Category

Pub/Bar

Category

steeltoad-inner

Steel Toad Brewpub and Dining Hall opened a few weeks ago and they are already buzzing. Long lines on Fridays and the weekends. The dining hall is 2 floors and the top floor is mostly for larger groups. We saw a lot of kids, so it is a popular place to bring the kids or infants and have a beer. Mount Pleasant is really buzzing with all these microbreweries opening up in the neighbourhood.

The venue has beautiful decor and ambiance, they do have live music every night too.

steeltoad-upper

It was intimidating to go inside because we were confronted by their doormen that acted like bouncers warning us of the 1 hour wait and trying to detour everyone away from the doors. I totally understand since it would be a fire hazard. It really was a busy night, but luckily, I made reservations a week in advanced since I knew no other restaurant in town would have seats open for 15 people.

It was really packed inside. Some of my friends that joined us a little bit later had troubles coming in too. My friends were a couple and the staff didn’t believe they were with our party, so they sent them upstairs to us one by one a few minutes a part. This really made no sense at all.

steeltoad-blonde

Blonde was one of their house beers for October 2014. I ordered this one because it is one of their lightest beers. They brew it in small batches, so if the run out, it’s gone. This beer was quite popular, so by the time we finished our first glass, we couldn’t order more.

steeltoad-cucumber

Marinated Tuna ($14) has cucumber, avocado, citrus, Thai chili, and caper vinaigrette.  For the price, we imagined it be larger. It tasted ok, but it’s too expensive for what you get.

steeltoad-soup

Carrot and Rabbit Soup ($7) has walnut, apple, and sultana. TaiwaneseGirl thought the soup was ok but nothing special.

steeltoad-salad

Crispy Duck Salad ($12) has pea shoots, cress, pickled daikon & carrot,and  black sesame.

steeltoad-burger

The Burger ($13) has cheddar, lettuce, tomato, sesame bun, with their special sauce. You also get a side of their hand cut fries. The burger wasn’t anything special and a few of the burgers were overcooked. The friends that ordered this thought it was meh.

steeltoad-mussels

Mussels and House Ale ($20) is served with grilled garlic baguette. The mussels were large and plump, very delicious with the House Ale sauce. The grilled garlic baguette was pretty charred, so it tasted mostly burnt. Besides that part, the mussels were good.

steeltoad-shepardspie

Sheppards Pie ($16) has  braised lamb stew, butter mash, and crispy shallot. At first glance, everyone thought it was takoyaki, but it was just the butter mash balls. My friends that ordered this dish really liked it. No complaints at all.

steeltoad--cake

It was a birthday party, so we were able to bring in a cake and have them serve it for no extra charge.

Overall, the ambiance of the place was great for large groups, but the service and quality of the food could be improved. Since they have only been open a few weeks, I hope they improve those 2 aspects.

We Rate Steel Toad

Address:
97 E 2nd Ave Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://steeltoad.ca/

Steel Toad Brewpub and Dining Hall on Urbanspoon

Mamie-Taylor-sign

Mamie Taylor’s is one of the newer restaurants to open up in Chinatown across from Phnom Penh. It’s usually busy in the evenings and there is pay parking in the streets. They serve up modern American food on their menu and have a wide selection of drinks and cocktail. A perfect place to go after work with coworkers.

Mamie-Taylor-bar

The inside is very nice, but it’s creepy when you start looking at all the taxidermy on the walls. It definitely gives this restaurant character.

Mamie-Taylor-sapporo

Sapporo ($6) was my choice as usual. I’ve always liked it’s light crisp taste.

Mamie-Taylor-flight

Japanese Whiskey Flight ($20) has nikka super, nikka from the barrel and nikka black. My coworkers enjoyed trying the different types and how their taste differed from one another.

Mamie-Taylor-scone

Corn Bread & Biscuit ($4) comes with a jalapeño bourbon butter. These two items were very delicious! Full of flavour and quite enjoyable.

Mamie-Taylor-olives

Fried Olives ($4) has blue cheese, currants, and sherry. I do love olives surprisingly and it was a nice way to add some crunch to an olive. It is a small dish, so these olives can go quickly if you are a quick snacker.

Mamie-Taylor-t

Pimento Cheese ($5) comes with cannoli, espellete, and salad o’ celery. This was yummy! The delicious cheese paired with the crunchy cannoli was perfect. I could eat a few of these.

Mamie-Taylor-sandwich

Tuna Melt ($6) the tuna  is cured & smoked, has potato salad, and cheddar. There’s some small onion on the side too. This was a yummy tuna melt.

