OT Pub & Club

A bit of a disclaimer for my review: my only experiences with OverTime have been on Wing Night. And let me tell you, I love Wing Night! I visit OT for .25 cent wings on a semi-​frequent basis, and they have won me over. They have a huge menu, the wings are always good (pineapple curry and the asian-​orange ones are my favorites), the beer is decently priced and the atmosphere is the same buzzy, sports bar feel that Hudson’s provides.
One caveat for my review is that yes, the service here sucks. Each time I go, I have NEVER had great service. The waitresses just don’t come around very often, the drinks aren’t refilled and you have to practically light your hair on fire to get a cheque. That’s a huge pain in the ass, yes, but the wings are good and they’re cheap. I guess they don’t let you down in consistency — they food is reliably good and the service is reliably poor.

I think it’s not so much «Overtime» as «Over… Time.» Like, you’ll get service — over time. And your drinks may be brought to you — over time.
A friend and I visited this weekend (Friday afternoon) and the experience was very underwhelming and irritating.
It took us about 15 minutes to get initial service, despite the fact that a waitress kept walking past. Even if we weren’t in her section, it would have been nice to be acknowledged. For a few minutes I was afraid we’d died on the way to the bar and had become invisible!
Eventually, a different waitress came and took our order. She asked if we wanted food and when we said no, she said «Thank God, I’m one of the only girls out here.» We looked around the bar, and marked how quiet it was — I’m not sure why she felt so overwhelmed and shudder to think how she would perform at Joey’s, or even Sherlock’s for that matter, where the traffic is much higher.
First round of drinks was slow coming, and once we’d finished, we politely waited for another chance to order again — it didn’t come for about 15 minutes despite numerous attempts to get the waitresses’ attention. Slowest of all was the bill, clocking in at around 15 – 20 minutes.
The terrible service, combined with the past-​its-​prime, not well-​maintained look of the place makes it unlikely that I’ll be clocking any future time at Overtime.

A decent room (recently renovated) with average food — decent pub fare, and solid service. Nothing that’ll knock your socks off, but good place to get together with friends for a night or after-​work drinks.
I feel a bit like they don’t know if they’re going for club or sports bar, but places like Hudsons manage to do both, and I think Overtime’s trying to do the same.
Would come back here for a drink and an appy for sure.

Went to Overtime in downtown on a Friday night and had a really good time. This is my first visit since it reopened, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I remember a few years back that this place was always hopping on the weekends and was generally the place to be for the over-​25 crowd. We arrived around midnight and there was no lineup or cover charge to speak of. The place was surprisingly dead with only around 50 people or so. After coming from Hudson’s on Whyte (which was jammed with people) this was a welcome relief. We ordered two pints (Guiness and Grasshopper) and to our surprise it only came to $ 7! That’s right, $ 7! We were shocked since we were paying $ 13 a round at Hudson’s earlier that evening. We soon discovered that Overtime has the best deals in town on a Friday night and it’s a shame more people don’t know about it and weren’t there to discover what a great venue it is to have drinks and conversation without breaking the bank. Here is a breakdown of the drink specials on Friday night:
$ 3.00 Highballs
$ 3.25 Domestic Drafts
$ 4.50 Premium Draft or Highball
$ 3.50 Shots
What’s odd about it is that the waitresses were just charging us $ 7 for two pints even if we ordered Guiness. Another thing to note is that Friday night is their Lingerie night, so if seeing all your favourite waitresses and bartenders (relax, they’re female!) in lingerie is your thing, then this is also added incentive to be here on that night.
As for the place itself, apart from a few changes the place is essentially the same as it was before it closed a few years back. The layout is the same with the exception that they’ve removed the dancefloor and built a huge centrally-​located square-​shaped bar which is capable of serving and seating a much larger range of patrons than the old bar which was nestled against the east wall of the old Overtime. This change alone was much needed as it was a nightmare to get a drink or even squeeze by the people mingling at and around the old bar during the height of its popularity. It was a hostile experience which often resulted in spilled drinks or threats from others jostling for position. Other than that, the only other changes I noticed is that they’ve moved the men’s washroom from the north end of the bar to the other side and greatly expanded and renovated the small washroom that used to be there. Also gone are the washroom attendants that were kind of a nuisance.
As for the staff, I found they were very helpful and accomodating towards our needs. In fact, they served us right up till 2 am and allowed us to stay till 3 am while we finished our drinks even though we were the only people left in the bar.
In a nutshell, it’s a great place to go if you want to get together with a bunch of friends and have cheap drinks and the ability to socialize on a Friday night. If you like the bar packed, I heard that Saturday nights are packed in there, but I’m pretty sure they don’t have the same drink deals.