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Spacco Restaurant & Billiard Bar
Categories: Nightlife Bars Nightlife Pool Halls Bars, Pool Halls [Edit]
2415 Yonge StreetToronto, ON M4P 2E7
Neighbourhoods: Mount Pleasant and Davisville, Yonge and Eglinton
(416) 489-4163
- Hours:
Mon-Wed, Sun 5 pm - 1 am
Thu-Fri 12 pm - 2 am
Sat 5 pm - 2 am
- Outdoor Seating:
- Yes
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Music:
- Background
- Best Nights:
- Fri, Wed, Thu
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
- Smoking:
- Outdoor Area/ Patio Only
- Noise Level:
- Very Loud
- Good For Dancing:
- No
- Has TV:
- No
- Dogs Allowed:
- No
19 reviews for Spacco Restaurant & Billiard Bar
19 reviews in English
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Review from Faye C.
5/11/2012
*please note 3 stars is a generous rating considering there was a BIG HUGE BUG on our table*
We came here last night. I read reviews before going, and they were pretty accurate.
Decor and Ambience:
The decor was pretty nice, the bar area looked good, with a brick or tiled wall. We were seated on a bench, with a curtain behind us, separating us from some pool tables. The curtain was very swingy and kept brushing against us. The bar was kind of loud, but I think that's how it usually is.
Service and Food:
The service was slow. Our servers were quite nice, but towards the end of the evening we saw a HUGE ANT on our table near the our chocolate mousse cake, and I jumped about 3 feet, and eventually went over to the bar and servers to let them know. The right thing to do would have been to apologize and probably take the dessert off our tab. No such luck.
The food was ok, if not a bit salty (we ordered grilled calamari to start - super salty, and I would totally pass on this next time). My friend ordered the steak salad, (it looked good), we had a pizza with sausage (ok), and my other friend order gnocchi (weird shape, with what they called a basil sauce, but it was pretty much just tomato).
The cocktails were good - we had kir royales most of the evening.
If coming here in the future, don't expect speedy service, I'd be wary of the food, if there are ANTS in the dining room, who knows what's in the kitchen. -
Review from Steeven L.
Etobicoke, ON
3/25/2012 1 Check-in Here
We came to Spacco's for a friend's birthday this weekend.
Here's the breakdown of the place:
Food: 4 stars
Decor: 3 stars
Ambiance: 2 stars
Service: 1 star
Let me just start by saying that the food was the only good thing about Spacco's. I had the rare beef appetizer and the champagne risotto for my entree. The risotto was AMAZING.
Now for the rest:
We were having a few drinks before dinner and the waiter suddenly came up to our table and told us we needed to pay our bill now because he was moving to another section of the restaurant and we would get another waiter. This was the first clue that the service was going to be odd and awful.
Our next waitress was a friendly, yet inexperienced, young waitress by the name of Alina. It started off OK. We ordered our food and drinks without any problems.
However, after that it all went downhill. It took a ridiculously long time to get our food and when the food did arrive, only 4 out of 6 of us got served. I was one of two that didn't get served. The waitress assured us that our food was coming out shortly and that we didn't get them all at the same time because we were on separate bills (Really? I've been to literally hundreds of restaurants where separate bills were requested and the food still came out at the same time for the table.)
In the mean time, two other people showed up at our table and ordered their food. Twenty minutes later, their appetizers arrived at the table, yet the two of us STILL didn't even have our appetizers! I reminded Alina that we still hadn't gotten our food and was told, again, that it was coming shortly. I'm fairly certain she never even gave our order to the kitchen until that point. Remember when I said we got the rare beef appetizer? Yeah, RARE BEEF = No cooking required. This should have been the first thing that was served!
Partway through our dinner, some genius decides that it's time to crank up the Gino-beats to full volume. Since we had a speaker right above our heads, we could no longer carry any form of conversation short of yelling at each other.
About an hour after ordering, our food FINALLY arrived and was devoured in no time.
