Pub Crawl Toronto

pub crawl torono logo
Book Now

Toronto Nightlife and Nightclubs Guide

If you’re wondering about where to go for nightlife in Toronto, you’ve probably searched online any of:
“best nightlife in Toronto”
“where to party in Toronto”
“where to dance in Toronto”
“best nightclubs in Toronto”
“best bars in Toronto”
Etc.

Toronto nightlife is spread across several neighborhoods rather than concentrated in one single district. For dancing and partying, there are a few excellent neighborhoods and options- more on all the key places below! And caution: you might have noticed that the internet only talks about a few spots in and around a neighborhood called King Street West as well as a nightclub called Rebel. We’ll let you in on a little secret: Those are the worst places to party in the entire city!

We’ve spent 10+ years partying all over the city to learn about all the best bars, lounges and nightclubs, so you don’t get stuck waiting in line for an hour and paying $30 to enter a club that you hate. Here’s everything you need to know about nightlife in Toronto:

What to know about partying and nightlife in Toronto, by neighborhood

King Street West (“King West”)

  • All the bars are plagued by: long lines to get in anywhere, the crowd consists primarily of bottle service guys and wannabe instagram influencers and drinks are very pricey. It’s super douche so we don’t recommend!
  • For many years, this area was just relegated to King Street. However, as the neighborhood has expanded, the King Street vibe applies to Wellington St. and Portland St. as well.
  • The obvious question you might be asking is “ if this area is so bad, why do I keep seeing this neighborhood online?”
    • For context, every venue in the neighborhood is owned by a handful of owners who all collaborate together and promote each others’ venues collectively. This doesn’t happen elsewhere in the city with this much concentration of venues, collaboration and volume.
    • 20-30 years ago, the above owners snapped up all of the best website URLs like “Toronto nightclubs” “Toronto nightlife” etc. Which meant extraordinarily high rankings in Google search for anyone searching for nightlife which meant everyone naturally assumed this is therefore where to party. Momentum built from there and continues to this day.
  • Despite all of the above, if you want to party on a weeknight, it can be quite fun because:
    • The crowd is predominantly fun local party people
    • Bars and nightclubs are open reliably
    • It is centrally located so the odds are high that you will meet plenty of others (not as much as on a weekend but good by weeknight standards)
    • More on weeknight partying further below!
  • Are you a country music fan? SKIP PARIS TEXAS. It is NOT a country bar! It is “country themed”. In that some people dress in cowboy boots etc and they may play some country music but it is predominantly a mainstream crowd as is the music. If you want a real country music bar, more on this farther below!

College Street

  • This is known as Little Italy and besides the Italian restaurants, is an exceptional neighborhood to dance, drink and party as well.
    • Some of our favorites:
      • Bangarang
      • Track & Field
      • Hail Mary
      • Mrs. Robinson
      • Dina’s Tavern
      • Myst
        • They change their name seemingly every week but it is a mainstay in the neighborhood for partying to latin dance hits!
      • Sneaky Dees
        • A note about Sneaky Dees- you may look these guys up and think “it’s just a Mexican restaurant; what partying happens here?” Sneaky Dees is actually 2 floors. The ground floor is a Mexican restaurant and the second floor is a party spot. Every week they have different theme nights or bands so check the website or their Insta for latest news.

Dundas West (Little Portugal)

  • Dundas is an extremely long street in Toronto but there is one segment of it approximately from Ossington to Dufferin which is the heart of Little Portugal, that is an amazing place to go for drinks or dancing!
  • Some of our favorite places for drinks and to party in this neighborhood:

Ossington

  • Ossington is another very long street in Toronto but there’s a specific strip of it between Queen and Dundas, called the “Ossington Strip” that is exceptional for drinks and partying!
  • Besides drinks and dancing, tons of cool shops, cafes and restaurants to explore and by night, the neighborhood gets crazy in the best way.
  • You can’t go wrong almost anywhere here for drinks.
  • For dancing, where to go:
    • Painted Lady
      • Don’t be discouraged by what you see on Instagram though! They do a lot of indie shows before 11pm and after 11pm they convert to DJ and dancefloor!
    • IDK Social Bar