Mamie-Taylor-turducken

Turducken ($6) has scotch egg in the centre. It is accompanied with tomatillo sauce  and a garlic mayo. It’s not exactly what I imagined for a turducken but it’s their fun twist to it. It tasted alright.

Overall, we ordered all their snacks but didn’t stick around for dinner since we all had alternate plans after drinks. I’ll definitely be back for dinner since their entrees looked pretty damn awesome.

We Rate Mamie Taylors:

Address:
251 East Georgia St.
Vancouver BC

Website:
http://mamietaylors.ca/

Mamie Taylor's on Urbanspoon

Narrow-Lounge-entrance

Where do you want to go for a great time with friends with cheap drinks? Find the Narrow Lounge by looking for the red light and the SUPER SKETCHY entrance. When my coworkers took me here, I thought it was like a place to buy drugs or something.

Once you get through this entrance, you will discover that it’s not a bad place at all. It’s a popular place and word is mostly spread by word of mouth. It’s been around since 2008.

Narrow-Lounge-inner

It’s a dark lounge indoors and it fills up quite quickly on Fridays after work. Since we were sitting in offices indoors all day, we needed a glimpse of the sun, so we opted to sit outside on the patio.

Narrow-Lounge-patio

The patio has so much characteristic. It opened up in early May and it’s here to stay for the Summer.

Narrow-Lounge-tiki

There’s not too many seats, but it’s good if you come early to snag a table for your buddies. Plus, you get a cool view of these tiki masks.

Narrow-Lounge-sol

Sol ($3) seriously what a good deal. It was the special of the day. I’m impressed by the price of their beer menu too, most beers are under $7. If you really want to drink and not break your wallet, come here!

Narrow-Lounge-fishtaco

Fish Tacos (2 for $5) has tequila and lime marinated tilapia, cabbage, tomato, cilantro, and a creamy chipotle lime sauce on small corn tortillas. My coworker thought these were amazing and could have ordered a bunch more of these.

Narrow-Lounge-macCheese

Mac and Cheese with pulled pork was what Mags ordered. It was a decent mac and cheese. You can add different types of protein on top, but it can become pricey. Not the best mac and cheese, but you can see for yourself.

Narrow-Lounge-nachos

Nachos ($14) had layers of cheese, jalapeño, olives, tomatoes, and salsa and sour cream on the side. Good size for nachos and fed 4 people perfectly. It was a bit burnt but it was still so good.

Overall, we all had a great time! Drinks on the patio and some finger food was perfect for after work. The service can be a bit slow on the patio since the servers aren’t always outside, but it’s not too bad.

We Rate Narrow Lounge

Address:
1898 Main St Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://www.narrowlounge.com/

Narrow Artist Lounge on Urbanspoon

hemmingways-patio

Finding good brunch places on the Friday on the long weekend was tough. The places we wanted to go to were closed, so we had to wander near Yorkville for some food. It was really tough, so we settled for Hemingway’s Restaurant and Bar.

Hemingway’s has been around for over 30 years with a New Zealand inspired menu. Their 3rd floor patio is huge. Much better than sitting on the first or 2nd floor where it is much more dark .

hemmingways-benny

Eggs Benedict ($9.99) has two soft poached eggs served on a toasted English muffin, layered with grilled peameal bacon
and topped with hollandaise sauce.

hemmingways-yolk

The egg was soft and yummy. The english muffins were quite thin and it worked well with the eggs benny since you can really taste the egg and bacon.

The only downside of this dish were the potatoes. Tasteless and bland.

hemmingways-burge

The Down Under Burger ($13.99) has ground beef patty, fried egg, crispy bacon, cheddar cheese, tomato, relish and a slice of beetroot. Garnished with a slice of tomato, onion, pickle and lettuce, served on a lightly toasted Kaiser bun. We wanted to add a slice of pineapple for $0.50, but they didn’t have any available.

M substituted with yam fries and man, those are some awesome yam fries.

hemmingways-burger

Classic Cumberland Burger ($9.99) has ground beef and garnished with a slice of tomato, onion, pickle and lettuce, served on a lightly toasted egg bun. Fabo also substituted her fries for yam fries.

The food was decent, but what was the best were those yam fries for some reason. It was crispy on the outside and so smooth on the inside.

