Hugh’s Room

A dinner theater experience. The food and service was great. Very friendly staff. The squash and cranberry soup was good. We heard Dala and they were wonderful. We like the folk vibe.

Awful on every level.
Only here for a music show otherwise I would have never come for a meal.
They were out of the only 4 dishes of remote interest on the menu and everything we did end up ordering was so poorly done (4 dishes!)
Neglectful service to top it off.
Stay away unless coming for a show and if so, eat beforehand!

We all joked that we could at least eat at the nearby pizza joint if we couldn’t eat here. This was based on the many negative reviews of the food. The 7 of us all enjoyed our food. I had the steak penne special. It was very good.
The service was impeccable. Some of the best service I have ever had. Her name was Tara. We were there for a sell out show of Anthony Gomes on November 8. Great mood and people.
Could have been four stars if they serviced premium tequila.

Great venue, great music. TERRIBLE food! Everything on the menu is overpriced and clearly comes from a can. I had the Olive Platter (really, how can you go wrong with olives and cheese, right?) Well apparently you can: I was charged $ 16 for canned olives, «sharp» cheddar (which was probably Black Diamond and was not sharp cheddar), bread so hard you couldn’t bite it without breaking your teeth and «marinated peppers» which were again, from a can and plopped on the grill for 2 seconds to make it look like they were cooked. My friend had a seafood pasta which was equally disgusting. This is honestly the worst food I’ve ever had.
McDonald’s has better food, honest to god, McDonald’s.

Went here Wednesday night to see Ben Sures. The show was awesome and as a venue this place is pretty great. It’s laid out well so that there really aren’t any bad seats. We sat at a high table near the back and were still able to see the bands well. I believe there were only 2 – 3 servers for the whole place and they seemed to be stretched pretty thin. That being said the service was very slow and it was hard to get the server’s attention when we wanted to order another round. We didn’t eat here which based on other reviews was probably a good thing, but we did order cocktails which were very reasonably priced at about 6.00 $ each. I ordered my usual whiskey sour and it was one of the worst cocktails I’ve ever had. They didn’t use proper bar sour but what tasted like very watered down orange juice. I managed to improvise a simple syrup from sugar packets and water that made it at least drinkable. After waiting and waiting with empty glasses I made intense direct eye contact with the server for an uncomfortable amount of time. He finally got the hint and came to our table for a second round. The CC and ginger I ordered next was decent (but how much can you mess that up?) After this we didn’t see the server again until he plopped the bill on our table without saying a word. I would go back if there is a good band because structurally its a good venue but I think I’ll stick to beer, bottled beer; I don’t trust the bartender’s ability to pour.
Oh P. S. the washrooms have almost no water pressure making it very challenging to wash your hands properly. I’m a bit of a germ freak so this makes me nervous about the cleanliness/​hand washing situation overall. Just sayin’

I’m at Hugh’s Room more than once a month.
The shows are unique and the class of music and musicians is outstanding.
The tribute nights are usually 8 or 9 different musicians with their back up, performing two songs each, or more. 20 songs interperted in wonderful ways, how can that be beat for around 25.00.
The menu really needs to be changed up. It has remained the same for years. It should at least change seasonally. Especially when many of us are there frequently.
Best bet for a night out.

This is a great place for one-​stop dinner and music. One of only a few places you can do this anywhere.
Many reviewers have commented on the price. Since this is a unique experience in Toronto, comparisons of price are unfair. The service is always friendly and gets you served up before the show and paid up so you can leave after the last note is played. The menu is not the main event but it does not distract from the experience either.
You are paying for a live music experience. Real performers, often original and passionate, surprising and talented. Sometimes world class but almost never a disappointment. And the audience is engaged, appreciative and welcoming.
Some great acts choose this place for it’s intimate stage and warm audiences.
The scheduling is managed so you can eat and listen to music and be out the door before 10:30 in most cases. So you don’t have to expect to stay out too late when a great show is on a weeknight.
I enjoy it every time. Hope you will too.

I have been to the Hugh’s Room a couple of times as I search for an upscale blues and jazz venue in Toronto that is similar to Scullers or Regattabar in Boston, my hometown.
The entertainment has been mixed with excellent blues singers at the Etta James festival and a poor performance by a disinterested blues singer, Susie Vinnick. The quality of the performers is not high enough to justify any cover compared to the myriad of pubs that provide local bands in the Toronto area.
The biggest negative is that purchase of a ticket does not ensure a seat unless one makes a dinner reservation and orders the poor food. This is so ridiculous that I will not go back.
Pros:
— Friendly servers
— The acoustics and the viewing are quite good.
— Some appetizers are healthy and tasty
Cons:
— Slow service
— Expensive ticket for the quality of entertainer
— Entrée’s are average at best
— Still just a little step up from the typical pubs that dominate the Greater Toronto music scene
If anyone knows of higher quality venues in the GTA, please let me know.

