Hipster spot that has small plates and larger plates and great drinks. My whiskey sour was just how…read moreI like it--shaken a lot. I wasn't that hungry, so I got two bao buns. Holy moly was that mushroom bao bun delicious. An explosion of flavor. Husband's scallops were delicious as well.

All around AMAZING! Im quite particular about my food and drinks, and this place did a fantastic…read morejob of creating a summer fresh, delicious and creative menu (with great service). I had minor critiques, but overall was in love and would return and recommend to anyone. Food: We started with the bread and mussels. Best mussels we've ever had, as they were cooked perfectly (and fresh) and the broth was heaven. The bread pairing was perfect to soak up all the buttery broth goodness. Next was the Shrimp Bao. The bread was fluffy and light, and shrimp was at chilled room temperature, perfect for a summer day. A good flavour of celery in case you dislike that, but I'd still suggest you try it! Finally we had the Zucchini and Beef Tartare. Zucchini didn't wow, though still fresh and summer minty vibes. Beef Tartare...hands down best we've ever had. The Asian fusion incorporated was perfect. Closed it out with a Strawberry & Cream, which albeit simpler was well done. Drinks: Go for them all. Very creative and they can walk you through tasting notes perfectly. Milk Punch (method; not actually milk; recommend), Strawberry Basil Negroni (strongly recommend; not traditional negroni alcohol forward), Eucalyptus Sour (subtle, calm and collected; recommend), Corn Star (be adventurous, as the chipotle is super subtle; worth the risk; recommend), Vesper (again, not alcohol forward; recommend). Atmosphere: Cozy and charming, yet the accents are vibrant and energizing. Indoor volume is medium, and great for a family, cocktail, date or a "i want a nice drink/bite" any day of the week.

This is a really cool speakeasy. In order to get in you need to find the email address to request…read morethe secret phrase. When you get that you are given admission thru the "cover" restaurant. We came in on a Saturday night when they opened at 7pm. We were escorted down around 7:15pm. Neat way to enter the actual speakeasy. Once in you are greeted in a dimly lit "library" with a bar. There was 50's jazz which added to the ambiance. Bar tender and servers were very friendly and attentive. Ordered a few special drinks. (See pictures). Overall a great speakeasy experience. Glad to have found one in Halifax.

You can't get in unless you know the password that is delivered via email when you are on the email…read morelist. We walked in said our password and they were 40 mins late on setting up on Saturday Halloween eve. Only servers can allow you in. Atmosphere is dungeon library with 1950s music. Drinks are $15-17 each. We ordered: - Grandma's Boy ($17): 3/5 similar to Old Fashioned. A very simple straight up old fashioned that didn't have much complexity. - The Last Barman Poet ($17): 3/5 tequila based sour. A bit savoury because of the spices. Not that complex either. Overall: Such as shame as the atmosphere is amazing. Compared to a lot of restaurants with cocktails, this one is pricier and less amazingly prepared. We were disappointed with the selections and that's why we only tried 2 and left.

We rolled into Halifax late on a Tuesday night, and Highwayman was the only place still open--and…read morethank god for that. It's a cozy, dimly lit spot with a great vibe for late-night drinks and tapas. The food was solid--I've had tapas in Barcelona, so I won't say it matched that, but for Halifax? It impressed. It was our first meal in the city, and it set the bar high. What really stood out was the service. Genuinely warm, unrushed, and personal. The staff took time to walk us through the menu, share recommendations, and made us feel truly cared for--no sense of "we're winding down," even though we came in late. If you're looking for a relaxed spot with great service and a strong late-night vibe, this is it. Halifax could use more places like this.

Very good scallops and I liked the ambience and vibe. Best place in Halifax! I liked very muchread more

Oysters were some of the freshest I've tried, service was very friendly. Elevated but relaxed…read moreatmosphere.

Three of us ordered eggs benny--2 regular ones and one Korean. We found all three unremarkable. One…read moreof the orders had a piece of eggshell in it. This was all mentioned to the waitress, but other than an apology nothing else was offered. Also, toilets on two different floors did not have toilet paper.