Finally, after 30 minutes of trying to catch the waitress' attention (not once did she come back to our table after the last two of us were served), we got fed up and all walked to the bar to get our bills. THIS SHOULD NOT BE NECESSARY!
Half of our bills were screwed up, with the wrong items on the wrong bills (there were only 4 bills for the table...). I had already opened a tab at the bar prior to being seated and I had been told that it would be no problem to get it added to my food bill. That is, until our lovely waitress told me that it couldn't be done and I had to go pay my bar tab separately. The bar tender was confused and said that it would be no problem adding it to my food bill. So back to Alina I went and finally got the whole bill combined.
For a table that ordered over $500 worth of food and drinks, the service we got was piss poor and not worth even the 10% tip I gave our waitress.
Since I've been told by others of shitty service at this place and I've now experienced it myself, I will definitely not be coming back or recommending this place to anyone. Ever.
The only reason it gets 2 stars is because the chef knows how to make a damn good risotto. -
Review from neesa r.
3/13/2012
went here with a friend for a drink as we were too lazy to go downtown.
impressions are below:
- bartenders have a tendency to ignore you big time
- DJ on that particular night didn't know what he was doing (or at least it seemed that way)
- there is not that much space for dancing but people still do that and we loved it!
- would also like to try a billiard game here
- no cover to enter so that's also good=)
it also seems to be a very good spot for big groups as there were at least 3 massive groups of people celebrating birthdays. -
Review from Angelica L.
North York, ON
Updated - 5/3/2012
Same waitress and guess what happened. Bad service, again. Can I request for myself not to have the same waitress? If I could, I would.
1 Previous Review: Show all »
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3/17/2012
My first experience was AMAZING 5 stars
Took advantage of the small dance floor that people really… Read more »
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Review from Zachary G.
Toronto, ON
2/5/2012
Despite seeing the downward trend in recent reviews, I decided to stop into this place for the first time on Friday night. Big mistake.
Honestly, I don't get it. You have a bar with modern pool tables, a decent vibe and a good selection of beer. How do you mess that up? Terrible service caused by rude and unapologetic staff
After sitting down with my girlfriend at an unoccupied table, I was approached by a waitress who, in the most rude manner possible, informed us that we would have to move because the table was reserved. I was unsure as to how I was supposed to know this given that there were no signs indicating that I was not to sit down. After getting up, I asked her if she could get us a drink. She turned her back and walked away. I started to get upset but my girlfriend told me to forget about it so we walked over to the bar.
We approached the bar (which was empty) and proceeded to stand there for two or three minutes while the bartenders and servers walked around in the back aimlessly, casually making small talk while ignoring their customers. Finally, a bartender came over and we got our two pints of beer. Thinking that the night was about to pick up, we walked over to one of the other tables and began to drink.
Within 10 minutes, a fight broke out nearby. Not surprisingly, the bouncers rushed over to break it up. At this point, I tried to grab my girlfriend and move her out of the way. Unfortunately, I was too slow to react and she was nailed by one of the bouncers and went down hard. I picked her up off the ground and expected an apology. The bouncer carried on like nothing had happened and never came back to say a word to her once he had thrown a couple of people out. I asked to speak to the manager but I was told he was unavailable. At this point, I was quite angry but my girlfriend did not want to create a scene so we simply grabbed our drinks and left. What a nightmare. Stay away. There are many other options nearby that do not treat their customers this terribly. -
Review from Behrouz M.
Toronto, ON
1/8/2012
Food: B+
Service: C+
Food presentation: B+
Atmosphere: B+
Prices: B
Recommended?: Yes
I've been here on numerous occasions and I was here for a birthday a couple of years ago and they were great with accommodating a larger group (20+ people). Some of the dishes were pretty good but I found mine a bit too salty. Bottom line, this place isn't bad, if you don't mind the inattentive waitstaff. Spacco either doesn't have enough waiters or that the management has difficulty managing the volume and this could get annoying at times. -
Review from Natalie T.
