Sky Yard

NIce rooftop patio at the Drake. Kind of expensive drinks but good people watching and good music. Good spot to have a few drinks before going downstairs for the live music.

Great spot in the heart of Toronto for a little history, scenery and culinary experience. Fusion menu of different bites, I enjoyed the lobster and shrimp rolls. The cheese plate to start was good and the overall experience was worthy of a second visit. Try both the sangrias red and white, refreshing treat!

For years, The Drake Hotel on Queen West has been an eclectic hub for artists and musicians wishing to express themselves artistically. When it comes to culinary creativity, executive chef, Alexandra Feswick at the Drake’s Sky Yard restaurant showcases her unique talents with flair and finesse. I attended the Drake Hotel’s summer party on the bustling, yet intimate patio at Sky Yard to sample the restaurant’s newly launched summer menu.
Feswick’s summer menu features fresh and local seasonal items to tickle your taste buds. Her beets and blue cheese salad is an excellent way to begin any meal. Light and refreshing, the dish is comprised of Ontario Stilton, roasted beets, fresh raspberries, toasted sunflower seeds, watercress and flavourful avocado cream.
Crowd-​pleasing albacore tuna ceviche with avocado and charred scallion purée was a big hit. Perfect for sharing, scrumptious morsels of ceviche sat atop a perfectly crispy taro chip, which disappeared all too soon, but the sampling did not end there. Seafood lovers will be in seventh heaven when they take a bite of the pan seared Ontario pickerel with fennel, arugula, pickled cipollini onions and white anchovies. Sourdough croutons gives the dish a nice crunch, while sherry vinaigrette complements the dish with an acidic bite.
A tortilla cradling creamed corn garnished with grilled peach relish is an interesting combination that had me craving more. While I usually enjoy tortilla chips with a piquant salsa, the sweet and salty combinations of corn, peach and chips were both surprising and delightful.
Whet your whistle with Sky Yard’s new Drink Well bottle service program. Take mixology into your own hands by creating classic Drake cocktails such as the dark ‘n stormy, Moscow mule, mojito, gin ‘n tonic and the old fashioned. A mixologist attended to our party, delivered the essential ingredients and taught us how to craft the perfect cocktail. Interactive and fun, the Drink Well program is a more relaxed approach to ordering bottle service and is perfect for birthday parties, a unique bachelorette party idea or simply trying something new.
The evening ended on a sweet note with summery strawberry baklava. Baklava on its own is saccharinely sweet and I was concerned that the dessert would be overly sweetened with the added strawberries. However, it was love at first bite! Decadent and delicious, the strawberry filling was tart and the sweetness was cut with balsamic vinegar under layers of phyllo pastry.
Take advantage of the balmy summer weather at Sky Yard and bask in the sun while enjoying a great evening of delicious food and drink.

We had an awesome time here — white sangria was amazing made with white tequila and Cointreau and fresh watermelon/​lemons/​limes oh my! Salmon tartare had mango with jalapeño — refreshing! The spicy tuna maki was very good! The beets & blue cheese salad was awesome — beets were a little undercooked. The fried chicken thigh had to be our favorite of the night — over the top good! The edamame was tasty. Suckling pig tasted like it was leftover pork — so did not care for that — the beet mustard it came with was awesome as was the fermented cabbage. Danielle our server was a rock star! She was so friendly and was right there when we needed anything! Such a fun place — would be dangerous if I lived close by!

Would not recommend for large groups.
This place has great vibes in the summer and is well decorated. We had a group of 15 so we were given a fixed menu that was both overpriced and mediocre. We told the waitress about the birthday girl’s nut allergy but the side of green beans were filled with almonds. Careless mistake. The striploin was okay — I could have cooked a better one. I asked our entire table how they felt about the food afterwards and it was unanimous that the price is way too much for what you get.
Service was not bad aside from the allergy hiccup. Billing was a little messy too, but I guess that’s expected when you have such a large group. I asked for my girlfriend’s bill to be added to mine, but they added it to another friend’s instead. Good thing I had cash. We were kind-​of rushed to leave because there was another party after ours, but this was expected; they told us this would happen when we made reservations.
One couple arrived to our party really late, and the staff refused to let them order any food because we had to give up the table 30 – 40 minutes from their arrival.
After, we went down the street to midpoint and preferred their cheap/​tasty food. chicken tacos and poutine are killer hahah. Maybe drake is just too upscale for us suburban kids

This place is the worst. Food and drinks are actually great but the staff treats you like sheep. Having sat at our table through dinner, a security guard told us that they’re taking all of the chairs away and that he’s starting with our table.
This would have been fine except that:
1. We still had drinks
2. We hadn’t been brought our bill
3. One of the members of our group was nine months pregnant
Really dumb.

