Soho House Toronto

This places aspires me to have rich friends. The location is amazing, the venue is beautiful, and the service is out standing. Their under 27 special after 11pm is simply amazing for young gunz. Hands down the best Bloody Caesar I have ever had. When I grow up, I will definitely spend my child support money on a membership here.

This summer, my obsession has been rooftop patios and that how I found myself on the patio at Soho House sipping cocktails and nibbling apps on a Friday afternoon.
Thanks to my friend with a membership, I checked in quickly with the front desk and then climbed the stairs to the top. I was rewarded with a seat on an enclosed patio overlooking Adelaide St.
The Soho House offers a 5−7pm happy hour menu with $ 5/​$ 7 drinks and plates. I started with a glass of sauvignon blanc ($ 7) and we ordered a couple of apps: meatballs ($ 5), pizza with spicy sausage, tuna tartar with taro chips, and grilled octopus (all $ 7).
I eventually downed my wine and ordered the Message in a Bottle cocktail ($ 13) which tasted as great as it looked — gin, aperol, and grapefruit juice gave it a super pretty pink hue.
Since the patio is glass enclosed, it did get quite warm in there. Eventually, the staff opened the top awning and let in a nice breeze.
Staff were friendly and service was overall good.
Now I need to find an excuse to get a membership at Soho House.

I’m a fan of Soho Houses around the world.
Since they pride themselves on keeping a little bit of mystery alive, I’m going to keep this review short and not discuss the restaurants, activities and roof of this Soho House location. Do know, if you go with a member you are in for a treat.
I am going to say, if you’re a fun-​loving artsy-​type in a business world, you’ll likely really use your membership. If you’re under 27 membership it’s 50% off, and it’s likely something you will renew well into your later adulthood.

I was lucky enough to attend an event held on the third floor of Soho House. It sort of reminded of the Spoke club: members only, multi-​levelled, rooftop terrace, etc…
I didn’t want to take a million photos of a place I will probably never see the inside of again, but that’s ok. I had my fun and that was about it. I’m not in an industry where I might even consider getting a membership for this type of place.
The dining rooms and lounge areas all looked very inviting though. The bartender was excellent.

One of my favourite places in the city. Bring your laptop and work for the day, have a business lunch or brunch with friends on the weekend. The food is reasonably priced and pretty delicious, Sunday feast is great value. The wine list is solid and not pretentious. I’d give it 5 stars but the service is inconsistent… I’ve had several bad experiences with the wait staff.

As was stated before, aside from the pizzas, the food is terrible. Except maybe the grilled cheese. But if you’re actually health conscious? Forget it. You can get a small portion of a salad that is lacking in ingredients, and it will be inedible due to the amount of salt.
Soho Toronto, why can’t your menu be more like the one in LA?
I also tried to cancel my membership half a year early because i’m moving out of province, but they wouldn’t let me. So I have to pay $ 700 for a club that I will be unable to use. Not impressed.

I love this place! I am biased though because all of my friends hang out here and my boyfriends brother’s company designed it!
You must try the drinks, dinner and brunch!