East York, ON
12/22/2011
VIBE
I was here for a Christmas lunch so I can't really comment on the patrons (nor was there any around). The space is pretty big with a back area for playing pool. Unfortunately, the service was not the best. There was no water at our table or mention of until we requested it. We weren't told what wine we were having. Our waiter knocked over wine twice. The music was also on loud but it was turned down at our request. I'd come back here for playing pool and drinks if I was in the area.
Note: down the alley way near Alley Cats at the back.
WE ATE
We had a pre-fixe menu. We had a mix of fried calamari (ok), bruschetta (also ok) and salad. Romaine lettuce with balsamic vinegar does not a salad make!
We had a selection of mains. I had a the chicken risotto. No flavour and not creamy as advertised! The penne with chicken tasted a bit better. The best part was the tiramisu. It was the perfect size!
OBLIGATORY CATCHY REMARK
It's not amore! Sorry. I think it's more bar than restaurant but for my money, I'm not buying the food here unless it's a mini dessert as a night cap. But I'm glad I tried it. -
Review from Dani L.
Toronto, ON
1/15/2012
***UPDATE****
This restaurant is so scummy, that the owners wrote a five star review of the restaurant on Yelp and tried to pass it off as a customer. The review has since been flagged and removed
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I had quite possibly the worst experience of my life at this place.
We tried to host an engagement party at Spacco. We called in advance to ask they set aside an area for 30-40 of our friends. When we arrived, they told us no area was set aside, and one of the bartenders started laughing at us mocking us that we wanted an area set aside at a bar. Eventually they set aside four chairs and one table for our friends and told us to have our friends congregate around and leave their jackets on the the chairs at the table.
One hour later the waitress for the table came up to my fiancee and called her a f**** bitch for using the table as a coat area. My fiancee responded by telling her this is what the staff had told us to do, and by this point it would be impossible to go find each person individually and have them move their coat.
The owner then came up and placed his hands on her back and started yelling at my fiancee. The owner told off my fiancee for this coat problem. My fiancee ignored him because he was being so rude. The owner then yelled at her to leave. I came up and tried to explain to the owner that this whole situation was his own staffs fault. The owner proceeded to just scream and yell at us, so we had all our friends simply walk out of the bar.
The owner is an abusive, arrogant, prick on a power trip because he owns a bar, and his entire staff treat their customers with no respect.
Do not go here. -
Review from D K.
Toronto, ON
9/14/2011
All in all, a really good place I believe to meet, and just get together with friends in a open, clean area. If you want a more formal dinner experience and flow expected in a North American eatery it might be not be the best choice, unless you really don't mind parking yourself and just 'chilling' out without expectation of timed service. Actually, the pace of service kind of felt like I was at a restaurant/bar in the Carribean.
I live in the area at Yonge n Eglinton but hadn't been inclined to venture into Spacco since it is in the back of a 'Alley' behind Alleycatz. Now my review is likely more positive since I live in the area, so I wasn't in that rushed more formal mood.. more of a 'oh, let's take a walk there'.
I had a couple of those groupons so the four of us went the first time. And another occasion with just the wife the second.
First time, we sat in the pool hall side. Nice open area, decor is updated and modern. It kind of has that Milestones feel. Especially compared to other bars and pubs in the area, which is generally more smaller and has that older feel, this was a pleasant surprise.
Some of the items on the menu may seem bit overpriced, but really, it's largely inline with the neighbourhood. Servings are actually pretty good size, so you can even order one dish and split it with two people. The appetizers are smaller, but good in the sense that it won't fill you up (this could also be seen as 'underwhelming' in size relative to size when compared to some other places).
I've had the Calzone, one of the pastas and pizza. All were pretty good and I would recommend it. Pastas are said to be home made, which did seem like it. Pizzas have a real thin crust, so it's nicely toasted.
I did not get to sit on the patio, but that is also seems like a hidden gem. Again, especially when comparing to patio space in the area which is smaller.. except for the Boston Pizza back patio. We played some pool which was fun like the ol days.
