Toronado

Bar, Eatery

1205 NE 65th St
Seattle, Washington, 98115-6723
United States

// CLOSED //
PLACE STATS
Average:
4.42
Reviews:
12
Ratings:
26
pDev:
9.05%
View: Place Reviews
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Photo of Radcpa
Reviewed by Radcpa from Washington

4.32/5  rDev -2.3%
vibe: 4.25 | quality: 4.25 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.25
They have a great selection on tap. Bottles such as 3matts are also available. Service is pleasant and prompt. Definitely a place worth visiting when in Seattle.
Aug 09, 2019
 
Rated: 4.35 by psoriasaurus from Thailand

Aug 07, 2019
 
Rated: 2.93 by rab53 from Washington

Jul 21, 2019
 
Rated: 4.53 by chrisjws from California

Feb 03, 2019
 
Rated: 4.21 by Keene from Washington

Dec 01, 2017
 
Rated: 3.96 by StoutSnob40 from California

Dec 07, 2016
 
Rated: 4.36 by Erik-P from Canada (BC)

May 27, 2016
Photo of ONovoMexicano
Reviewed by ONovoMexicano from New Mexico

4.15/5  rDev -6.1%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4.25 | service: 4 | selection: 4.25
Bourbon Barrel Aged Dark Star was on tap and it was a 2 year old vintage. That alone made me happy and made the visit worth it.

Pours were small and served in a wine-like vessel, but still worth it. Rest of the taplist was pretty impressive with plenty of notable beers. Vibe was kind of divey, but I came midday and had the whole place to myself practically. That was nice.

Didn't try the food, but didn't get the impression it was good, given the feel of the place. This is a place you drink.
Apr 18, 2016
 
Rated: 4.4 by SimcoeKid from California

Feb 17, 2016
Photo of EdwardAbbey
Reviewed by EdwardAbbey from Washington

4.56/5  rDev +3.2%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4.75 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4.5
Never has something originating in California ever been so welcome in these parts! 40 well-selected & rotating taps, access to special beers, food that isn't an afterthought, and good service. It's almost enough to make me change my mind about the Golden State. Almost. :-)
Feb 07, 2016
Photo of S32
Reviewed by S32 from California

4.91/5  rDev +11.1%
vibe: 5 | quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 4.75 | food: 4.75
Probably my favorite place in Seattle at the moment.

Vibe: Awesome! Empty bottles of rare beers line the ceiling, and I love trying to spot specific brews and making out what everything is. Stickers from breweries on the HVAC tubing on the ceiling, and quite a bit of room.

Location: This is probably the biggest downside for me just because it's far from my apartment. Otherwise, quite a fine location by all means.

Quality: Meticulously clean bar, perfect pours, and FANTASTIC food.

Service: Service has always been the strongest point for me. The owner, Matt is there most of the time, and he is awesome. Need something? Just ask. If you're not one to do that, he checks in with you very frequently. Also happy to make recommendations that I find to be quite personalized based on what I've had before and liked.

Selection: I'd ding selection a bit because they only have like 30 taps (only, lol). But I find that I actually prefer this. Keeps the beer rotating (some places in Seattle with a ton of taps have certain beers for WAY too long), and while it isn't a hundred taps, there is always a ton of quality. I'd prefer their tap list over pretty much anything else in seattle, except for maybe Chucks CD.

Food: Fantastic. One of the biggest problems I have with beer oriented bars is that they have crap food. Matt runs a tight ship here, with 21 day dry aged steaks, freshly ground beef, and a specialization in charcuterie. Also, their pork slider is to die for! Only downside on the food is that it's not cheap... But that's to be expected. Matt isn't getting these ingredients cheap, because he'd rather get quality food. They also have little snacks which are great if you aren't hungry but just want a little something to munch on.

tl;dr go here.
Oct 26, 2015
Photo of JamLand
Reviewed by JamLand from District of Columbia

4.5/5  rDev +1.8%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5
I stopped in here recently on a vacation to the Pacific Northwest.