Probably some of the best cocktails in the city. Food is very good to — I’ve been several times and thoroughly have enjoyed it everytime and everything I’ve had. The Strong Man is definitely a fav and my Wifey is a fan to the Spiked Lavender Lemonade. Awesome patio and great way to spend a summer day or night.

$ 10 cover and extremely crowded. There was also a line to get upstairs. Once upstairs the fire pit and outside is crowded with people and intense amount of smoke. Some drunk people also almost threw a beer can at my girlfriend and I. The servers, bouncers. and security was very accommodating and helped with the problem. Great employees to balance this review to 3 stars.

Cucumber Smash… that is all I have to say! Seriously though that cocktail is soo amazing! I’m going to start making them at home, but I’m sure they will somehow manage to not be as good.
I’ve said it before and I will say it again, I love a place that makes a good specialty cocktail. Drake is exactly this place. I feel like Drake is definitely more of a cocktail bar than anything else. I mean sure they have beer and wine, but the magic is really in the crafted cocktails.
It seems like a hip place for young business professionals to hang out.
The sky bar is pretty awesome. The first time I went it was too cold and rainy to really enjoy, the second time was much better. Be warned that on nice evenings after eleven, there will definitely be a line waiting to get into the skybar.
I was a little upset about the fact that the second time we came here they were charging a cover to get in because there was music. After how much I pay for drinks there I don’t really feel like paying a cover as well. Also the music was not worth it at all, it was just some crap DJ playing top forty, and there were a whole bunch of people just standing in the middle of the room on the «dance floor» being awkward. But I will give them a break on this because the first time I went they seemed to have a better band, and they didn’t charge anything. Plus the skybar was great once we got up there and away from the downstairs hubbub.

You’ll find this hidden bar on an upstairs patio at the Drake hotel. They crafted cocktails and lots of spaces to gather. The sky yard has an open are patio where they have a bonfire, and tables covered with open tents. It feels a bit like a young hip group of mounties setup camp there. Although I don’t think mounties carry the big propane heaters on their horses to stay warm when they camp out.
There a tables inside down a long hall and a big rectangular bar inside that you can cozy up to for a drink.
It’s a young hipster scene in a fun eclectic hotel. Downstairs they have live music in the hotels other bar. I hear both typically get busy on weekends but I was there on a Monday and Tuesday so it was busy enough to feel popular but not so jam packed it was overly crowded.
If you are coming from out of town check out the hotel too.

Very cool place to hang out with drinks, maybe a couple of dishes.
I was in and out within the hour or so, however i had a couple of drinks and apps.
Drinks were good and food was good too.
It’s a shame many people experienced horrible service. Our waitress (blonde hair, little) was great.
Id come back here.

Wonderful outdoor space. I just had desert and lemonade here (ice cream sandwich) which was excellent. If you want to booze it up, I recommend the penicillin drink.

There are some pros and cons of this place. As I have come to realize, Toronto as turned into the «hotel club scene» which compared to the US is a bit odd.
It was late. I was hungry. Drake hotel was around the corner. Friday night.
Of course the place was crowded and I made it up to Sky Yard and surprisingly found a seat. Service was slow. I believe there was only one waitress for the entire place aside from the bartenders. There were 2 bars. One on either end of the place, which was fairly small in my opinion. Great for summer time as it’s completely open to the outdoors. Good atmosphere and great people watching.
Decided to order the Drake Burger and Mac & Cheese. Both were excellent. The burger was a bit messy but overall taste was there. The fries were ok and could have been cooked a bit longer. The Mac & Cheese was garlicy, and a tad spicy. The brocolli on it was odd but it tasted good. Reasonably priced for the area.
PROS: Outdoor space, good food, movie screen, people watching.
CONS: Slow service and crowded

