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Shoxs Billiard Lounge
Categories: Nightlife Pool Halls Restaurants Canadian (Traditional) Nightlife Bars Sports Bars Pool Halls, Canadian (Traditional), Sports Bars
2827 Dundas Street WestToronto, ON M6P 1Y6
Neighbourhood: The Junction
(416) 762-7097
- Price Range:
-
$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Street
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- No
- Takes Reservations:
- No
- Delivery:
- No
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- Yes
- Music:
- DJ
- Best Nights:
- Fri, Sat
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
- Smoking:
- Outdoor Area/ Patio Only
- Coat Check:
- No
- Noise Level:
- Loud
- Good For Dancing:
- No
- Has TV:
- Yes
- Caters:
- No
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
7 reviews for Shoxs Billiard Lounge
7 reviews in English
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Review from Joey S.
Toronto, ON
3/14/2012 5 Check-ins Here
The owner, Gus, lead the charge to make the Junction "Wet" after local temperance crusader William "Temperance Willie" Temple died in the late 1980s. Temple's ghost "haunted" the area, because he won two-more temperance related plebiscites posthumously, before Gus's pro-drinking side finally won the right to make the Junction-area, east of Keele Street, wet in the year 2000 municipal elections. I mention this, because it is kind of important to the history of the area: Shoxs was the first drinking establishment in the eastern part of the Junction neighbourhood since 1903!
This is a sports bar, and also a pool hall. It is also an NTN/Buzztime trivia facility, which is how I first heard of it. There is a regular crowd of locals, but this place really comes to life during Maple Leafs games, or other marquee sports events (plenty of TVs to choose from at the bar, including a few in true-HD Quality).
Like many of my other reviews of bars in the area with pool-tables, I don't play, but apparently the people that do, like it. If you don't like a sports-centric pool hall bar, than more than likely, you are not going to like this place. I happen to like this kind of venue, but in moderation of course.
I have only had good experiences with the service here. When Gus isn't out politicking, he sometimes fills in as a late-night cook, once the evening chef leaves for the night. I have seen him specially fry something up for me, after midnight, when the kitchen was "officially" closed. The wait-staff have always been friendly to me, but I'm hardly the type of customer that puts much, if any, demands on the wait-staff.
Another thing going for it is its downstairs section. There is a comedy night every month, usually on the last Friday. Other events happen down there, but I do occasionally attend the comedy night, which is pretty good, and filled with local West Toronto Junction talent.
The beer selection is mostly Molson products, so don't expect Black Oak's 10 Bitter Years beer here, but if you want to play trivia, play a round of pool, or be surrounded by fellow Leafs fans during a game, Shoxs is hard to top. -
Review from Henk H.
Toronto, ON
4/26/2012
Proper sports bar. Proper food and maybe even a bit of a Cheers-atmosphere. When you walk in, it's almost as if you feel the urge to start singing "Where everybody knows your name"... Just one thing: asking me if I'm ok, is fine with me, but please don't do it so often that I'm beginning to doubt my beer-drinking skills.
-
Review from Toronto L.
Toronto, ON
8/10/2011
The Toronto Lover system:
5 stars = Must visit!
4 stars = Really good. I take my friends here.
3 stars = Somewhat worth it... if you have nowhere better to go.
2 stars = Below average. Attend only when necessary.
1 star = Do not visit!
The place has "Billiard Lounge" in its name, but it's really just a great sports bar. The food is decent, the prices are what you expect, and there is much seating to watch whatever game it is you want to watch. For big games, I recommend calling ahead and reserving a spot downstairs, which has large leather couches and feels a bit like your friend's dad's basement. Service here is very good, and they offer enough beers on tap to please anyone's interests.
I don't know if I would go out of my way to visit Shoxs, but it's a really good place, and this city is lacking in excellent sports bars.
3 stars -
Review from Miguel C.
York, ON
8/30/2011
After the experience we just had there last night, I am flabbergasted that this place has such decent ratings.
The evening started out fine, we all sat down, a waitress brought menus and greeted us. We all ordered drinks - I ordered a pint, one girl ordered a Margarita, and my GF ordered a vodka soda. When the drinks arrived, the margarita was a blended frozen beverage, not quite what this girl had asked for, but we drank nonetheless. Not that big a deal. Things slowly unraveled throughout the night.
Our waitress took our order - the girls both ordered a pound of wings, I ordered a roast beef sandwich, with what I assumed was an au jus dip - our waitress confirmed it came with an au jus.
