Reviews Stack

Had a great juicy burger. Will go back for the BBQ stuff. The place is clean and smells good ( the food). Hv been looking for some good southern and casual ( Texas) BBQ in Toronto. This maybe the place.

Great staff and friendly atmosphere, and I enjoyed my bacon cheeseburgers and poutine!! Would definitely go back!!

The waiter, a young gentleman with a beard, was excellent. It was very friendly outgoing and very attentive to his customers.

Amazing staff and owners. Amazing food. You can't go wrong.

Always great service and food quality. The staff make an effort to acknowledge repeat customers.

Went there for my birthday because I wanted BBQ, and got delicious mouthwatering fall off the bone ribs, tender smoked chicken and great service. Not to mention the free doughnuts that reminded me of those mini doughnuts from the CNE. Awesome �

From the food to the service everything was top notch!

2018/12/09
We were looking for a place for dinner on Yonge north of Lawrence, and Stack looked like a good option. When we entered, I was pleasantly surprised how spacious it was, There was a partial second floor dining room too. The restaurant probably seats about 50, in modern, comfortable surroundings. When we got there after 5:30 it was less than half full, but there was a slow and steady increase in the number of customers as we had our meal.

As we looked over the menu, we saw many, many tempting BBQ choices. It was difficult to choose, because there were many things we wanted to try.

Eventually SWBMO picked the Brisket Burger with a side of Corn Bread ($18.36). The half pound beef burger was stacked high with several ounces of sliced brisket in a chipotle Jack Daniels sauce. Each bite was savoury, messy and tasty. The corn bread was warm and fresh.

My choice was the Chipotle Philly with a side of Fresh Vegetables ($17.31). This was similar to SWBMO’s sandwich, with the carved brisket in the Jack Daniels sauce, minus the burger, plus melted Jack cheese, on a panini. Also a tasty mess. If I had one minor quibble, I thought my sandwich could have had a bit more meat.

Service was friendly and reasonably fast.

We walked in late on Tuesday right before closing and they were nice enough to let us in. It is a busy smokehouse diner that serves great bbq with strong list of craft beers. We tried the spicy jalepeno sausage first which didn't last very long on our plate. (Hence the photo). The chicken and ribs deal is a great sample of their work. The ribs are hands down top 5 on my bbq set list. The chicken had a peri peri glaze which I have never come across before and is ingenious! The parmesan fries are a good side upgrade to consider. These guys also have one of my favourite light summer beers: Antigravity. They customize and prepare large orders which i learned after I'm tried to convince them to set up a weekly meal plan for me.

Hands down great service. Our server was really pleasant and attentive. My husband and kids enjoyed their burgers. I on the other hand was so hungry, I just ate my meal but I'm pretty sure that chicken was the processed sort that you'd find at a chain. A little disappointing. Nevertheless, everyone else was happy. We'll be back, I just won't eat the chicken next time.

Not just your usual take on BBQ, not a bad thing. I took my son to STACK for a special birthday dinner. He had choices of places to go, but it was all over when he saw the menu. Parmesan fries - a nice twist for flavour, but the plain ones with my dish stand well on their own with good flavour and texture. He changed his mind on what he wanted when he saw the Chipotle Philly Panini and was not disappointed by the blend of flavours. He washed it all down with the Shaketender Surprise, which changes regularly and you never know what it is going to be. So I'll just say he loved it. I opted for a more traditional Texas Brisket Dinner. Top notch brisket, with or without the BBQ sauce. The baked beans were tasty - a bit sweet, a bit tart, a bit smoky. The cole slaw wasn't quite to my usual taste, but I did eat it. Even at a BBQ place, "fusion" style or traditional, some kind of vegetable is good to have. A new, local cider (Brick Works 1904) went well with my dinner, but I'll be going to buy some of that to keep in the fridge at home for (not just) hot summer days. Very welcoming and friendly staff. There is limited outdoor seating out front, adding fresher air and the experience of being able to watch people driving and walking by, the latter often slowing down to get a good look at what is on the tables. I will go back to try some of the other dishes, the less-traditional in particular.

This place gets a thumbs up.. Uptown, Yonge/Lawrence area. This place will do the job if you're feeling for some BBQ.
I tried the Stack Brisket which is served as a sandwich, and the brisket with the Chipotle Jacks sauce.
It was good, tender, though missed out on the smoked taste of the meat cause all the flavor was coming from the sauce. Chipotle sauce was on point. Will def come back to try more. Glad they carry and push craft beer.. keeping the thirst local.

