The Foundry in Thunder Bay

My rating is based on a company party that I attended here last week. As someone who bartended and served at restaurants all through their 20s, our server was dressed in a manner I would deem unkempt to serve a corporate event. Dirty shirt, messy hair. Her basic steps of service were lacking as I never once even learned her name. Drinks were wrong and guests had to walk down to the bar from the loft to have them corrected themselves. No one in the party of about 20 thought any dish was better than average. Some mains were brought out not to order preferences even though there was a long wait time on the food. The appetizers were sad. And I can t even begin to describe my disappointment in the mozzarella sticks which going into this event I had raved about and looked forward to. Overall I wouldn t eat food here again. I have been to this establishment many times and the food quality has been declining since the end of Covid. They host fun events and the vibes are good here but I wouldn t come for anything more than a drink again.

Great fish and chips!

Cool bar! We heard the local band Boom Town . The music is great, but the volume is too loud for the room. Cool non-alcoholic cocktails.

Honestly, not sure if there was a previous flooding or something but the restaurant kind of smelled like old wet wood or wet towel, I went for food so the smell threw me off my appetite. It s always a 10/10 place for atmosphere so I was upset till the excellent service took very good care of us. The food was great!

First timers at this restaurant in Thunder Bay. We ordered our food and the fried dill chips came first. They were delicious but the dip could have been spicier. All around us, people were getting their food but our order took extremely long and when it arrived, my sisters club sandwich was good;, a burger was cold and sinewy; grilled cheese was cold. My Greek salad was supposed to have arugula in it but it was all spinach as was my sisters side salad. My chicken on the Greek was not Souvlaki but a cold chicken breast. My pita were stone cold and crispy, not soft and chewy. Coffee was hot and delicious. Overall, an underwhelming first experience. The wait staff were excellent but terribly overworked.and run off their feet. The restaurant was packed at lunchtime but only two women working and I really felt for their efforts. Nobody on the bar either. Sorry, but I will not be back. It s a shame because we came based on my nephew s recommendation. We love to support local restaurants too.

Great beer and cocktails selection, excellent food, fun events. Even better: wonderful staff. I left my umbrella there before a long weekend and the servers and bar staff stowed it away and kept it safe for me, picked it up later without difficulty. Really a gem of a pub; you cant beat it.

Good vibe, cheap drinks!!

I entered The Foundry to place a takeout order and despite being directed to the bar to place an order, I waited 15 minutes with no service while the bartender at the bar sat and ignored me to chat with another despite serving them one drink and talking for the rest of the time lol. I wouldn t recommend it as I clearly present as an Indigenous person and I was blatantly ignored by the multiple employees at this place. I don t know much about the food or drinks so I can t comment on that but I don t care if they don t offer something as simple as common courtesy for paying customers.

Excellent service and food.

Ian is an amazing server, we go out every Thursday for lunch today The Foundry was chosen. There is a group of us the food was good, we had fish and chips the portions were very generous and very tasty.

Great service and excellent food.

I liked the Margritta , not much the mozzarella sticks but the tomatoe sauce was great.

Good drinks! I would say service can be a little slow at time.

Great place for our Christmas party.

This was my first visit here, and it was fabulous! The service was spot on and the food was outstanding! It was Tuesday so it was chicken finger special and we decided to give it a try. Wow! Were they ever good! Especially with their home made dill dip! This is definitely a place I will be returning to! Excellent!

New years eve so very busy .good staff could have used more bartenders . Good atmosphere

The kitchen closes earlier than I wouldve liked, wanted some apps but we got there too late. Otherwise a great time

Abbie always goes above and beyond, couldn t ask for better service

Love the foundry. Best live music venue. Staff are friendly and respectful. Food and drinks are good. We keep going back!

I ordered tofu noodle bowl, actually super good. Staff is so nice. Love this place.

Cold food, warm drinks.

Nice peoples

It was a Friday night and it was hopping, lots of good energy. Mostly university aged ppl, Im old so the crowd wasnt young for me but the live dj and band had good tunes going. Dance floor was packed.

