Toi

I used to come here a lot back in the day when I lived in the city. Great ambiance, nice color scheme, good lighting with upstairs seating. I guess it’s closed now? Bummer. I was going to check it out when I go back to Seattle over Christmas. These kind of bars are nice but a dime a dozen in Seattle. They never get old and this place was no exception. A perfect place to start your night.

I might be coming too late to this review party as the Toi web site says it’s now closed. I was just there only a couple weeks ago and it was open then. Next time I catch a bus around there, I’ll walk by to check and post an update if I remember.
But I did go there once not too long ago for happy hour on a friend’s recommendation (I was meeting people at a nearby bar, had some time to kill, and was starving b/​c I hadn’t had lunch that day). What can I say, but I have great friends?
The happy hour bar bites were terrific deals — inexpensive, tasty, and even a little fancy. My vodka tonic was perfect (not a hard drink to make, I know, but still, I’ve had less good ones by far). Bartender was friendly. And it wasn’t too loud or posh in there for me to hang out at the bar reading a book for a bit before my next rendezvous — although, it also seems like a good place to get dressed up for (a darkish but pretty interior, and some pretty people to match).
If you find yourself in this area around happy hour, hungry and craving a cocktail, I highly recommend stopping by. (I don’t, however, recommend having 3 vodka tonics when you haven’t had lunch.)

i will admit it.
i used to come here every Thursday night for almost 2 years.
i came here drunk, sober, bored and entertained.
the movie was always good, the crowd was always the same.
the bartenders are madd nice and hooked me up.
different promoters throughout the years, but they knew me.
there used to be no cover, but on Saturday nights… yes.
i screamed at boys driving by the on the street.
i parking lot-​pimped it with friends.
i’ve witness many fights in the bar and parking lots.
ah, the memories.
the food during the day is actually pretty good. decent Thai cuisine… i’d recommend this place for lunch meetings and such. the booths are nice to share w/​a group of your friends!

I was once forced to visit Toi by my friend Nina, who at one point was the typical «Asian who will only hang out with Asians at Asian bars/​clubs». So to me Toi will always be…“That Asian bar on 4^th”. Being on 4^th has at least one benefit, free parking is a little closer/​easier to find than Belltown and Pioneer Square on weekends.
The inside of Toi is definitely dark and has a pretty cool feel to it. In some way though I couldn’t help but feel like it was a smaller version and rip-​off of Tao in Las Vegas. But then again for all I know, Toi could’ve came first. There’s a pretty crowded dance floor upstairs, and the scene is definitely for people who like to dance. This is definitely the Asian bar though… be prepared to see nothing but Banana Republic shirts… everywhere. And I sadly knew this because at the time I was there… I was working for… Banana Republic.
Not really my scene, but a perfectly okay bar/​club.
~G

The upstairs loft at Toi is great for social networking events of approximately 30 – 50 people. They’re easy to work with in terms of catering, and they have a full bar upstairs. There’s a little tiny back room with chairs and a couch if you need to take a break from socializing, and I think there is also a television.

Happy Hour
It’s ok.

2 Stars
one for décor and one for my lychee martini
My coworkers and I headed to Toi for some happy hour fun after an all day training class we attended. I ordered a ahi tuna salad. It was all these separate things with a pile of slivered raw tuna. I did not like it.
One of my coworkers got the giant prawns, they looked yummy and we ordered more. Another coworker ordered some yummy beef or pork dish with veggies, it was delicious.
The menu did not seem cheap and I don’t think the food was that great.
We were a big group and hardly anyone else was there, but we had to keep waving down and asking the waiter to come over to order more drinks or food.
Poor service and expensive not great food is why Toi only deserves two stars.

