I attended Bloke & 4th for a company holiday party, and I wasn't exactly sure what to expect before arrival. I'm a regular at BarHop just beside Bloke, and from what I could recall, it was a place full of club-goers, whom I could see constantly smoking if they weren't waiting for bouncers to let them inside.
So, I wore my best "holiday work party appropriate" outfit and jumped in.
And was pleasantly surprised!
The food was delicious (since it was by the Food Dudes, I should've figured), definitely a Canadian/Americana style of tapas to be sure.
The hors d'oeuvres that were passed around were tantilizing, two of my favourites were a steak tartare on house-made potato chips (which were divine!) and a cold shrimp with chutney stacked a-top it (hard to eat though).
For beverages, we could purchase whatever from the rail, but only house beer (which was, honestly, a surprisingly mediocre selection), house wine, and this weird blue mixed drink were free. The blue thing looked like it was blue curacao with a shot of sprite and vodka... no thanks, and the beer was sad, so I stuck with the wine which was better than I expected with the other drinks around. I expect the sad alcohol selection is due to their being a club at night, those places always have the least impressive drinks.
But then, bring on the dinner! We were wowed with several "salads" which were really impressive plates with vegetables on it AS WELL as actual salads, and the meal progressed to these amazing butter chicken meatballs with house-made naan and, the piece de resistance, mouthwatering short-ribs.
So why is this only three stars?
The ambiance, unfortunately, sucked. I felt like I was in a really shitty club the entire time, the staff cleared our tables and chairs the second we stood up to make room for people coming later for clubbing, and I knew it was time to go elsewhere. LOVE THE FOOD, I'd really like to see this place be more of a supper club than an office-bro dance night, but the actual venue was a turn-off.