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- Hours:
Mon-Fri 11:30 am - 2 am
Sat 10:30 am - 2 am
Sun 10:30 am - 11 pm
- Good for Kids:
- No
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Street
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- No
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Good For:
- Lunch, Dinner
- Music:
- Background
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
- Smoking:
- No
- Coat Check:
- No
- Noise Level:
- Quiet
- Good For Dancing:
- No
- Has TV:
- Yes
18 reviews for The Monk's Table
18 reviews in English
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Review from Molly C.
Toronto, ON
4/23/2012
As I go about discovering my new neighbourhood I was thrilled to find The Monk's.
We tried it for brunch on Saturday morning and it was great. Coffee was good and arrived right away.
I had the vodka cured salmon eggs benedict, which is something I would never normally order but I was interested by the fact that it was served on a potato nest, rather than an english muffin as I'm trying my darnedest to eat GF. The eggs looked nicely poached but their nice shape was the result of a lot of vinegar in the cooking water. The eggs tasted very vinegary. The hollandaise was really tasty and the salmon and potato nest were wonderful. It really was great.
I'm very excited about having such a cute spot so nearby! -
Review from Kenny T.
Toronto, ON
11/17/2011 4 Check-ins Here
The Abbott - not Monk's for this regular. Love it - great beer, good food, local feel. Usually busy, but i always get a table...i usually order the veggie chilly or the fish & chips...but the food is good across the board. I know people who are there multiple times a week..am deffinitely there a few times a month. Gastro / brew pub....good beer list...not as good as Comrad's but close. Have had a few misses for brunch and every so often the service upstairs is slow, but still my go to pub.
It is especially great in the winter months - dark and cozy with hearty food...and can be a great choice for intimate chats... -
Review from Elaine K.
7/13/2011
The Hubster and I came here for our weekly Friday night date. We arrived around 12:30am and were greeted not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES before we sat down. Once was a guy going outside asking if we had a light, and then said that we were going to love the place. The second time was from his friend (I assume) who said hello cheerfully as we passed him on the way in, then the third time was from the bartender. Two out of three were just regulars at the place, I assumed, and I felt very welcome.
I was very impressed by their beer selection and enjoyed the ambiance, particularly the giant window that was open to the street.
Unfortunately, we left early since I was feeling kind of crappy, but we'll probably return again since it's only a block away from the subway and it was just so darn nice in there.Listed in: Friday Night Booze-down Pubs
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Review from Meena A.
I'm not entirely sure why everyone keeps raving about the upstairs seating area. It's dark, unhygienic and occasionally ignored by the servers. Now that I got that out of the way -
I LOVE THIS PLACE.
I will come here on a date, with friends, with colleagues, with my family, and when I'm down and need some therapy - alone.
They have a great selection of beer on tap. And the perfect bar to sit at, it's wooden and worn. Just wish it wasn't so small, it starts feeling cramped pretty early on weeknights.
I want to kiss their chef. Where ever he will let me.
This man is a genius. He can turn the most basic of homestyle classics into a gourmet feast.
Ie: The chilli with roll. Fairly simple concept. Not in his capable hands.
The chilli was fresh, all of the ingredients hand cut, there was a party in my mouth, and all the guests were carefully selected. My "roll", hah! if you can call it that. It was a delight on its own. Buttery, with so many levels - salty, sweet, savoury. I want to write a book on a twenty minute meal.
The chilli is just one example. I can't review all of the delicious experiences I've had here because I don't think the Interwebz can handle that much enthusiasm. Come here for yourself!Listed in: For the Kind at Heart
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Review from Christopher P.
Victoria, BC
5/17/2011
I don't give 5/5 ratings. I blame it on my years in the academy: scholars are trained that near-perfect anything is, effectively, an Platonic ideal that will never be achieved in the real world. The Monk's Table challenges that basic academic presupposition but, unfortunately, falls short of successfully overturning my scholarly resistance to awarding perfect scores.
I came to the Table because I wanted some decent European beer. It's bloody hard to get a good selection in Victoria (where I'm usually based these days) and so I was excited to get past the 'typical' beer lists that you get a so-called Irish and Scottish bars/pubs. I was not disappointed. The list is regularly changing, with selections from Scotland, Ireland, the UK proper, Germany, and (though not technically on the menu) France. It's a good sized list - about 15 different items on tap - but admittedly is selective rather than excessive.
The Monk's Table sells itself as a British pub and it comes close in most regards. The food menu generally features fare that I find when travelling through Britain though (fortunately!) the food is better spiced than what you normally find in the UK. I ordered the shepherds pie with cheddar cheese topping for lunch, and my dining partner a chicken sandwich and green salad.
