Ceili Cottage - any improvement on food and service?

[KitchenVoodoo]

Would love to take some Irish guests there but not if it's still as haphazard as earlier reviews suggested. Is the food better now? Is the service more efficient? The amience speaks for itself, and we love that, but you can't eat ambiance.

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Ceili Cottage
1301 Queen St E, Toronto, ON M4L, CA

[Googs]

I'm not sure why you'd take Irish guests to an Irish pub in Canada, but if you must please make it the Tara Inn. Either the Kingston Rd or Eglinton E locations will do. The only true-to-the-bone Irish establishment in the city.
http://www.chow.com/search?query=tara...

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Tara
2365 Kingston Rd, Toronto, ON M1N1V1, CA

Tara
2609 Eglinton Ave E, Toronto, ON M1K2S2, CA

[childofthestorm]

Ceili Cottage for me is about beer, oysters, and snacks. You can do a very good grazing meal there, and the ambience is one I greatly prefer over The Roy, which seems like your typical faux-pub in the Firkin manner.

[jlunar]

I prefer Ceili Cottage over The Roy as well. Service has improved from the early days, but you're likely still going to have to flag someone down at some point. I haven't been in a while though, so take that as you will.

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Ceili Cottage
1301 Queen St E, Toronto, ON M4L, CA

[BeachHeath]

Biggest issue I have is you can`t tell if Ceili is open....drives me nuts. Agree if it`s oysters and beer then you`re good, otherwise...meh

[vaiguy777]

I would have to say absolutely NOT. The Roy is far better and much friendlier!

[Frids]

What's the food like at the Roy?

[hungryabbey]

oy, its TERRIBLE.

[KitchenVoodoo]

Yes!! hungryabbey - vile nails it! Full disclosure - I only had their chicken curry - I was thinking that a "british pub" could turn out a decent curry - what a mistake. No flavour whatsoever, no spice, no heat. You'd be much better off at any of the abysmal Indian buffets over in Little India.
But please don't go there either for curry - all the best places have gone - make your own, or cultivate Indian friends who can teach you.

[hungryabbey]

I even tried to go with the more "Safe" pub offerings.. quesidilla, sweet potato fries, wings etc.. it all tasted like it was frozen and microwaved.. I mean those were the worst SP fries I have ever had.. they were like soggy, and undercooked and ugh. What a waste of a good space.

[KitchenVoodoo]

Yeah, my impression was that the kitchen has a "boil in the bag" approach to food, and the microwave and freezer will be the hardest working things in that kitchen.
(For moderators, we are speaking about The Roy.. )
Sad how hit and miss the food scene is in Leslieville.....

[bytepusher]

Standard chain pub stuff, not horrible but no different than dozens of similar places in the city.

[Frids]

I went last week for the first time in several months. Service was good, although I had not had problems with it in the past. The menu seems a bit shorter than it used to be but I might be wrong. Others in my party had the shepherd's/cottage pie that seemed very unremarkable. I had an Irish fry up breakfast which was pretty good but mainly for its novelty. Not sure I would order it again.

For me Ceili Cottage is about the ambience and decent beer. The food...not so much.

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Ceili Cottage
1301 Queen St E, Toronto, ON M4L, CA