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| - It's definitely unique. Just not sure that it's all that good.
The best way I can describe the Wheat Sheaf is that of a cockroach that's survived through a nuclear apocalypse, and then watched as the world rebuilt itself around its general location. This is an absolute dive bar in a high-end neighborhood, which "proudly" bills itself as the city's oldest bar -- and has the decor and smell to match.
I can't say I was all that surprised when I first walked in here. Hodgepodge collections of sports memorabilia dot the walls along with random signatures - from former staff members? - while the usual crowd hangs near the back and watches sports games on overhead TVs. The smell in the main bar area is terrible, and the washrooms (what's left of them) made me pine for the visits to Grossman's Tavern just north of there. Broken seats, dim lighting and an impressive assortment of anti-Kathleen Wynne epithets dotted the stall walls.
With that said, the value's actually pretty good. My three friends and I shared a huge plate of nachos, two pitchers of Moosehead and a decent-sized bowl of chili for about $17 per person. The nachos are one of the "signature" dishes, and they pile it high with different kinds of cheese, three dips and leave it cooking so long that half of it is embedded with the paper sheet underneath it, Cronenberg's The Fly-style.
I would have normally given the visit a three-star rating, but the service brought it down. A waitress (a woman who looked fairly young, but also dressed and styled herself as someone way older, with the tattoo to match) spent most of her time standing at the bar flirting with a customer. When it came time to pay, we had to go over and tell her we wanted to get our bills because she was too wrapped up in her conversation to notice anything else.
Maybe that's just par for the course here, but I get the sense that this bar is a bit too laid-back for its own good.
Wheat Sheaf is a decent experience, but it can't escape the trappings of its heritage and could stand to have better service. That said, it's at least worth a visit if you're in the King West area and don't want to deal with the high-priced pretentiousness all around it.
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