The pie was excellent; it's been some time since I've had an authentic version of the dish, and this was about as authentic as it comes. The lamb was moist and the vegetables that were included were diced to an appropriate size where you saw them for what they were without them ever dominating the fork. Also, the veggies retained enough 'crispness' that they nicely balanced the softness of the mashed potatoes and were large enough that they visually set themselves apart from the ground lamb. So, what went wrong? Not much, but the two pieces of bread that were served with the pie were accompanied by a very cold ball of butter.
Little balls of butter annoy the living sh*t out of me. It sounds small, but when I want to add some butter to bread I don't want to have to fight with the freaking butter, and bread, and have a part of the bread that has an entirely uneven distribution of butter. Thus, all butter ought to be served should be at least at room temperature. (This rule really should be a Kantian imperative of bread and butter serving.) The Monk's Table doesn't serve butter at room temperature, alas, which weakened my overall happiness at the meal.
Another thing that upsets me: when cook or wait staff fail to listen to people who make (minor) substitutions. In this case, my partner was lactose intolerant and so asked for no cheese to be put on his sandwich. Unfortunately, this communication was lost somewhere and his sandwich came with cheese. Now, he didn't see this as a big deal because *this kind of thing happens all the time*.
Accidents like this SHOULD NOT happen so often than diners just get used to being given incorrect meals. Bad form Monk's, bad form.
Now, this said: the sandwich was excellent. Big pieces of chicken, beautifully cooked onions, and a plentiful green salad (though without any oils or dressings being offered). On the whole, it was great, though the price for adding bacon to the sandwich was steep at a few dollars.
After we'd been there for a while - three drinks in, after lunch - we decided to get the drumlettes. You get about 8 of them, plus veggies and dip, as well as some fries. I was impressed with the drumlettes; they were large, juicy, and had a nice BBQ flavouring to them. The fries could have used some salt, though that was easily added. The veggies and dip were exceptional in their lack of exceptionality. While a bit steep at $15, I certainly didn't feel ripped off when I ordered this post-lunch appetizer.
The staff was acceptable, though the two servers seemed to have problems coordinating things between them. Once we had a single server our experience was much improved; water was topped up regularly, he was there whenever drinks were getting low, and had helpful suggestions for our post-lunch snack.
Would I go back? Yes: The Monk's Table has become what I consider an essential drinking space in the city of Toronto if you're anywhere near the area. The beer selection alone is worth the trip, and the food only makes it that much more interesting. They do the British Pub tradition proud, and the fact that they have *so much* imported European beer on tap that isn't the crap (*cough* Stella, Heineken, etc *cough*) you get everywhere else really makes this place special.
In short: Come for the beer, enjoy the very good food, and then enjoy some more beer! -
Review from Teena D.
6/11/2011 6 photos
Last night my husband and I went on a pub crawl with the Toronto Beer Lovers Meetup Group.
It was led by Ken Woods, President of Black Oak Brewing Co.
The first stop was the Monk's Table.
Adam, the owner, took really good care of us. He had an area upstairs reserved. He provided complimentary appetizers ... mussels, shrimp, fries, dips and chicken wings.
They also gave us a taste of Gouden Carolus Cuvee Van De Keizer Rood/Red ... it was yummy!
There were about 20 of us. They took such good care of us that it was hard to leave. -
Review from Nicole M.
Vancouver, BC
2/26/2011
I met a friend for brunch at this cute little pub. I'd like to come back for the beer another time, as the other reviews note - they do have a good beer selection. As for brunch, it was okay, but as Jordan T. has affectionately noted before - I'm a bit of a brunch snob.
I had the huevos rancheros, which was more or less a mini-plate of nachos with cheese, sour cream and black beans and poached eggs on top. It was served with fries or salad - I ended up with 1/2 serving of each. The plate was really massive, way too much food for someone my size. I ate maybe half of the food on the plate and left pretty stuffed. It tasted perfectly good, but I've had better huevos elsewhere. No espresso coffees but really decent drip coffee, which is always win.Listed in: Toronto Brunch - Hot or Not…
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Review from Allison D.
Toronto, ON
8/11/2011
I was here for drinks with a friend and her sister last summer and again recently on a date for a late dinner and both times, I must say I was wildly impressed.
Situated on a quieter strip of Yonge between Summerhill and St Claire, the pub stands out against the adjascent businesses by, well, it's woodiness. The sign looks like a tree has been sawed in half and just put up! Peeking in the windows reveals a candle-lit and often busy (though slightly small) bar. The first time I went, my friends and I couldn't find a spot for 3 downstairs, so we were directed to the upstairs area which, Meena A is right on the money, is dark, but not in that sensual and candle-lit way the downstairs is, and likely underserviced. However, we didn't have a chance to check the last claim as were only there a short time until someone dashed up to say a table for us had opened up downstairs. Last week, my date and I grabbed one of the tables right across from the bar. It was a little small for 2 people dining, but sufficient.
