Stokey Stop

I’d heard such cool things about this place. I’ve walked by it so many times. They had free comedy on Monday nights. What’s not to like?
Turns out… most things.
We came in for a quick bite before dinner. Besides the fact that everywhere on the site, it said comedy started at 8pm, turns out they moved it to 8:30pm. No worries, we can eat and wait.
This is a perfect example of why people hate hipsters, and I myself verge on the realm of hipsterdom. This space is casual, and not casual in a good way. Tons of tables all squished together so when you try to sit, it’s a little awkward because if you’re on the wrong side, you have to slide all the way down to sit. We first went to the bar to ask if we needed to order there or at the table. A very nice waiter told us, «Yeah, either. Order here or grab my eye and order there.»
Cool, so we grabbed a menu and sat. And tried to grab his eye once ready. And tried again. And again. Nope. I had to finally stand and then he came over. We ordered a hot dog and chili on nachos. The food took a while, but again, in no rush. And when the food came, my nachos were… tortilla chips surrounded a small bowl of chili with a side of sour cream. So I flagged him down.
«Hey, was this supposed to have cheese?»
«No,» he said.
«But it said nachos.»
«Yeah, nacho chips.»
«Ok. That’s not really nachos.»
«Yeah…» he looks down at my plate. «Well, nothing I can really do about it now.»
Sooo, cool. Later on he told me that there probably should be cheese and if he was going to make nachos at home, they would have cheese. Great.
He also told me when I ordered a side of coleslaw that they couldn’t because they were out of mayo, despite that he brought down a bottle of mayo to go with the hot dog.
And the food was just… meh. Not terrible, not amazing, just kind of bland and boring.
When we were done, it again took a ton of time to get our bill. Ridiculous.
So then we went down for comedy, where we wandered into the damn arctic. It was freezing in the basement and while the comedy was free and funny, we left way through before we died of hypothermia (not really, clearly, but damn cold.)
And so, disappointing. So damn disappointing I live in the neighbourhood, I wanted this to be a go-​to spot and it was anything but.

Compared to its neighbours this place had a decent priced roast on, more in my budget, which is why my friends and I decided to try it out.
The décor and seating is a little ‘cold’ but once our roasts came out that was all a distant memory. These roast potatoes are something else and I was mighty pleased by the huge hunk of herby chicken in the middle of my plate. Whilst I enjoyed the parsnip crisps, I’m not one to value presentation in a Sunday roast (and maybe less stacking would mean a crisper Yorkshire that gravy could be added to for those who like it soggier…)
Taste-​wise there is nothing to fault. I’d definitely go again. Maybe for their £5 burger nights?