The service was good and the ambiance was quiet. It was early in the evening but it appears to be a…read morenice spot to come and have a drink and chat with friends. The bartender was great and Lexi K makes a great lemon drop martini.

Fine. I concede: The Bitter End has long sunk below the five-star rating it once deserved in my…read morebooks. Once upon a time, this was a gorgeous, classy space where you could order one of the best cocktails in the city. Unfortunately over the years, the rest of the city has grown up and the Bitter End has stayed exactly the same. Today, their martinis (that are actually sugary cocktails in martini glasses) fail to compete with some of the craft cocktails available elsewhere, the service often borders on apathetic, and the food never quite recovered from the menu reduction that happened several years ago. I could get over one or two of these things, but not all three at once. It's not all bad though. Sometimes you'll get a nice server, you'll almost *always* get an attractive one, I dig the soundtrack and DJs that they bring in, and they do boast prime patio real estate in the summers.

The Drawing Room has become almost a regular piece of conversation and an assumed destination for…read moreme lately, thanks to the discovery of this secret bar on Yelp a month ago. Not yet is known about the upstairs-from-the-Henry-House bar yet other than it's wonderful decor and fancy drink menu. This isn't a beer-drinking spot, folks. This is where you go to feel important, share some drinks with a few friends and enjoy a couple hours of elegancy without feeling out of place. The Drawing Room has a timeless feel to it. You could be having a flashback to any period over the last hundred years and know that no matter what year you're in, you're enjoying it like royalty. The drink menu offers martinis, wines, and drinks of all sorts. I ordered a Burie'd Mojito, which was white rum, an assortment of berry juices and mint leaves. It was fantastic! My second drink was a vodka-based green lime drink that was just as delicious. Mind you, the drinks are $10+ so unless your wallet is loaded, don't come here to join it. Of course, the Drawing Room isn't the type of environment to get drunk but the drinks are made strong so be wary of your perception because you may be surprised once you stand up.

This place really is as good as it gets. You walk into the Henry House and there are no signs to…read morelead you in the direction of this hidden upstair gem. Either go through the front door and keep going up or walk through the main dining room and go to the left to the staircase and go to the top and you are there. The room is dark, atmospheric and filled with exposed beams, dark leather chairs, a cozy fireplace and a menu inspired by different time periods. The bar staff is friendly and know their drinks. My favourite is a Negroni, a delicious blend of campari, gin and vermouth. A perfect place for a date night or a few drinks with some close friends.

What's open on a Monday evening for food can be really hit or miss, so when I was looking for a…read morepre-trivia meal in the lower part of the North End, The Duke's had little competition in the area and ingloriously won by default. This space used to be the Foggy Goggle, and it's gotten a little bit of a freshening up since then, but the narrow bar still has a cozy feel. There was a handful of other customers, but unsurprisingly it was relatively quiet. The menu is moderately-sized for a pub, with several each of apps, sandwiches and entrees - enough to give you a good selection but not so much that you're overwhelmed with choices. In non-American chain restaurant boycott times, I'm a big fan of Wendy's bacon mushroom melt, so it was an easy choice when I spotted the "Mushroom Peppercorn Burger" on the menu. My bowl-loving wife opted for the Mexican Rice Bowl, one of several dishes that are gluten free or can be made so. A moderate wait later (shout out to what appeared to be the lone cook in the kitchen doing his best), and our food was before us. My burger was a messy sight to behold, with the peppercorn-dotted gravy posing from the burger and onto the plate. More importantly, it lives up to its visual appeal! The gravy was a stole the show, with the prominent, peppery bite playing off the rich, velvety gravy. Bacon and frizzled onions added some crunch, while melty cheese and mushrooms amped up the umami. Somehow, the bun withstood the onslaught, although this burger was absolutely a multi-napkin affair. My side Caesar salad was perfectly adequate - nothing to write home about, but nothing to complain about either. My wife enjoyed the mix of flavours and textures in her Mexican rice bowl, and although the grilled chicken portion was good and generous (and blessedly not from-frozen, diced chicken), the rest of the bowl ingredients were a bit lacking. A little more rice would go a long way to fill things out a bit more, with limited effect on food costs. Our next time back also found us coming by on another quiet, Monday evening before trivia elsewhere. Spice bags are a bit of a "thing" in Ireland, as a post-bar meal that originally Chinese takeout spots served up, and then they propagated to other restaurants and eventually beyond Irish borders. Some pubs in Halifax have picked up the low-key trend as well, which isn't surprising since at its core, it's just chopped up chicken fingers, fries and seasonings - all of which pubs typically have anyway. The Duke's version eschews the takeout bag roots of the dish and gets messier with a sweet chili sauce, as well as a curry mayo on the side. I'd definitely prefer to see the fries and chicken tossed in a dry rub so that they can stay crispy, and the cloying, commercial sauce just isn't necessary. If you're looking for some deep fried and indulgent, this is your fix. The Duke's has charming bones and some interesting items on the menu, but some small tweaks could easily elevate their offerings and make this a great local for the neighbourhood.