Ok, so the thing that can be improved is the overall service aspect. This was also mentioned by another reviewer. Now, we did get friendly service. First time, it was one of the partners (a bit of a bruiser guy) but turned out to be a really good guy, service. Second time I went with my wife, the waiter was also nice. However, you didn't get that attention right away so it kind disrupts the flow of the experience a bit I found. HOWEVER, on both occasions, we were chatting it up and taking it easy so not feeling rushed was actually welcome.
it doesn't have that formal feel run as a restaurant/bar. The service seemed to lack that hustle and attentiveness expected in normal restaurants/bar. And even dress code (hard to identify who is a waiter/waitress exactly as the waiter was in normal street clothes). It kind of has that 'Ma and Pa' feel but run by Dudes. Maybe it's different on a weekend as I was there on a Sunday night, and tuesday.
I am told it does somewhat turn clubbish with dancing on weekends. I am actually considering on having a gathering there for my bday, more to chill, drink, and have snacks/food for people who want that. So if you're in the area, or need a central place (Yonge n Eglinton) to meet up with a larger group, make sure to check it out! -
Review from Payam Z.
10/25/2011 1 Check-in Here
Spacco is a pretty popular spot in the summer thanks to its off-the-beaten-path patio!
Even though the patio fills up on the regular, there seems to always be ashortage of waitstaff, meaning you'd better order for the rest of the night when you get your chance! To make a point I have had the pleasure of waiting a full hour for a mixed drink, as well as having the waitress forget completely what I had ordered.
The food is just ok, and the pizza is probably the best bet, though I found the spaccato a bit too salty (sausage, sun-dried tomato etc).
Spacco also has several pool tables, which are available for an unreasonable $20/hr! That being said, you know you can find an empty table here at almost any time!
In brief, give it a go if you are looking for a place that can accommodate a large group and have forgotten to plan ahead! -
Review from Mariko M.
7/1/2011
Was looking for a patio in the 'hood and finally found Spacco when I started working at my current place of employment.
Colleagues at work rave about this place all the time. I was intrigued and decided to take the opportunity to dine here because out-of-towners were visiting Toronto.
The patio is quite big (most in the area are tiny) and as this place isn't right on Yonge, so it's quiet. Pricing is pretty reasonable... You won't have to call Gail Van-Oxley to star in 'Til Debt Do Us Part after eating at Spacco. The list of wines available is not huge, but it's still significant.
Would love to check out their nightlife scene. As we were leaving, the DJ was starting to set up.
My friend ordered a pizza and she said that it was delish. The other 2 Dining Companions ordered the seafood risotto. They had no negative things to say. I ordered the grilled calamari with spicy garlic and olive oil.**
We all left content so I will be back!
A solid 4 star.
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** The grilled calamari is an appetizer; however, it's a perfect meal. It comes with grilled veggies as well. -
Review from Mauricio A.
Toronto, ON
6/17/2011
I have been dropping by this pool joint for a while and all I can say is that it's alright. The food is so-so, nothing special but tasty although overpriced for what you get.
Actually the whole place is overpriced. You are looking at mostly pizza and pasta dishes on the menu which are not up to par for what they charge, even if it is just a few bucks over on some of the dishes. The pool is $20/hr which is ridiculous when places like the Rivoli which is a far more focused pool hall charges $8/hr. I went there with a friend and in between two hours of pool and a few drinks we blew through $90+.
The decor is a bit on the modern side with some grayish/white walls and dark brown/black furniture. I must admit the place is not bad on the eyes, but it is far from a sight-gasm.
The patio is alright and usable for a second or third chill-out date with wine. The vibe is not too bad there.
Although I would not suggest going on, or on the day before North York's garbage day as you can at times smell the garbage piles on the other side of the wooden fence on the north and north/west sides. Near the end closer to Alleycatz, specifically during the warmer months.
