Tuesday, February 14, 2012Mostly Cloudy -1°C
Best of Toronto

The Best Cheap Drinks in Toronto

Posted by Todd H / July 26, 2010

Cheap Drinks TorontoThe best cheap drinks in Toronto, not surprisingly, are not going to be found in the swankiest of places. That being said, I think swankiness is overrated. Sure it's great once in a while to get all dolled up in the Friday night version of your Sunday best, but most of the time I'd rather just find a place with little to no attitude, a fun vibe, good tunes or a jukebox that lets me decide what's good and revel in the fact that I'm paying half the price for the same drink I could get someplace else.

With DJ's, karaoke nights and even meat raffles some of the bars on this list figure out a way to stand out in the crowd while still making a $20 bill last an entire evening. Not every place is cheap all the time but pick the right night of the week and you know where to buy all your friends a round the next time you get that bonus paycheque, extra tip money or rebate from the government.

Here are the 12 best bars in Toronto to find cheap drinks as voted by readers of this site.

Bistro 422

Bistro 422

This place deserves top of list for actually being the cheapest of the cheapies, if only by 27 cents. While the service is hit and miss, the atmosphere is always fun and the $9.73 pitchers of domestic beer (avoid the home brew though), and $11.51 mixed drink pitchers make it a great spot to pre-drink or feel like a king by buying all your broke friends a shot. More »

Sneaky Dee's

Sneaky Dee's

While this College street mainstay may have few drink specials, except the Wednesday night domestic bottles for $3, the rest of their drinks are inexpensive and so are their pitchers that start at $11.25 tax included. Food comes in big portions and the atmosphere is loud and fun. More »

The Rhino

The Rhino

As the sole Parkdale rep on the list, the Rhino represents well with tons of room for everyone, a great patio and decent food. Although drink specials are rare to non-existent, their selection of over 341 bottled beer (starting at $3.40) plus seasonal additions and 15 microbrew taps (starting at $4.52 with Guinness at $6.50 tax in) ensure that at least beer lovers are taken care of. More »

Bovine Sex Club

Bovine Sex Club

More of a rock club than bar, the Bovine is cheap albeit not a place to head on a Saturday afternoon. If you want loud tunes and something that has more “rock” attitude in its door handle than in the entire Tattoo Rock Parlour across the street, this is it...all at prices about 25-40% less. More »

The Emmet Ray

The Emmet Ray

With a more upscale feel and nary an undergrad in site the Emmet Ray is a chic place to hang compared to most spots on this list. $1 off tall boy Sundays, $3.50 rail Tuesdays, $1 off select whiskey region Thursdays and $4.50 tax-in pints everyday til 9pm it’s a good place to relax and listen to some live music and DJs. More »

The Dog's Bollocks

The Dog's Bollocks

A huge open space that used to house the Gypsy Co-op, this place does cheap drinks and pub grub better than most. With $10 3oz mixed drink pitchers, $10 pitchers of Canadian, $12 pitchers of Sapporo, Harp, Sleemans (or half price vs. most places) plus $3 shooters they ain’t messing around. Great wings, a stellar club sandwich, lots of TVs and 2 Karaoke nights seal the deal. More »

The Lakeview Restaurant

The Lakeview Restaurant

This 24 hour destination on Dundas West has tons of deals. Start with $3 mimosas and $4 caesars, or maybe the daily pint specials AND coming soon $8 margaritas and daiquiris plus alcoholic milkshakes and even pie-shakes (any pie they’ll make into a milkshake). More »

Squirly's

Squirly's

Cozy inside but with a great back patio, Squirly's has good food specials to match their inexpensive drink list. $4 lime or strawberry margarita’s on Monday, $4.50 bottles of 50 and $5.50 Irish Car Bombs everyday, $19 Sunday pitcher and pizza deal, Tuesday wing night and $6.50 food specials on Wednesday makes sure your bases for a good time are covered. More »

The Henhouse

The Henhouse

This Dundas West local is the epitome of simplicity. While known for their chicken pot pie, nachos and brunch - those are beside the point here. It’s the $5.50 pints, $4 bottles of 50, $5 bottles of Mill St. or Creemore and a brunch with $3 bottles of 50, $4 pints, and $5 caesars, mimosas and beer-mosa’s that matter. More »

