Borrel

Hallo! Hope you are well. OK, long overdue recap of Sunday afternoon's first Dutch match of the tournament. ... Obviously, not the result we were hoping for. But, also obviously, much better than a loss. With this 2-2 draw against Japan, it's fair to say this Saturday's match against Sweden is that much more important if we're to go through to the next round (please, please, please!).

And we'll have it screening for you here! We'll be open on Saturday at noon for the 1 p.m. kickoff. And we'll be open for dinner service after! During the game, just a snack menu with food going out on disposable containers. ... That's really the only way to do it with the crowd we saw on Sunday!

For those of you who were here on June 14, we hope you had a good time. The atmosphere was awesome! But a massive thanks to Matt () and Jo () who somehow managed to get food and drinks out to all the Oranje faithful with just the two of them (thanks again guys! Alison is back to help on Saturday!).

If you couldn't get in on Sunday, our apologies. We hope you had a good time watching the game at Sauce. (We got reports back that it was quite the sea of Oranje there as well!). We're thrilled our friends at will open up early for the game on Saturday so you have a place to go if you can't fit in here. And once again, .to, .to and are all Oranje-friendly venues in the city as well!

Open tomorrow and Friday at 6 p.m. for regular service and then at noon for the game on Saturday (already nervous!). Closed for Father's Day but open on June 22 for a special Pride edition of Metal Monday! HUP!

Hallo! OK, full recap of yesterday's big game and details on the next one coming soon. But all this football madness has made me forget about my Metal Monday duties! In a week's time, we'll be doing a special Pride edition of Metal Monday! Join us as our dear friend and longtime Metal Mondayer DJ gets loud with a capital L(GBTQIA+) for a special night devoted to metal's heaviest non-hetero headbangers! $6.66 pints of Avling! Snacks! Alison bartending (I can't believe I used to attempt to do both at one time)! Good times! Hope to see you on June 22 from 6 p.m. onward! 🤘🤘🤘

Ah, the calm before the storm. ... The Oranje storm that is! While rain is in the forecast all day, you can dry and cozy (if not a bit anxious!) inside with us for the game between the Netherlands vs. Japan today!

We'll open our doors at 2:30 p.m. for the kickoff at 4 p.m. As nervous as I am about the game, I'm almost as nervous about when we open up for the first Dutch international matchup. As you can see, we're a small place and the setup might be a bit less than ideal for a highly anticipated event. But we do what we can with the space we have (if only we could somehow magically expand into an airplane hangar for these events!).

Continuing to get reservation requests (way more than past tournaments!) but with our setup it only makes sense to do first come, first served. So apologies in advance if you're not able to get in. Our friends at Sauce () are right across the street at 1376 Danforth Ave. and will be opening at 3 p.m. to provide an Oranje-friendly screening experience! .to, .to and are all Oranje-friendly venues around the city as well!

Hope you enjoy the match wherever you're watching and hope we'll have many more Oranje matches to come! HUP! HUP! HUP!

AANVALLEN (attack)! A huge thanks to Daniella Van Weringh for thinking of us on a recent visit to the Netherlands and bringing us back these Loeki de Leeuw football-themed streamers to add to the atmosphere just ahead of the big game tomorrow!

To those who don't know him, Loeki de Leeuw made me actually look forward to commercial breaks as a child! In between ads, there would be these short stop-motion skits that, at least at the time, were hilarious! Loeki's always had a special place in my heart since then so it feels like good luck having him grace our back wall for the tournament!

And looks like we'll need a bit of luck. De Nederlandse Elftal had a rough couple of friendly matches ahead of the tournament and face a tough group in the opening round. ... But bring 'em on! So excited for the opening match tomorrow! Open at 2:30 p.m. for the 4 p.m. kickoff. It's first come, first served. If we're too full, our friends at Sauce () right across the street at 1376 Danforth Ave. will be opening at 3 p.m. to provide an Oranje-friendly screening experience!
.. Also open today at 4 p.m. for regular service! Tot gauw! HUP!

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Thanks to the Toronto Star for including us in their World Cup feature. ... I guess I always figured if I was going to make the front page of a newspaper, it would have to be in a silly orange outfit!

OK, I imagine many of you are focused on the big Canada match at 3 p.m. but we are open at 6 p.m. if you need some Dutch comfort food and a drink post-game. Open at 4 p.m. tomorrow and at 2:30 p.m. for 4 p.m. kickoff on Sunday for Netherlands vs. Japan! HUP!

Thanks to our awesome neighbour Matthew Cashman, Alison has her Dutch getup all sorted for the big match on Sunday! ... Only problem is, she won't be here! Alison is off for a week in the U.K. for a company retreat for her new job. I could not be more proud and excited for her ... if not a touch sad and nervous she won't be here for the week!