Queen West

  • Another very long street in Toronto with some specific areas notable for nightlife.
  • From University Avenue to Bathurst is considered “Queen Street West” that has become a bit rough since the pandemic, unfortunately, for bars and nightclub partying purposes.
  • From Bathurst and west from Bathurst is “West Queen West” and another very cool area. Similar to Ossington, tons of cool shops, cafes and restaurants to explore.
  • By night, a ton of exceptional places to go out for drinks.
  • For dancing, a few options:
    • Drake Hotel
      • There are 4 bars in here. The main floor and basement do all sorts of shows (DJ’s or indie live music) and they have a super nice rooftop bar as well!
    • Dog & Bear
      • This is a soccer bar by day and by night on Fri and Sat gets WILD. Note that the party starts later here though; expect it to get busy around 11:30pm

Entertainment District

  • Saint John’s Tavern is exceptional for drinks and mingling but there is no dance floor here despite the DJ spinning tunes
  • Fifth Social is THE place to dance and party in this neighborhood. Note that they do theme nights on Fridays whereas Saturdays is a “typical” party night. Check their Instagram for what is happening when
  • Fiction is also excellent for dancing. Here, Friday is their “normal” party night while Saturday is always theme night so check their Instagram for more.
    • Fiction’s Friday parties are predominantly a university student crowd
  • The Porch is exceptional for rooftop vibes and sometimes has a DJ and dance floor too depending on the weather
  • Dublin Calling sometimes has a DJ and dance floor (when this happens is a bit spontaneous though) but is right under The Porch so easy alternate option. They have games here too for some added fun. Great spot for mingling!
  • Rock N Horse Saloon is THE place for country music in the city. Perfect country scene, complete with line dancers! The big drawback here is that cover is very expensive and the crowd is very varied. Sometimes the dance floor is packed and other times the bar is basically empty for no apparent reason.
  • Gibbons Irish Pub is another fun spot to dance the night away

Kensington Market

  • Excellent by day for shopping, drinks, etc but has fallen on really hard times by night for party purposes. Before the pandemic they boasted a few venues that were consistently, reliably crazy fun. Nowadays much less reliable. We hope they turn things around though!

Madison Avenue Pub (known locally as “The Maddy”)

  • We are devoting a section for this venue all on its own. It isn’t close to any other party spots but it doesn’t need to be. This place is HUGE.
  • Multiple bars in the complex, 1 room has a dj and dance floor another has a dude playing piano while bar patrons sing along! Super fun.
  • Many people go here early and stay the entire night. It’s that good.
  • Note also that this is predominantly a university student bar as well.

Esplanade

  • Bar Cart is exceptional for drinks
  • Bar Cathedral is a ton of fun for dancing but a few things of note:
    • This is predominantly a university student club as well
    • You need a ticket to enter and their ticket purchase system is very challenging to navigate
  • Dolly’s is a brand new country music spot here similar to Rock N Horse Saloon. It opened very recently though so jury is still out about what the vibe will be longer term

Rebel

  • Note it is the only nightclub in Toronto that is as big as anything you would see in other major cities.
  • We don’t recommend it though: like King West bars and nightclubs, it too is plagued by long lines to get in or get drinks, the crowd consists primarily of bottle service people trying to show off and aspiring influencers, and drinks are very pricey.
  • The club is also in the middle of nowhere meaning if you aren’t feeling it, it’s a huge job to get anywhere else and if you are feeling it and stay until close, good luck getting a taxi or uber home.

If these bars and nightclubs that you recommended are so good, why is there so little information about them online?

Obvious question you are probably wondering now…It’s because any promotion they do is primarily on Instagram and they draw crowds almost entirely via word of mouth. And now you have the full story too!

Not sure where to go? Or need help?

That’s part of why we created Pub Crawl Toronto! We run hosted crawls every Friday and Saturday. We take you to multiple bars and clubs so you can experience Toronto nightlife without spending the night figuring out where to go next. Plus you get drink deals exclusive to use, don’t pay cover or wait in lines wherever we go!
Book your tickets to join our crawls here!

Answers to some other common questions about Toronto nightlife

Where can I go out in Toronto on a night that isn’t Fri or Sat?

  • Partying in Toronto outside of Fri and Sat is a bit different.
  • King West is your most reliable option for Thursday nights. The vibe on Thursdays is completely different from the weekend as it is more of a local party scene at all of the nightclubs here.
  • All of the bars and clubs we noted above for all neighborhoods have parties on other days of the week periodically as well. Their Instagram stories and/or posts is the best way to see what they are doing when because weeknight parties by day and bar or club changes every week.