We Rate Hemingway’s Restaurant and Bar:

Address:
142 Cumberland St
Toronto, ON

Website:
http://www.hemingways.to/

Hemingway's Restaurant and Bar on Urbanspoon

tap-barrel-sign

Tap and Barrel has a new location in Coal Harbour. After an event, Foodobyte, Eating with Kirby, Gastrofork, FoodQueen and I headed over to grab some dinner. It was close by and there is always room food some beer and burgers.

They have lots of local craft beer on tap and comfort food.

It was a very busy night for them, so we got seated in their cafe rather than their main dining room. It’s not connected to the restaurant, so all the food is made in their other area and brought over. You even have to go outside to their main area to find the washroom.

tap-barrel-sample

Beer Sampler you can choose from any 3 beers from the menu. I asked the waitress for 3 of the lightest beers of the menu because I don’t trust myself in picking my own beer unless its asian beer.

tap-barrel-burger-a

PB&J Burger ($15) is their signature burger with chipotle peanut butter and bacon jam. It is topped with a deep fried pickle and side of fries.

tap-barrel-burger

Chicken Clubhouse ($15) has blackened breast of chicken, pulled pork belly, and fresh avocado. It has the fried pickle on top with the fries on the side.

tap-barrel-salad-tuna

Tap Greens with added albacore tuna ($9 + $6) is topped with hazelnuts, dried blueberries, crumbled goat cheese,  and red wine maple vinaigrette. It was an ok salad. I added the tuna since I needed some more protein in the dish. It’s a good alternative to burgers on the menu.

tap-barrel-salad

The Original Cobb ($17) has blackened Fraser Valley chicken breast, bacon, fresh sliced avocado, tomato, egg, blue claire cheese, creamy draught craft beer dressing.

The food was decent and the price was fair for this area. It is still pricey but at least you have a great view of the Olympic Cauldron and the Burrard inlet. The downside is that when we were dining here, the service took a very long time. Even getting beer took a while. We were all hungry and antsy to eat, but it’s not quick here.

We Rate Tap and Barrel:

Address:
1055 Canada Place
Vancouver, BC

Websitehttp://www.tapandbarrel.com/

Tap & Barrel on Urbanspoon

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Memphis Blues Barbeque House

Where do you go where you can eat enormous amount of meat like you just don’t care? Memphis Blues of course! After a heartbreaking meeting, the 11 of us decided to drown our sorrows in meat.

I went Memphis Blue’s other location on Commercial drive about 5 years ago and I remember it was pretty good. This time around, we went to their newest location on Robson Street.

Memphis Blues Barbeque House

The space isn’t that large, but can accommodate large groups if you make a reservation ahead of time. The staff was nice and was able to split the bills without hassle.

Memphis Blues Barbeque House

Anchor Steam Beer is light refreshing beer with a sweet finish. I’ve never ordered this before, but I liked it.

Memphis Blues Barbeque House

They also do a lot of different cocktails.

Memphis Blues Barbeque House

Elvis Platter was massive and around $70. It’s a good size for 5 – 7 people. I shared it with 5 women, and we devoured the ribs and rib ends, but we still had a lot of the other things left. We filled up 2 take out containers.

It comes with:

  • Smoked Chicken
  • Pulled Pork
  • Sliced Beef Brisket
  • Smoked Sausage
  • Rib Ends
  • Corn Bread
  • Potato salad
  • Coleslaw
  • Fries
  • BBQ Sauce
  • BBQ Pit Beans

The Elvis platter was fun to eat, but a lot of the meat was dry. We had to smother the meat with BBQ sauce and vinegar to give it more moisture. Memphis Blues is great for group meals since the platter is very convenient and comes with most of the stuff on the menu.

We Rate Memphis Blues

Address:
430 Robson St.
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://www.memphisbluesbbq.com/

Memphis Blues Barbeque House on Urbanspoon

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rumpus
Photo Credit: Rumpus Room

My coworkers wanted a place to grab a drink and enjoy some nibbles. We settled on the Rumpus Room as it was close by the office and seemed like a great after work place to chill. The space is a bit small, but it makes up for it if you were a 80s kid. The menu is in a duotang and theres some cool memorabilia on the walls. Plus, in the Summer their patio is open and there’s a bunch of plastic pink flamingos.

As it was a Monday, we were surprised to hear they had a special! I love specials! A burger and beer for $10. A pretty awesome deal considering the price of a burger is $7 to $15.

Rumpus Room

Red Racer IPA is a local beer brewed right in BC at Central CIty Brewing. It has a strong taste of hops that lingers till the after taste. It’s not my type of beer because I don’t really like the hops flavour.

