Mary T.

I had a weird, uncomfortable experience picking up takeout for dinner at Willie Stouts a few Saturdays ago. I saw that this eatery had a few buy-one-get-one (BOGO) offers on Uber Eats. I decided to take advantage of it. Last summer, I came to this extremely small plaza to use the ABM at Scotiabank. I noticed Willie Stouts next door. It was cool that I was going back to this plaza. I ordered the following items: - Willies famous chicken curry, with basmati rice and naan (BOGO) - White chocolate molten lava I had preordered my food for 6 pm. I was super early getting there, so I killed some time getting bubble tea as I took my time heading over here. There was a decent number of parking spots at the plaza. I backed into a spot and headed over to the entrance. In the area between two sets of doors were old Molson Canadian beer signs. It was cool seeing them. When I walked in to pick up my food, there were folks in front of the bar chatting and having a great time. There must have been ten of them -- a mix of males and females. All eyes focused on me, and the chatting and laughs ceased. I felt highly uncomfortable. I want to say that it felt like a high school scenario where the odd person out was rubbing a clique the wrong way, barging into a conversation that this person wasn't invited to participate. I never had this experience during my high school years, thankfully. It was uncharted territory. The group appeared to be a group of white staffers and they reacted as if they had never seen a non-white customer recently. I am speculating, naturally. I do know that I was perceived as being odd to them. I didn't appreciate the rude stares accompanied by dead silence. My food pickup at the bar counter was fine. A nice Indian man found my order and handed it to me. I thanked him, took a few photos, and headed out the door... kind of. I ended up going to the wrong door. I think it was the door heading to the patio, which was next to the door that I used to enter this establishment. I am guessing that a male staffer at that table with the staring problems continued to watch me and told me to go through the other door. Although grateful for the guidance, being casually monitored also felt highly uncomfortable. I got home and chowed down. I had one of the Willies famous chicken curry meals, and saved the other for the following night. The chicken curry was yummy. It's a westernized version of Indian chicken curry. The chicken was white meat and was tender. There were cubed potatoes that were good, but frying them before adding them in the curry would have made it better. It was more a stewed version. The naan was yummy, as was the basmati rice. Both were perfectly made. I had two small styrofoam containers in my plastic bag. I assumed that that they were both salads. Nope, I got one small salad for both meals. I was not impressed. Rationing, maybe? The salad was okay. It wasn't the freshest salad. The greens were fine. The tomatoes were mushy. I liked the cucumbers. The onions, however, were too thick and raw for my liking in a salad, so I put them off to the side. The other small container had vanilla ice cream for my dessert. Since I had thought that it was salad, it stayed in my fridge overnight. Oddly, it was still solid, which made me wonder what was in said ice cream. I put in in my freezer and it tasted okay. My dessert was called white chocolate molten lava. Molten lava what? I want to say cake, but it was leaning towards a brownie wannabe. It was a slightly dense cake that was good. However, it did not have any liquid lava ooze out. The cake or brownie part was still warm when I had it at home. It was delicious, but touting this dessert as having molten lava when the volcano was inactive was disappointing. Back to the awkward staring scenario. Perhaps if I got a hello instead of a bunch of stares from staff as if I had rudely interrupted their conversation would have been nice. I would have felt more welcome. Instead, it was such a cold entrance that it is my main reason for not returning. I hope that it's not how staff treat every customer who walks into the eatery. I still don't know the reason for the stares. The group of staff members were a mix of males and females. I can only speculate that they don't see too many Asian folks in their establishment. Maybe they are just socially inept, which is counterproductive in a pub. I provided all this feedback to Uber Eats. I got a reply, but we'll see if anything improves. Staff need developmental help and training is encouraged. Less staring would be a start. (78)

Wendy H.

I've been here a few times with my team after playing sports. The staff are quite friendly and the service is quick. We would go every Thursdays and their specials are always different every week. Willie Stouts have a wide variety of food to choose from and I usually order their pasta or their fresh made pizzas. Their pastas are creamy and their pizzas are thin crusted with lots of cheese. Fair pricing and some portions can be big. They have outdoor and indoor dining options. It id quite spacious with tvs everywhere.

Leonard E.