Overall experience was great!

After every work week I go there to unwind, great service, great food and awesome drinks,

Thank you to the amazing team at the Foundry!!! Last night we held our Annual Royal LePage Lannon Realty Awards Dinner at the Foundry. The food was amazing! The Venue looked incredible!! The service level provided by The Foundry Team was exceptional!!! You made planning the event and hosting our team incredibly seamless! Thank you for making our event extremely memorable!

Amazing meal great atmosphere

Cute little place in downtown Thunder Bay. It was trivia night so it was a busy but fun crowd. We had great food! The panzarotti was as big as my head! Hot and fresh, it was delicious. All of our meals were good and the service was very helpful and attentive. We had no issues whatsoever and would definitely return again.

Ordered the nachos, and steak and avocado salad. Was so good!

Great food and lots of beer selection on tap!

First tasted good and service was friendly. We were there on a trivia night so it was exceptionally busy and our food took an extremely long time to come. Our server apologized a number of times and gave us a 20% discount so that was a nice gesture.

Great staff, great place

Nice hotel

Absolutely love this place. Been here multiple times. Food and music, great time with friends. Nice cocktails too

Fun place with good food.. intill last night.. when they sold us drinks ten minutes before closing time and told us no need to rush. Just after twelve, another tell us to hurry up and leave.. when trying to tell him.. he went up in pitch and got rude.

I like the beef sandwich and their twisted fries

This is an awesome pub to go to great food great service

Stood there for 20 minutes with five bartenders, and nobody would serve me. Apparently they were too busy and one woman commented on how busy they were yet they were all just standing there.

Horrible service. It was my first time ever being at the foundry, If I could give 0 stars I would. I waited 20 minutes with my auntie with FIVE SERVERS to get a drink and DIDNT EVEN GET A DRINK. The man beside me had made a comment about how ridiculous this is to be waiting this long and how horrible the service is and wished us good luck, so WE GOT KICKED OUT for his remark, as we got accused of talking shit according to the bartender with red hair and glasses. She made some crude comments saying she won t serve us and that we need to leave. Terrible service. Terrible atmosphere. Will not be returning and will be sure to spread the word.

Great food!

Update July 27th 2023 Panzo was ok nothing great and service was lacking Food

Absolutely awful.. everyone at my Table ate before I even received my salad. I was the only one who ordered salad.. and wasnt even able to eat it there.. had to take it to go.. never ever again.. went in hungry left hungry awful service.. Didnt even get an apology 30 mins we were there and didnt get my salad and 12 other people ate??? Does anyone see a problem here?

Good food and good service

Best chicken tenders I ve had. Chicken was moist and the buttermilk coating was great. Didn t care for the dill mayonnaise dip I really tried to like it but just didn t. Service was very slow. Not sure what the issue was or if this is the norm there.

Good food and service.

Great meal outside on the patio. Staff was friendly and the service was solid. Cant wit to come back again.

My wife and I enjoyed the food immensely . She wishes she could get the deep fried pickles everyday. The place looks great inside. Our server was very pleasant. It was just hard to get their attention when we needed refills or to get the bill.

Always a great place to stop for a beer and a bite. Great taplist and impressive can selection.

The bartenders were so helpful and friendly! They really made us feel welcome. Food was good too!!

Very cool atmosphere. Great service, very kind and helpful.

Great place to grab a bite. Casual atmosphere. Extremely friendly staff.

They put on lots of fun events throughout the week! They usually crank the music up after 9pm. So, if you re looking to just sit and chat I d say it s not great for that, but if you aren t then it s a really fun spot!

friendly staff, fair pricing and tasty drinks and great live acts including Venom

A cozy lovely place in Tbay, the staff are nice and friendly. The food and drinks are nice just sometimes the performances are not worth attending.

It was blast

Teijo is amazing! Love the gluten-free Moroccan Soup!