Where can I see a live band perform?

For live music, there are 2 types of live music bars or clubs in the city:

  • Venues where bands play covers of your favorite dance songs (think Rihanna, Britney Spears, Bruno Mars, etc)
  • Venues where bands play *their* music or “unknown” music (i.e. not your favorite dance songs on streaming)
  • For the former, since the pandemic, Toronto has fallen on hard times with the live cover band scene. Options are very limited nowadays. Your options:
    • Jean Darlene Piano Room:
      • It’s a live band karaoke bar! Meaning people at the bar pick a song and the band plays while you sing. So you may or may not be dancing depending on the singer’s song choice. This is one of the best parties in the city. Highly, highly recommend.
    • Drom Taberna (*sometimes*):
      • This bar has a very wide range of live bands every week, from Ethiopian Folk to “typical” cover bands
      • The crowd here is generally reflective of the band. If the band is playing more mainstream stuff, excellent place to party!
    • Dina’s Tavern
      • When they do have a band (check their Instagram for when), they usually wrap by midnight and then a DJ takes over for the rest of the night
    • Ballroom on John St. second floor:
      • The bands can be excellent but sadly, the bar hasn’t built a following so crowds are quite sparse, unfortunately.
  • For the latter, your options in the city:

Noone on Reddit is talking about any of these bars or nightclubs. Is this reliable?

Most people out partying are not on Reddit answering questions because they are too busy partying!😊 Follow our guide and you’ll be in excellent shape!

What’s the difference between a pub crawl, club crawl, bar hopping, bar crawl, party crawl, etc.?

Nothing! They are all the same concept. Even though the names are different, you can always expect something like the first few stops being places to drink and mingle with the last stop being somewhere with a DJ and dance floor to dance and party until late.

Why we created Pub Crawl Toronto

We are a group of friends that moved to Toronto with the same questions as you:

  • Where can I go to party?
  • Where can I meet people?
  • Where can I go dancing?
  • Etc.

And of course, all of our research led us to King West which was a huge letdown for the same reasons we shared above.

Fast forward a few years and while in business school at the University of Toronto, our peers took us to so many amazing places that we never knew existed! (Entertainment District, College, etc.)

This had us thinking:

  • If we had no idea that all these fun bars and nightclubs existed, others are probably in the same situation.
  • Drinking in Toronto is very expensive but because we got to know the best bars and clubs that we partied at, we could get drink specials, no entrance/cover fees and no waiting in lines to enter
  • We’ve done pub crawls aka bar crawls aka party crawls aka bar hopping etc. all over the world and they are a great way to:
    • Learn about nightlife in the city from locals
    • Meet other people in a relaxed, low-pressure environment
    • Party on a budget

So we decided to pay our knowledge forward and start Pub Crawl Toronto! We run our crawls every Friday and Saturday night, all year. You can get tickets on our website.

Hope to see you there!

Visiting Toronto from another country? Read this!

For anyone visiting from out of town, some things to be mindful of about partying in Toronto as it is a bit different from other major cities in North America and Europe:

  • Toronto is a very expensive city to drink in. For various reasons we won’t get into here, all of the best spots in the city typically charge $10 to $20 for a drink.
  • Toronto is also a conservative drinking city. In that you will never find bars offering deals like “buy 4 beers for the price of 1” or “$1 shots” etc. Shameless self promotion but the only “real” drink deals you will ever find are on our crawls (which is part of why we started them in the first place!).
  • Canada is similar to America in that everywhere you go for drinks, you need to add a 15% tip on top of whatever you order. So if your beer, for example, costs $10, you need to pay $11.50. Yes, this is crazy but if you want to get served promptly and not get yelled at by a server, don’t forget to tip.
  • Last call in Toronto is 2am. The best bars and clubs will stay open later than that but alcohol stops being served at 2am.
  • For various reasons we won’t get into here, nightclubs in Toronto are pretty small by big city standards. There is 1 nightclub in the city similar to what you’d see in Vegas or Miami, called Rebel, as mentioned above. But otherwise, partying happens in smaller bars and nightclubs in the city.

Hope to see you on the dance floor soon! 🎉

Scroll to Top