Nirvana

Nirvana

Part of the mini-cheap good food and drink empire that also owns the Red Room and Green Room, this eclectic space is littered with pics of Buddha and too many chandeliers to count. Cheap pitchers of beer, Martini Monday’s at $6.25 for 2 oz, Bottled Beer Wednesdays at $3.25 domestic and $3.50 imported, $3.50 rail Thursdays, and Sangria Sundays at $13.95 for a pitcher make it hard to go wrong. More »

Wide Open

Wide Open

Almost hidden on Spadina between Richmond and Adelaide, Wide Open is anything but. A long narrow space with zero attitude and good tunes, the food is pretty much non-existent but irrelevant. 2 for 1 Mondays, $3 Amsterdam bottle Tuesdays, $4.50 pint Wednesdays, $2 everything Thursdays between 5-8pm, $2.50 rails on Saturday and $3 rail and beer Sundays has your whole week covered! More »

The Red Light

The Red Light

The second outpost from some of the people who brought you Sweaty Betty’s, this place is easy to miss - even if you have the address - but worth the effort for their Sunday night $4 Tecate salt and limed cans, everyday $5 PBR tallboys, $5.50 rails, $4.50 domestic beer, $1 off Mill Street Thursdays and their Monday night meat raffle complete with $4 Molson Stock Ale. More »

Discussion

44 Comments

what the / July 26, 2010 at 11:29 am
user-pic
no 751? $6 for a pbr bottle and a shot? same with midpoint blogto blowing it as usual.
agentsmith / July 26, 2010 at 11:32 am
user-pic
See also: Toby's Famous Eatery, 411 College Street, at the east end of the block that Sneaky Dee's is on. Despite the name, the food isn't great... but the drinks sure are cheap.
Kevin / July 26, 2010 at 11:54 am
user-pic

As usual the entire list is in the west end. Hello, people life exists east of Yonge and north of Bloor.
J spence / July 26, 2010 at 12:11 pm
user-pic
@Kevin,

Sorry Kev....but it doesn't.
annakarenina / July 26, 2010 at 12:14 pm
user-pic
where's Java??!
Rachel / July 26, 2010 at 12:35 pm
user-pic
The margaritas at Tortilla Flats are $3.99 on Mondays. I don't think it gets cheaper than that.
Chris - Nachos at Midnight / July 26, 2010 at 12:45 pm
user-pic
Yeah... this info would have been good to know during my seven years in Toronto. Oh well, guess I either have to visit more often or move back. Cheers!
Ryan L. replying to a comment from Kevin / July 26, 2010 at 12:52 pm
user-pic
These lists remind me of the new Canadian Monopoly game. In order to avoid offending people by labeling one city as higher value than another, Hasbro chose to allow people to vote on which city was the best.

Places like Sarnia and Chatham-Kent organized mass voting within their cities and the result was places like Vancouver, Toronto and Ottawa ending up in some of the cheapest spots while Sarnia, Windsor and I-never-heard-of-these-places before Chatham-Kent and Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu.

Hardly an accurate representation of the which place is the most valuable even if it was decided upon by voting.

If the majority of BlogTO readers are located west of Yonge and South of Bloor then the voting will always reflect it. People outside of those areas will continue to get annoyed, leave the site and reduce the number of necessary votes from their regions only making the problem worse.

There are a few ways to fix this.

1) Intervention from editorial and writing staff. Take the results and use your own judgement to reorganize them in a more accurate manner. The best muffins in Toronto list was a great example of this. The writer actually went out to the highest voted places, tried the muffins and ordered the lists accordingly. The results were, not surprisingly, much different than the usual south of Bloor, west of Yonge groupings.

2) Affirmative action. Requiring some of the listed places be outside of the usual grouping. This is probably the easiest to implement, but probably the least accurate.

3) Collecting voters location during voting and applying it to the results. If 75% of voters live in Queen West and the Annex, then the results are going to unfairly skew towards places in those areas. Take those statistics and use them to skew votes back to fair levels. Create some rules, throw in some calculations and hopefully you can get results that aren't as skewed towards the same areas.

