Perfect afternoon to head to the park. Better yet, we headed to the King City Craft Beer Festival…read moreand Food Truck Festival. This is an annual event that's hosted on one Saturday at the start of summer. The entire town seemed to have shown up as the small festival ground was packed with families & groups of all ages (many with pets) to make for a lively atmosphere. Once inside we briefly roamed around the festival ground and craft beer tents, before settling on ordering Urban Smoke's $10 brisket poutine based on the healthy lineup. Fries were crisp but the gravy sort of overwhelmed the flavour of the BBQ brisket slices. Slabtown Cider quenched our thirst well, so we tried both their legendary cherry and founder's dry cider. However another craft beer (aptly named Psychedelic Sunday) tasted like watered down perfume so I'd chalk that as a recipe gone awry. The other food truck that peaked my interest was Buster's Sea Cove. Figured I'd save a trip to Boston by ordering their $15 Lobster Roll! Their roll turned out to be about the size of the accompanying pickle slice, though filled with decent portion of lobster. For dessert, my wife had to try Funnel Cake Express to reminisce of CNE. Their funnel cake was a solid option: crunchy and not overly sweet from the light chocolate, caramel and maple syrup dressings. Admission started at $10. Gate fare was $20 to sample drinks, with 3 tokens that redeemed basically half a cup each (additional tokens were $2). Since we came with family, the festival was not perhaps the best value for the limited itinerary plus live music. We were in-and-out within 1.5 hours before heading to the nearby playground to enjoy the beautiful day.

As of late, I have been entering contests and have had good luck on my side. Here's hoping that I…read morehave not jinxed it. On Instagram, I saw that Yelp GTA was giving away tickets to the King City Craft Beer and Food Truck Festival. I decided to give it a try, which required reposting Yelp GTA's pic, tagging a couple of sponsors, and declaring that you want to go. My dearest friend saw my post and sent me a direct message saying, "I was hoping that we could hang out on June 9. Were you really thinking of going to this festival or just going if you win tickets? If you aren't a winner, we can still hang out." We have known each other since grade 7. I like that she still will be my dear friend, whether I am a winner or loser. Guess what? I got the nod that I have won a pair of tickets. Go, me! I tagged my friend, saying that we're going. The plan was for her to drop by my place, park, and we'd go in my car. Perfect! Thanks to Amanda, Kris, and King City Parks and Recreation for having us at this festival. The catch was figuring out whether we wanted to pick up the tickets through a quick Yelp get-together, or simply pick up tickets at Memorial Park just before the festival starts. We went with the latter. My friend and I got to venue at around noon. I didn't know where to park and ask what seemed to be a volunteer in a purple shirt. She said that parking on the residential street that we were on was fine. The downside was that she was talking to us facing the park. We were looking at her back in my car. Weird. Anyway, I parked and we walked in. I was to look for Kris and a Yelp sign. I saw nothing. My friend needed a washroom and she left to investigate. I seem to be an easy target for Kris to find me. He yelled my name out, which is now customary, and walked over. He told me that he loves this festival and hoped that I would, too. He gave me my tickets. We chatted some more. He pointed out to stop by the Yelp stand to vote for the best beer and food, and we wished each other a great day. You also get free wifi to vote, which lasts for fifteen minutes. The volunteers were not all that prepared, which is the main reason why I am not giving a five-star review. First, we asked whether we were going to drink beer at the front makeshift gate. Um, yes. My guess was that the tickets come with drink tokens. You get a green-coloured wrist band. Second, we had to show ID. No one looked at our ID. Did we look like senile old women that we didn't need to flash our IDs chiselled on rocks? Third, we didn't know which lineup to go to. We chose the one on the left. The fourth point needs a new paragraph. I approached the table. There were two volunteers. One asked for my name. I gave mine to her. She looked at her list and then realized that I wouldn't be on it, as I was holding tickets. She proceeded to give me three drink tokens. I said that I have two tickets. I should be getting six tokens in total. Her sidekick agreed with me. She didn't give my friend three tokens. Um, I'm waiting. I literally had to tell her to provide three tokens into the palm of my friend's hand. OMG, kill me! Anyway, my friend had to use the portable potty. We walked over. We were the first folks to use them, so they were clean. There was a handwashing area to the right. Perfect! We sampled some beer and cider. We ended up chatting with a number of vendors. The two beers and cider that I tried were fantastic. The folks selling them were enthusiastic and nice. Everyone was nice. My friend took a photo of the BMO folks working the stand for them. We enjoyed the various musical bands and acts that were playing. We got food. I had to get a tornado potato with sea salt. It is essentially a spiralized potato on a stick that is deep fried and salted. So good! My friend and I liked it. I have such a weakness for empanadas. We raided the Chacha Churros truck. I got beef and my friend got vegan empanadas. They were so delicious and packed full of fresh, flavourful ingredients. We loved them so much that we came back to get churros. Both folks working the truck remember us. I told them that their food was amazing. The churros had the best cinnamon flavour I have had in a long time. Wow! We visited every stand. I liked visiting the York Region one. You answered trivia questions and you end up winning a cup made of recycled materials that comes with a straw and a lid. We both got one. You could also fill up your water bottles and even these cups at the free water fountain next door. Nice! Naturally, I stopped by the Yelp booth to get some swag and vote for my favourite beer and food vendors. I liked that one person there said that she has seen me around. I suppose that I have been to more Yelp-sponsored events this year than my four years being a Yelper combined that I am fairly easy to spot! I had a fabulous time at this event. I got to experience so much wonderful food and chat with friendly people. I would definitely give it a go again. (227)

