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Independent guide The Castle Supper Notebook is an independent food and dining guide, not affiliated with any dinner theatre or its operator. We do not sell tickets and never process payments.
The Castle Supper Notebook A dietitian's field notes on the Dufferin Street castle banquet

Chapter 3 · drinks

Drinks & the Bar

The included drink is lemonade; water is poured at the table. Everything else — beer, wine, cocktails, soft drinks, the commemorative stein — is a cash or card purchase at arena pricing. Here is how I plan drinks around a two-hour, loud, one-handed meal.

What is included with the ticket

Lemonade is poured at the table in a plastic cup. It is sweet and cold, served in a quantity sufficient for one adult across the evening if you don’t rush it. Water is on request — it is sometimes slow during the rush. If you want to make sure water appears, ask when your server first comes by, not later when they are head-down on main course distribution.

Children get lemonade or water, same quantity. There is no included soft drink. I would not count on “just water for me” being faster during the pre-show rush — it is often slower, because the serving kit is designed around lemonade.

Beer, wine, spirits — what and roughly how much

The bar carries a short, legible list: domestic bottled beer, a couple of craft cans, a house red and white by the glass, a handful of pre-batched cocktails (mead, something mulled around the holiday season, a classic sour or two), and the usual sparkling and soft drinks. Spirits are limited — it is not a cocktail bar, it is a venue bar.

Prices are what you would expect at a Toronto arena: a beer runs comparable to what you would pay at Scotiabank Arena, wine by the glass is a touch above that, and the commemorative stein (plastic goblet, keep after) is an upsell designed to feel like a souvenir. For my own tracking, I budget twice what I would spend in a mid-range restaurant for the same drinks.

A banquet-hall bar during pre-show — two staff, a short list, a long queue. The castle bar runs on the same geometry.
A banquet-hall bar during pre-show — two staff, a short list, a long queue. The castle bar runs on the same geometry. Photograph via Wikimedia Commons · from Wikimedia Commons · see file history for photographer and licence. Format reference, not the castle on Dufferin.

The commemorative stein question

Short answer: if you like souvenirs, it is a fun one, and the drink inside is a reasonable mead or seasonal cocktail. If you don’t, you’re paying venue markup for a plastic goblet with a brand on it that will live in a cupboard. There is no refund if you decide you don’t want it ten minutes in.

Trick: if you want the goblet but not the cocktail, ask whether the stein is sold with a soft drink. On most nights, yes.

One trick for faster service during the rush

Pre-show at a Saturday seating is the single slowest window at the bar — two bartenders, a hundred guests, a queue that curls back toward the thrones. The pre-show lasts roughly thirty minutes. The queue dissolves about ten minutes into the show, because people are seated and the first course is being poured.

If you want a drink in the first act, skip the pre-show queue, sit down, and order from your table server during the first break between fights. You will get your drink faster. The lobby bar is beautiful for a photo but inefficient for a round.

Driving home

I do not need to tell you this, but I will: Dufferin Street at 10:30 pm on a Saturday is not the place to find out whether that second cocktail was a good idea. Streetcar at Dufferin Loop is the straightforward move; the 509 Harbourfront runs well past the end of the show. If you drove, swap drinks with your co-attendee halfway through, or wait out the parking line sober.

If you do not drink alcohol at all

The lemonade is a reasonable match for a plated banquet of chicken and rib. If you want something less sweet, ask for water with ice, or for a non-alcoholic sparkling. Both are available, both are at venue pricing, both are slow during pre-show.