Visited for the Sea Shanty night and oh what a night... Great atmosphere, reasonably priced drinks, and they even gave us gifts of Guiness mugs. A 5 star from me

Chicken tenders are an excellent amount of crunch and the accompanying housemade dip is amazing! And their truffle fries (when they are available)... They go with everything!

Great food. Welcoming atmosphere. Wonderful staff.

Incredibly rude manager, terrible music and the prices for drinks are outrageous. Its a DIVE!!!!!!!

Went here for nacho night, enjoyed the food and service.

Lovely place. Great food. Good staff. A little loud sometimes

Great beer selection, lots of taps, proper pub style and something for everyone. They have really upped there food options and quality from years back. It wasnt bad before or anything, it has just gotten better. They have had trivia nights here mid week, lots of fun.

I went here with my brother. I am Canadian but I have been living in Minnesota for 15 years and I dont have the capability of getting a QR code, but I do have paperwork showing I have my vaccines. Apparently that was not good enough for them. I have been welcomed into other restaurants in thunder bay with having my vaccine paperwork because they understand being from Minnesota this is the only thing that I am capable of having. So long story short if you are coming in from the U.S.A the foundry will not welcome you.

worst and rudest security I have ever met

I have to say I went for lunch with my daughter yesterday there and was very disappointed!! I like to support local but honestly don t think I will be back!! We waited 1and 1/2 hrs for our lunch ! When I asked what was taking so long our waiter told me they were waiting for more orders and then do them all together. There was a only 3 tables filled more people came in after us too and they got served a lot faster then us!! My daughters Buffalo chicken wrap had no sauce on it and my fish and chips were just ok!! Will not recommend !!

Amazing local food and atmosphere!

Good food, good beers, good music, great energy, aweome people... time flies inside here... highly recommended

I went there the other night, and it was more like an experience then a dinner. Sort of funny because I was able to bring the entire room into laughter the wait staff told me that I was the best customer they had in a year. I didnt even know that I was a comedian but I appreciate the great service and awesome food. I cannot downplay how great this place is and would not bother going down the street for second rate service

Went on a Friday night and it was packed. The bands were great but also a little too loud (sound quality). They had tons of security and they werent slow to take people out if they noticed an issue. Dude to girl ratio was little unbalanced..

Cool atmosphere, and service is always good. Food is great for lunch and theres always a good selection of local or regional beer.

Great settings

Great food, wonderful staff, the building was amazing keep up the good work!!!!!

Was very impressed with the Foundry! I was on a work trip and my co workers and I were told to eat here. Best homemade chicken fingers I ve ever had! Also very impressed with how much detail and care they put into their food and drink - the attention to detail is well noted :)

Great staff, good food, wide selection of drinks!

They have live music on Monday night from 7 to 10 and the food is always good. So Monday is where we will be.

The staff and doormen always helpful and polite and work very hard. Low review because no bottled beer at a place where you want to dance? Just weird. I know everyone is liking this new era with 12 dollar cans...... but sometimes you want to hold a budweiser while you dancing so it doesnt spill all over.

Buttermilk chicken pieces and sweet potato fries were excellent! Burger and ceasar were were delicious. Go there!

The music was fun but I think that could be a good idea to add some Latin music, reggeton, or even with variety for everybody. Bar system to sell drinks was a nightmare, you depend if the bartender knows you or look at you. 25 minutes waiting for 2 beer I think its too much time. If this place wants to improve, I think they have to add more quality to the bar system, or even hiring more people at the bar. Coul be better.

Friendly service, nice atmosphere. The food was yummy and hot. Killer portions (come with an empty stomach if you want to finish the panzo). They have a patio as well

Amazing costumer service and great food

Service was extremely slow. Food was Subpar and over priced. We got 1 pizza and an order of wings. Never got our second order of drinks and server gave us the wrong bill. When we realized the mistake they could only refund the difference in cash. We paid with cc. The server was friendly but it was a 2 hour long process that should have been a quick 30 to 45 min dinner.

Best place to have drinks and fun

Very nice staff and great place. It was very busy while I was here, and although the front of house was good, the kitchen was backed up. It took about an hour to get a few fish tacos, which were very good, but still quite the wait.