The service was excellent both times I've been. Welcomed almost immediately, coming upstairs to give us the option of changing tables, consistently checking on how we were doing for drinks/decided on food/how the food was without being too in-your-face; these people seem to have service DOWN, which can be a rarity among the newer, hipper joints.
This place takes their heralding of Gastropub VERY seriously! The drink selection was good: a strong beer selection, some of which I'd never heard of, and a scandanavian cider! Really?!?! I tried it; it was good! They also have a decent sized wine list and could probably make some rather interesting cocktails as well. The food was EXCELLENT. Dude and I split some dip with crustini which was amazing; we were actually disappointed when the server took it away! I had vodka cured salmon with an apple and blue cheese salad with candied walnuts and Dude had the fish and chips (he totally stole my dinner idea); I can't speak personally on the fish (still too early to go stealing off his plate...) but he said it was tasty, but dense, which then sparked a halibut vs. haddock debate as to which is better fish to beer batter. My salmon was excellent, and the salad was crisp and refreshing. I'm not generally a huge fan of blue cheese, but it went spectacularly with the apples and the lemon dressing. My only disappointment was that they were out of mussles by the time Dude and I arrived (which can happen when you don't show up for dinner until 9pm on a weekday evening). -
Review from Emma B.
Toronto, ON
4/3/2009
My friend and I happened upon this small pub (although I'd categorize it in atmosphere as more of a restaurant) by complete accident and were very happy we did.
The downstairs has a small bar and quite a few tables crammed together - and while it feels a tad cramped, it lends itself well to the atmosphere. We were stopped by the hostess and asked if we had a reservation - so I'm guessing that after-work dinner generally requires them because of the limited number of seats there - we didn't but she was very kind, led us over to the bar, given drink menus, told us the wait would be about 10 minutes and she would come and get us. As generally happens, the wait was shorter than they said and was a mere 5 minutes.
Our table was on the second floor - equal size to the main floor but with a smaller bar and more tables (with more room). Our waiter greeted us right away with the mouth-watering specials and took our drink order. Lots of great menu choices for not too much money (which was unexpected given the area) - I order the soup of the day to start (a wild mushroom puree) for $6, and the Grilled Chicken Sandwich (chicken with a honey-maple glaze, smoked cheddar and the usual toppings) and fries ($12). My friend ordered the soup as well but went with the Steak with Frites ($22).
Our soups arrived quickly and piping hot (but not scalding!), each a sizable portion with two pieces of fresh French stick and butter. Fantastic starter - not too salty (as can happen) and very "homemade" in taste.
Next came the main courses...the fries were fantastic, my sandwich was extremely tasty (the maple glaze was amazing), and my friend's steak was done just right. The food was so good, we started discussing the option of dessert. And though he was nowhere near out table when we discussed it, our waiter came over to clear or plates and offer up their dessert options. There were three. A sticky toffee pudding, a Snickers cheesecake, and a chocolate pecan torte. Irresistible! I went with the pudding and my friend with the pecan torte. Both came quickly and with whip cream and strawberries.
The total bill came to $75 with tax and liquor (3 courses too!). Well worth it.
The service was fantastic and attentive, the food was delicious and more homemade (and gourmet - very Jamie Oliver) then the pub-like facade would suggest and the beer and wine selection was extensive. Highly recommended! I'll definitely be back. -
Review from Dave O.
Toronto, ON
10/27/2009
The Monk's Table is a lovely little pub and self-described Gourmand House. They have an excellent menu full of traditional British and Scottish pub fare. The Monk is somehow able to get beers from Europe that I haven't seen anywhere else, and while this confuses me, it also makes me happy.
The congenial atmosphere downstairs lends itself well to the consumption of the aforementioned beer list while the upstairs is better suited to the dining experience. The upstairs is quiet and cozy and reflects the warm comfort of the incredible food. The downstairs is constantly bustling with people, it's a great place to spend an evening with a pint and some friends.
The food is above-average pub fare, the fish and chips here are excellent, the beef vindaloo is spicy and satisfying, and the sticky toffee pudding is downright amazing.
On Monday nights, there is a 5-course meal paired with samples of beer. You have to reserve your spot ahead of time, but I would love to go with a group and try it out.
The service is great, everyone is knowledgeable about the food and the beer, and they are always friendly and engaging.
If you are heading to the Monk, let me know, and I'll cross Yonge St and meet you there. :D -
Review from Christine K.