Food was good/ prices not too bad either- local in neighbourhood-…read moreWas chilly when went but owner? Indicated usually nit as good was looking into it - Had a tea there to warm up by wait staff- something they usually don't offer on menu so points!

Looking for non-pub fare, we decided to take a chance on Toridori which is located a stone's throw…read moreaway from the waterfront. We were greeted warmly by Leslie who gave us "front-view" seats to the open kitchen. What a treat to see dish-after-dish of sumptuous looking food. We were assisted by Opal (appropriately named because she was a gem!) who was friendly, patient and knowledgeable about the menu. We decided to share two dishes. The pound of red Thai curry mussels was sooo good. It was served with 5 pieces of toasted bread for dipping into the mildly spicy curry soup/sauce. The generous Hanoi bun cha platter was a combination of rice noodles, tender, perfectly seasoned thin pork slices, 4 pork patties, and 4 pieces of spring rolls. It came with a basket of lettuce, cilantro and that delicious Vietnamese dipping sauce that was made even tastier by what I think were cloves of pickled ginger. Throughout the meal, Opal came by just the right number of times to check if we were satisfied or needed something. We loved our experience here and highly suggest you try it out. You'll be very happy.

Located amongst the swath of restaurants at the Queen's Marque, the intriguing pan-Asian offerings…read moreat Tori Dori (including a surprising handful of gluten-free dishes) caught my eye for a pre-concert dinner with friends. It's a moderately-sized space, certainly smaller than many of its Freehand Hospitality peers at Queens Marque, but the closer, almost communal seating allows for a good number of people to dine here. The decor is quite reserved, with the ceiling actually being the show piece, as the layers of boards giving a scaled effect and a gradient of charring lending a really cool (hot?) look to the space. The menu is comprised of fancied-up twists on familiar cuisines from across East Asia, with dishes giving nods or deeply tied to countries like Korea, Philippines, Vietnam, and China to just name a few. Some of their smaller dishes were catching my eye, so I ordered the chicken and black garlic dumplings, and the mango salad, while my wife got the pho with spent hen broth. Ever since I first tried one, I've been a big fan of mango salads. The mix of flavours, colours and textures is top tier, and all in one, easily-chopsticked salad! Tori Dori's doesn't stray far from the template, with julienned mango, carrot and red onion that got a mix of heat, freshness, and savoury sweetness from chilis, mint, cilantro and a tamarind sauce. Anything with black garlic in it is bound to get me to order it, and while that unique preparation of garlic didn't feature as prominently on my taste buds as I would have liked, it did lend to a more savoury depth than chicken dumplings usually have. The tender and pleasantly toothsome wrappers held up well to their soy and vinegar dressing. The pho had a slightly more subtle broth than the beef ones that tend to be more common, but it was just as aromatic and satisfying as a good pho should be. Tender slices of chicken breast accompanied the typical pho accoutrements. The understated Tori Dori avoids the Instagram-bait vibe of some of its siblings, and delivers flavourful East Asian dishes with splashes of contemporary flair.