Reviews Museum Tavern

Splendid place for either a drink or meal. The food is top notch, the staff tremendous and the selection of whiskies amazing. There's also a fantastic piece of rock history to be seen. 5/5 no question.

I have been here once, i had a good time the cost was a bit much but the food and drink and ambiance

Very much a French bistro, more than a tavern, even in decor. I've never been disappointed whether for lunch or dinner. Last night's moules et frites and branzino with arugula salad were excellent but the appetizer of tuna ceviche with niro was outstanding. As was Jordan our excellent waiter. A first choice if you are at Koerner Hall or Royal Conservatory or UofT Music Faculty.

Great little spot! Excellent food, atmosphere and drinks!

I was there with my mom who passed away last December. So this place will be in my memory forever. We had a great time. Good food. Close to the Royal conservatory

great service , great food , good location

Food was pretty good.

I had the Mussels and they were amazing. I thought it was a generous serving with nice mussels, delicious broth, bread and fries! If the option was there I would take 2 boys of bread for the broth over the fries.

My partner and the Duck, he said it was done well. Our friends had the Cheese burger and Nachos. Both were happy with their meals too.

Our server was attentive, the decor is cosy and they have a good cocktail list.

As anybody hailing from the Toronto knows, it is a city that will not be outdone. Instead of hoping for living reincarnations of a tattooed Atilla the Hun, local hipsters may be intrigued to drop in to the tattoo exhibit which is now showing at the Royal Ontario Museum. I’m more into bourbon than body art, so after I finished up a conference along Bloor Street and had a couple of hours to kill before dinner so instead of the ROM, I visited another museum, in this case the tavern across the road to indulge in their advertised happy hour. In addition to buck a shuck oysters, one can indulge in a barrel aged cocktail for $11 vs the normal $15 charge ( although when I got the bill I was charged $15).

Choosing between a manhattan, old-fashioned, negroni and sazarac is like choosing which child I love the best. Alright, maybe not quite but it’s a difficult task nonetheless. In this case I opted for the first two. A couple of ounces of both were smartly presented in a funky highball which housed a thick base of ice instead of a floating ice cube. The booze itself was smooth, sleek and balanced.

The Musuem tavern does represent a historical era in the fact that is has that speakeasy feel. From the decor to the glassware, it screams the 1920s. The menu is more modern pub fare with what appears to influenced by a bit of everything.

Since I was grabbing dinner later, I stuck with starters and opted for the fried chicken ($14) and creole crab cakes ($16). If my intent was to span the spectrum of available snacks I think I succeeded. The four pieces was a hearty serving of chicken which was crispier than greasy , well-seasoned and far from dry. The crab cakes, on the other hand, can better be described at crab balls. The dainty, bite sized morsels didn’t lack in flavour what they lacked in size. Although they were moist, heavy on the crab and served with a decent remoulade., it hardly justified eight bucks a bite…even with pickled onions.

Let's give it a four for innovative cocktails, cheap oysters and really good crab cakes...sic...balls.

Beautifully decorated space with a nice ambiance for after work drinks. Classy decor and great social atmosphere with friendly staff. I had the fish and chips which was a large portion (I couldn't finish it and I have a healthy appetite) but nothing to write home about. I would go back but only for drinks and a hangout.

I went here Saturday and ordered from the summerlicious menu, it was really good, i had the fried chicken which was to die for. they give you a large portion and the sauce was next level. we kept it to dip our fries in for the main course. i had the ribs, whicvh were fall off the bone tender, with just one bite. my bf got the ahi tuna burger which was delicious as well, i prefered my ribs though. for dessert we got the brownie with ice cream. the bronwnie was hard and therefore hard to eat but still delicious. the main courses were $25 on their own and we paid $25 for summerlicious menu, i thought it was well worth it. after the fried chicken appetizer al lwe wanted was a whole bucket of it to nom down on.

Creative Menu. Museum Tavern is carrying on their heritage of Bistro 990 with a very creative menu and caring staff. Had the lobster roll special (chuck full of lobster) and spicy PEI mussels.. top notch!

