Toronto Life
January 1, 2005

Irish Embassy Pub And Grill

Without a reservation, you’ll need the luck of the Irish to get a table at this after-work fave, but a wait at the bar may provide its own pot of gold: perhaps a stock tip from the rowdy Bay Street regulars. The menu offers all the pub essentials, and then some. Eschew batter-heavy limp calamari in favour of bison meatballs in savoury barbecue sauce ($8)—a perfect mate to a pint of Guinness, one of 14 beers on tap. Among entrées, mild chicken curry ($15) with banana-mango relish on pappadum and a bed of basmati rice refreshes; Irish lamb stew sates big appetites ($14), and the fish and chips—more haddock than grease—rivals Toronto’s best ($14). Alas, cacophonous Celtic music clashes with the din of frenetic post-trading/post-trial one-upmanship.