The Old Strathcona Rack

The Rack is a solidly meh bar for me. It’s overly loud, you have to fight tooth and nail to get service, and it has a generally strange atmosphere. Sometimes on the TVs there’s sports, other times it’s cartoons. There’s a few pool tables hidden in a shady back area. A large dance floor with a weird support beam standing in the middle of it, which they tried to jazz up with some disco ball looking panels of glass.
Every time I’m at the Rack the bathrooms are just a mess. There’s toilet paper everywhere, questionable material in the stalls, and worst of all, the locks on half of the doors are falling off.
The weirdest part about the Rack is the modge podge of people who go there. There’s the people in their late 20s who are trying to be hip. There’s the creepy older men who stand near the dance floor watching girls. There’s frat house dude bros doing their usual shots and jeering at the TV. There’s couples making out in corners — more than that in some cases. There’s obvious party girls, there’s girls who look like they’d rather be in bed. There’s just a huge variety.
It’s a fun place to come out every now and then for the night (I’ve never tried the food because honestly I don’t trust it. The Rack just feels dirty to me… Probably because of all the harassment I’ve gotten there, which I know doesn’t affect the food but I just can’t bring myself to do it). If you’re into people watching there’s a whole variety of types to choose from to creep on. If you’re into dancing they’ve usually got an alright DJ, but no drinks are allowed on the floor. I wouldn’t recommend the Rack, but if you’re doing the whole Whyte ave bar trip you light as well stop by if you’re around.

Cheap average bar food… and like many of the other reviews said, bad service. It’s loud and the layout is confusing but if you’re 18 and just wanna go out and get a little too drunk to notice all the flaws of the establishment, definitely check out the rack. Or if you have lots of time to kill and want some cheap food (the time is for how horrendously long it takes for anything you order to actually show up at your table) you might also find this place acceptable.
Overall, definitely not a fancy place, but a good place to check out if you’re not picky and just want an okay burger and beer (which they do have a pretty good selection of). Plus their deep fried pickles aren’t bad either!
This is a confusing review. Two stars only because I prefer something a little more efficient and tasty if I want to go to a restaurant, better service if I want to go to a sports bar, and I’m a little beyond my clubbing days to fully appreciate the place after say 10pm?
I’d still say give it a shot because who knows, just because I probably won’t spend a lot of time there, it doesn’t mean that it couldn’t turn out to be your type of place!

I love this place. It is my go to place when I want to go out with my friends and go dance, just because it’s very casual and fun. The DJ’s aren’t always great but the people and the experience is totally fun.
The food is just regular bar food but it goes well if you are drinking.

Went to the Rack on a Sunday night to watch the NFL Sunday night football game. Figured it would be a great place with $ 4 pints, $ 0.15 wings and $ 4 ribs. If this review was on a value basis it would be 4 – 5 stars. Unfortunately the service was only 2 stars. Here is a synopsis of the service:
1. We went through a total of three waitresses from 6 pm to about 11 pm. This wouldn’t normally be an issue but each time they asked us to clear up our bill, wtf!
2. Our first waitress seemed to be confused about her job. The place was pretty empty and every time we wanted a refill we had to flag her down. At one point she walked up to our table, looked at the empty glasses said something to herself and went and stood back at the bar — strange.
3. Part way through the NFL game (which they advertise on their website) they changed half the TV’s in the bar to a television show. Went and asked waitress 1, see above, to change the TV we were watching back. She proceeded to do nothing. After 5 – 10 minutes I went to a bar tender who changed the TV back for us.
4. I like to try different beers throughout the night, at around 8 pm the bar ran out of about half of the beers they have on tap — booo!
On the positive side, when we finally got to waitress 3 (around 10 pm), she provided use with good service and a friendly smile.
In conclusion, if your looking for a place to get some cheap drinks and a few eats but don’t care about service — the Rack will fill your need. I will likely be back because I’m a sucker for punishment and cheap drinks.