I’ve never actually come to Toi for dinner, but I meet a couple of friends here pretty much every Tuesday and occasionally Thursdays for HH.
Up until yesterday, my favorite dish to order was the phad kee mao noodle (Tuesday is $ 7 noodle night). It has been a consistent winner with all of us with its perfectly cooked broccoli and generous portions. That and the kiew crob… who doesn’t love deep fried cream cheesy goodness? This past Monday though, Toi introduced a few Korean dishes on the HH menu. I ordered the Bi Bim Bap last night. Never having tasted Korean food before, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Wow!!! So delicious! Assorted fresh veg, very well seasoned beef, and a sunny side egg atop a hot mound of steamed rice. Served with a super tasty chili sauce and a sesame oil based sauce on the side, I could eat this stuff every night! And a complete bargain at $ 5. It’s the perfect filling treat to soak up all the booze Emily so readily pours for us.
I’m so excited! I can’t wait to try more Korean foods! Where to go where to go??? Until I find somewhere, I will be here… snarfing down bowls of Bi Bim Bap (and it’s fun to say!) for as long as Toi will dish it up.

We came before the «lounge/​club» started. We arrived to order a few appetizers and lots of drinks. The appetizers were great, the waiter was nice (he was always checking on us), but the drinks were lacking ALCOHOL. Yes the Passion fruit mojito’s and Lychee Martini’s tasted great, but where was the alcohol mr. bartender? Even after having a few Patron straight I was still not the least bit buzzed.
The décor and booth’s were fab and comfy, but. .…
The lounge/​club part SUCKED! I felt like I was in middle school. Every other song was catchy, but Hip-​Hop or top 40 is not SWV! The music turned me off fast!

When it comes to Happy Hour, Toi deserves 4 stars in my book. My frame of reference for Toi is simply based on the 4−7pm Happy Hour, so i can’t speak for the rest of its offerings, but from what i gathered, iIbet Toi comes through in all occasions.
My boyfriend and I went here for dinner/​drinks before seeing a play downtown and we absolutely loved it. The drinks were tasty (especially the martinis) and very reasonably priced without lacking on the alcohol. For dinner we ordered and shared 4 – 5 different Happy Hour plates and it turned out to be the perfect amount of food to fill the two of us up. I highly recommend the Kiew Crob dumplings, they’re amazing! As an added bonus, when we got the bill we thought they had left out some items because it was so incredibly cheap!
All in all Toi’s atmosphere was swanky yet inviting, intimate and romantic without being overly pretentious. Its downtown location makes it the perfect starter to a night on the town or even just an after work meeting spot.
Enjoy!

Personally, I feel that Toi is one of downtown Seattle’s best happy hours. They have amazing cocktails that are also moderately priced between 6 and 8 dollars and also decent finger food/​appetizers to help make sure you don’t get to inebriated too quickly ;)
Wednesday’s sport half-​priced bottles of wine and another day offers free appetizers (forget which). The place is never really overly crowded so if you value your ability to make conversation, this place might work for you.

I am not normally a martini drinker. Yet for some reason when I went here I went nuts. They had so many to chose from. I was like a kid in a liquor-​saturated candy store.
The lychee martini was fruity and delicious and had a lychee at the bottom of the glass (my favorite fruit at the moment). The Zentini had green tea liquor in it and tasted like — get this — really good green tea! I didn’t get to try any food but it smelled good.
I went there for the Unilocal birthday party celebration. It was my first Unilocal event. Met cool Unilocalamaniacs. Ate some of Mary T.‘s amazing cake. Had a great time. Go Monday for all night Happy Hour.

Good drinks with a cool happy hour, decent food, highly cool upstairs lounge, and cool staff.
Try the lychee martini.
As a bar with some available food, I give them a solid four.

If you get there just as they open at 4 you’ll be overwhelmed by the odor of disinfectant, but on the flip side you’ll have the full attention of the bartender who will be friendly and charming until you want to settle your bill so you can go upstairs where the real party is about to start. Then he’ll say «give me a minute» while he cuts flowers and arranges them in a vase. Um, yeah, give me a minute to find your tip. Happy Hour prices are great and the Kiew Crob was the best I’ve had — light and not greasy, good flavor, goes well with a $ 3 Fat Tire ale — and they do good things with tofu. The upstairs loft was a good party size and the little room in the very back behind the bar up there was cute in a «reminds me of an old hippie den complete with mattress, am I really that old» kind of way. The strawberry lemonade drink tasted like a Jolly Rancher and there was another drink that tasted like an Otter Pop. Blue Otter Pop, Carrie insisted. The green tea cocktail was light and refreshing. I really like hanging with people who share drinks. Kudos for being able to keep an upstairs space not too hot. I’d consider happy hour here again or an event upstairs.
p. s. Happy Birthday Michael, Mary & Tiffany. Y’all throw a great bash.