A family social it is! This is my first visit here and Willie spouts at least a dozen beers on tap. Nested next to a ScotiaBank branch along Sheppard Ave E west of Victoria Park is a pub with a front view patio and plenty of parking. Pool tables are at the rear of the restaurant plus yes, a juke box. We sat on the patio to maximize the remaining summer fun. There are daily food & drink specials. One pint Guinness $7.40 and one 20oz pint of Steam Whistle $5.99. My son chose the Tandoori Chicken Souvlaki w/Rice & Greek Salad $13.99 and I picked a Half Back Ribs w/5 Wings & Fries $13.99. Our server Raj was friendly. Both the service & food were good although 3 of my 5 wings looked like it came from tweety bird. Nevertheless, we will return to try other pub favourites.

Lilian C.

Decided to try this place since I like Guinness and the name has stouts. Nice surprise as a pitcher of Guinness was only $18 something. Hard to get this price now. Lots of pub favourites, so we ordered haddock fish and chips. Very generous portion even with just 1 piece. Fries is not as good as some other places, maybe the deep fryer is not hot enough. There was live music outside on the patio which made the evening much nicer. This place is bigger than I thought, to get to the washroom I saw another dining section at the back with a pool table and darts as well. They have TV at every corner section so definitely a good place to watch games with a pint or pitcher. I'll go again to try out other food options, all reasonably priced.

Shines G.

Visited On: December 26, 2019 Would I Return: Absolutely Not! Ordered: -Shrimp Pesto ($12.99) -Linguini Mushroom Carbonara ($12.99) Thoughts: The restaurant is located in a small plaza, so there's plenty of free parking available. We requested both dishes be made spicy and saucey. The linguini was creamy but the shrimp pesto was extremely dry. Unfortunately, neither were spicy. The linguini was the better dish of the two, but it had huge fat bacon pieces that were too chewy and seemed uncooked. The shrimp pesto was extremely disappointing and overcooked. The roasted vegetables in the dish tasted like it was out of a jar of pickled veggies. The pesto also tasted store bought. The only upside was the amount of shrimp in the dish. The portion size was pretty big and the garlic bread tasted good. However, there's no use in serving a decent sized dish if the taste is horrible. Although the prices are very good, due to the poor quality of food, I will not be returning.

Lisa V.

My Dad and I headed to his old favourite, Willie Stout's, formerly Phoenix & Firkin, to watch the Mayweather/Canelo fight. The décor was dated, deep red carpet with deep red upholstery to match. Comfortable and old school. My Dad ordered the Ribs/Wings/Fries/Veggie combo and I got the Guacamole Bacon Angus Burger. The fries were nothing special, but the food was faaaaabulous. The ribs were flavourful and juicy. I couldn't even steal a wing from my own Dad they were so good! My burger had all of the major food groups: spice, cheese, veggies, bacon, and beef. Our super awesome server, Bonnie, admitted it was her favourite, so I was excited to give it a shot. It delivered. The guac was fresh and had the yummy spice I'm growing to love. The bacon was crispy and burger was tasty. The guac definitely overshadowed the Monterey Jack. It didn't really even need cheese. As I mentioned, we had a super awesome server, Bonnie, AND it was fight night. She was amazing. She kept everyone happy and hydrated. Not ordering beer? She still kept your water topped up! There was no shortage of TVs to watch the fight on plus a projector. The only complaint is that the audio was terrible. You couldn't understand what the commentators were saying. The audio was coming from each individual TV! AAAHH!! All in all, a good night. Good food and good company.

Kenny L.

So this is one of those pubs you go to when it's convenient and you really feel like having a pint to get your evening going after a hard days work. Located on Sheppard between Don Mills and Victoria Park, makes it a unreachable location... not conveniently at least. It is surrounded by a bunch of office buildings on the south side of Sheppard and all residential on the north. It is a typical Irish pub. You walk in with a very woody Irish feel. You get the typical mini juke box, vending machine with condoms, candy and gum and an old pool table at the back. Of course I get greeted by an Indian person asking if I wanted to try their curry or butter chicken. Haha! I'm still figuring this whole Irish pub and Indian cuisine connection. My experience was particularly weird. I sat at the part intending to only have a pint and leave. But then at a specific time a bunch of regulars came in and surrounded me with mini machines in their hands. They all knew each others names, personality and perhaps personal life. Turns out most of the days at the same time they all gather and play those digital trivia games that get displayed on a big screen and you get to pick your answer from your device. I felt very out of place but they were all welcoming. The drinks were fair with their daily specials. Food wise looked good and based on my past experience wasn't bad either. Overall it was good. Nothing special. Like I said it was only a convenient place to visit. I'd still come back. Next time to join the crew in trivia pursuit.... canadian style.