Morten Andersen knows the English pub that emigrated to Canada and kept its accent, and the Dog & Bear is one of the better ones. It is a Queen West room that shows the football properly by day and turns into something louder once the clock passes eleven.
The pub stands at 1100 Queen Street West, on the corner of Dovercourt in Toronto's west end, a short walk from the Ossington strip. It bills itself as a traditional English pub and sports bar, and it carries enough screens to put every major league in the room at once, from the EPL to the NFL, NHL and MLB (Dog & Bear official site). That spread is the point: a homesick supporter and a hockey crowd can share the same bar without anyone losing their game.
The hours give it an unusual range. The Dog & Bear opens at 11am on weekdays and as early as 8am on weekends, which means it carries the morning Premier League kickoffs that arrive before most Toronto bars unlock the doors. After 11pm the room shifts gear and runs as a late-night spot, a split personality the venue is open about and that pulls two distinct crowds across a single day.
What to order is straight pub. The taps run the usual mix of imports and local lines, the kitchen sends out the fish and chips and the burgers a sports pub is judged on, and a weekend breakfast covers the early kickoffs. Order a pint and the fish and chips for an afternoon match, and keep it simple; this is a room that does the standards well rather than reaching for novelty.
Who it is for is the west-end supporter who wants the game shown with the sound on, the weekend crowd after a morning football breakfast, and the late group that stays once the screens give way to the night-time energy. It reads as a neighbourhood pub first and a sports barn second, which suits Queen West better than a chain fit-out would. For Toronto's arena-scale venues, our roundup of the best sports bars in Toronto covers the bigger rooms downtown.
Best time to go is a weekend morning with a marquee Premier League fixture, when the early opening and the breakfast menu come into their own. A weekday evening match is the calmer option, the pub at its most pub-like before the late crowd arrives. Avoid wandering in after 11pm expecting a quiet pint, because by then the room has changed character and the football has given way to the night.
The corner setting is part of the appeal. The Dog & Bear holds a prominent spot on Queen West with the windows and the patio that a good neighbourhood pub needs, and the room keeps the dark-wood warmth of the English template rather than the cold gloss of a sports franchise. The Tripadvisor consensus sits at a middling 3.7 out of 5 (Tripadvisor), which reads about right for a pub that trades on location, screens and a late licence rather than on the kitchen. Taken for what it is, a dependable west-end football room with a second life after dark, it does the job.
The Dog & Bear earns its place in this guide as Queen West's most committed English-style sports pub, an early-opening corner room that carries the morning football and keeps going long after. For a weekend kickoff with a full breakfast or a late night that starts with the game, it is the west-end pick. For a wider tour of the city, start with our Toronto bar guide.
Sources: The Dog & Bear official site; Tripadvisor reviews; Yelp venue page.