Great food and service on a Sunday aft. Parmesan Fries, Pulled pork sandwich/sweet potatoes fried were all Deelish. My son had the ribs that were fall of the bone good but slightly lacked in flavor...still a great experience all around. We'll be back for sure!!

This is by far my favorite restaurant in Toronto. The food is always cooked to perfection; they only use the best ingredients and you can definitely notice the folks in the kitchen have a passion for what they do. The Menu includes a wide variety of options that guarantees something tasty for every member of your family regardless of age or diet restrictions.
The service is phenomenal; they can get very busy sometimes (no surpise) so avoid having to wait in line, just plan ahead and make a reservation.
Prices are very reasonable.
Also, you can order take-out for those times when you just want to chill at home or if your catering for friends.
This place really is the best of the best!!!

YUM!. Amazing food! I had the pulled pork sandwich and it was the best I've ever tried. Great coleslaw on the side too (although that was an extra $3). Well worth a visit!!

If I could 'love' a restaurant this would be the one. Food was Amazing! You could tell everything was made in house! Specifically recommend the Mac And cheese, coleslaw, and the quarter chicken. And to top it off the donut dessert is a sensation to any sweet tooth. 5 stars!!!

Terrific service. The pouting with pulled pork was amazing.

Enjoyable. 6 of us dined for the first time on Saturday night at Stack. I made a reservation early in the week and when we arrived they had a table for us upstairs where the sun was beaming in. It was 35ºC (95F) and the last thing we wanted to do was sit in a hot window seat where the air was already hotter upstairs. Even though it was very busy, the manager was able to find us a suitable table downstairs in the main part of the restaurant.

Lots of booths, very comfortable albeit loud; a fun place. The menu is intriguing especially if you like BBQ! 4 of us had the ribs. They were fall-off-the-bone delish! You can have them with a choice of 4 different BBQ sauces. We tried the Chipotle Jack Daniels and the Stack Medium. Hard to tell the difference between them. The chipotle sauce didn't have the "zing" I expected, but that didn't affect how tasty the ribs were. Fries, baked beans and cole slaw accompanied those meals. Fries were great, baked beans could have been cooked a little longer, they were hard and a couple of us found the cole slaw sour. The Mashed potatoes were excellent except they arrived cold.

One of us ordered the Cobb Salad. It's hard to find a good cobb salad in Toronto, we will have to keep looking. It was not good at all. No bacon, no blue cheese. Lots of chicken, egg and avocado which were all good, but the lettuce was drenched in a creamy dressing which made it very soggy and ruined it.

Our friend ordered the catfish. He loved it. It looked really good, blackened filet, a little small but he enjoyed it very much. The most popular dish coming out of the kitchen was by far the pulled pork on a bun. I will order that next time. The tacos and burgers seemed to be popular too. Too bad we couldn't try everything first time out.

We topped off the meal with one order (for 6 people) of the s'mores donuts. For the price of $5 they are definitely worth a try. They are not really donuts. They look more like tiny 1" skinny onion rings. There were 16 of them smothered with chocolate sauce, marshmallow and whipped cream. Very delish, but you don't need more than 3 of these very sweet morsels to satisfy you sweet craving. Next time I'll try the less gooey cinnamon and sugar ones.

The bill for 6 of us with 2 beers and 2 soft drinks was $155 (including tax).

I'm definitely going back for more. Pretty good neighbourhood restaurant and a fun family outing.

I'd come back. Made reservations for a group of 6 last Friday, which was a good idea as I saw some people deciding not to wait, although there was no line. Getting water/drinks were fine (though I don't suggest the Jones cream soda & cola because the cola is a fountain drink and they bring you a cup with ice to mix the two yourself. Maybe it'd be good if the cola were better). The food took too long to arrive - tables that ordered after us received their food before us and we were hungry. Everyone was full on their entrees once we ate them, though! I had the Stack brisket, which was tasty, although a little fatty. I don't know if that's normal for brisket - to have chunks of fat. I had a side of sweet potato fries which was literally something like 20 fries whereas for the appetizer Buffalo fries that my friend ordered, it was a huge bowl. Whatever they seasoned those Buffalo fries with was not evenly distributed though. Had I known about the amounts, I would have paid twice the amount of the side for an appetizer size of sweet potato fries. Another friend had fish tacos, but couldn't taste the fish. Someone ate pulled pork tacos which were mostly filled with pork, so no problem there. Two others ate the mushroom burger, I think it was, and said they were good. And to finish it off, I Had to have the s'mores doughnuts which is a generous size and really sweet, but I like really sweet. The waiter mentioned that a new batch of doughnuts had just been fried so I don't know if that's a factor.