Great addition to the neighbourhood. If you're looking for a cheap place to grab some grub, this isn't your restaurant. However, the food is top notch, and beer is fresh. Their take on a sub, called a torpedo, is a slimmer sandwich with fresh bread and good ingredients. Duck buns are served on fresh chinese buns with just the right amount of hoisin and sriracha sauce. Key lime pie isn't a pie, but all the elements loosly packed into a ramekin. Misleading, but tasty.

Great service - friendly, gracious, and knowledgeable.

Museum Tavern is located right across from the ROM, occupying the space that, if I’m not mistaken, was the residence of a McDonald’s a few years back. Museum Tavern is a pub but serves food and drink items at a higher price point that most pubs.

Last Saturday was a blast- so much so that I got up in the morning and I said to myself “it is Saturday’s like that one, that are going to help me get through grad school in one piece.” This was the series of events: Dinner at Museum Tavern, then Bowling (at a sketchy, but totally awesome glow in the dark bowlerama on Bathurst), then a 1:30 AM stop at “Burger Shack” on Eglinton for fries, and chocolate and banana milkshakes (which were awesome!!!!!)  Come on, would you pass that up?  It was an awesome time, even if I did really, really suck at the bowling bit. I mean, at one point, I swung my arm back and the ball flew backwards… Yep. The way it happens in G-family rated movies. Thank g-d for cheap tequila shots (complete with salt packets from the concession stand- awesome).
Let’s talk about what I am good at, then. And that, of course is food.
So a few weeks ago, after the awestruck food festival, my friends and I popped into a newish spot called Museum Tavern for a drink.  My friend had apparently heard it was good, so we figured it was close to home and worth a shot.  I was totally blown away.  While I didn’t have a chance to sample the food that night, we did have some incredible cocktails that really sold me on the place.   The cocktail menu is both authentic, creative, and extensive.  Pretty much everything (especially on the signature cocktail list) was enticing, and it was really hard to choose, but that night I went with the Peach Cobbler.  With rum, fresh peaches, lime, saffron-sage syrup, and lots of crushed ice, it was super easy to drink (and fun to nibble on later).
On Saturday, I figured I needed to try a few others on the hit list.  Over the course of the night we had sampled:
Peach Cobbler- see above
Cherry Smash (vodka, lime juice, cherries, minted green tea syrup, lavender water spritz) – Better than the Peach Cobbler. This had a delicious herbaceous quality with lots of meaty dark sweet cherries.
Prime Minister (vodka, tomato juice, grain mustard, dill, horseradish, lime juice, Worcestershire sauce, tobacco, secret sauce, black pepper)- A really aromatic take on a Caesar that was really extra spicy.  When I’m in the mood (and I usually am) for a spicy Caesar, this will be a good go to.
Watermelon Collins (gin, watermelon, basil, lemon, pink pepper-aloe syrup) – while I can’t say for sure whether this tasted of pink pepper-aloe syrup (because like, what the heck is that?), I can say it was delicious. My favourite of the bunch, I think it was gonezo in like two very concentrated sips.
Old Fashioned (bourbon, sugar, bitters) –Oy. Not for this girl, but it was super authentic, and well received.
Okay lets talk briefly of service.  It was prompt, attentive, maybe too attentive. Sometimes servers need to know when to back off and just give the diners a bit of time and space. Ours struggled a bit with this concept, as she came back to take our orders literally every 2 minutes, and we weren't even lingering!  Within a moment of us sitting down, she had already offered to take our food orders. A few minutes later, she asked again, and a few minutes later, again. After a while, she got the hint and I gestured her over when it was time, but it was a little annoying. In contrast, drinks seemed to sometimes take a while.  I can appreciate that they put a lot of care into their cocktails, but when you order a drink, and don't get it until you're sitting with the bill in your hand, it's kind of annoying. Okay onto food. After a pretty stern warning that the mains were pretty big, we opted to share two appetizers and leave it at that before moving onto mains. Here is what we had:

Duck Buns (hoisin, green onion, sriacha)

 

 

Delicious. Super fluffy folded bun, packed with moist sweet and spicy meat.  I would happily order this again for myself.

Queso Blanco Fundido (with chips, cheese sauce and pickled jalapenos)

 

 

Also really delicious. The chips were home made, warm, with a wicked crunch and a nice salty bite.  The sauce was smoky, salty and sweet, its richness perfectly off set by the tangy spicy peppers.  My only complaint (and this is such a common misstep), was that unless you were LOADING them up, there just wasn’t enough chips for the quantity of dip.