The only reasons why you would go there for real is if you have a larger group after say a movie or you need a pool hall/drinks/maybe some snacks and you are forced and must hangout in the Yonge and Eglinton area.Listed in: My Reviews
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Review from Ann W.
Kitchener, ON
7/15/2011
I ordered vegetarian pizza, and the food was very delicous. The crust is thin and flavorful, ingredients are fresh and tasty as well. that 1 star is for the food.
Many people praise their patio in the reviews. However, I see nothing special. Just a regular patio in the yard instead of by the street.
The main reason that I will never return is the service - It sucked ass.
The person who handed us the menus threw them on the table and just walked away without any sort of greeting or offering of drinks. Umm...hello?
Our waitress took her time. We were all left sitting there with nothing to drink and nothing to do.
After bringing our food, she never came back to check on us ever again.
At the time of paying, we were told by the same waitress that they do not do separate bills. (Oh really? Is that because it's extra work for you?) Certainly did not expect that, and having a group of 10 people, we had to search for all the cash we could find and divide the bills ourselves. It took 20 minutes JUST PAYING OUR BILL.
If you're going to charge me 20 dollars for pasta, you'd better make sure you deliver more than great food. -
Review from Austin H.
Toronto, ON
11/11/2011
Great date spot. Patio is nice and the volume level isn't too loud. Service is good and the crowd is decent.
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Review from Keidi K.
1/9/2011 1 Check-in Here
For me this is the perfect place to bring together friends with different opinions on what to do on a Saturday night. You've got music, pool, good food all in one place.
I came here for a birthday party, and loved the fact that Spacco is tucked away in the back of all the other Yonge/Egnlington store fronts, it made me feel cool to be going into a "secret" place.
Now you probably shouldn't plan to throw a big billiards tournament here as it will cost you $20/hr. But everything else is fairly priced for the area. -
Review from Vivian Y.
10/15/2008
I love this place - it is just a fun place to chill with friends. Good drinks, Good bartenders. Skip this place on the weekends at night if you hate loud music. It can get a little loud.
Sang - do you still work here? I miss your gorgeous flowing asian Man-Hair!!!
They have about 5 pool tables and a large outdoor seating area which is great for the summer time. Food is pretty decent but not mind-blowing.Listed in: Eat Your Way Through Toronto
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Review from Dale M.
Toronto, ON
12/20/2009
Mitch is right, this place does have one of the better patios in the Yonge-Eglionton area, at least that I've seen (remind me to compile a list sometime before May).
Other than that, this place is just A-OK in my books. The crowd seems a bit thugly for my liking, but my friends like the food here and don't seem to mind the patrons quite as much as I do. In fairness, the food is quite good, though pricey considering you're eating in a pool hall, and service is hit-and-miss.
Had a grilled calamari app on Friday that came out with some sort of chipotle sauce. Delicious, and perfectly-cooked - very tender. My gnocchi were mediocre, but the mushroom cream sauce was quite good and I used my little dumplings to sop up every bit of sauce that I could.
If you're going in for dinner, take heed: It's really loud in there. Don't expect to be able to have a conversation over dinner. If you're going in to play pool, take heed: The tables aren't very good, and some of them aren't even level. If you're going in to hang out with a bunch of your friends and look cool, thogh, you'll fit right in.Listed in: The Midtown Strip
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Review from Mitch S.
Toronto, ON
8/24/2009
This place has a pretty sweet patio considering it's in the Yonge and Eglinton area...it really reminds my of St-Sulpice for anyone that knows Montreal, although not as large.
I like the fact that it's far enough back from Yonge that you really have no idea where you are...I'm not the biggest fan of the limited beer selection. Come here to hangout outside with a group of friends, not for a night of 'philosophizing' over a great Belgian beer. -
Review from Gail A.
Toronto, ON
12/8/2011
We had a company Christmas function last night and I have to say that the food was fantastic, as was the service. We all really enjoyed the venue and would definitely plan another function at Spacco.
