photo borrowed from BlogTO

Ciros
1316 Bloor Street West (just west of Lansdown)
416.533.4914

(Toronto) I like going to bars with a good beer selection. I heard about Ciros extensive beer selection a couple of months ago and have been itching to check it out for a while now. Danielle and I stopped by this week. Ciros is located at 1316 Bloor Street West, just west of Lansdown on the north side of the street. Its neighbours are two strip clubs and a Value Village. You wouldn’t expect this to be a prime location for bar that specializes in imported beer, but maybe it is exactly what this hood needs.

Beer
The beer selection is pretty awesome. Compared to the Only Café on the Danforth, Ciros selection may be larger. At the Only Café you select your beer by looking at the fridge behind the bar, but at Ciros you have a beer menu at your table, so it’s hard to compare the two. I went with an Edelweiss weissbier (Austria) and Danielle went with a Dead Guy Ale from Rogue Breweries (Oregon, USA), neither of which I have seen at my local LCBO. We enjoyed them. I had two. They were expensive.

The most obvious downside to Ciros is the price of beer. I understand that the big draw to Ciros is the unique selection of beer and that as a customer I am going to pay for this luxury. With most of the beer on the menu in the $8-$10 range I was surprised to see even some more common, LCBO available brands, in this upper price range. I don’t mind paying double what a beer costs at the LCBO, but when the bar is charging almost triple for what I can walk down the street and buy it for, I draw the line. For example, a bottle of Chimay White is $3.05 at the LCBO. On Ciros menu it was over $8. I had to pass. If you want a Kilkenny, it’s gonna run you $8 and change. Ouch.

Food
Danielle described the menu as Green Room/Red Room–ish. They have your traditional bar favourites (nachos, burgers, wraps) but they also have fancier mains like butter chicken, pad thai and Mexican Chipotle.

Atmosphere
Laid back atmosphere. The tables in the front give the customers lots of personal space, which I like. Every table has a retro glass bulb over it. Funky. We ate on the back patio, which was your typical patio. No big whoop. Our conversation was occasionally interrupted by somebody yelling. Yelling by who? I suspect the guy who asked me if I had seen his left shoe as I locked up my bike, but I can’t be sure.

Service
We had really good service. It was nice to go to a restaurant and not have our server act as if everything we asked for was going to break her will to live. The bartender even made chit chat with us as we left. I’d call the service very personable.

Conclusion
Danielle: I would say that the patio was lovely enough to allow a patron to forget they are paying $10 for a beer at Bloor and Lansdowne. I liked the Dead Man’s Ale but was it worth $9 a bottle? Not sure.

Wade: I’m going to go back and try some more beer, but not as much as I would like. We’re still in a recession right? Good service and it is within walking distance from my house. Mmmmmm….butter chicken.

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