The Parkdale Drink

Food is great, best chicken wings I’ve ever had! They play the best mix of 90’s hip hop and reggae on Saturdays! Drinks are reasonably priced and the atmosphere is chill. Parkdale drink is one of my favorite places to go!

Its the hippity hop up in here. I’ve wandered by this place many times but wasn’t able to go in until Friday Night with the crew. Its a pretty great hip-​hop bar, with betas ranging from 2000s throwbacks to today. Looked like a pretty decent crowd when I was in there, Its a very different feel than the hipstery places in Parkdale.

I came to parkdale drinks last night with my boyfriend for my aunts birthday. My aunt knows the dj (dj tabs I believe) and she told me the music is good in Saturday’s. she was so right! I love reggae, hip hop and rnb (old and new) and he played all the songs I wanted to hear. A lot of clubs these days play less old school rnb (I.e Mary j, black street, bell biv Devo) and replace it with rachet rap. Don’t get me wrong sometimes I like listening to my rachet rap (waka flocka) but not all night and definitely not over my old school r n b. last night reminded me of being a child and singing and dancing in the living room with my mom. I loved it and I will definitely go back. The only thing I would like to give ppl a heads up the dress code is pretty casual, the club is not that big so it gets hot and they serve sushi during dancing hours so you occasionally get a whiff of fish lmao!
4 stars for the music you better hold on to that dj!

I’ve been coming to Parkdale drink on Saturdays since I can remember. If you like hip hop, rnb and a dose of reggae, this is one of the best stops on the Queen West strip to get your dance on for $ 5.
Even though I don’t frequent as often anymore, it’s still a reliable spot for a good party. Their Saturday resident DJ (Tabs) plays a good mix of music and has DJ’ed several of my friend’s weddings. Every last Saturday they also have a guest DJ who can range from Jason Chambers to DJ Agile. The dance floor can get pretty rowdy at times. In the summer they have a large patio at the back which can be a nice step away when it gets too hot inside. They also have a rotating waitress that will serve the patio area. Expect a small line if you arrive after 11:30. I’ve never tried the food, but I pretty much stick to double jacks and Pabst when I come here. The bartenders are quick and friendly.
Side story: One time, I was so into the music I put my hand through the drywall. You can still see the spot where they repaired it next to the doors leading to the washrooms!

I came here because my friend’s favourite DJ was spinning on a Friday night. I would call this place grimy. At first there were more female than males in the place, which was surprising (this was around 11:30pm). As the night progressed it seemed there were more males, which is usually the case. I find this place has a feel of dirtiness to it. I just can’t pinpoint why. The music was good because of the DJ, but other than that… would not go back.

Dinner and dancing on a Sat night.
For the price they charge, the sushi is worth it. Out of all the appetizers my table ordered, only the crispy calamari was unsatisfying. It was burnt.
The restaurant converts to a club around 11pm but does not get busy till midnight. While the crowd is young, the clubgoers are having fun, and respectful of your space. There is no pushing or shoving like in other clubs I’ve unfortunately been at. If 1990s radio friendly hip hop is your thing, then this is your place.
But for me, this is not my environment.
Does any Unilocaler know of a club/​lounge that plays underground hip hop? If you ever listened to Beats and Breaks from citr in the early 2000s then you know what I mean.

Saturday night. It was crowded but it’s a nice «bar with a dance floor» of you will.
Tonight they played hiphop mostly. I have to say that the dj spun some pretty good tracks just that I’m just not into that kind of music these days. It also attracts a certain type of crowd. different crowd than say those across the street.
The bathroom is downstairs and I hate clubs that think it’s okay to do that. In an intoxicated state it is very difficult to walk down when you’re I’m a hurry.
Theres also a women’s attendant giving me soap and paper dial. Seems immecessary and poor women who has to sit there all the time.
Cover was $ 11 and coat check $ 2.50. What I very much liked was how you can buy beer a the coat check area, after putting your coat away. Very nice touch.
Big patio outside, which is great on a nice day, except the front corridor was full of smokey clouds. I thought there was a rule against that.
I’d give my experience a 2 star, but if they played music more to my taste, I would have had a better time.

I came here on a pretty busy Friday night. This place is for you if you enjoy 90’s hip hop music and an unpretentious, easy going crowd.