The Rack is a good place for food if you go way early in the night.
If you want a chance to enjoy a meal at the Rack you have to get there early. This place fills up fast at night with university students looking to have a good time. If you can find a coupon online or elsewhere you can probably get the food pretty cheap and it’s good food. As for the bar/​club scene, it’s consistently loud and busy so if that’s what you’re into you’ll have a good time.
Grab food early and get out quick or sit back and get ready to party all night!

I personally think this is one of the most popular, and for sure one of the cheapest bars on Whyte ave. On Tuesday’s they offer $ 2.25 drafts, and on thursdays it is $ 3 highballs. They also offer good prices on food like $ 5 burgers on Monday. So this bar is a good place to go if you are a student, and a lot of student functions (like engineering parties) go on here and are accommodated by the staff.
They offer food and a pub atmosphere during the day, and then on some nights the bar turns into a club around 10pm which serves the needs of those who want to party and those who want to have a round of pool.
I like this bar and have had nothing but good experiences here.

We went here on a spur of the moment trip to Edmonton on August 5^th 2012. We were wandering around whyte ave like a bunch of lost children trying to find a decent bar to drink at, we finally settled on this one. Its a huge space, which can accommodate a lot of people. We looked around for a place to sit, and wanted to be by the windows because it was very hot, however the way they placed the tables to do this made it very awkward as i was basically fighting the girl behind me for room. Our server took ages and ages to come along and then took forever to bring our drinks back. Then about at our 3^rd beer, they started bringing them out in plastic cups. I don’t know if this was because they were now turning into a nightclub or something but it was very tacky. All in all we had an ok time. May go back might not next time we’re in Edmonton.

Just giving a heads up that this is a food review, not on what it is like when it becomes a club at night.
Went here on an early Friday evening to have some pub food. There were three of us and we were hungry so we ordered:
1) The pick ‘em platter (you pick 4 from a list for $ 28) — we took sweet chili chicken bits (basically chicken fingers but they were good), chicken wings, baby back ribs (a bit on the dry side) and sweet potato fries. Comes with a bit of veggies+dip and nacho chips. Expensive and not worth it for the cost. Avoid.
2) Cajun chicken sandwich ($ 12 I think) — got the sandwich in a garlic naan bread (excellent option) and picked caesar salad as my option (not very good caesar salad). The sandwich itself was pretty tasty. Ate the whole thing!
3) Parent #1 ordered the big rack buffalo burger ($ 14 I think). The bun was a dark roasted brown and looked seriously gigantic. Loaded with bacon, mushrooms, banana pepper, tomatoes, cheese, red onions, lettuce and a deep fried pickle. This was also gobbled down (with another poorly made caesar salad).
4) Parent #2 ordered the nacho buffalo burger ($ 14 I think as well). Burger was huge and tasty. This one had nacho chips in it, tomato, cheese, jalapeño, sour cream and salsa. This one had to be taken home to be consumed at a later date.
Overall, decent for pub food but nothing worth writing home about. The sandwiches/​burgers are pretty good. Probably better off going to this place for a few happy hours drinks.

I like the vibe of The Rack. Goes from a more casual pub with pool tables in the afternoon, to much more clubby in the evening. Yet it is never as sleazy or dirty as many of the other clubs are. Have had some really fun nights there. Food is so-​so, and drinks overpriced, but what else do you expect from a pub/​club? Decent beer selection at least. I also like that the dance floor is off to the side, so you still have a hope of having some conversations once the music comes up.

