The Lion and dragon - Ajax

Sat for 25 minutes. Waitress walked by us Twice, not even a nod of acknowledgement. Guess they aren't taking new clients

Nestled in the quaint Germanic courtyard in Pickering Village, this place has kerb appeal. Once you go inside it's clearly a dive bar, but so long as you know that and set expectations there's a lot of good things. Atmosphere is solid. It's small, bustling and laid back, the layout being a square horseshoe with lots of wood paneling and vintage pub signs, dartboards etc. The bar is inviting with stools and screens on hand. The beer choice? Poor. The food? Deep fried. The toilets? Well for starters, there's only one (weird) and apparently it's a BYOTP policy (bring your own toilet paper). Like I said, it's a dive bar lol.

Came for wings with my friemds and was not disappointed. The wings were a decent size (I'd say medium as they weren't mutant sized) with about a dozen flavours of each wet and dry to suit most tastes.Decor needs a refresh but I've walk out of worst, and they had a live rock cover band that was pretty decent and a large patio outside for nice weather. Service was good fast a polite even though they were busy. Will recommend to others. They also have an wing special from Sunday to Wednesday of buy one pound and gat another pound with it.

You will not find better wings anywhere in Durham and few places on earth. They are big, well prepared and come in a variety of dry and wet flavours. The servers are all delightful, remember your favourite beer from last visit and when the crowds slow down the service, are quick to apologize for any delays.There is a good variety of beer on tap and they provide a full pint. If you like a deal- the 2 for one wings on Wednesday and Sunday nights are a great perk.This could very easily be a 5 star rating were it not for the deplorable condition of the washrooms and dire need for replacing fatigued carpets, poor lighting and a poorly enforced no smoking policy which puts smokers just outside the opened back door and no effort by clients or staff to preserve a smoke free dining establishment. This place is the ideal candidate for restaurant makeover. It is full of regulars who endure the above shortcomings for good food and good company, dart boards and sports on the telly but their loyalty should be rewarded with a washroom door that has no holes punched in it, an exhaust fan which is attached to the ceiling and not bearing the dust from years gone by on it. These folks have made the best of their forced relocation from the now Home Depot plaza in Pickering to their current location which provides a lovely courtyard/patio and sometimes live entertainment. The work that needs to be done will not be cheap but I can't imagine it not paying off in the long run.

I've been to my share of "dive" bars, and even been a frequent patron of some, but this won't be one of them. Went with my husband on a weekend because we wanted to sit on a patio instead of our deck. We should have just got some microbrews from the lcbo and drank them at home because the beer selection was pretty limited/terrible, and the beers we ended up getting (that we have had before and know how they SHOULD taste) were bad. Tasted like they either sat around waaaaaay too long, or they don't clean their lines properly. We could barely finish one of them. We were too terrified to try the food after the dirty beer, so we didn't order any so I can't say anything about that. Definitely WON'T be going back, despite friendly, attentive, and helpful waitress.