The Drake Hotel

Having heard great comments about The Drake Hotel, I decided to go to the place for dinner last Friday with three of my friends. The Drake is located at 1150 Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario. It opened its doors in 2004 and since then the place has become popular between people in their mid twenties and thirties. If you've ever taken the 501 streetcar on a weekend night you certainly know that the place gets very busy, so I'd recommed to make reservations before going if you are planning to drop by on the weekend.

The Drake Hotel opens everyday at 7:30am for its morning breakfast and closes at 2:00am after last call. The atmosphere in the place is great and as soon I walked in I noticed that Alt-J was playing followed by The Postal Service, which make me like the place even better. The Drake Hotel is certainly characterized by its cool and relaxed vibes.

We got to The Drake Hotel by 5pm and the place wasn't too busy, so we decided to sit in the Lounge which had a really cool eclectic style. Once we were set up, we ordered some Sangria pints ($10), which were prepared with strawberries, oranges, lemons, apples, red wine, appricot brandy and soda water. I can definitely say that it's one of the best Sangrias I've had, I just wish it had a bit more of red wine.

After a couple of pints we decided to order some appetizers to share between all of us, so we started with some Popcorn Shrimp ($14.95) prepared with maple mustard and parsley. The flavour combination was great and it was perfectly crunchy.

We asked the waiter to recommend some dishes, and he told us to try the Fancy French Fries ($9.95), which had grated pecorino on top and were simply delicious. We also had the Mushroom Gnocchi ($14.95) and some Lobster Nachos ($23.95). The Mushroom Gnocchi was one of my favourite dishes having spinach, shaved pecorino and wild mushroom. I'm a big fan of gnocchi, but I've found that they are often soft and very sticky. I've got to say that this wasn't the case at all, the potato gnocchi was cooked perfectly and the flavour was great. Additionally, I'd love to say that the Lobster Nachos were incredible, but sadly I'm allergic to lobster. Luckily, my friends tasted them and found them amazing. They were prepared with Nova Scotia Lobster, guacamole, coriander and pickled jalapeno.

Since I couldn't try the Lobster Nachos, I decided to order the Steak Tartar Tostada ($14.95), which surprisingly was accompanied with queso fresco (fresh cheese). After preparing a tostada and having a bite I just concluded that the dinner at The Drake Hotel was for sure one of the best experiences I've had. The combination of the steak tartare, the queso fresco and the hot sauce was amazing and I thought it was a very creative dish since I've never had something similar before.

The overall dining experience was great, I couldn't find something I didn't like in any of the dishes since everything was just prepared to perfection. Also, all the staff was very friend and helpful and the atmosphere was really nice. I had a really fun time at The Drake Hotel and I totally recommend everyone to give this awesome place a try!