Toronto, ON
6/2/2009
I visited the Abbot On The Hill for the first time last night and attended a dinner paring with International beers - different and great!
Adam, the owner (believe I got that right) was a gracious and knowledgeable host, making sure fun was had by all.....our waiter was just as personable.
I enjoyed myself soooo much, I want to pack-up my condo and move to the Yonge and Summerhill area. -
Review from Melinda M.
Toronto, ON
9/10/2009
I went here for lunch the other day and can't wait for return trips.
The Monk's Table is a cozy pub atmosphere with an outstanding menu high above pub quality. The beer list is extensive, with a lot of English and other European beers on tap and in bottle. No Canadian or American options, not that I mind, as I'd rather an interesting beer list like this than the usual Bud, Coors and Canadian choices. I had the one Czech beer they offered, and quite enjoyed it.
There are daily specials which looked good, always an omelet is one of them, and then a regular menu with salads, sandwiches, appetizers, ploughman's lunch and other dishes. I had the Vegetarian Chili with side salad and it was so good I ate more than I needed.
Service was attentive but not obtrusive, and they are very knowledgeable about the beers and the food.
Can't wait to go back and try the rest of the menu!Listed in: MEAT, Lunch at Yonge/St. Clair, Toronto Pubs
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Review from Michelle V.
Toronto, ON
4/7/2009 2 Check-ins Here
A chance encounter, I very seldom just walk into a restaurant or pub (a term I use loosely as this place does not sport your usual pub food BUT does boast an impressive beer selection) without having it at least recommended by someone else. In fact, we made our way to this place because our first restaurant of choice was packed.
Also, what "pub" takes reservations? That's Summer Hill for ya...
Anyway, since we made no reservations, we endured a wait of a whole 5 minutes... Not that the place was empty, but there is somewhat limited seating, BTW, I was being facetious about the wait. I was very pleased that the wait was not long at all.
Moving on... the atmostphere of the place was lovely and cosy with an upstairs and a down. The waiter was a pleasure (and was thoroughly delighted that we in fact were in the mood for dessert as many patrons turned down his offer to hear the dessert options).
But what of the food? The soup special was a creamy wild mushroom soup of the perfect taste and texture. I ordered the steak and frites which comes with red pepper and garlic butter (MARRY ME!) and it was grilled medium when I asked for medium (NOTE: I'm a fan of medium rare but found most places undercook their steak thus why I got into the habit of ordering steaks as medium. So if you prefer your steaks medium and actually WANT them medium, this place cooks them as ordered!)
As for the dessert, I ordered their chocolate pecan pie which admittedly didn't blow me away. It was tasty but sadly a tad forgettable.
For the food we got, I actually think it's very reasonable. Most places charge $28 dollars for the steak I got but this place priced it at $22.
A great eating experience and is a quiet setting among friends. -
Review from Leeor J.
8/16/2010
I like this place.
Ok, the location is a bit out of the way for me, and its easy to completely miss. But they have some interesting draft selection and its nice and cozy in there. Maybe you could even bring a date there. Note i said "interesting" selection, not vast. Maybe the place impressed me because I saw La Trappe on draft in Canada for the first time there (some supplier must've made a deal, as I have seen this pop up as an option at a few places now)
I've tried a couple of items off the food menu and they were ok. Nothing mind blowing. but not bad. -
Review from Luke A.
Toronto, ON
8/18/2008 1 photo
The downstairs part of this pub is a little cramped and noisy, so if that's not your thing, try the second floor instead. There's a lot more room, and if you're lucky, you can snag the table by the bay window overlooking Yonge Street.
They've got a great selection of European beers: German wheat beers, English ales, that sort of thing. In fact, they claim to carry a few brands exclusively (it almost made me want to do some more local bar-hopping "just to make sure").
When I was here for dinner, we had bangers and mash and fish and chips. Each plate was a bit above the standard pub-grub price (around $14), but definitely worth the price. My fried fish, for instance, was made from a high-quality slab of fish about an inch thick -- it made the fries look a little puny in comparison. -
Review from Ian C.
Toronto, ON
12/14/2010
Pulls off feeling lively, even on a Monday night when there aren't that many people there! Quaint little bar, good selection of beer and nice waitresses. I really enjoyed the cheese & beer fondue appetizer.
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Review from Duane B.
Updated - 8/12/2009
The Abbot On The Hill has been renamed "The Monk's Table"
1 Previous Review: Show all »
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10/27/2008
The Abbot has a great selection of European beers and they change them pretty often so there's… Read more »
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Review from Mireille M.
7/17/2009
Excellent fare. Enjoyed the steak!
