explained that I’d waited an hour and still hadn’t eaten, the waitress responded with «Too bad.» to another waitress, while the other laughed. In the time my friend spent trying to convince them to help bring me my food, two poutines were brought to the table, not for me but for people «with a tab» and five poutines were brought out of the bar for people who arrived significantly later than me. They were very unapologetic and rude.
Eventually they brought my poutine, which was thrown on the table with a «Here’s your extra poutine. … I could bring three more for the others.» Which we said was unnecessary, but I didn’t feel it was genuine as Carley had told her to offer me some food like they had given us wings while all of us had been waiting half an hour before. Anyway, after all that, my poutine was delicious and drenched in gravy, and the extra one for the table helped take the bitterness of the experience away. I just couldn’t believe how rude they were. I’m happy Stacks is leaving Birthdays. I’ll go back to enjoying a pleasant experience with fellow Canadians on Brick Lane at the Poutinerie, thank you very much.

As a Canadian, I’ve frequented this place in order to visit Stacks Poutine. I’m sad to see Stacks go, but I have to say I’d happily visit Birthdays for a drink or two after work or on a weekend! Great atmosphere, staff are friendly and the food is brilliant (though I may be biased because poutine is a national treasure)

Canadians basically have a poutine radar: oh, I smell fries in the air… but do I smell accompanying cheese curds and gravy? Thisaway, folks!
So, within Birthdays (a great venue in and of itself) is Stacks poutine. It’s super solid poutine consumed off to the side of the more opened-​up space of Birthdays. The fries are right size, and crisp. The chicken-​based gravy (vegetarian also an option) is dark and hot and… when I got some on the side I got a truly generous *vat* of it.
Drinks? They got those, too. Might I suggest the cocovino? Red wine and cola never tasted so good.
Service great, friendly vibe, good prices… yep. Oh, Canada!
Unilocal note: I couldn’t put this in the body of the review because it would feel disloyal to my country of origin, but *things beyond poutine* are also delicious. Allow me to draw your attention to the garlic butter fries (you’re welcome).

It feels churlish to be critical of free food. And well, full disclosure, the veggie poutine I got came gratis when I ordered a drink. But I presume that they do these promotions to encourage people to come back and I don’t think I will, sadly. The chips were dry (the type that implies they were frozen and then perhaps microwaved?) even though soaked in gravy. The gravy itself was plentiful and salty but somehow still bland… But I did like the cheese curds! I have to admit I don’t feel that comfy in very hipster bars and this was one of places: dark, grungy and ironic — not aimed at wide-​eyed veggie hippies like myself ;)

The poutine residency is what wins me over here. Brunch poutine: poached egg, sausage, black pudding, bacon, gravy, cheese, fries, £3 bloody mary.
I don’t know what else you could ask for from the universe.
They’ve got some other variations and some non-​gravy ones like the bulgogi/​kimchi ones.
If you’re a fan of poutine and hate the strange fake versions you get at the maple leaf, then come here.

Have had late night drinks here a few times, good vibe, lively, young crowd, plenty of hipsters thrown in for the Dalston effect!
Drinks are a little on the pricey side, but other than that I’d recommend!

In the middle of Dalston hipster kindgom we ventured to Birthdays with tickets to see a band playing here. The entrance, on the ground floor is small a diner /​bar with full glass windows onto the street and some pavement tables. They have psychic burgers and some craft beers (London Fields) of course. Didn’t have time to sample the food but headed downstairs to the music venue.
It’s just the perfect kind of small scale, independent venue where you can get right up close to the band in a raw kind of concrete basement setting. Just what’s needed. The staff were friendly and there’s a bar downstairs too with decent prices. Great sound system too. Hope to visit again.

This is a great venue for music. My favourite in Dalston for a dance and generally a good time, however it really takes forever to be served on a Saturday night especially at the upstairs bar which usually has maybe 3 people working it with a large crowd waiting. Bit frustrating.

Decent place for a drink. But do not order food! Portion size is shocking.
I ordered fish tacos for £8. 2 arrived and they were tiny, really tiny.

This place has only been open for a couple of months so far and it seems to be doing well. It’s along the same vein as most places in the area and I’d say it was a more Dalston crowd than a Stokey one. They seem to have a constant stream of events on too.