Rumpus Room

Peanut Butter Burger is made with a hormone-free 6oz beef burger patty, bacon, cheddar, lettuce, apple cranberry chutney, tomato, and creamy peanut butter on a brioche bun. I found that the ingredients went well together, but the beef patty was a bit overcooked so it because quite dry.

You also get a side to choose from. The options are fries, yam fries, veggie chili, soup, coleslaw, salad, side wedge salad, mashed potatoes, a waffle or ants on a long. I went with the salad. It was pretty decent as it had beets and sunflower seeds.

Overall, the price of the food is great for large portions. The quality of the food is alright but not too impressive. The servers are nice, but with only 2 people serving, they can tend to forget things…like… our bill. We had to ask twice for our bill, but we weren’t in a rush so we didn’t really bug them.

We Rate Rumpus Room:  

Address:
2689 Main Street
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://www.rumpusroom.ca/

Rumpus Room on Urbanspoon

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Craft-Beer-Market-Vancouver

My coworkers and I have been keeping an eye on the Craft Beer Market opening up in the Olympic Village near Science World. What I love about this area is it’s amazing views and how this neighbourhood is transforming. It was supposed to be open during the Summer of 2013, but due to some delays, it is going to officially open on November 7th, 2013.

Word has spread around the office that they are currently having a soft opening and are open for business. We were bidding a coworker goodbye, so it seemed like the perfect place to have an office lunch.

Craft-Beer-Market-Vancouver

This place is HUGE! There are even 2 elevated private seating areas. Also, the beautiful bar in the centre with so many different types of Craft Beer.

Craft-Beer-Market-Vancouver

Wall of beer kegs.

Craft-Beer-Market-Vancouver

More beer!

Below are images of their food and drink menus.

Menu

Fast Food Sushi?! Red Racer IPA Infused Taquitos?!

Their menus are labeled with healthy, vegetarian, ocean-wise and  gluten-free options. It really help taking the guess work if you have dietary restrictions. Nice touch!

P1070402

Dark beer braised beef brisket?! Phillips Beer Can Chicken?!

P1070404

20 Napkin Burger?! Earnest Ice Cream!!

Looks like there are some amazing sounding items on the menu.

Beer Menu

SO much beer!

P1070407

Too many to choose from.

CRAFT Beer Market Poke

 Hawaiian Ahi Poke ($14) has chopped sashimi-grade tuna, cucumber, fresh ginger, garlic, and a sesame soy vinaigrette with crispy wonton skins. Magz said it tasted alright, but is lacking a few ingredients. Perhaps avocados.

CRAFT Beer Market soup

Craft House Soup (Bowl – $8) has cheddar, jalapeno, and their Village House Ale.

CRAFT Beer Market Wings Canadian

 Wings ($13) 1lb of crispy Rossdown Farms chicken wings tossed in Canadian sauce (bacon and maple syrup). The Canadian flavour was surprisingly good. It was subtle, but it just worked so well. For some reason we imagined it to be a thick sauce, but we were glad it wasn’t like that.

CRAFT Beer Market Fast Food Sushi

Fast Food Sushi ($12) cheeseburger and fries wrapped in bacon. It is dressed with jalapeño cream cheese and BBQ sauce. This was a very interesting item on the menu that JP just had to order. It was sinfully delicious and would be a great combination with some beer.

CRAFT Beer Market Thai Wraps

 Thai Lettuce Wraps ($12 + Chicken $5) has crispy noodles and veggies sautéed with sweet ginger and lemongrass served with julienne vegetables, rice and a trio of house made sauces. It’s a great interactive dish where you can build your lettuce wraps yourself. One thing my coworkers said was that they wished the lettuce would be larger so it could hold more of the filling.

CRAFT Beer Market waldorf salad

Waldorf chicken salad ($16) has parmesan and walnut crusted Rossdown Farms chicken, sun-dried cranberries, mixed greens, grapes, blue cheese, celery, and honey mustard vinaigrette. It was a big salad with a lot of ingredients.

CRAFT Beer Market Brewmaster Chicken Sandwich

Brewmaster’s Chicken Sandwich ($15) has Rossdown Farms chicken breast, avocado, bacon, aged cheddar, tomato lettuce, and red onion in a ciabatta bun. You have your choice of either Kennebec fries, mixed greens, caesar salad, spinach salad or soup. My coworker went with the spinach salad.

