On a last minute trip to Toronto, we made a quick stop at the notorious Real Sports Bar located next to the Air Canada Centre. With a prime location to all the major sporting events, it’s definitely worthwhile to call ahead and make a booking.
ATMOSPHERE & SERVICE
Anyone looking for the ultimate sports bar experience do not need to look any further. This multilevel pub features one of the largest HD screens reaching 39ft tall plus 199 smaller TVs, making it one of Canada & North America’s number one bars. There are no favourites here, the bar broadcasts any and all sporting events from the ice to the field.
The restaurant is fitted out with high top bar tables, booth seats and rows of wooden tables and chairs. There is no shortage of entertainment here with the space spanning across 25,000sqft of prime sporting broadcasts.
The service was very quick and friendly. Our waitress made time to walk us through the specials and within minutes of ordering, our drinks arrived. Small talk is one of my selling points with a waiter and she nailed it. She kept conversation brief and to the point, yet very friendly throughout the night.
FOOD
We walked in just after 6pm for a drink and a few nibbles before heading to the hotel. We were told that we would need to give the table back by 7:30pm, which wasn’t an issue for us.
It was a Thursday evening so the special was $5 Long Island iced teas and $5 pilsners. We ordered a round of drinks while we looked through the menu. It was still a bit early for large main dishes so we opted for a few shared starters.
We kept it Canadian and ordered the traditional ‘Poutine’ with real sports house cut fries, cheddar cheese curds and gravy and cheese curds. There could have been a bit more curds but that’s just my preference of gewy cheesy poutine.
Another must have Canadian favourite are the wings! We ordered a few dozen of the ‘Real Sports Ultimate Chicken Wings’. With more than a dozen flavours to choose from, there is options available for everyone. We ordered the hot and the honey garlic hot wings. The hot aren’t overly spicy, so if you’re looking for a real kick, go with the suicide wings instead.
Other flavours include: lime salt Cajun, dry rub Muay Thai, minor league mild, mid field medium, aaa hot, big leagues suicide, chicken parm, bacon maple and mustard.
Sliders are always a must at a sports bar so it’s was required to order the ‘Real Sports Sliders’, which were 3 mini cheeseburgers with their signature sauce. They were very juicy and packed with flavour, definitely worth ordering!
Finally, to change it up a bit we went with the ‘Chicken Lettuce Wraps’, which were a Peking style with crispy vegetables,cashews and green onion. It was okay, but the name of the dish sounded better than the taste. Maybe it was because everything else was so tasty.
Overall this was an amazing real sports bar experience. With more than 40 different beers, 14 award winning wing flavours and 11 delicious burgers, it’s no wonder the place is packed out 7 days a week. Everything you need from a true sports bad us here, endless amount of TV’s, good food & beer and great service.