Stopped by to watch a sports game. The venue has a bowling alley section that was much busier,…read morewhile the lounge area where I was seated was quieter and more relaxed. The lounge was spacious and provided a great setting to enjoy the game. We ordered the wings with gochujang sauce ($20), house fries ($9), and ice cream sandwiches ($10). The wings were delicious, with a great balance of sweet heat from the sauce. The ice cream sandwiches were generously sized--easily enough for two people to share!

So growing up I was a hardcore bowler and was okay…read more Took the fam to bowl here for an hour My observation is that it is incredibly expensive $150 canadian per hour and the lanes are mickey mouse Pins are attached by string so you do not get pin action Lanes are warped and overwaxed Great for expensive entertainment but if you are coming for serious bowling.....Nope

Can't recommend this circus enough!! We all had so much fun recently! Looking forward to going…read moreagain next year

Amazing show. No notes, trapeze artists were my favourite part. Can't wait to come back!read more

We received tickets for Cavalia Odysseo from friends and couldn't pass up a date night downtown…read more The tents are located towards the water, across from the Gardiner. It was difficult to find a path across, but eventually made it a few minutes before the show started. Hint: Take Parliament Street. Parking is $20 if you park in their lot. I believe I saw some who prepaid for $15. If you don't mind a short walk (or a long walk), there's parking nearby for $10-$12. We found a parking spot for $3 near George St and Adelaide St E. Once you walk in, there is a lot of upselling. You can visit the stables for $20 for children and $30 for adults. There are also printed programs for a price. They also have merchandise on sale, but nothing has a price on it. The show itself is pretty cool. I would say the show is 60% horsemanship and 40% acrobatics. Essentially like Cirque de Soliel with horses. It's amazing how well-trained the horses are. They will come to the riders when called upon, usually with a simple outstretched hand. What's more amazing is that they can control over 4 horses at a time. Having said that, though, there were a few occasions where the horses ran off on their own and you can tell that it was unscripted because the riders will run after the horses. It just goes to show you how hard it is to do what they do. The riders do some crazy things, mostly around mounting and dismounting horses while they're running. The acrobats were really great as well. They definitely showed how skilled and how strong they are. There was a lot of jumping, back flipping, standing on shoulders, and balancing on poles and rings. The acrobats were definitely enjoyable to watch with or without horse involvement. We also enjoyed the music, which was played live. From what we can tell, there was a single, guitarist, violinist, and drummer. There may have been more musicians, but we couldn't see them. The musicians were really good. I thought I was listening to a studio recording until I noticed them playing live. Overall the show was really good and if you like horses then this is definitely the show for you. Prices are pretty high, but horses have to eat too! Don't try to switch seats during the show/during intermission because their ushers will come by and yell at you.

I made the mistake of seeing Odysseo without having a particular fondness for horses…read more The acrobatics weren't nearly as excellent as Cirque du Soleil and the main focus of the show was definitely the magnificent horses. If you are interested in these beasts, then you'll have a blast. But, if you are just looking for a fancy show, you are probably better off going to a Cirque performance or maybe catching a broadway show. SPOILERS BELOW: Choreography (of the humans) was often out of sync, and supposedly symmetric formations often had one or two stragglers. On the other hand, the horses were very cute, and their spontaneity provided some of the most endearing moments of the show. A horse stopping by to drink water from the lake was very natural, and although unplanned, it was sweet. Another horse getting lost on the way off the stage was also natural and sweet. Going into Odysseo I expected to, at a minimum, see the classic formation of two riders side by side on a pair of horses with a third balancing on their shoulders. Unfortunately, even this staple of horse acrobatics was not included. Disappointing.

Video game bars are all the rage. It's definitely fun to do something other than sit at a bar and…read moredrink. I like that you pay a cover charge and you can play unlimited instead of having to pay per game. Drinks are decent price. The location is small, so there aren't a ton of seats, or games for that matter. But it's a fun place to go. I wouldn't say it good for large groups though.