CRAFT Beer Market mac and cheese

Craft Mac & Cheese ($16) has a blend of cheddar, gouda, mozzarella and fontina cheese tossed with bacon and poblano peppers topped with parsley and garlic breadcrumbs. It is also served with grilled garlic bread. The portion was huge, but I really wish the mac and cheese was a bit more gooier.

Overall, the food was pretty good, but there are a few kinks to work out. Prices are a tad high, but its ok considering the area that it’s located in. Their menu is large and you can always find something to eat and plus, their beverage menu is massive. I can see it as a great place to come after work to chill with coworkers or friends. It’s a great addition to the Olympic Village area and definitely adds some competition in the area.

We Rate Craft Beer Market

Address:
85 West 1st Ave
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://vancouver.craftbeermarket.ca/

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/CRAFT-Beer-Market-Vancouver/306941952714764

CRAFT Beer Market on Urbanspoon

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PHAT

PHAT is a sports bar and restaurant that is located in Yaletown and specializes in Montreal Smoked Meat Sandwiches. PHAT stands for Pretty Hot and Tasty. It’s a very strange name for a restaurant, but we were very curious about this restaurant after seeing the ‘sandwich head’ around Yaletown skytrain station.

PHAT

Hot Montreal Smoked Meat on Marble Rye (PHAT Size $9.99) the meat is flown in from Montreal and the sandwich is served with Mustard & Kosher Dill Pickle. The slices of smoked meat were very thin. The sandwich was ok, but it still didn’t exactly compare to the ones in Montreal even though the smoked meat is sourced from there.  I still miss the smoked meat sandwiches from Schwartz.

PHAT

Hot Montreal Smoked Meat on Marble Rye (Skinny Size $7.99). The size between the Skinny and the PHAT size was about the same. Not really sure how much of a different there really was.

PHAT

My friend designed herself a tuna melt sandwich ($8.49). She thought it was ok.

Overall, the food was passable, but it wasn’t anything spectacular. It has a good location, a heated patio and lots of TV screens if you want to watch the game.

We rate PHAT

Address:
1055 Mainland St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://www.phatdeli.com/

PHAT on Urbanspoon

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Falconetti's

Falconetti’s is located on Commercial Drive near 1st Avenue. They are famous due to their sausage. Even Guy Fieri came here to film Diners Drive-ins and Dives. They make all their sausages in-house on the right side of the restaurant and the right side is a restaurant.

Right now they are doing a dining package with Vaneats.ca, where you pay $16 to get a mini poutine, 2 4oz glasses of beer, slow smoked pork ribs, and one of their famous sausages. I came here with my sister during the evening to try the package.

Falconetti's

The interior is narrow and has a long bar on the right side. They have special performances at night too.

Falconetti's

The 2 4oz glasses of Phillips Beer’s Blue Buck arrives first. As you wait for your meal, you can enjoy the taste of beer. The Phillips Blue Buck Beer is a  deep amber coloured beer with a crisp finish featuring a delicate hop aroma. If you like your beer, you know just 4oz won’t do the trick. You’re just getting started.

Falconetti's

The Mini Poutine is made of skinny fries with gravy cheese curds and a bit of pepper. This item was our favorite of the night. The skinny fries were crisp and it was the perfect type of fries to have in this poutine.

Falconetti's

The slow smoked pork ribs comes with 4 pieces and is slathered in their special rub and tequila BBQ sauce. The meat was quite tough, so it made the eating a bit difficult. We thought this would be tender, but it wasn’t.

Falconetti's

Honey Bratwurst was the sausage we chose for the package. it is an old world flavor, dressed with honey mustard, and caramelized onions on top. My sister and I were torn on the sausage, she thought it was very moist and I thought it was kinda dry. Clearly, we have different tastes.

Falconetti's

Outside of the menu, we ordered the Polish ($12) that has beef sirloin sausage with sauteed sauerkraut, onions & grain mustard. We got the yam fries on the side. Their fries are pretty damn good. As for the sauasage, it was ok.

This is probably not a very healthy dining package, but it get us really fully. I’m not a huge fan of pub food, so this wasn’t my favorite package, but you do save some money by getting the Falconetti’s Fix package from Vaneats.

We Rate Falconetti’s: 

Address:
1812 Commercial Dr
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://falconettis.com/

Falconetti's East Side Grill on Urbanspoon

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The Hastings Warehouse has ALL their food for $4.95. Drink are of course more costly than $4.95. This place is always packed and you will always see groups of people drinking. Even though it is on Hastings, it’s not sketchy at all.