No place sums up the current shiny-​glass-​condo incarnation of Toronto better than the Soho House. Beautiful to look at, but transient and structurally unsound.
An essential link in the three party axis-​of-​evil that also includes Toronto Life Magazine and the Goodlife in Liberty Village. A place where everything screams «look at me!» and «I’m special» as loud as humanly possible to an audience that’s too special to listen or to recognize the irony. A hall of mirrors. A city I don’t recognize.
They talk about how exclusive and discerning they are when accepting members. God only knows how I got in. On my ‘membership application’ I’m pretty sure that I literally just quoted the lyrics to Def Leppard’s 1981 power ballad «Bringin’ on the Heartbreak».
Perhaps that’s the problem. Because they’re willing to let anyone who’s initiation cheque clears into the doors, you end up with a pretty solid membership base of wannabees and hangers-​on. Let’s be honest… I’m nowhere near an A-​lister. I’m neither beautiful, creative, talented or special… and I was welcomed in with open arms.
The good:
— It’s a really nice space. Chairs on the main floor are angled so that you can see all of the other special beautiful people who are also staring at you stare at them.
— They’ve got a wall of candy. It’s like having a really expensive season pass to the bulk barn.
— They run some cool events. Nothing that you couldn’t find at anyplace else in the city, but relatively well curated and executed. Things like trivia and wine nights.
— The people on the phone have these beautifully fake accents when they call you to confirm your attendance at events. As if you’re speaking to the «London» version of Detroit’s Madonna.
— They have great pizza and occasionally they show movies at the hotel next door.
— It’s really not as date-​rapey as it seems.
— The staff wear awesome costumes.
The bad:
— It’s billed as a social club, but in reality there’s almost nothing social about it. No one talks to one another. You don’t meet anyone.
— Anytime the place is actually full of ‘important people’, they find a way to keep members out. This is particularly true for the film festival, where members are granted the privilege of being second class citizens as the movie studios hold their private parties upstairs.
— Any events that are even remotely interesting get completely booked up before you ever hear about them. Most of the people who RSVP never show, and so there’s a constant last-​minute calling the waiting-​list game always in play. Hey, this velvet rope is virtual!
— Aside from the pizzas, most of the food is terrible.
— Vapid stick insects flock to this place come nighttime.
The silly:
— They have this hilarious habit of trucking in celebrities, I think just so members can say to their friends «I was out drinking with Laurence Fishburne last night». No. You weren’t. You were in a bar where he happened to be upstairs for a moment while he ignored you and then he left.
— Then you have the Canadian personalities. There are lots of them. At one point you have to ask yourself if it’s really worth the price premium to be drinking coffee beside the ghost of Jeanne Beker.
— Absolutely nobody keeps the ‘no phone’ rule. It’s almost as if it primarily exists just so people can think that they’re hardcore rebels by breaking it.
It’s not all bad, but it’s not all good. If you’re in your mid 20s, single, social climby and secretly addicted to US weekly, this may be the place for you.
I decided to not-​renew my membership.

The décor is almost identical to my eclectic re-​use/​re-​claimed/​re-​purposed materials kitchen. Freaked me out for a while until I got use to the idea that what we designed 10 years ago is now very trendy.
Food: Stupidly tasty, fairly priced. So tasty I would consider becoming a member. Wine list is a nice combination of accessible and extravagant.
Service: Gracious and attentive.
Quirks: no phones or food photos allowed. I disobeyed the former and honoured the later.

As a guest I was very impressed and might consider a membership. Very relaxed fun space with attention to every detail. I’ve been to many private clubs around the globe and I have to give Toronto credit for trying, but that’s the problem, they feel like they are trying, they don’t just do. I think the trouble with Toronto’s private clubs scene is they allow anyone that can pay, no screening so you end up with a lot of wannabes.

The membership is only offer to people who are in the creative industry (i.e films, arts, music… etc.). My friend who has membership there invited me out for brunch, and I have to say it was amazing. I love the freshness off the food, and the options available. The décor. makes you feel like your in New York or London. If your in the arts, music, film, or entertainment industry I definitely recommend applying & paying for the membership. Its a great place to have client meetings, drinks, dinner, breakfast.etc.

OK, I am biased … they opened during TIFF, and didn’t have their liquor license yet — so all of our booze was free :) … so, I can’t help but like this place.
It is the private, Toronto is growing up kinda swanky, but still dudes in jeans hanging off their ass and a ball cap (yet fashionable?) alongside stylin’ ladies and guys in crisp suits. Strange. We’ll have to see how this one plays out.
The whole «private» members deal is a mystery to me, but apparently you must go with a member who has paid for the honor of drinking and eating here.
I only checked out the first floor, but the upper floors are supposed to be devine.
I bumped into the who’s who who I figured would be at this kind of spot. So, overall, good for the styling upper scale moose lodge scotch drinking dark trying to be hip with the music too loud spot.
Should be interesting. I’m sure will become a staple in Toronto.

Great food, and top-​notch service. A members-​only social club catering to the arts community. Unpretentious, relaxed and fun.