4) Combination 3 and 1. Figuring out how to calculate things based on location wouldn't be easy, so the next best thing is just find out where people live and use your best judgement as to how to adjust the results. Nice thing about this is that you can take other things into account as well. If areas get lots of votes because they are the current 'cool' area in town, if more well known places in well known areas get an unfair advantage over hidden gems, and etc.
TheRealJohnson replying to a comment from what the / July 26, 2010 at 12:59 pm
user-pic
In response to "what the" and "Kevin," the article clearly states these were chosen via voting by blogTO readers. So "what the," you really can't say blogTO has "blown it," and Kevin we now have definitive proof that actually, no, life does not exist East of Yonge or North of Bloor. Don't blame blogTO because your neighbourhood sucks.
Ashley / July 26, 2010 at 01:01 pm
user-pic
How does the W-Burger Bar and their $8.95 pitchers of PBR not make this list?
davak replying to a comment from Kevin / July 26, 2010 at 01:14 pm
user-pic
No, it doesn't...
John / July 26, 2010 at 03:32 pm
user-pic
You know, I'm a west-ender myself, but look at that map... it is quite plainly west-centric. I'm sure loads of BlogTO readers live in Riverdale/Danforth/Leslieville/Broadview areas. Not to mention the east side of downtown and St. Clair between, I dunno, Bathurst and Lansdowne.

But, I'd still put Bistro at the top. If only for the sake of my irrational emotional attachment to the place.

Jason / July 26, 2010 at 03:53 pm
user-pic
The Savoy at Queen and Beaconsfield also has $3.50 PBR and shots, although they took the $3.50 Jack off, because it was "too popular".

But what sets The Savoy apart from other $3.50 PBR joints - and there are a lot in that neighbourhood (Double Deuce, Midpoint, Sweaty Betty's, Ossington, etc.) - is the food. The quality - albeit not the inventiveness - is as good as The Drake, at half the price.
bob / July 26, 2010 at 04:05 pm
user-pic
I'm not sure how the Green Room was omitted from this list. $13 jugs of Grolsch, Sapporo, and a ton of microbrews, all taxes in.
The most expensive drink on the menu is a $6.50 martini. Yeesh.
bob / July 26, 2010 at 04:06 pm
user-pic
Also, and edit for #8: There is no apostrophe in margaritas, unless the margaritas own something.
Andrew / July 26, 2010 at 05:16 pm
user-pic
Here are the 12 best bars in Toronto to find cheap drinks as voted by readers of this site.

Why is it everytime I read these lists people complain about names missing or not being in their neck of the woods (ie North of 401 or east of Yonge). If you read the above sentence you'll notice these lists are done by a voting process.
JR replying to a comment from bob / July 26, 2010 at 05:19 pm
user-pic
I feel like the Green Room's beer selection is mostly theoretical. Sure, they allow you to order from a wide selection, but on more than one occasion I've received something other than what was ordered.
davolo / July 26, 2010 at 05:22 pm
user-pic
If you think a place was missed remember that this is the "best cheap drinks" not necessarily the *cheapest* drinks, and that these were the results of a vote.

As well, the martinis at nirvana are 2.5oz, not 2 as stated in the article.
davolo / July 26, 2010 at 05:26 pm
user-pic
If you think a place was missed remember that this is the "best cheap drinks" not necessarily the *cheapest* drinks, and that these were the results of a vote.

As well, the martinis at nirvana are 2.5oz, not 2 as stated in the article.
wadafak / July 26, 2010 at 06:32 pm
user-pic
maybe if blogto told us when to go vote then more people would go vote and the list would be a better reflection of what the most popular drinking joints are

i notice the vote totals aren't listed. was it like 17 votes to 14?
nicole / July 26, 2010 at 08:42 pm
user-pic
sorry blogto doesn't call you and ask you where YOUR favourite place to drink cheap beer is....maybe you should stop crying and keep going to where ever you go and write a blog about it since you're sooooo familiar with the "hot" spots in Toronto. get over yourself, these are suggestions for people to check out.
asad / July 26, 2010 at 09:00 pm
user-pic
none of theses places are have cheap drinks, but i guess blogto never been past st clair ave
Bonk / July 26, 2010 at 11:17 pm
user-pic
Not one of these joints is east of Spadina!! This is east hate.
Dave / July 27, 2010 at 07:04 am
user-pic
Why don't people read? This is based on votes. Why is that BlogTO's fault?
nothing important to say / July 27, 2010 at 08:24 am
user-pic
I think its hilarious that the term PBR is thrown around in a way to make Pabst actually seem decent.
Reminds me of saying you were going to the BW Boutique back when Biway stores existed.
simuls / July 27, 2010 at 11:27 am
user-pic
My favourite is one we don't get to use here in Canada...yet! Tar-zhay (Target)!!
Ross / July 27, 2010 at 02:33 pm
user-pic
There's a great spot in Midtown that has awesome specials. Il Sogno on Yonge just south of Eglinton. They do no corkage every Tues and Thurs, $4 Martinis every friday and had $3 Pints for the last 2 months everyday! (rumour is they are continuing it on Saturdays only after July) Great spot, lots of fun and awesome calzones! They call themselves "Midtown's Favorite Hidden Hotspot" and i agreeeeee!!!!
chico / July 27, 2010 at 03:19 pm
user-pic
@annakarenina java house is for poor people and mongloids. the food is the worst in the city.
Japhet / July 27, 2010 at 04:02 pm
user-pic
This is a better list than most of the lists that come out. Sure they missed a bunch of places but it's VOTED BY READERS and only has 12 SPOTS.

