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Magpie Taproom
Categories: Nightlife Bars Arts & Entertainment Music Venues Nightlife Music Venues Bars, Music Venues [Edit]
831 Dundas St WToronto, ON M6J 1V4
Neighbourhoods: Little Italy, Trinity Bellwoods
(647) 350-8305
- Hours:
Mon-Sun 7 pm - 2 am
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Street
- Price Range:
-
$
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Music:
- Live
- Best Nights:
- Fri, Thu, Sat
- Happy Hour:
- No
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
- Smoking:
- Outdoor Area/ Patio Only
- Coat Check:
- No
- Good For Dancing:
- No
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- No
23 reviews for Magpie Taproom
Review Highlights
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"...are tap & bottle were local, organic and/or specialty beers." In 4 reviews -
"Rumour has it their monthly Trivia Tuesdays are super fun." In 4 reviews
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"...beer selection and a wide assortment of good looking people." In 3 reviews
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23 reviews in English
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Review from Alex S.
Toronto, ON
5/24/2012
I like the Magpie (and I hope that the Magpie likes me).
I first heard of the Magpie from a friend who thought I'd like their trivia nights. I started slow: I'd been burned by overly serious trivia nights before. Turns out, the Magpie was perfectly low key: unpretentious-but-big-brained-questions, great MCs, and with unifying categories that are heavy on the puns. Since I think that whoever said that puns are the lowest form of humour deserves a bop straight on the nose (what? They're punny!) I felt immediately at home here. PUNS AND PINTS 4 EVA!
When I felt our relationship was getting a little more serious, and I wanted to see the Magpie more than once a month...I found myself popping by at the end of my nights out. "Oh hey, just happened to be on Dundas anyways, no biggie"-type stuff.
The beer selection is great.
There's a good age-spread to the regulars.
It's not scene-y, so one winter night I might have been wearing my pyjama top under my coat when I popped in *taking nightcap literally*.
Yelp note: no food here, so grab a porchetta sandwich from a few doors down. Whether dancing or extracting trivia from the dark recesses of your brain: you need to keep that energy up. -
Review from Imran N.
2/11/2012
How could you not love this place? It's intimate and everything you want your local to be like.
And the prices are excellent. Love that i can get different kinds of bourbon and scotches for pretty much $6.50 a shot. -
Review from Jessica W.
Toronto, ON
2/10/2012
Magpie is exactly halfway between my place and my friend's. The prices are decent and the staff is friendly. It's far from swank, but it's comfy and relaxed (college rec room?).
Tip: Avoid dubstep night...unless, you know, that's your thing. -
Review from Roger B.
Toronto, ON
12/13/2011
Came here somewhat accidentally as part of a pub crawl... but so glad we did. Comfy/Cozy bar with relaxed servers and a chilled atmosphere.
Decent beer selection with a few interesting options.
Nothing fancy.. but a good local. I'd go back there in a heart beat. -
Review from Lauren M.
2/26/2011 1 Check-in Here
This place is OK but pretty forgettable. Were it better located (rather than on a somewhat barren strip on Dundas West) I would probably go back, but it's not really worth going out of your way for.
It's a simple bar, plain, mismatched wooden chairs and tables. Friendly female bartender. Dark. 10pm on a Friday night and it wasn't too busy. You could squeeze 50 people in this place at best, but would probably seat 30-40 comfortably.
The bartender did make some of us a nice peppermint tea, as we weren't in a drink-y mood, which was kind given it was a Friday night and we should have been ordering booz-y things. -
Review from Eric L.
3/1/2011 1 Check-in Here
Just a decent place if you happen to be in the area and want a drink. Not too big, not too small, decent beer selection, friendly waitress. The interior is very simple, just a bunch of wooden tables and chairs with some dim lighting.
The place was cool and could have used more heating, but we just kept our jackets on for a while until we warmed the place up ourselves.
I think 3 stars is pretty good for a hipster pub. -
Review from Chris P.
I came here last night for their monthly trivia night. I'm glad I came early to secure a table because the place was packed by the time everyone was ready to play. It turns out that they had the largest pot ever at $260.
On the trivia side of things, it was well run though the questions aren't as wide spread as one whould hope. Having 4, 30ish year old straight white guys plan the questions leaves things a little biased.
For the bar itself it's a really cool place. They have a great selection of specialty beers on tap and in the fridge but do have a slightly limited bar, but enough to serve what most people want. The staff were helpful when I was asking about the different beers. They were able to answer all of my questions and let me sample some brands before making my decision. -
Review from Brian S.