FUCK THIS BAR!!! I couldn’t believe my experience. Normally I’m not a guy that wastes my time with cunty reviews on the internet but you won’t believe my story.
I wrote this as a draft on my iPhone last winter and forgot all about it.
The boys and I spontaneously decided to head from Calgary to Edmonton for a night on the town and some water slides at West Ed the next morning (even though it was minus 32 degrees LITERALLY). We heard Whyte Ave was the place to be, so we took a cab from our hotel and started to wander. We visited a bar called «Filthy McNasty’s», had some beers, and met some hot girls (4 of them, 4 of us, perfect). After hanging with them for an hour, they told us they were going across the street to «The Rack» to finish their night there. They asked us to come and we said we would meet them after one last game of pool at McNasty’s. We finished, walked across the street, and proceeded to hand the bouncer our ID’s. The bouncer asked if we could read, then pointed to a sign that said no jaywalking outside of the bar. We apologized and said we didn’t know that was a rule in Edmonton because we are from out of town. He told us we couldn’t come in the bar because they don’t allow jaywalkers; no warning, no nothing. We apologized again, talked with him, and even came back half an hour later to see if he would recognize us, but he still refused to compromise. How were we supposed to know there is a rule against jaywalking? It’s not like they have signs on the other side of the street, or at least visible from across so you know what not to do. You’ve gotta be kidding me. We ended up wandering for an hour in the freezing cold before heading back to our hotel to end our night.
Not only did we never meet those four hot girls again, but my friend thought it would be funny to order the deluxe porn package once we got back to the hotel. Talk about a huge loss; four guys, two beds, Saturday night, and that on the TV. However, it was hysterical when he had to go to the front desk and pay for it the next morning, as the hotel was booked with a Groupon.
Anyways, will never give this bar a second chance.

After plans for Girls Night Out Bulldogs at Julio’s went south (a 45 min wait for two of us!), we made the decision to check out The Rack.
It was about 9 PM on a Saturday night when we arrived so it wasn’t very busy (yet). We saddled up at the bar (with the VIP tables on one side of us and pool tables on the other, with the dance floor hidden behind a sliding wall — can you say this bar has an identity crisis?) and met our new favourite bartender, Marcus. He whipped up a ton of very tasty drinks for us, and was charming and hilarious to boot. He even seemed to get funnier the more that we drank — oh, wait a sec…
By 10 PM the place was pretty full, but that meant they took our chairs away from the bar. Boo! So we found a table, but it was super lame. All the cute boys were over at the bar, not at the tables. Plus the waitress wouldn’t put us on a tab like Marcus did. So back to (stand at) the bar we went.
By 1030, it was hopping. The dance floor got going, the music got louder, and the boys got cuter, I think. I don’t think I’ve done that many shots since my 19^th birthday (and that’s a good story — ask me about that one sometime). The best part? There’s some not-​that-​hot Jersey Shore type looking guys here that totally paid for most of said shots.
It’s a weird mix here. Nerdy guys who just want to play pool, super hot super tan girls, some cougars. A little bit of everything. And while I don’t normally do the clubbing thing (and this place is definitely a club after 10 PM, though it’s not before), I had an awesome time here.
Minus one star for the fact that the «ladies night» they advertise doesn’t include any specials. They just call it that to get more girls into the bar! What the heck?!

Went there on Saturday and waited about 30 minutes to get a pint of beer. I ordered my drink and after about 10 minutes passed our server came by to say that they were just pouring it and it would be right out. Another 10 minutes passed and the server came back to say the were out of the beer that I ordered and asked if there was something else I wanted. I quickly picked a different brand she said she would be back with it. Another 10 minutes passed and she finally brought it.
It’s not a big deal if a bar runs out of a beer, but if I’ve already been waiting 20 minutes for it, I would expect my server to bring it out promptly to fix the mistake. I won’t be back.

I’d been to The Rack once over a year ago for an ESSC party, and again last night for a birthday party.
Even though there was an Oilers game and UFC fight on, my friend was able to reserve a table for her party. Unfortunately they only gave her a table for six even though she asked for (and they told her she would get) ten, but they were able to drag some more tables together.
I arrived at the bar just before 8pm. Apparently they were charging $ 10 cover due to the fight, which they neglected to tell my friend. Me and my husband went to Filthy’s to watch the Oilers game until the fight was over so we wouldn’t have to pay cover!
Once we were in, the service wasn’t good. The bar wasn’t as busy as I suspected it would be, but service was incredibly slow. Drinks took 15 minutes plus to come out. I got an order of deep fried pickles, which was just two slices — not even two full pickles — and they didn’t even come with dip. They tasted fine and were only $ 2. Back to the slow service, a bit later on my fried also ordered the deep fried pickles. They didn’t come out for about 40 minutes, and by that point he was already gone as he was on a pub crawl. The waitress wouldn’t let us send them back even though he was long gone. The beer selection was standard and boring. Lots of TVs, though.
I didn’t like the music they started playing after the game. Just a really badly mixed selection of random generic dance songs that didn’t flow well together. There were only about six people on the dance floor, so I must not have been the only one thinking it.
The ratio of guys to girls was very disproportionate. Hello sausage party. Everyone in there looked like they were celebrating their 19^th birthdays. Everybody’s gotta party somewhere, but I felt old.
Another annoying thing — apparently Saturdays are ladies night, but all it said on the menu was SATURDAY — LADIES NIGHT. Well, I’m a lady and it was Saturday, and I wasn’t made aware of any specials or anything like that… so not too sure what the deal was there.