Their shots were delicious

We have been there 3 times and each time the food is absolutely amazing for a reasonable price.. The live entertainment is also top notch

Excellent food. Freshly made. Generous proportions, tasty. Friendly staff. Spacious dining both in and outdoor.

Great staff and good food. Amazing beer selection.

Delicious food, friendly staff. Our waiter was a bit slow but Im pretty sure he was new, so he was doing pretty good. Overall great night out and would recommend

Honestly if the beer wasnt so expensive Id drink here all day. Good spot for going out at night and love the live bands. The staff and food is awesome too.

Great venue. Food was awesome and live music too!

some crazy guy came in and tackled a staff member onto our table. despite this unfortunate event the staff was so nice and gave us our shots for free afterwards. they were so kind and accommodating and apologetic. even before the event they were still amazing and so friendly awesome service and awesome food definetly recommend they are the best!!!

This is a favourite of mine.

Nice atmosphere, burger was delicious and where else can you order a pizza and get a free bottle of wine?! Will definitely be back

Sandwich for lunch was 23$ wow did not realize how expensive eating out has become....very spendy....club sandwich was mostly bread...it said it has aioli on it but there was not any on mine and it was dry....rather disappointed

Lit live music sept 9th

Expensive

Trivia night was a blast, and they have a great Ontario craft beer selection and delicious pizza.

Good food. Very loud atmosphere. But nice.

I went there to order lunch to go. The waiters are nice. Its my 2nd time going to the foundry for a takeaway meal and both times were really slow and there was only 1 table occupied which was great cos I thought Id get my food relatively quick however it took a while. I had the foundry burger for the first time (I forgot to take a picture but this time I ordered something else). I ordered the Buffalo chicken Caesar wrap (picture attached) and it came with a side so I had fries. It was a nice simple wrap, delicious and very filling. The foundry burger is decent too. I would advise people that want to do takeout to place a call earlier just so you dont have to wait as long.

Nice bar though they charged one of our classmates for drinks of another classmate that already left tge bar. Upon meeting up again we were shown the paid bill so they charged twice for same drinks. This was on top of them not havig our reserved location in the loft ready for our group upon arrival.

An awesome pub downtown Thunder Bay! The Spicy Buffalo Chicken Poutine was outstanding! Though really could have used more of Thunder Oaks Cheese Curds the few that were on there were delicious but supplemented with too much shredded cheese. The pizza was nothing to write home about good or bad. They had a great selection of craft beers on tap from all the Thunder Bay breweries and many more from across Ontario aswell

Great atmosphere, friendly service, and a fantastic buffalo cauliflower wrap!

One of the best restaurants/bar/night club in thunderbay. The music is always great and the vibe is nice.

Great drinks!

Great selection of craft beers, really kind and attentive staff, and very cozy atmosphere.

Great atmosphere, friendly staff and delicious food

Very friendly staff but was given completely different food than I ordered for takeout

Thought we would support local. Delivery sent only a 1/3 of the order. Called the foundry and person said they didnt scroll down enough to see the whole order! We spent over 100 dollars for dinner. They said they were too busy to get another order out! Then they said well you can come and pick up the rest of order. Really!! You screwed up, not the delivery service! So disappointed in the lack of service on their part of not making it right. They said the delivery service needs to compensate the refund. The Foundry you totally messed up on this.

Great food for adults.

The Foundry is committed to service excellence and high quality foods and beverages. You are missing out if you havent tried them. Try the panzorotti and pizzas and thank me later! Make sure to order a side of marinara for the stuffed crust pizza.

Exceptional service, friendly and great beer list. Only stopped by quickly before the Leafs game 5 of the May 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs/FRIENDS reunion and they had me off on my merry way in a jiffy.

Very friendly service and decent patio ambience. A few beers from brewers in and around Kenora and Thunder Bay. I tried an IPA and another ale, and both were decently good. The chicken wings with honey garlic sauce was good - no overbearing sweetness like whats served at a lot of places but flavoursome. The indoor space (although not open because of Covid) seemed bit and spacey. Hoping to head back sometime.