I came to this trendy place (at least trendy for Toronto as K-​os was also chilling here) for a birthday celebration and the weather was very agreeable for a patio night. This is mainly 4 stars because we got here a little before 10pm and there was no line to get in, and once in there was no line to get upstairs, and by the time we came down to the main floor both those lines were fully formed.
I don’t take it out on a place for overpricing bar drinks, foods etc because it makes sense to pay that certain «luxury tax» if you want to go to nice places. And the Drake is indeed a fab place and I was willing to dish out well more than $ 10 for a drink. Some of their beer options I saw chalked above the bar did seem very ridiculously overpriced but our drinks were around $ 15 or $ 16. I really enjoyed mine, it sounded great when our server described it to us and it ended up tasting very much like licorice which for me is not a horrible thing. But some people don’t fancy that (I can’t recall the name though).
I also got myself a $ 15 tuna tartare off their great looking dinner menu and it was indeed very nicely done. I highly recommend getting some food as they seem to have a few options that are great for sharing.
Seating was semi-​communal with benches set up leaving not a lot of room to walk around. At a location such as this with the amount of people present I was surprised that our server was not that hard to get a hold of and she was very friendly and chatty even though it was very aparent that she was rushing to get stuff done and she made the experience a much better one.
I can see how people would not enjoy it here if they are stuck waiting in line to get up and then once up they find they have to stand drinking expensive cocktails. And of course I was lucky that we had good service too. The other great thing is that you can easily go downstairs to 2 separate club-​like atmospheres which is a great plus if you just want a bit of dancing to burn away those calories you just gained from drinking.
For the best experience arrive early and make sure you try and have a reservation.

I’d been meaning to check out the Sky Yard for a while, I like the rest of the Drake, but somehow never made it up. Being able to sit up there on a beautiful day, knowing you are steps from the city, but feeling like you are at a resort is the best. They have an inventive cocktail list and the bartender knows what he is doing. Can’t remember the names of the drinks we had, but they were all great. We also ordered a bit of sashimi which was obviously high quality. Our server was attentive, but a bit weird… that seems to be a trend. Fantastic place to while away a lazy summer afternoon.

So things started off really well here.
I came with a bunch of co-​workers for some drinks. The couple of us that arrived first grabbed a booth out on the patio. The server was really friendly and quickly got us some drinks. She was on top of our table all night as more people arrived and she kept the drinks coming. Unfortunately a little ways into the evening it started to rain and we were forced into the covered area around the bar. We settled our tab with the waitress and hung out while either waiting to see if the rain would subside or if a table would open up.
Eventually a large booth in the corner did open up. Much to our disappointment another group had already booked the table when we attempted to sit down. Though, about 15 minutes later the group told us we could have the table as their waitress seemed to be ignoring them so they left the table for us.
As soon as we started to sit down this random douche bag of a waiter (I want to say manager but I’m not totally sure) comes over to the table and the following conversation ensued:
Waiter: «GOOD EVENING LADIES AND GENTLEMEN. HOW MANY OF YOU WILL BE DINING WITH US TONIGHT?» (it’s all in caps because this guy was clearly making sure everyone in the bar could hear him because he was such an important person).
Co-​worker: «Uhhhhh…I think there’s like 10 of us».
Waiter: «WELL CLEARLY THIS IS A TABLE FOR 8».
Co-​worker: «No problem, we’ll just squish in or just pull up a couple chairs».
As I was counting exactly how many of us there were (there were only 8), a little banter back and forth with the waiter happened where he continued to be a complete ass. Finally, even after saying there were only 8 of us he said that he would «see if he could make it work». He had thoroughly pissed us all off by that point so we promptly left and went across the street to The Beaconsfield.
I will never come back here.

Yesterday was one of the better days weatherwise for Toronto and some friends and I decided to hit up the Sky Yard which is a patio lounge at The Drake Hotel. We walked upstairs and seated ourselves and this waitress with some ugly acid wash shorts who was too hip for her own good half heartedly gave us some menus. My friend proceeded to ask her if we could have another chair to which she said «Ummmm if you can find one…». Funny because not even TWO seconds later we saw her with some restaurant staff lifting an ENTIRE table and moving it to accomodate other patrons. She came by to ask if we wanted drinks to start with and we told her we were waiting for a couple more people to join. Even the worst of servers in such situations would ask you if you wanted some water to start with but this one was over it. I am not sure if it was because we were the youngest people at the joint? But in my defense I never got the memo that 23 was the new 13…
Our other friends arrived 10 minutes later but our designated server was not into her job clearly as we sat there for about 25 minutes with not so much as a are you guys ready to order now. The final straw that broke my back was when she walked inches away from me and I in the politest possible manner said «excuse me» which was duly ignored… I’ve seen crack addicts in Toronto begging for money get more considerate attention from passers by. My friends and I decided to leave at that point and we walked over to the Gladstone hotel where we had the most delicious meal and the most delightful waiting staff… our server even did a halfsies with salad and fries as a side for my friends burger order… wicked!
Sad truth is that our group of 6 something friends were starving, down to feast with some drinks and we were not messing around. Rest assured I am over the Sky Yard like I was over platform sneakers when the Spice Girls split.