The bottom line
— Service is terrible
— Food is beyond terrible (and expensive). It’s like bad dinner theatre cuisine. You’ll pay $ 20 for an entrée that should cost $ 10 and is bad to boot. They get you because the only way to get a reserved (and good) seat is to book for dinner.
— It’s a solid venue for music.
So…you are, frankly, better off eating before… booking for dinner… and «eating» the absolute minimum… if I went again (doubtful), I’d order one of the harder to screw up appetizer and maybe split a main and then just let it sit there uneaten.

Visited Hugh’s Room during the folk music festival that was in town to see a couple bands that were taking part. Booked my ticket a few days in advance and headed down there with a friend who was in town specifically for the festival. I was excited to visit a new place in Toronto that I wouldn’t normally go to, but that excitement wore off as the evening went on. I don’t see myself visiting this place for anything else other than a band is in town that I really, really want to see. Go here for the shows and drinks only, not the food.
Pros:
— They have wine, it was good
— Our server was very friendly, but service was definitely slow (even though the place wasn’t packed, but I think there was only 2 servers for the whole place)
— The band I went to see was awesome, so that helped the experience
— Service for purchasing tickets over the phone was friendly and helpful
Cons:
— Very expensive ticket to get into the place in my opinion ($ 25)
— Service was slow (again, and the place was not packed by any means)
— The food was not worth the money paid — ordered a bacon cheddar salad that sounded awesome on the menu, but ended up being iceberg lettuce with bacon bits and barely any cheese
— No reserved seats — which wasn’t a problem for this slower night, but I could see being an issue if there were more people coming in to see the shows

I took in Midge Ure on January 14, 2013 at Hugh’s Room. I found the place to be great, acoustics, amazing, and the staff was very friendly and well organized. The food was good (not 5 star cuisine, but good) and the reality is that if you are in Hugh’s Room, you came for music, food is a secondary part of the experience. I think it is a great place for music and would come back anytime. The servers were excellent considering the number of tables they were looking after, all of who arrived pretty much at the same time in anticipation of the concert.
Also took in China Crisis in late April 2013 and enjoyed it tremendously. Great sound and a wonderfully sophisticated way of watching great artists!

Hugh’s room brings back the concept of a dinner club with live entertainment. We went there to see the Good Lovelies’ Christmas show which was great. As a number of reviewers have already noted, it is an entertainment venue first.
I started with the soup of the day which was a broccoli and cauliflower soup. It wasn’t but it was more of a purée than a cream-​based soup.
The entrée that I had was the pesto pan chicken which I enjoyed. The tomatoes and onions brought in a variety of flavours. The bacon was a nice touch as well. These days it seems that restaurants are overdoing bacon and adding it to everything, but with this dish it worked really well, giving it some crunch and a contrast to the other flavours.
Our server was good, but in agreement with what other reviewers have said, the servers seemed to be overworked there. So, we didn’t end up seeing a lot of our server. In some ways this is a good thing — it means that he doesn’t interrupt you much when you are watching the show — but at other times you end up waiting for service.

It’s true what others say – that this is a live music venue first. But it’s such a warm and homey place for such an eclectic bunch of musicians that you don’t mind the food being… well, more ordinary than you’d like in a city with as many restaurants as Toronto has. In my short time in the city I’ve come for jazz and folk CD releases for friends, tributes to the greats shared by 6 or 7 excellent performers, and some greats themselves – Jesse Winchester, J.P. Cormier, Connie Kaldor, among them. The wait staff I’ve encountered have always been stretched but affable as they skate their way around close tables balancing drinks and food. As far as said food goes, order the hot, yummy mussels and frites ($ 14 + $ 3) and one of their many beers on tap and you have a perfectly decent meal while you listen to terrific music. Get on their mailing list to know ahead of time who not to miss.

It’s hard to write a mixed review. Sometimes I wish Unilocal split the star-​rating based on certain parameters but…
1. We had a great time at Hugh’s this evening based solely on the fact that the mixed entertainment included both good music and great comedy.
2. The food was atrocious. My Beef Stroganoff was akin to a Lipton Sidekick and my wife returned both her mussels (sour, off flavour) and even her salad! How do you screw up a garden salad? To boot, it was all quite expensive ($ 20 average entrée).
3. The couple we were with came after we had received our entrees and were scared off by our remarks. One ordered the «Olive plate» and the other ordered the «Cheese plate».
The paltry cheese selection of the cheese plate, a few chunks of counter-​bought cheddar and mozzeralla were accompanied by get this: DIGESTIVE BISCUITS!!!
Go to Hugh’s for the tunes, not for the grub. More like «Ugh’s Room».