Friendly service, good patio ambience with good music. Tried the blueberry ale and sultana gold, lived both. The food was delecious. I tried the maple bacon grilled cheese sandwich loaded with varieties of cheese and maple flavoured bacon. I loved it and so will you. My friend ordered honey garlic flavoured chicken wings which he enjoyed a lot. Very good experience on the whole

Food was great and is in a great location. Lots of other great food and drink places on the same street.

I cant say enough good things about this local business! The staff is amazing, the atmosphere is always chill and down to earth, and some of the best food in the city!

Service was good, the food was fine!

Great food! Large portions. Wonderful staff and lovely outdoor patio.

Just went for a patio drink, service was good so was long island ice tea.

Had the Buffalo ceaser chicken wrap. Was outstanding. By far the best chicken wrap Ive ever had in my life. Absolutely glorious. Hostess basically asked me why I was there. Found this odd, asked for a table. Service was good.

Fantastic service and the biggest and best tastibg meals from ThunderBay to Sarnia Ontario

This will be the first and last time my family and I dine here at the Foundry. First of all, we were the ONE AND ONLY Asians in the restaurant during our dining period. Our experience as an Asian was very bad. I felt like I was treated differently for who I am and what I look: Asian. From the moment my sister and I walked in the restaurant, the host was friendly BUT treated us very differently from others. He handed us 1 menu and pointed towards the tables: you can seat anywhere you like. But then I noticed that he walked every other Caucasian guests to their tables and provided EACH guest with their own menu. We also noticed that our cocktails were served with smaller portion than the other tables. Lastly, our sever was terrible. She didnt even make an effort to care. She probably hates her job and all she cares about was the tips but not the service she can provide for her guests. Because of the terrible first impressions from the hosts attitude to the servers services, we did not enjoy the food. I personally think that the burger was very greasy and the portion was too small, it was not worth $20 for a burger. Pizza was OKay, not the best and definitely not worth another $20. Overall, I would not recommend this restaurant and definitely WILL NOT come back! You can go to the Sovereign Room for better food, excellent customer service from the host and servers - they care about you!

Looked good at first but things quickly went downhill. Made a reservation for 5pm they said they had one table available on the patio (a two seater which a third chair would have to be added for our group which we agreed to) Upon arriving most of the patio were free and remained free enough for our entire stay, meaning they easily could have given us a 4 seat table. Plus the table we were given wasn t even close to level, drinks were literally sliding towards the edge of the table if you weren t careful. The server seemed very new and didn t have a good grasp of the menu, which is fine, everyone needs time to learn but it does still impact the experience even if they are polite. We had to ask a few times to get a straw which was only provided after another staff member came by our table. My food was pretty meh. I had the Saturday special - wings and nachos for $25. The wing looked great and a good size too but it only took one bite to figure out they were overcooked and dry. The nachos felt stingy as far as the toppings went, probably only 1/3 of the chips had toppings on them. Another order at our table came with green onions even though we asked for no onions. If things would have ended there I would have left a 3 star review but they didn t. Later this evening I went to snack on some of the left over nachos I took home and discovered a long dark hair baked right into the crunchy cheese of one chip. Accidents happen, but after all the mishaps of the dining experience I m going with a general lack of care and professionalism that led me being served unsanitary food. I won t be returning or recommending this establishment.

By far best mozzarella sticks. Pretty good pizza too

My girlfriend and I went for dinner and it was really good. I got the panzeroti and it was HUGE. My girlfriend got the burger and fries and she said it was great as well.

My sister-in-law recommended this Thunder Bay gem and I am so glad she did! Incredible service, food and atmosphere! GET THE MOZZARELLA STICKS! They were the biggest (each piece was at least two fingers thick), best mozzarella sticks I ve ever had in my life! The servers and hosts are such lovely, kind and accommodating people and very quick too!! My husband and I were very happy with our date night here! Delicious, fresh food with tons of flavour and love that they bring so many dipping sauces for you too without asking! Who doesn t love dipping sauce options?! We will definitely return to this fantastic spot when we visit Thunder Bay again! Also, just a few steps down the block from this restaurant is a great gelato place (Primo Gelato I think it s called) so the location is ideal for date nights!!