Went here for HH with co-​workers. YUMMY food and a nice selection of drinks: cocktails, wines, and beer. Chris had the lychee martini, and I had the Riesling. Nice. HH prices are decent. Interior is warm and swanky. We had the big table in the front which was great. Service was lovely, though they didn’t split the check correctly (they just did it evenly when we’d written on the back how it should be split. I guess we should have been clearer), but overall a really nice night out. I would go back in a minute!

I use to go to Toi for lunch all the time than they decided to stop servicing lunch and I haven’t been back since. They did however have really good soups I loved their Thai Won-​ton and Tom Yum among other things on their menu. And in the winter (when they were open for lunch) went almost once a week for it.
Toi open back up for lunch and you might get another star from me.
One thing to add they have ALL night happy hour on Monday nights with both food and drink specials! And at 10 pm there’s music as well.

I’m reviewing this place as a club.
Saturdays:
Currently every Sat they play hip-​hop music. I like this spot because it’s one of the few clubs in Seattle where Black folks aren’t hard to find. Plus they play good music and a lot of the people inside are attractive, cool and have good attitudes.
My breakdown…
Crowd:
The crowd is mixed (Black girls/​guys, white girls and a few fill in the blanks), attractive and stylishly dressed. People either hang in the bar downstairs, or go up to the small dance floor upstairs. I’d classify the crowd into two groups: A) those who want to mingle, dance and have good time and B) who are «too cool for the room» or there to be seen.
Ambiance:
People who want to dance are up near the dance floor. The people downstairs near the bar are just there to chill, be seen or hang with their friends. Some are mingling, but most are staying in their own groups.
Music:
Hip-​hop and R&B and pretty good (danceable at least)
Décor:
Nice but not fancy.
Dress code is not casual, but not formal either. Wear a nice shirt. As long as you have some style and are not wearing running shoes, you should be fine.
Cover:
$ 10 – 15
3.5 Stars (I’d give it 4 stars if more girls would dance instead of just standing around)

Great food, strange vibe. I think it’s confused as to whether it’s a bar or a restaurant.
Case in point: first time I went there to eat, they had house music playing and a giant projector screen showing Finding Nemo. If that’s not totally out of place, I don’t know what is.
…maybe a midget in a Big and Tall store?

Update: I just hosted a going away party for 40 in the Loft. It was super easy to reserve, the manager, Peter, scheduled it for me and also was our bartender at the party. We had a great time and I am very grateful to Toi for hooking us up — they gave us happy hour upstairs which I thought was really cool. A lot of bars wouldn’t have done that.
Toi has a great happy hour from 4−7pm: I feel instantly closer to a bar that extends happy hour to 7pm. Who can get there and get anything done before 6, I mean please. They have really tasty small bites for just a few bucks each. My favorites are the $ 3 Kiew Crab (little fried pockets with crab, cream cheese, and green onion), and the $ 3 salad rolls with delish sauce. They have beer ($ 3), wine ($ 4), and signature cocktails ($ 5 — $ 7). Definitely try the $ 5 Lychee Martini, there’s a whole lychee in it and the rest is alcohol! My new favorite is the White Cherry Kazi. Careful, cause it’s delicious and tastes like… well, not like alcohol.
Happy hour is only in the first floor bar but they have recently expanded the bar area to be much larger. There are high, half round booths along the walls and everything is dark in here: walls, tables, chairs, banquettes. It’s spare but cozy becuase of this. Upstairs is a swank lounge with its own bar and a funky little VIP room in the back.
I’d tell you a funny story about this place, but as of yet I have not done anything stupid here. Stay tuned.

Good Thai food, excellent appetizers, friendly and attractive wait staff. Asian-​fusion cocktails.