Great Lakes Fish and Chips with housemade tartar, and tavern slaw

 

 

Pretty delicious fish and chips.  The fries were perfectly seasoned, cut thin, with lots of surface area for crispy crevices to develop.  The fish was a massive portion (two piecer) that was flaky, with a massive crunch.  I happen to love when the batter kind of bunches up in places, yielding bites that are just crunchy, deep fried goodness.  What? Don’t even pretend you don’t love that.

Half Roast Chicken with barley hash, chicken gravy

 

 

The chicken was cooked beautifully, with a crispy skin and a moist flesh, but the barley hash (and the gravy I guess it was swimming in) was unpalatably salty.  I am a girl who usually complains about under seasoning, but this was near inedible.

Halibut with succotash, ham hock, lemon emulsion

 

 

The halibut had a beautiful crispy exterior, but was a little bit dry and overcooked. Thankfully, the succotash was really delicious, especially with the generous chunks of pulled pork tossed in.

Ontario Rainbow Trout with zucchini, artichoke and sherry vinaigrette

 

 

Unlike the halibut, the trout was much closer to perfection, though perhaps a little under done in some middle regions of the fillet.  Unfortunately, like the barley, this one also suffered from a bit too much seasoning, pointing to some inconsistency going on in the kitchen.

Devils Food Cake with honey roasted peanuts, and peanut butter ice cream

 

 

I don’t even like chocolate, but this was a pretty nice plate.  A generous individual layer cake (there were about 6-8 layers in there), enrobed in a luscious ganache, that was rich on its own, but really pleasing with the aromatic ice cream.  I also loved the little cookie crumble garnish that added a really nice textural contrast with the ice cream.

Key Lime Parfait with caramel and lime butter cookies

 

 

This was more my style (I did end up eating most of it), mostly because of the generous thick caramel layer.  I never really thought that lime and caramel were a suitable match, but as I was driving home from the grocery store today I kind of changed my mind.  The cloying sweetness of the caramel does cut some of bright acidity and mild bitterness of the lime.  Throw a little textural cookie contrast, and creamy neutralizing whipped cream in the mix, and you’ve got a nicely balanced dish.

So for: 2 apps, 4 mains, 2 desserts, 9 cocktails, and 3 large bottles of water, the bill came to about $350 including tax and tip.  While it was certainly less refined, I definitely enjoyed the meal in its entirety at Museum more than the evening before at Franks where we paid about 30-40$ more (per two people). So will I return? Yes. Probably more than I should, particularly because it’s so close to home.  I can’t wait until summer again when I can enjoy that Watermelon Collins on the patio!

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OMG!!!! I'm from the states and I've NEVER had a Caesar salad as good as the one I had from here. I went in 2020 before covid took a toll on the WORLD. When they open back up, you must eat here after you're done with the ROM

Interesting and varied menu including items like elk sliders and a lobster roll, but prices to match. The lobster roll was buttered on the outside, and had only a faint taste of sauce on the inside which let you really taste the lobster but personally I would have preferred a bit more sauce. The double cheeseburger was a pretty mean burger with trimmings and sauce, and a lot of flavour. The meals we ordered also seemed to go heavy on the fries, whereas it would have been nice to have a bit more variety on the plate replacing some of the fries with something like salad. The service was excellent and the venue felt a little classy for a tavern, yet casual enough to have a relaxed meal.

Excellent tavern across from the Royal Ontario Museum on Bloor Street. Unassuming front view that could use updating, take the stairs up to this bustling bar, spirting an extensive liquor list, and an endless whisky selection. We tried a couple great craft cocktails, using the on-site barrel aged spirits. Some cocktail glasses come with a layer of ice frozen into the glass, making for a unique experience. Food choices were excellent and included elk sliders, duck buns, fish and chips, muscles and fries. Everything was to perfection. Great fries and one of the city’s better fish and chips. Great and attentive service from Cole. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED 🌟

Amazing burger! Truly one of the best I had in Toronto so far. The bun, the meat, the fries were all really delicious. Service was really good. Location was fantastic. I understand it is in Yorkville, which is kind of an upscale neighbourhood, but the place is a little too expensive. Overall really good experience! :)