Restaurants/Coffee Shops - St. Lawrence/King East

[charlie]

Prince of Ales

Hi all,

The menu has the regular pub fare plus some pretty cool dishes that I couldn't have dreamed up. Amazing appetizers like vodka soaked steak bites on skewers, dipped in a Bloody Mary sauce...incredible flatbreads, great french onion soup...a burger to die for, chicken fingers that aren't bought frozen from loblaws, a Canadian Club sandwich with chicken breast and back bacon, sweet potato fries...what else...? Ummmm Dirty Jumbalaya!!

They have Canadian, Coors Light, Carlsburg, Creemore, Rickards Red, Rickards White (yum!!), Guinness, Steamwhistle, Fullers, Heineken (and a few more that I can't remember) on tap, plus a ton more in bottles. Nice wines too...

Yeah - I'm looking forward to NOT going to Betty's anymore...yick.

 

[charlie]

My girlfriend and I are definitely going to try this place out. Wish they had a website so I could check out the menu/drinks beforehand, though.

I'm hoping for the best. This place is so damn close to us and it'd be great to have a place to go drink when Betty's just seems like too long a walk.

Oh yeah -

They have a website that should be up and running soon - www.princeofales.ca or you can email them at princeofales@live.com ...

 

[egotrippin]

They serve pitchers I assume, at a reasonable price? If so, I just may head over tonight. I go to Upfront way too much.

 

[Evan]

I don't mind starbucks, but if I want real coffee, it's off to Merchants of Green Coffee for me.

I live in Vancouver and it's so hard to avoid Starbucks but I actually like their Americanos if you add cream. Everytime I go the quality is consistent. However, like Tims I find it's too weak on its own.
If you ever visit Vancouver be sure to go to Cafe Artigiano for a latte. Cozy, inviting yet sophistcated interiors with great service. Flavour shots are free but I like my lattes plain. I highly recommend it. If you're crazy about Americanos (like me) try JJBEAN coffee. Very rich and fresh Americanos which I usually just have with milk. However, 10% of the time it might taste almost too underroasted

 

[adma]

Meaty coffee. What that'd taste like, I don't wanna know...

 

[Evan]

underroasted?

 

[egotrippin]

Y'know, the opposite of over-roasted.

 

[JasonParis]

They have Canadian, Coors Light, Carlsburg, Creemore, Rickards Red, Rickards White (yum!!), Guinness, Steamwhistle, Fullers, Heineken (and a few more that I can't remember) on tap, plus a ton more in bottles. Nice wines too...

I'd expect a bit more from the self-appointed Prince of Ales, but I'll wait to check out the selection in person.

Also, the building has been completely renovated indeed, but she sure aint pretty. I'd dare say it looked better before.

 

[egotrippin]

I'd expect a bit more from the self-appointed Prince of Ales, but I'll wait to check out the selection in person.

Also, the building has been completely renovated indeed, but she sure aint pretty. I'd dare say it looked better before.

You know, I was thinking the same thing. The first four listed especially don't strike me as something a prince would drink, I was expecting more microbrews or imported varieties. Hopefully the bottle selection makes up for it, but either way the food sounds tasty.

 

[lollypop]

Prince of Ales

I know this place has just opened but the service & food is pretty bad.

Our server had problems listing off the beers on tap and just said they have lots of bottles! Also, she couldn't tell us what the beers where or what they tasted like, she just kinda giggled at us!!

As for the food, well it sounds great in the menu but it still needs some work. We tried the flatbread and the topping we pretty good (we had the chicken one) but the bread itself was noting more than a packaged pizza base.

I do hope this place gets better and improves it beer selection cos right now the Prince of Ales really doens't have much to offer.

I do wander about the review Charlie posted. Do you work there/own the place????

 

[PukeGreen]

I do wander about the review Charlie posted. Do you work there/own the place????

Yes, I had the exact same thought, since he had never posted before and suddenly appeared with all kinds of detailed and unpublished info about the business. But since it was welcome information, I didn't say anything -- though pretending to be a customer while taking a potshot at a popular established competitor (Betty's) was a bit low-class, I thought.

That is a disappointing beer list; it does seem odd that a place that calls itself Prince of Ales would have a boring beer list that is easily topped by your average Firkin, even as the micro-brew world is exploding in popularity. Also, I don't see a single local brew on that list (Molson's is a multi-national corp and doesn't count)... why not support fellow local businesses and jump on the "local" bandwagon while you're at it?

 

[lollypop]

That is a disappointing beer list; it does seem odd that a place that calls itself Prince of Ales would have a boring beer list that is easily topped by your average Firkin, even as the micro-brew world is exploding in popularity. Also, I don't see a single local brew on that list (Molson's is a multi-national corp and doesn't count)... why not support fellow local businesses and jump on the "local" bandwagon while you're at it?[/QUOTE]

I as hoping for a Mill St Organic but they don't carry any Mill St, our sever hadn't heard of it!

 

[PukeGreen]

I as hoping for a Mill St Organic but they don't carry any Mill St, our sever hadn't heard of it!

Ah well, the Mill St. brewpub is only a few hundred feet away, though I'm not really a huge fan of the new pub, and they don't brew on-site anymore. Betty's has a pretty stellar beer list (they even have Bass, which is surprisingly hard to come by these days). And of course C'est What isn't far, and they have probably the best local beer list going, though it seems to come with a side-order of surly service these days and the dank basement vibe isn't the most summery. I guess I'm just hard to please.

 

[egotrippin]

On the topic of new places in the area, has anyone been to The Magic Oven? It opened up recently (I assume, because I only first saw it two weeks ago) on Queen St E, at Parliament across from the TD. They boast about their selection of specialty wines and beers, as well as good and healthy food. It sounds very promising, I just haven't had the time to go in.

Also,
Taste of the Danforth and Beer Festival this weekend. Yeeeee! (If there's a thread for those, I'll direct my excitement there)

 

[jespatone]

prince of ales

so i stopped in to the prince of ales to see for myself. i work in the area, so i figured if it would be good, i was set. lunch was packed, and we had an amazing hilarious server. i forget her name now, but she was great. the food took longer than i would have liked, but it was so worth the wait. wow. things seemed a bit chaotic, but for opening week, i was blown away. i would definitely recommend this place. really nice.