Toronto, ON
12/10/2009 ROTD 1/2/2010
There are times when you want to go to a pub that's crowded and busy, and there are times when you want to go to somewhere quiet, with good, crafted small brews, with a bartender who can explain the beermaking process and give good recommendations because you know he's a connoisseur. Magpie is the place for the latter.
I went there last night to find a quiet place to sit on my laptop (they do have wifi (locked with a password), but I ended up using my rocket stick) and have a good pint of nice beer. It was a satisfying experience. It's a small enough place that it's easy to end up talking to the people around you, and the staff are happy to create the community.
I've never had food here, and probably wouldn't, but it's a great atmosphere, an a good dundas hangout place. Wish it was a little closer to Ossington.... -
Review from Vivek S.
5/13/2009 2 Check-ins Here
Delicate nook of a place on Dundas west. Many great craft and imported beers (including Chimay!) on tap and in bottles. Apparently they only have one bartender, because I've never seen anyone else working. Decor is dark, secluded, and cozy. On Monthly Trivia nights, this place is packed. Otherwise, it's a well-kept secret.
Obligatory Title Pun: You'll need a MAG-ni-PIE-ing lens to find this tiny taproom.
Menu Readability: Scrawled behind bar. It gets the point across, viz., beers on tap.
Need to mention: No kitchen! Not even a bag of chips.
What this place teaches me about myself: Sometimes when I drink, I get hungry. Also, I say things I don't mean. I love you. -
Review from Angela L.
2/10/2010
Located in the middle of a long, barren stretch of Dundas West, Magpie was literally like a safe house on a recent chilly winter weeknight. The short bar that greeted us was lined with a handful of chatty patrons perched upon stools and tended by a cheerful young lady.
Within seconds of considering the list of good options on draft, we happily agreed on two pints of the weissbier, which proved to be just lovely. The seating which consists entirely of neat rows of dark wood chairs and tiny rectangular tables conjures up images of an olde school house, if only all the chairs were facing the same direction. The large, open room is kept dim and the mood dictated by the musical selections of the bartender at the PC.
I hear that trivia night is a good reason to pay a visit, but I'd say that quieter nights when you want to savour a nice pint in relative peace is also worthy of your time. -
Review from Tara Z.
8/15/2011
It's weird that this place is so empty, because it's a charmer--vintage chandeliers, dim lighting, plenty of seating without being overcrowded. The beer selection is good, mostly local microbrews, and the service is friendly. None of the stalls in the ladies room have working latches, though.
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Review from Marie F.
5/22/2010 2 Check-ins Here
I had attempted going here many times but with each try my plans would derail and we would end up going somewhere else. I went to Magpie for the first time for one of my best friend's birthday, indecently she is also one of the bartenders there.
All the beers are tap & bottle were local, organic and/or specialty beers... so if you are looking for Coors Light or Molson Canadian, you may want to go elsewhere. Sadly they did not have any cider, but my frown quickly turned upside-down when I saw that they had Strawberry Fruli in bottles at a reasonable $6.50 (Bier Markt sells it for 9$).
My first thought was how this place was super cute, my second was how the hell a 5 piece band managed to play in here last time I attempted to go with my fellow Yelpers. It was pretty busy at 11pm even though there were still a few seats available. The lack of ventilation quickly became troublesome; I can only imagine how gross it must be to drink here on a summer night when it's packed! As the night progressed the music went from good, to bad, to worse. I felt like I was turning into my mother "that's not music it's noise!"
I would probably come back on a week day to grab a beer to early on a weekend to pre-drink but I wouldn't recommend this place as your "means to an end".
Rumour has it their monthly Trivia Tuesdays are super fun. -
Review from Bryan G.
Toronto, ON
4/9/2009
The Magpie averages out to a slightly better than average pub. A good selection of beer on tap and more in bottles gives it an edge on most (though both a bottle of Leffe and a bottle of 50 cost $6.75!) but the fact that there is no food really grinds my gears.
Home to a monthly trivia night (organized outside of the Magpie) that has become quite popular, one has to wonder what a non-trivia night Wednesday at the Magpie looks like. Not much, likely.
That being said, I did enjoy myself - mostly due to the well organized and well attended trivia night - and would go back...I just wouldn't go out of my way - what if I got hungry? -
Review from Jen K.
Toronto, ON
4/12/2010
What is 4658 x 2945? How many letters are in the word pneumo-silico-volcanoniosis ... or something like that....which clearly I got wrong, and what is the official name on Prince William's birth certificate?
I don't know... William...? ...I'm not British.
These and many other esoteric (and IMO really stupid) trivia questions were on the table at Magpie's trivia night last week.