V: Fairly typical bar with a distinct difference from the SF location.

Ser: I'm torn on the review for service. In a typical review, I would say there was great service. However, I like the prickly nature of the Toronado SF location. You won't get that here, in my limited experience.

Sel: Of the few bars I visited, they had one of the better selections. They did not have as a good a of a vintage bottle list as Toro SF, but part of that can be chalked up to this still being a new bar.

Overall, worth checking out if you are in Seattle, especially if they have Cable Car for sale.
Oct 02, 2015
Photo of ccnorthwest
Reviewed by ccnorthwest from Washington

4.65/5  rDev +5.2%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.75 | service: 4.75 | selection: 4.75 | food: 4
I really enjoyed this Seattle Toronado. I have not been to the other Toronado locations, so comparing them wasn't an option. The tap list was definitely above average for a craft beer bar. The bottle list was impressive, especially because cable car is on it. I was able to split a bottle of CC with my friend and enjoy a pint of Boneyard Skunk Ape afterwards. Great experience, cheers!
Sep 28, 2015
 
Rated: 4.04 by Ajlvt from Washington

Sep 01, 2015
Photo of Canada_Dan
Reviewed by Canada_Dan from Colorado

4.54/5  rDev +2.7%
vibe: 4.25 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.75
Awesome draft selection. Practically unbeatable with some excellent local offerings plus when I was there, parabola, sucaba, anniversary, Deschutes black butte anni... the list goes on. Really enjoyed my time here and all the staff was super cool.
Sep 01, 2015
Photo of doughanson78
Rated by doughanson78 from Washington

4.47/5  rDev +1.1%
vibe: 4.25 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5
Great place with a good tap selection. Food is excellent but a bit on the expensive side. The use only top quality ingredients tho.
Jul 08, 2015
 
Rated: 4.79 by Dicers from California

Jul 06, 2015
Photo of abrodsky
Reviewed by abrodsky from Massachusetts

4.8/5  rDev +8.6%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 5 | service: 4.75 | selection: 4.75
This location is the third Toronado (San Diego, San Francisco) and is AWESOME! Their selection is awesome and always updating with the best local, national, and international craft beer offerings. Ken the owner is a fun bartender who will guide you through a best-of-the-best Northwest tasting and is always finding new food options for the menu (just tried some beef fat fried potato chips - just as awesome as they sound). The other bar tenders are friendly too and all know their shit when it comes to beer. They also have some rare offerings, such as those from the Lost Abbey made especially for Toronado (Cable Car is the best sour beer you will ever try!). They have some wines by the glass, and a pretty healthy whisky list for those not feeling a bottle or draught. On Wednesday's, they do 'take the pint night' where you buy a pint of their featured local beer and get to take the glass home! Hours are awesome, and they're open starting at noon on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Moral of the story - GO TO THIS PLACE, IT IS THE SHIT!!!!
Jun 23, 2015
Photo of greg4579
Reviewed by greg4579 from Pennsylvania

4.89/5  rDev +10.6%
vibe: 4.75 | quality: 4.75 | service: 5 | selection: 5
One of the highlights of my beer drinking career. Got to share a Cable Car and a Matt with none other than Matt himself. Borderline a religious experience.
Jun 10, 2015
Photo of flagmantho
Reviewed by flagmantho from Washington

4.43/5  rDev +0.2%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4.25 | selection: 4.5
I visited Toronado yesterday for the first time and was quite impressed. Their 40 taps are well-chosen with a nice variety of breweries and styles, and the quality of choice is also high.

The environment is good, with cool beer bottles decorating high shelves and brewery and band stickers adorning the space. It's not really old enough to appear lived-in yet, but I can see it developing into a really homey space. Service was good, but I was sitting at the bar so I suppose that's to be expected.