There weren't as many video games as we thought would be here…read more It was fun for a little bit but everything is so close together, that you're way too close to other ppl while playing. I didn't care for that. I liked playing pinball the best. Those were cool. Drinks are of course overpriced. It's $10 per person to play as much as you want. No quarters required,unless you want to play the claw machine. Then u need money. They open at 4pm and on Saturday night, closed at 2am. We were only there for about an hour & 40 min. It's probably more fun for little kids to have a birthday party there with lots of friends. It's not a bad deal though if you love retro video games.

This was our first return to Putting Edge since they moved into the Colossus plaza after the huge…read morefacility they had near IKEA/Dave and Buster's. We were a bit skeptical of how it would measure up, because it's in a much smaller unit, but we turned out pleasantly impressed. The one obvious improvement is that it's newer than the old facility, but it's been a few years since they moved. Yet, it is still very fresh and clean. We booked our tickets online prior to going, as recommended on their website, to avoid any wait behind others to get started. Sure enough, we only had to wait a couple of minutes once we arrived to get started. In the meantime, we wandered among the arcade amusements you can enjoy. You can purchase ticket packages in bulk if you want to enjoy the arcade machines and games in lieu of or in addition to your mini golf experience. We were handed out putters and able to choose what colour glow-in-dark ball we wanted. We were able to begin right away. Throughout the entire 18 holes, we rarely had to worry about waiting on people ahead of us, or causing delay to anyone behind. It wasn't perfect, but it was a testament to how well they manage to stagger entrants. All of the holes were different, in terms of layout and paint design. Everything was aesthetically pleasing. The challenge level was a good medium so that you don't want to scream with frustration, but not so easy as to make it absolutely boring. I'd say we spent maybe 90 minutes or so in total to complete the course. We were asked if we'd like to have a scorecard to keep track, which we did. It wasn't always easy keeping up, moving along, and writing scores on the fly, but it made it a little more fun to keep the competitive streak running. We dropped our putters off before exiting the course and were done. It was a great family activity, which I'd recommend with any group you might want to play with. They also offer party packages, with a full sized party area to accommodate a celebratory meal. We'll definitely return every so often for a fun, family experience.

Not the best mini golf experience. Up until about the 15th hole, the course was not very exciting,…read morebesides the glow in the dark decor. The staff were super nice and the price wasn't bad at $16 per person for mini golf. There is an arcade at the entrance that is fun but warning, it's very expensive and the credits are consumed very quickly! We went through $80 worth in about 15 minutes, just waiting for our name to be called, despite that we had a reservation (they tell you to go early, now we know why). The other issue was that they didn't space the groups up enough so we spent a lot of time waiting in line for the next hole, and there's not much room so you feel like you're in the way of the course. We really wanted to like this place, especially for a good rainy day activity. Doubtful that we will be back.

Like many Yelp'ers, I would hardly consider myself a regular at the TRANZAC Club. I come here once…read morea year for Queen's Players (Queen's as in the university and not the borough in New York). It's a-ok. The bathrooms are a tad nasty .... the low-quality beer's reasonable .... the space can accommodate a significant number of people. Anyway, this place (when I go to see the Queen's Players) is an escape to a time when I was a naive, carefree university student at Queen's.

An interesting and eclectic venue. The only place to find Bluegrass, Celtic music, book launches,…read morelive theater and more. The bar and smaller stage in the front is usually open and doesn't require cover, while most other events on the main stage do. The bar also servers a variety of delicious pints including Mill Street and St Ambroise. Its a good spot to for a drink if you want to see something esoteric.

I debated whether or not to write this review, as my experience was based not on the King Street…read morelocation but rather their setup during the annual Festival Street during TIFF. The item I ordered is actually on the restaurant's menu, so I ultimately decided that it's fair game. They had a few tasty-looking items but I opted for the Jamaican Patty Spring Rolls ("Wagyu beef, jerk seasoning, habanero, jerk BBQ aioli"). I wasn't expecting much more than generic patty filling within the context of a spring roll. I couldn't have been more wrong. This is one seriously, epically tasty food mashup. The Jamaican patty filling is almost insanely flavorful and delicious, and I can safely say I've never had a Jamaican patty that complex and tasty. Using a spring roll as a vehicle is genius, and that amazing aioli takes the whole thing over the top. I enjoyed this concoction so much I ordered it again the next day. It's been a long while since a food item has so thoroughly knocked my socks off. I'll definitely have to pop into Greta's brick-and-mortar location, if only to eat those spring rolls again.

Greta was such a fun vibe. The music was lively and the games were entertaining. Service was quick…read moreand friendly.