Here at Met Radio, we’re closing out 2025 with a new round of year-end favourites! To cap off the year, our volunteers and staff are sharing their personal top-ten lists, highlighting the music, media, and gems that defined the past twelve months. New lists to explore and enjoy will be dropping on the Met Radio website every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday this December!
In a year shaped by a sense of impending doom and whatever the hell is going on with the Overton window, it felt important to seek solace in the seemingly mundane. For me, that largely took shape in meaningful conversations with old friends and new friends, had within places that don’t ask much of you, the kind that remind you that even when the world feels unmoored and increasingly artificial, some small corners continue to remain unabashedly human. The ol’ dive bar, it turns out, makes for one such reliable corner.
Here are my top 10 dive bars I frequented in 2025 (apologies in advance for my West-End bias):
10. Wenona (1069 Bloor St. W.)
I’d be remiss not to include the home of Met Radio’s monthly record-spinning parties on this list. Wenona feels like a familiar wooden cabin, tucked away conveniently next to Dufferin Station, adorned with Canadiana-inspired wall fixtures and complete with a solid lineup of craft beer.
9. Done Right Inn (861 Queen St. W.)
Women-owned and operated since 1998, this Queen West haunt boasts one of the best back patios in the city (with a great big tree, I must add), designed for yapping away entire evenings without checking your phone once. Its ‘fine dining’ menu includes baked potatoes, nachos and bagels.
8. Ronnie’s Local 069 (69 Nassau St.)
Ronnie’s is the textbook neighbourhood dive bar. With Kensington Market skipping Pedestrian Sundays this summer, the front patio was a little less of a draw, which just meant more time inside taking in the bar’s chaotic collection of knick-knacks and doo-dads (deer mural included).
7. Wasted Youth (1185 Dundas St. W.)
This bar feels like the indie sleaze aesthetic embodied. Grimey in the right way, perpetually buzzing and full of patrons who probably didn’t intend on staying out as late as they did. Its chalkboard menu consistently reads reasonable prices and simple drinks. I have yet to try the Big Buck Hunter arcade game… perhaps in 2026?
6. Three Dollar Bill (1592 Queen St. W.)
At a time when brick-and-mortar queer bars are increasingly hard to come by, this Parkdale spot feels as rare as its namesake, especially when a neighbouring queer sports bar, Peaches, suddenly shuttered its doors last year. The bar’s basement, where the washrooms are located, is also the site of a lovely mural commemorating the city’s queer history and its champions.
5. Black Dice Cafe (1574 Dundas St. W.)
Black Dice is a Japanese rockabilly-inspired hangout that feels entirely of its own making. It can’t get much better than wasabi peas, sake on tap and an operational vintage juke box. Grub offerings run from takoyaki to TV dinner trays, obviously.
4. Communist’s Daughter (1151 Dundas St. W.)
A hole-in-the-wall-type dig that’s easy to miss but impossible to forget. I admit there can be a tinge of pretentious air in the room with people debating records, as its popularity has swelled in recent years, but I like to think it’s still part of the charm. The bar still sports an old sign from Nazaré Snack Bar, which occupied the space before 2003, when Communist’s Daughter took over (its name, a nod to the Neutral Milk Hotel track “Communist Daughter”).
3. Houndstooth (818 College St.)
A homie favourite for a reason, Houndstooth is probably one of my most visited bars of all time. While it perhaps wouldn’t satisfy the standards of a dive bar purist (they sling coffee in the mornings), it more than earns its place here, in my view. Houndstooth frequently hosts live bands and DJ nights, has free pool tables, and even rents out rehearsal space downstairs.
2. Sweaty Betty’s (13 Ossington Ave.)
Sweaty’s is the Ossington Strip’s OG dive bar for a reason. It has historically been a queer-friendly space, even before it officially became one of Toronto’s only lesbian-owned bars. Bonus points for the array of achromatic portraits (including those of dogs), moody red walls, string lighting and intimate back patio.
1. Imperial Pub (RIP)
On Nov. 15, Toronto lost one of its most historic pubs, another casualty of development creep. Sigh. Like many other fellow TMU grads, Imperial is one of the few local watering holes that has seen me at my highest and lowest points. Getting to jam to my friends’ band in the back room of the main floor, just a few days before it closed for good, felt as proper a goodbye as any.