Samovar Room

Samovar Room was the Laurentian Room before and failed because the elitist concept in a middle class neighborhood did not work. It’s still not working now after all the fluff and fanfare has died a year later.
Samovar Room is a misplaced bar with aspirations of a restaurant without a chef. The owner Rumen, who is not a chef, will go in the back and cook you up something that you could probably do at home a lot better (except you have to pay for it). On Friday’s and Saturday’s sometimes a live DJ makes it a dance spot, but the Cabbagetown community shows it no love, and neither does the rest of Toronto anymore. House specials? Vodka infused martini’s. Big deal, a watered down, overpriced drink. The vodka bar phenomenon is dead in Toronto apparently and Samovar Room is on life support. It is only a matter of time before it is sold to the next sucker who decides to make it into a «fabulous» club/​bar/​restaurant, and the cycle is repeated again.

Short review. Bottom line, $ 7.25 for a bottle of Heineken is ridiculous, and so is the $ 3 coat check. Especially in this neighbourhood.