The Duke of Kent, Yonge/Eglinton

The Duke of Kent is a pretty standard Duke pub. We were there on a busy Friday evening, but the pub was spacious enough to afford us some seats at the upstairs bar despite our arrival in the middle of a busy night. Unfortunately, the positives more or less ran out at that point. The Guinness was below average and generally not very enjoyable.

The atmosphere was fairly decent, and the volume level wasn't terrible given the number of people in the pub, but again, nothing exceptional. Service was friendly, but somehow rubbed me the wrong way. Maybe I was still jet-lagged from my recent flight. About a quarter of the way through my Guinness, my eye caught the bartender pouring a black-and-tan for some other patron. I understand the concept of 'to each their own' and all that, but I couldn't help feeling that it was a waste of Guinness! Maybe someone thought that the mixture of below-average Guinness and average Heineken would somehow be better than the sum of their parts. Whether or not this was the case, I fear I can't say. I followed up my Guinness with a Glenkinchie 12-year single malt, which I was surprised to find standing on the bar shelf, as it was filled with otherwise pretty unremarkable whisky. So, a bonus point for that. But a negative bonus for the black-and-tan. I guess it all balances out in the end?

Score:

Guinness (/10): 5
Atmosphere (/5): 3
Service (/5): 3

Base Score:11

Bonus:
Glenkinchie: 1
Black-and-Tan: -1

Bonus Score: 0

 

Final Score: 11/20 + 0 Bonus