Now that I’ve had time to settle, I am ready to write this review.
Hugh’s Room offers an eclectic range of performers, which sometimes includes a well-​known act of the old school. I saw that one of those was coming to town and called and arranged for two tickets to the Leon Redbone show 2 months in advance, knowing it would likely sell out. On the phone, they asked if we would be dining before the show, and I said probably not. Hugh’s Room took my credit card info and ended the call.
Well, when we arrived for the show, over 60 minutes before show time, we found that ordering tickets two months in advance DID NOT get you a reserved seat. Apparently, that only comes if you are willing to commit to eat their (terrible looking) food. I was so angry they didn’t bother to tell me that on the phone. It’s not a cheap ticket to this place for the service they gave us.
To add insult to injury, we were given stools, shoved in a corner, and then the waiter didn’t even bother to hand us the bill for our beers at the end of the night. He was too important for us lowly non-​dinner-​eaters, so just left it on a table nearby. Needless to say, no tip for him.
The crowd is quite old, and apparently they don’t mind bad service and overpriced meals. I can still stand while I listen to music, so, unless there’s a really great performer who I can’t see elsewhere, I won’t bother with this venue. If there is a really great performer, I’ll lie and say I am having dinner and then just order a salad.
I give Hugh’s Room the finger. Damn, this happened almost 2 months ago and clearly that is not enough time for me to settle.

Went for the poetry slam competition, love that they support local artists, poets and the like, though I think they do charge to rent out the room.
Wish I could have given them a better review but the food wasn’t the greatest and it wasn’t cheap for what it was, about $ 20+ a main.
The atmosphere was nice, the event was great. I highly recommend poetry slams, check them out, there’s some great talent in Toronto.
But the food… oh it was bad…
I ordered the chicken, it tasted like they put bottled bbq sauce on it, and not the good stuff either. Super sweet and not much else. No depth of flavour or flavour at all, just artificial colour and sweetener.
I ordered the chicken because it came with beets, and I love beets, but I’ve never had beets this bad. It was made into a gratin, thinly sliced and layered with a cream dill sauce… they basically tried to cook beets like potatoes… terrible! I couldn’t eat it.
Go for drinks, go to support local artists, just don’t go for the food… sorry Hugh’s Room!

We waited forever for our lamb shanks, and they tasted like bland rubber. No flavour, horrible texture. I mean, they served it with steak knives!
The show was fantastic, however. Don’t go for the food or ambience. Go for the shows.

If you are into Folk or Roots music, this is the best venue in the city.
Firstly, though, if you are under 40, this place probably isn’t relevant to you. Of course there will be exceptions, but realistically, this isn’t your place.
Performers I’ve seen here include Iris Dement, Leon Redbone, Roy Book Binder, Tom Paxton, Richie Havens and David Lindley. Performers booked for 2011 include John Hammond, Duke Robillard, Lucy Kaplansky, Martyn Joseph, Jesse Winchester (!), Zachary Richard, Loudon Wainwright III, Judy Collins (!) and David Bromberg.
Many of these names are legends and near-​legends in this genre of music!
The only reason I didn’t give this one-​of-​a-​kind listening venue a 5-​star rating is for their food (which is good but not great), and their service, which is sometimes a bit spotty. One does, however, go there for the music, not the food.

What a funny little hideaway spot in the middle of nowhere. I was invited through an artist’s (Shane Koyczan) page via Facebook and had never heard of the place before, neither, it seems, has
!
There were no reviews for me to devour in order to prepare me for what I was going to walk into! So I shall take the responsibility and REVIEW for all of you who like to KNOW before you GO.
Hugh’s Room is a performance space for musicians and the like. The night I went, Shane Koyczan (think Vancouver Olympics) was performing his ‘spoems’ (song poems) with his band, who eagerly brought to the audiences attention how brilliant the sound was in the venue (attn: Music lovers!).
Despite the iffy location of this joint, the inside refuses to be classified as anything but refined, casual with abso-​effing-​lutely delicious food. My sister and I were eyeballing every passing dish with an envy that begged for larger stomaches and fatter wallets. I meagerly dined on the veggie soup of the day and some french fries (both of which were satisfying).
The place is set up with tables all facing towards the stage, so I am suspecting people don’t come here for dinner without getting a show as well. Two birds with one stone, people. Two birds with one stone.
Our server was delightfully hilarious. He treated me and my sister like we were royalty (and considering how we were dressed, it was obvious we were anything but– dress code didn’t seem to be a big deal here), but he was ever-​so charming and smiley we left him a big, fat tip out of our dieting wallets.
Thoroughly enjoyable evening out. Perfect atmosphere of casual and fancy schmancy that it’s easy to enjoy without feeling hoity-​toity. Defnitely recommend as a go-​to venue for a relaxed night.