Located on Whyte Ave, this is probably one of the better bars in the city, and certainly one of the best on Whyte.
Lines are usually short or non-​existent before about 10:00 — 10:30 and there’s no cover.
While it does have a dance floor, it’s fairly small and on some nights not many people are dancing (though I’ve seen the dance floor be ridiculously packed). It’s more of a place to go hang out with friends, have some drinks, and maybe meet a few people.
The Rack has one main bar, and two smaller ones. At peak times, you might have to wait a few minutes to get a drink, but their draft beer selection is great, and usually cheap enough to be worth waiting a couple minutes (check out Toonie Tuesdays!).
If you’d rather go earlier on in the night, the Rack opens at 3pm, has decent food, and has more than enough HDTVs and big tables to get together and watch a game with some friends.
My one complaint about the Rack is that it feels like a place that should have quieter music, or at least some quieter areas, but once the music starts at around 9 or 10, there’s not a corner to be found where you can really talk to someone without yelling as loud as you can. I know bars are supposed to be loud, but I sometimes find the Rack a bit excessive.
Overall, a great place to go hang out with friends and have some drinks.

An extremely busy bar right on Whyte Ave. You will always run into at least 5 people you know. The dance floor is a bit small for my liking and the DJ doesn’t play ANY of your requests. The DJ also re-​mixes popular songs and sometimes they aren’t very good. The bar is generally packed and can be difficult to to get a drink (which are over priced).
On the upside the back of the bar has pool tables and places to sit. If you come earlier in the evening and order food it can be a great place for friends to hang.
A good bar, a bit too busy sometimes.

I love Old Strathcona. I always get a sense of history and a feeling of nostalgia walking these streets.
The Old Strathcona District is beautiful. It’s getting a bit run down but I think that just adds to the charm. This is the hub for Edmonton’s arts community — festivals, art showcases, street performers — you name it!
Unfortunately, the weekends, and often week nights too now, are often crawling (sometimes literally) with drunk and rowdy Edmontonians, stumbling from bar to bar. The vomit does detract from the charm. But this district, in it’s prime, is gorgeous. It’s an integral part of Edmonton and I’m glad to have grown up so close to it.
All of the unique local shops that line the streets of the Old Strathcona District are must-​sees. You haven’t experienced Edmonton until you’ve seen and shopped them. And this is coming from a seasoned shopper, so take my word on it.
I love the Old Strathcona District!

This historic part of Edmonton was the hub of everything in the late 19^th century. Today it is the place young people go clubbing and drinking on weekends and is one of the main street shopping destinations in the city. The area draws crowds to attend theatre, dine, attend festivals and stroll the Old Strathcona market. The city has done a great job of keeping this area relevant and alive, in an age where box stores in the suburbs are taking over. In fact, the city may have put so much effort into making this area thrive that it’s detracted from the cultural growth on the other side of the river. Landmarks include the Old Strat hotel and (dive) bar, The Commercial a.k.a. Blues on Whyte, The Trans Alta Arts Barns, and numerous small theatres. It’s definitely worth an afternoon and evening in this area if you’re visiting Edmonton for more than a day. If you’re only here one day, you probably already have your heart set on West Edmonton Wall.