I had lunch here as well, and I thought the food was quite good. It's a smaller menu, but the grub is rich and interesting. I'll definitely want to return here to try more.
May 31, 2015
 
Rated: 5 by Anaxagoris from Washington

May 28, 2015
Photo of cherche
Rated by cherche from Washington

4.55/5  rDev +2.9%
vibe: 4.25 | quality: 4.75 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5
Really like this place...downside would be the menu for food is odd. beers, service, selection all good. wish i lived closer.
Feb 24, 2015
 
Rated: 4.54 by bumchilly25 from Canada (BC)

Jan 25, 2015
Photo of Kurmaraja
Reviewed by Kurmaraja from California

4.03/5  rDev -8.8%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4.5 | service: 3.5 | selection: 4
Vibe is more or less conventional beer bar oriented; as mentioned in other reviews, not the dive or lived in grime feel of SF, which is to be expected from a place that is new. Closer to the SD Toronado, but still a bit more polish. Not surprising, but it's not that far from what you might get if you tried to adapt Brouwers to the location. Thus far, nothing really distinct about it.

Quality of the taps is uniformly high with a good mix of local, national, and odd breweries. With such a great selection of beer bars around Seattle, I've yet to find that they can really distinguish themselves by their taps day to day. The Toronado connection, and the owners connections, do seem to get them some interesting California centric events (DDG and other Lost Abbey beers, rarer Bruery stuff) but these are rarities. I do find it odd that they don't do smaller pours of the high ABV beers or always make it clear what size pour you'll be getting.

Service is fine though sometimes struffles with the balance between restaurant and beer. Some of the servers seem new to the beer world and unable to answer pretty basic questions. I've also been mis-served beers before.

Selection is good, but not exceedingly interesting at all times. It always seems curated to offer good variety. The special events are great, but sort of overwhelm the space. For some, the spirit selection will be a big plus. I was hoping they'd really focus on offering a great selection of bottles for in house consumption a la the other Toronado locations but thus far that's not the case. Perhaps it's part of the growth plan.
Jan 10, 2015
Photo of VashonGuy
Reviewed by VashonGuy from Washington

4.41/5  rDev -0.2%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4.25 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4.25
The new Toronado Seattle just opened. I stopped in on a Thursday afternoon, when the place was quiet ... after the bustle and crowds of their grand opening were gone, but a lot of the extra special beers were still on tap.

They've got 40 taps, and a wide assortment of unique beers. Yesterday, their lineup had fewer small local breweries than a lot of other places around town might have, and more unusual and exotic beers. That might have been their grand opening, or it might be their general approach.

I've been to Toronado SF many times, and this place is quite a bit different. This is three times as large, bright and cheery instead of dark and divey, and just feels like a conventional upscale beer geek bar, rather than a seedy out of the way find on lower Haight. The bar is beautiful ... sit at the center of the bar, and you'll get a cool light show, as the polished metal behind the taps reflects a changing kaleidoscope of colors from the street and traffic outside. The bartender was friendly and courteous as well as knowledgeable.

The beer is great. Prices are not a bargain, but are in line with the higher end pricing at several other specialty beer bars in Seattle. Pints are generally $6 to $9, $1 less at happy hour.

Unlike Toronado SF, they don't do half pours. It'd be good if they did, because given their lineup of unusual beers, many of them pretty strong, you'll want to drink several, and half pours would let you sample more without getting smashed.

It's a a fine addition to the Seattle beer bar scene. It won't displace Beveridge Place and Uber in my affections, but I'll definitely be back.

Update from 12/12/15. I'm revisiting this review, to add some observations on food, and score the individual components, which wasn't possible last year.

First, let me correct what I said above about prices. Tonight, only one beer of 40 was more than $6. Tornado's beer prices now seem to me to be a little less than average for Seattle beer geek joints, and very good value.

The food is very good. We ate from the "munchies" part of the menu, so didn't have entrees. We had an excellent pumpkin soup, a pretty good tamale plate, beef and tuna sliders, and a salad. Overall, it's the best combination of quality food and quality beer that I can think of in the Seattle area.
Sep 05, 2014
 
Rated: 4.64 by jeniham from Washington

Aug 31, 2014
Toronado in Seattle, WA
Place rating: 4.42 out of 5 with 26 ratings