After our food arrived, I noticed my dip was missing for my sandwich. As I looked up to inquire, there she was, with what can only be described as a bowl full of brown goop, resembling gravy. Now, I don't mean to be fickle, but au jus and gravy are two completely different things. Both can be good, but when the gravy wiggles like jello, and I know it is from a can, that doesn't make my sandwich better, it makes it worse. And I hadn't even taken a bite yet.
When I finally decided to start digging in, the first thing that jumped out at me was HEAT LAMP fries! Barely warm, I could tell they were fresh cut, but they were Luke-warm, and not crispy at all. As a kitchen man, I know you gotta double fry french fries. This seemed like a hack job to me.
Next - the sandwich itself. The roast beef was dry and crumbly, the butter on the roll was nauseating (not even a garlic butter - for shame), and every time I dipped it in the gravy, I lost half my damn sandwich in the slop.
Usually in any place I eat, someone asks me how my meal was at some point. This never happened. I may not have mentioned these things I'm mentioning now if she had checked, but the reason would be I had my GF with me. I have more tact.
The wings - some were sauced and decent, and some were bone dry and sauceless. Some did not even resemble chicken. These were spindly, crappy wings, and the bored way in which she told us about the sauce choices in the first place probably should have been a huge red flag - STAY AWAY from those wings.
Finally, at long last, after we washed our crap meal down with one more round, we got our bill. And there it was - $Soda.................0.49.
They charged us 50 cents for a splash of soda for the vodka soda.
I snapped.
I have worked in restaurants for 8 years now, and in NONE of them, did they charge anything for a mixer of that nature. Vodka soda, Jack and coke, gin and tonic, nobody charges for the mixer. I've worked places where they opened fresh CANS of pop, and still didn't charge - who would?
I went up to the manager, asking him if he was in charge of the establishment. He said yes. I arched my eyebrow - "50 cents for club soda? Really? I mean, come on...."
He immediately became defensive, and very argumentative. I tried to reason with him, and i did actually say that the charge was horse shit. Not in a raging way, but enough to get my point across. Maybe bad choice of words, but still. Then 2 guys that were near him, overheard our discussion. Both of them literally got very close to me, demanding to know why I was making trouble and being a problem, why am I so cheap, and the like. I told them that I was talking to the manager, and that is really between us, and it was not their problem. The foghorn continued from both men, both a few inches taller, both bigger, yammering at me as if I was a Nazi war criminal in a synagogue for arguing a price. I tried to get the manager aside to tell him explain my case again, and even mentioned that some parts of the meal were also bad, but I held my tongue.
"See, now you're just complaining about everything," he said, refusing to see that he still had not demonstrated any good service to defuse this.
I gave up, we paid our bill, (i even left a generous tip) and I turned to walk away. I'm holding my GF's purse, waiting for her to come out of the booth, as I overhear one of the 2 dopes still harping about how I can't afford soda in my drink. After I told him I could afford soda and started to explain the case, he interceded, telling me to take my purse and get out. The final moment in Shoxs was a patron basically calling me a queer or a wussy for holding a purse at that moment. We made our exit.
Another doozy? While our evening went down, there was a man with a 3-4 year old kid sitting on his lap as Daddy drank beer and gambled on video poker. Not Certain, but pretty sure that ain't legal. So get ready Shoxs, I'm calling whoever I can. Your ass is mine. -
Review from Arun S.
Toronto, ON
6/11/2011
I visited the Junction area since I am buying a property there and decided to give this watering hole a try.
The decor is much like your run of the mill sports bar. I was surprised by the size of the establishment. Some key features included: booths, pool tables, CLEAN WASHROOMS!
Our waitress was very friendly and gave us some pointers about visiting places in the area. We ordered a Chicken and Rib combo (~$18) which was cooked to perfection for bar standards.
The atmosphere was slightly lacking but I think it was because of the long weekend so there weren't too many people in the area.
Overall, this is definitely the place to be if you want to grab good food at a reasonable price and shoot some pool while you're at it. -
Review from Shawn I.
Toronto, ON
9/29/2010
I liked it!!! It has very cheap green p parking near by. Waiters were nice. Has a nice eating section. 5 pool tables. And food and drinks are all reasonably priced.
Washrooms are clean and drinks come fairly quickly. It was good. -
Review from Michael S.
Toronto, ON
9/23/2009
No complaints about this place. I will go back next time I am in the mood for a round of pool.