Went for lunch; was great service and food. Dill pickle pizza was pretty scrumptious!

Great food! Generous portions perfect for sharing. Lots of room for safe spacing between tables.

Great food.

Outstanding food that cleverly highlights local Heartbeat hot sauce - a must while visiting Thunder Bay!

Really enjoyed our quick drink at The Foundry. We were recommended to check it out by the team at Tomlin while we were waiting for a table to open up there. We sat right up at the bar and had some chats with the male bartender. He was super knowledgeable about the product and very down to earth. The venue itself seems like it could be a lively place. Very swanky Victorian pub vibe. The male bartender made us a mean ceaser made with Beet juice.. (I normally hate beets). He also made me a tasty whiskey sour! Keep up the good work!

Very over priced for very mediocre pub food. My partner and I were traveling through Thunderbay from Toronto and decided to have dinner here. Had the fish tacos as our app which were each about the size of a ritz cracker for $17. Then I had a very over dressed, over salted and dry grilled chicken Caesar salad and he had the Wednesday special , the cubano. It was basically one slice of ham, pickles and a lot of banana peppers (which don t traditionally go in a Cuban sandwich but the problem was that it was very over powering in flavour) and no roasted pork at all. The fries and beer were good but didn t make up for the fact that the bill was $66 before tip. Super disappointed with our meal after a long day of driving but at least the server was very nice!

Try scarcello pizza. Perfect crispy crust, fantastic combination of favours, goat cheese, small slices of spinach, caramelized onions and hit of honey. Great pizza! Skip the cesar salad.

Great staff, amazing drinks, patio was awesome! Best bathrooms in town!

The food was exquisite, the place was beautiful, big and comfortable. The service amazing. Totally recomend this place.

Okay, but sort of missing the boat. Some good menu items but just not quite great. For example, ordered the fish and chips - fish tasted fresh, flaky, but the homemade batter was like the batter of Chinese chicken balls - tough, hard to cut, no flakiness. The chicken tenders were homemade but the batter was the opposite where it crumbled and fell off the chicken. Chicken club was on homemade focaccia which was excellent (but not a 3 layer club, more like a regular chicken sandwich). Server was very attentive and checked with us multiple times over food allergies.

Great pub style restaurant. I had a fabulous Ceaser Salad that was a full meal, and the fish tacos my wife had were equally good. Good food, great service and nice ambience in a great place, that serves good beer in a very cool building.

Service was okay and the portion is good but I kinda expected more fish with my fish and chips. The batter was a bit too thick. Might have to come back and try their other dishes.

Nice..clean..rustic atmosphere and great, friendly fast service. Food is very good!!!

Loves the mango chipotle dip for pickle chips! && the size of the panzorati is craZ. Had there holiday drink drunkin pumpkin can really taste the coffee and pumpkin spice but overall it was amazing.

Did not let me see the foundation. Also 5$ cover to check out inside omegalul

Awesome trivia nights!

Quite disappointed with the food last night. Went for a large Christmas party so was expecting delays with the food, no concerns there. I ordered the fish and chips. The fish tasted burnt but didnt appear to be burnt so Im assuming the oil it was fried in was old and burnt. The batter used was thick and gummy, not flaky and very difficult to cut especially in the small bowl it was served in on top of fries. The sweet potato fries in substitution for the regular fries were an additional $7 which wasnt noted anywhere on the menu of the extra cost. Im always willing to pay extra to get what I want but find it deceitful of a business to not list additional prices on items when substituted. Overall very unsatisfied with the quality versus cost of the food. Service was great but no enticement for me to return for a meal.

It was fun

Went for lunch with a friend and had a great time. Friendly servers and amazing food. Will be back soon with my wife for dinner.