I regularly frequent the bars along this stretch of Queen West but I’ve never been to The Parkdale Drink until very recently. There’s probably a good reason for that…
I came here for a friend’s birthday. Not knowing what to expect, I checked their website. The menu seemed interesting enough with lots of delicious options like Beef Short Ribs, Herb Roasted Chicken, Spicy Papaya Scallops and Crème Brulée.
Then we got there…
It was around 9:30 and the place was dead. Fine, we get our pick of whatever table we want. I hadn’t had much for dinner so I dove right into the menu. Waaait a minute. What? What the hell is this? The menu seems like it was borrowed from a Japanese Sushi bar. None of the items listed on their website are on the menu.
By this point I’m so hungry I couldn’t care less what I was eating so I ordered, a dragon roll with a miso soup and a pint of Sapporo. I was thinking, sushi is simple enough, there’s no way these hipsters can possibly screw it up. Wrawng!
It seems that between pouring pints of Pabst Blue Ribbon for the «I was cool before you were» crowd, they forgot about the rice… The maki roll had dry rice and the miso soup tasted like a discount grocery chain’s generic brand powdered miso soup mix with stale ass seaweed. There was no tofu or shimeji mushrooms.
Why!?! WHY Parkdale Drink did you get rid of a fantastic menu for an attempt to do sushi!!! It’s not like there isn’t a lack of sushi joints on Queen West fercrissake!
Anyways, once our meal was done, the music started around 10:30. It was a DJ playing some retro R&B and hip hop, which I liked. It was a little too loud right off the bat, since there were about 10 people in the place but by 11:30 the place was getting packed and it was pretty cool.
This place might have gotten 3 stars if I’d have just come for drinks and dancing but the food ruined it. Do yourself a favour and eat before you come here.
Oh and if anyone from the bar is reading this, please update your website!

I ventured west of Dufferin for a friend’s birthday last friday night at the Parkdale Drink. There was a little GreenP lot just down the street, but normally i think i’d take the streetie.
When we showed up the place was pretty much our personal restaurant. No one around. I grabbed some edamame and a glass of wine.
I little later the DJ started playing and the place really picked up. I really liked the tunes, good R&B from late 90’s early 2000’s. By about 11 o’clock the place was really fillin’ up. What i liked best was the crowd actually. Really diverse, every mix of people you could imagine. Don’t worry about having to look or dress a certain way to come here. Everthing goes. Ladies in skirts and stilettos? Yep. Chicks is jeans and cons? You betcha. Dudes in skinny jeans and guys in puffy vests? Oh yeah. I dig it.

Relating to drinking specifically:
used to be good. that was before everyone got the memo. This place’s popularity is killing it.
If you like reggae, ragga, old school hip hop, etc this place was once a good choice.
Now it’s more like drake music, commercial radio reggae, and a packed packed venue with grinding and winding. A lot of young people now.
But that being said, it’s probably the only place in Queen West to play this kind of music. So it’s a breather.
Go if this is your thing or you want a change. If it’s not, stay away.

Isn’t it refreshing to be able to go somewhere on Queen Street west of Bathurst, and not feel like keeping up appearances in case the skinny guy in plaid next to you might be wondering whether or not you’ve heard the latest super-​hipness of hip muzak?
It IS refreshing! Saturday nights Neyo, Kanye, Jay-​Z and Faith Evans are alive and well at The Parkdale Drink. No one is too cool for school, and let’s face it, how much can you really REALLY dance to electro? I mean, really? Embrace your inner mainstreamer, without cover, and dance the night away.

The Parkdale Drink is a welcome step away from the sometimes monotonous locales in Parkdale. It’s different. It’s clean and it’s always without attitude. Everyone is warm and the food smells good (though I haven’t tried it). They have Sapporo on tap. Yum, and on Saturday nights it’s all hip hop. Which is amazing. I’d recommend it to those who are looking to get away from the everyday. Sorry, that sounded really ad-​ish. But it’s true.

When I went to Saigon Flower the other night, the woman who owned it was throwing menus from the Parkdale Drink at us, saying to go there because her daughter owns it. And as I thought back to my experiences there, I thought, «Hmm…no thanks!»
I’ve never experienced this place as a restaurant, but they do have a whole brunch, lunch and dinner menu. I’ve only had experiences that involved a lot of alcohol and a LOT of people.
Saying this place gets packed is an understatement. When I first walked in, I was so afraid I was going to get crushed to death by all the beefcake dudes that I just pushed through them all and tried to approach the bar, but was blocked by an army of scantily clad women. Sigh.
Needless to say, I did not last very long in here. The Parkdale Drink appears to be a bit of Richmond Street on Queen, full of obnoxious, annoying people, and overpriced booze. Maybe it deserves another chance, but maybe it doesn’t — there are a lot of other places in the area that I like a lot better.

Between The Gladstone, The Drake, The Stones Place and The Rhino, The Parkdale Drink gets a little lost next to its older well-​established brother bars. But lately, The Parkdale has become a refuge for bar goers who don’t want to spend their entire night lining up to get onto the patio at the Drake.
The Parkdale does get packed, but not so badly that you couldn’t order a beer in five minutes or find a place sit. The back patio is huge with ample and comfy seating and a nice ambiance. The crowd is a bit of a mish mash; gangsters, scenesters, preppy college kids and everything in between. And for those who party in West Queen West, they know that’s what makes this area so much fun.
If you’re looking for a fun bar to sit and chat and throw back some beers, and you’re sick of Saturday night karaōke at The Gladstone, the Parkdale drink is a great place to do it.