Stop bitching and talk about your favorite spots they missed in the comments. That's what it's there for.
Fitz replying to a comment from Rachel / July 28, 2010 at 04:15 pm
user-pic
Not to mention $2.50 domestic bottles on Tuesdays, me thinks.
Carolyn / July 29, 2010 at 12:14 pm
user-pic
Fox and the Fiddle Danforth, $9.50 pitchers before 5pm!
Linda / July 29, 2010 at 04:47 pm
user-pic
I think Green Room should be on the list for cheap drinks... its like $3 for a beer. also for cheap eats as well.
May / August 1, 2010 at 02:01 am
user-pic
Seriously, any top 10 list that includes the Lakeview has no credibility. MAJOR FAIL.

choppery / August 1, 2010 at 12:41 pm
user-pic
I am absolutely OK with the BlogTo populace not learning about my favourite east-end spots.
Robert replying to a comment from chico / August 3, 2010 at 09:48 am
user-pic
@chico

Did they piss in your cornflakes?

Javahouse Curry Chicken was very good both times I've went.Plenty of students but no homeless poor people or mongoloids except fro Chico of course. Staff was friendly and service was quick.
anonymously yours / August 5, 2010 at 01:21 pm
user-pic
For the Ladies: go into Wide Open on a Saturday night and ask for "the special" - you won't regret it.
Sam / August 17, 2010 at 03:41 am
user-pic
The Labyrinth Lounge has awesome $3 drink specials every night ($3 Jack Daniels on Fridays, $3 Jager on Tuesdays, $3 tequila on Saturdays, etc).

The Only Cafe at Donlands and Danforth has an AMAZING beer selection and aren't super expensive.
itsee / September 3, 2010 at 07:22 pm
user-pic
Nirvana might count as cheap if they actually poured full ounces, which they never do.
ubp / September 5, 2010 at 06:36 pm
user-pic
I used to live in TO, its so much easier living in Ft Lauderdale. Try the Downtowner Saloon, 5 Bottles for $5 Mondays (Labatts 5 for $10) $2 a bottle the rest of the week, Lauderdale Grill $3 Rum Runners all weekend, $3 Mix your own Bloody Marys at both places every weekend.
Pat / September 28, 2010 at 09:01 am
user-pic
I agree with annakarenina Java should be on this list.
San Y / October 11, 2010 at 09:29 pm
user-pic
Fox and Fiddle
27 Wellesley St Eaast..( just across wellesley subway station.)
Drink Specials
Monday - $11.99 Domestic Pitcher's all day
Tuesday - $4.86 (2oz) Martini's & $4.86 Creemore Pints
Wednesday -$4.86 Moosehead Pints
Thursday - $4.86 MGD Pints, $4 jager shots after 8pm.$3.50 Bar Rails all day.
Friday - $5.22 carlsberg pints & $3.50 Bar Rails
Saturday -$25 Import Buckets all day & 3.99 Caesars till 5pm.
Sunday -$12.99 Pitcher's & $20 domestic buckets
Richard / March 24, 2011 at 12:16 pm
user-pic
$4.00 pints of Creemore every Monday night at Insomnia on bloor and Steemwhistle on Thursday nights
Irish London Ciar / August 31, 2011 at 02:18 pm
user-pic
Java is by far the cheapest boozer in Toronto that we've found so far.
impuissance / December 6, 2011 at 05:50 pm
user-pic
You just copied someone else's story

Add a Comment

Other Cities: VancouverMontreal