Now don't get me wrong, trivia questions aren't supposed to be easy, or common knowledge for that matter, but when a group of trivia buffs (myself excluded) are sitting around a table collectively scratching their heads at nearly every question, you'd think someone messed up just a bit. The easy category (playfully touted as the hardest category ever) was RIDICULOUSLY easy, leaving everyone with perfect scores and the hardest category ever (you got it, called 'easy') was insanely difficult. Balance was off the radar.
Having just attended a brilliant trivia night at Cafe Stella the week before, when I saw the Yelp posting about trivia at Magpie, my hopes were high. Unfortunately, Magpie failed to measure up.
While trivia officially started at 8. we were told to arrive early (and rightfully so) because the place fills up and tables and chairs are less than plentiful.
The bar itself is pretty cool. They have a great selection of specialty beers and the people who showed up to trivia were indie cool.
After pint x 2, the crew got hungry, but resigned themselves to a third given the lack of food available.
Overall, I feel pretty ambivalent about Magpie. While the bar was fun, I wouldn't go back for trivia.
Y'all will have to join us at Cafe Stella next time :) -
Review from Leeor J.
4/25/2010
I think i got here a bit too early. It was practically empty. Kinda dumpy too. Looks like they had some water damage in there they either haven't bothered or don't plan to repair. Great beer selection? the token duvel in the fridge doesn't make for great beer selection. I had some microbrew from ottawa that was pretty awful. They seem to have a lot of higher alcohol beers that are too overwhelming. That about did it for me.
It did start to pick up later in the night, but it was mostly dudes. Maybe it was an off night. -
Review from cailen s.
Oakville, ON
4/9/2009
A monthly trivia night is what brought me to the Magpie. In an interesting and colourful neighbourhood, this small nook totally hit the spot.
Though I wasn't drinking I noticed a very good selection of beers and even a few ciders. The wood-y interior is very reminiscent of pubs back in the old country and that seemed to contribute to a very communal vibe, also akin to British pubs.
As mentioned below, they don't have a kitchen which is a drawback. However they didn't mind us eating our Gandhi's while we sat there so they're at least easy going about that. -
Review from Connie T.
Toronto, ON
12/3/2008 1 photo
Maybe I should credit the band playing that night (Ancient Chinese Secret), but the Magpie certainly attracted a higher than normal ratio of good looking people, spanning the range from rocker/rockabilly types to beardos to bed-headed indie boys. The girls were all assortments of hot as well, sporting full dresses and a never-say-die confidence.
It was full and hopping that Saturday night; I definitely liked this place and would like to see if my feelings remain on slower nights. Whatever the case, it was a grand, grand introduction to this world of good music, cozy conversation, and a perfectly sized, decently stocked, quirky bar (they sell Monty Python's Holy Grail Ale, for gad's sakes).Listed in: Get your gig on
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Review from Daniel B.
12/12/2008 1 Check-in Here
A nice local bar with a fantastic beer selection and a wide assortment of good looking people..
No decor to speak of. Nothing shocking about the place.
But good friends, great beer and good times.
The perfect weeknight bar. -
Review from Kat F.
I think the Magpie is going to quickly become my new hangout of choice! I was recently there for a trivia night that was such a success it shut the place down. The service was really good, there are TONS of specialty beers in a premium fridge behind the bar, and they have a Jagermeister keg. It's very dark inside and from the street you could easily pass by and not notice it.
The only drawback to the place is that there is no kitchen, so you can't get snacks or finger foods, which are often integral to a long night of sitting around drinking and commiserating with your friends or coworkers. -
Review from Melissa J.
Toronto, ON
12/3/2008
Magpie is a fun place to go for a beer. They play great music, they have a huuuuge selection of beer on tap and bottled, and they usually have a decent crowd (sometimes very good-looking, as Connie observed).
Saturday nights are generally packed -- arrive early to get a bench seat at the back, otherwise you'll have to nurse your beer while standing near the crowded bar. Don't let the foggy windows scare you away, because it's not sweat you see, it's the warmth of a cozy local bar that you know you want to try. -
Review from Karen M.
Ottawa, ON
4/23/2009
Just got back from a Yelp Party at Magpie. I have been to this bar before but it was late at night and my memory is foggy. This visit was great. Lots of seating for the group I was with, the Standells were playing (Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White, Riot on Sunset Strip, etc) and a bartender wearing a Husker Du tee, my kind of place!
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Review from Andrew Y.
12/23/2008
A micro brew place. Honestly, can't tell you what I had. It was pretty fun though. I spend $120. It was totally worth it. Washrooms were clean I think. Tables for people to sit at. I was here for an engagement party! Really fun. Parking. Don't think so. Cabs. Yeah.
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Review from hangover n.
Toronto, ON
5/17/2011
good. friendly, no nonsense bar.