...it is a BBQ joint with a smoker, and it has a bit of fine dining feel without being too uppity (cloth napkins, but no table cloths, which is probably a good thing). *Disclaimer* This is going to be a long one, so if you don't have the time to read, just enjoy the pictures and go eat here! (Exterior of restaurant with patio to the left of the photo) (Another shot of the exterior) (This greets you as you walk in....yum ribs!) (The bar where you can wait for you table) (Hard working bartender) (Chandelier leading up the stairs to the second floor (apparently it's really cozy up there)  (Back of the restaurant with the kitchen and smoker) So like the picture

Armed with a love for and knowledge of food, Bill went into business with Todd Savage. Eyeballing the burgeoning smashed burger market in the GTA they found a spot and set up shop. Freed up from the constraints of a chain restaurant Bill and Todd filled out the menu as they saw fit. The result was Stack Smmmoked. Basically, a slightly upscale sandwich shop, which just happens to have a smoker. Burgers, tacos and BBQ round out the menu as well as donuts and shakes.

Can somebody please explain to me what exactly is going on with Toronto weather? One day, it's like 20 and sunny, the next is raining, and then you get a day like Thursday when it actually snowed. I would venture to say that all Canadians need massive closets to accommodate the frequent shifts in climate. Regardless of the recent lows, I have had a massive hankering for BBQ. Luckily, Toronto has seen a huge rush of BBQ joints, something that people like me had always prayed for. I may almost be a dietitian and a Jew, but I do love my comfort food, and I do find ribs and pulled pork incredibly comforting (please-don't-tell). There had been quite a lot of chatter about a new spot, Stack, on Yonge at Lawrence, so I thought we would check it out on Friday night.

We arrived at 8 for our reservation to a jammed packed restaurant. There were quite a few parties waiting, and I could tell that there was a bit of stress and confusion about which parties were waiting and who to seat next. Regardless, the owner (Todd) was very apologetic for the 5 minute wait, and had us seated in the upstairs immediately. This place is pretty large. It has a big bar downstairs at the front, quite a bit of seating all the way to the kitchen in the back, and then an upper level with additional seating and a smaller bar as well. They did a really good job putting the place together. It reminded me of a sports bar meets corporate family restaurant. Definitely not my style, but it was comfortable none the less and I can appreciate that.

Service was incredibly friendly. Our server went above and beyond to make sure all of my questions were answered, and that drinks were refilled promptly. Just interacting with other servers/hostesses, I could tell that everyone was chosen for their personality and smiles. This would be a GREAT place to bring children for that reason alone. The only service issue was that our mains came before the appetizer I had ordered, a mistake that was promptly remedied with a complementary dessert, and many many apologies from the server and the owner (apparently they ran out of bechamel and had to make a new batch). And you know, the place has been open on 3 weeks and is absolutely slammed. I can definitely forgive such a small slip.

Speaking of the owner, Todd spent a lot of time chatting with us about his vision and business. Apparently, he owned a Shoeless Joes in Durham for a long time and decided he really wanted to open a restaurant with a "Diners, Drive ins and Dives" meets "Eat St" feel with the ultimate comfort food- BBQ. He spent a lot of time testing recipes in his own drive way at home, attracting a hell of a lot of attention from seduced neighbours. He also told us that he's looking into opening a Food Truck and even a second location somewhere in Durham region. Hope he knows he's got competition with Buster Rhinos so close.

Despite it's Southern influences in menu, Stack has a huge local focus. They source all of their meats, breads, ice cream etc from local companies, and Todd was adamant that he was really trying to get high quality ingredients and when possible, make everything from scratch.

So lets talk about what I ate/drank. The drink menu read a lot like a list of offerings at bat mitzfa, except that the drinks had booze in them. I will admit,  I was super tempted by the insane alcoholic milkshake menu, but I knew that if I even attempted that, I would have no room for dessert, so I opted instead for their Strawberry Lime MMMojito with Jones Strawberry Lime soda with Light rum, simple syrup, ice, fresh mint, lime juice and strawberry garnish. It was pretty easy to drink, as the soda's sweetness really masked the booze. However, it did remind me a bit too much of a "cooler", and all of those unsavoury youth memories came rushing back. Probably better saved for the 19 year olds. For the rest of us, BBQ is best with beer, anyways.

I really would have liked to sample more of their BBQ items, but there was only two of us so we really had to choose. They do have a "Ultimate Platter" (with a full rack of ribs, quarter chicken, pulled pork, stack brisket, baked beans, mac and cheese, fries and mini buns) but even that would have been way too much for two. Todd, if you are reading this, please do a half portion of this platter!