Alison has always worked another job alongside Borrel and has still almost always made at least an appearance every day we're open. But when work slowed down a bit last fall, she's pretty much opened and closed every shift together with me for the past eight months. It's been awesome running the place together like that! So sorry to be a bit of a baby and say that I'll really miss her for this upcoming workweek and the first Dutch game of the tournament on Sunday!

Thankfully, we have our fantastic front-of-house crew of Matt, Harley and Jo holding down the fort. We'll be open at 6 p.m. today and tomorrow, 4 p.m. on Saturday and opening at 2:30 p.m. for the 4 p.m. kickoff on Sunday. Email us at [email protected] if you have any questions or want to make a reservation (but no reservations for the games!). HUP! HUP! HUP!

Of course, we never stood a chance. While we hope the outcome on Sunday will be different, the Netherlands going up against Japan in a culinary competition just doesn't seem fair!

But we still gladly (if not somewhat nervously) accepted the challenge in the awesome 2026 Food World Cup by our friends at andeat.repeat (https://www.instagram.com/p/DYvFxtdRO7v/)! ... But just one look at the stunning sushi boat from and we already knew we had to accept defeat. But we were surprised how high our herring plate ended up scoring and glad to have taken part!

We were curious how our kibbeling plate they sampled may've fared against tempura ... but who are we kidding? Japan definitely has our number when it comes to food. But hopefully we'll make up for it on the pitch on Sunday! HUP!

Open tomorrow and Friday at 6 p.m., Saturday at 4 p.m. and opening extra early at 2:30 p.m. for the Netherlands' opening match in the tournament against Japan. Hope to see you there! Remember, we're a small place and it will be a largely standing-room deal. But it'll be festive! If you can't get in, our friends at will be open at 3 p.m. and showing the game (and they have a beautiful little back patio, too!). ... Getting nervous already! HUP! HUP! HUP!

Who do you think wins this match 🇯🇵🇳🇱? We’re back for Matchday 6 of our 2026 Food World Cup and today we have a David vs Goliath match up with Japan’s sushi going up against Netherland’s raw herring! Japan: @yanagitoronto 🍣 8.4 Netherlands: @borrelto 🐟 8.0 Japan moves on to the next round after a closer than expected match! Make sure to follow both of us for the next one 🙌🏾 #sushi #dutchfood #torontoeats #torontofood #yyzfoodies

Been meaning to post about this for a while now, because in less than a week, the FIF ... the really big international football tournament will kick off (apparently we can get in trouble for calling it by its official name?)! In any case, we are more than excited to host the games for our boys in Oranje! These are always some of the most special days at Borrel! And with the tournament taking place in North America (and five games being hosted in Toronto), there does seem to be an extra special buzz in the air. … If not a bit of panic with all the predictions of how crazy downtown will be! Thankfully, you can escape the chaos and come to the east end and watch the games in the comfort of Borrel!


.. Well, it can get pretty chaotic here as well actually! And with all the reservation requests that have come in, looks like we’re going to be pretty busy! Unfortunately, as many of you know, we are a small place, which is always a shame for Dutch football games (wish we could somehow do a major expansion every football tournament!). For that reason, we can't take reservations. It's a first come, first served deal. We reconfigure Borrel to accommodate larger numbers so we remove seats and tables to allow for mostly standing room for the games and have snacks sent out in disposable containers. It does actually make for a very festive atmosphere this way and we've had some truly magical moments for previous matches!

Our first game is next Sunday, June 14 against Japan. Kickoff is at 4 p.m. but we'll be opening our doors at 2:30 p.m. If you can be here a bit on the early side, I don't think it would be unreasonable to say you should all get a spot to watch the game. Our friends across the street at will be showing the match for any Oranje fans who can't fit in our place. .to, .to and are all Oranje-friendly venues around the city as well!

We truly hope you can join us to support onze Oranje Elftal for the Dutch games and we do our best to work with the limitations of our space to fit everyone who wants to watch with us! HUP! HUP! HUP!

Hallo! Hope you are well. Back at it tomorrow at 6 p.m. But we will be closing up regular service a little earlier for this month's edition of The Spit! So why not do both? Join us for dinner and then stay for a magical night of storytelling, hosted by !


We're thrilled to be the home of this wonderful evening and encourage you to check it out before The Spit goes on a summer break after tomorrow! Tickets:
oddtdtcreator@joanneosully" rel="ugc" target="_blank">https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/1990445524144?aff=oddtdtcreator@joanneosully

Tot morgen!