Mac and Cheese with 3 Cheese Bechamel Sauce and Panko Bread Crust
A very good mac and cheese. It had a lot of creamy sauce as well as stringy cheese and a crumbly buttery crust on top. Texturally, this was a great mac and cheese. My only criticism is that it could have used a bit more seasoning as it was a little on the bland side.
 
Smmmoked Ribs with Memphis Mild Sauce
Just a heads up, its only the ribs and ultimate platter that come with sides (fries and beans). The other BBQ options are ordered a la carte, so we ordered a few extra sides to sample. The ribs were probably the disappointment of the night. The flavour of the pork itself was good, but I did find them pretty dry, and overly charred. While I appreciated that they weren't overtly fatty (no big pieces of fat), there was also very little meat on the bones. Hopefully it was just our rack.

Smokey Molasses Beans
I loved these. They had a nice hint of smoke, were perfectly sweet, and had lots of nice pieces of pork throughout. A must order side.
 
Fresh Cut Fries
Super crispy, nice cut, well seasoned. Another good choice.

Pulled Pork (with crispy onions and buttermilk dill) with Memphis Mild Sauce
Pork was tender, and the bun was perfectly fluffy and buttery.  I actually didn't get any crispy onions or buttermilk dill (or at least I didn't detect them!) so I can't really speak to that element. I liked the mild sauce, but I did wish there was more of it, but that might be a personal preference. I do tend to like all of my PP tossed in sauce with lots of extra sauce on top (and here it was just applied on top), so I ordered a side of sauce to apply myself. Problem solved.
 
Slaw
Good, not great. Again texture was good, but it was missing something, either more salt, more sweet, more heat or more vinegar. Any one of these would have enhanced the flavour. I mixed in a little of that extra BBQ sauce and that made it much better.
 
Putters Kosher Pickles
Delicious crunchy, super juicy pickles. Can't imagine BBQ without them.
 
S'Mores Doughnuts (vanilla glaze with chocolate sauce, crumbled graham crackers and marshmallows)
If I were to adopt a really bad habit and feel really good about it, it would definitely be to drive to Stack on a weekly basis for my Doughnut fix. For a measly $5, you get the most ridiculously addictive treat that is so captivating that you're stomach pretty much forgets it is filled to the brim with pork, cheese and fries. Beneath a mountain of whipped cream you uncover about a dozen warm, freshly fried  mini doughnuts (a la Tiny Toms style) that have been drizzled in a creamy chocolate sauce, tossed in a really satisfying mixture of buttery sugary graham cracker crumbs, sprinkled with mini marshmallows, and dusted with powdered sugar. The whole thing was unapologetically sweet, but in this case, it totally worked. By the time I had dug into the middle of the (seemingly neverending) cone, the doughnuts were completely encrusted with chocolate and crunchy, brown sugary crumbs, which despite my slight aversion to chocolate, was absolutely incredible. It was also pretty functional because all of those sticky toppings helped the marshmallows adhere so I had a perfect bite every time. The doughnuts themselves brought back so many incredibly memories of going to the Ex with my fam, but the extra toppings really took it over the edge. Todd told us he was inspired by the "Sugar Lips" food truck on Eat st (Food Network) and he's looking forward to creating seasonal doughnut specials (ie. fresh blueberries in the summer etc.). Todd, if you're reading this, please contact me if you would like a creative partner in designing these doughnut specials.

Alrighty, so for 1 coke, 1 cocktail, 1 app, 2 mains, and 4 additional sides, and a complementary dessert, our bill was $70 including tax and tip. Have you ever seen such a low number? Okay, so Burgers Priest was a "take-out" exception. But seriously folks. This was a pretty good meal for a super low price, and judging by Todd's keen interest in feedback and his commitment to his business, I'm confident they will continue to work out the small kinks and get even better. Looking forward to a repeat visit with lots of delicious doughnuts and maybe even a milkshake.

It was great to visit again. Staff are always so nice and friendly. Food was yummy but can be a bit pricey. Smokehouse Bowl was yummy and a huge serving!

Simply amazing! We ordered the platter and got to try a bit of everything which was great! So much food and so tasty! Loved it highly recommend and loved the outdoor seating!

I love this place, been a few times. Very nice staff and super kid friendly. They have all the equipment and coloring for kids plus toy chest. Of and thr food is on point. I've had thr Buffalo sandwich pulled pork and burgers, all were top shelf. Great neighborhood restaurant, with a creat craft beer selection.