They have 9 different draft beers on tap.

Bottle of Sapporo was about $6 or $7 so that was way more expensive than the food here.

Potato Skins have marbled cheese and bacon on top with a side of sour cream. I expected the size to be small since the prices are so low. It’s nothing amazing.

Poutine has cheese curds and gravy on top of fries. It’s very small as well and not super impressive.

Quinoa Salad was surprisingly pretty good here. There are lots of greens, avocados, apple slices, cranberries, and other items in it. If you’re health conscious, definitely order this since it might be one of the healthier items on the menu.

Mac and Cheese is very small and not that substantial if you want to be full.

Baja Fish Tacos comes with 2 tacos. The pieces of fish were very tiny! Go to Kirby’s review to see what she thought.

Spaghetti in tomato sauce was not a bad option. It has a good amount of spaghetti for $4.95.

Beef Dip comes with au jus and a small bucket of fries. This is one of the more filling dishes that’s on the menu. The au jus has a very asian flavour to it since they added ginger to it.

The filling is a mixture of fried onions and shredded beef.

The Works Burger is a simple burger made of a beef patty, maple bacon, cheddar cheese, fried onions, lettuce, and tomato in a brioche bun. There is also fries on the side too. This item is probably the best item on the menu. Highly recommended.

Pulled Chicken Sandwich was so disappointing! There was barely any chicken inside, so it was pretty bad.

Mushroom Swiss Burger has a beef patty, sautéed mushrooms, gravy, cheese, lettuce and tomatoes in a brioche bun. A decent burger as well.

Overall, the food is a hit or a miss. As you are only paying $4.95 per dish, you know you can’t be too picky. Most people come here for the drinks and have a bit of food.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Quinoa Salad, the Works Burger, Spaghetti, Mushroom Swiss Burger, and Beef Dip recommended.
  • No reservations
  • Usually packed at night and lunch
  • Long waits for your food

We Rate The Hastings Warehouse:

Address:
156 W Hastings
Vancouver, BC

The Hastings Warehouse on Urbanspoon

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Wings Tap and Grill has a location in Newton Surrey and it was just packed on Sunday! Every Sunday they have wings and beer specials. It’s such a good deal that it’s hard to pass up! Wings are $0.47 each…. is use to be $0.39 but I guess they had to change their prices. Maybe it was a new thing a month ago because their Facebook page said it is $0.39. One thing that is mandatory is a drink purchase as well to get the cheaper wings.

The Social Media Network crew decided to hang out on Sundays for their wing special. We waited about an hour to get a table for 8.

Okanagan Spring Pale Ale is a good accompaniment with wings! It also has subtle hints of honey and citrus, so it’s not too bitter.

The Original Westcoaster has fresh lemon peels and cracked black pepper. I found the taste to be inconsistent with a few of my wings. Some had a nice subtle lemon taste, but then some other ones would be crazy sour and salty. It definitely confused me.

Chicago Salt & Pepper is just very simple, but you can’t go wrong with simple right? It’s always my favorite.

I chose all dry wings because I always hate getting sauce all over my hands when ordering other types of wings. I am able to eat the wings and still press the buttons on my cell phone. They also mixed both of the wings on a plate, so at times I would kinda forget what I would be eating until I bite into the wing.

Each person ordered about 20 wings each so we managed to fill up 2 of these metal bucket full of bones. Some people were better at cleaning the bones and some weren’t.

Overall, the wings were large than most of the other places in town. You will definitely get full from 20 wings and the beer is a good item to have and just chill with friends.

 Words of Wisdom:

  • Long waits on Sunday due to Wings special
  • Wings special has a mandatory drink purchase and 10 wing per flavour minimum
  • They split the bill very easily and can split shared food too
  • A large variety of flavours for wings

We Rate Wings Tap and Grill:

Address:
7124 King George Highway
Surrey, BC

Website:
http://www.greatwings.ca/

Wings Tap & Grill on Urbanspoon


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Mahony & Sons is a pub outside the Vancouver Convention Center. They have a wide variety of beers and cocktails, plus they sell some pretty delicious lunch! The interior is very large and can host small to large groups. Since its right by the Burrard Inlet, you get a good view of the water and mountains. It’s a great spot to dine especially in the Summer.

JojoCake and I came here during FanExpo to grab some lunch. It was a really nice day, so we decided to sit outside in the patio. There were lots of people sitting outside basking in the sun.

Truffled Mushroom and Fontina Burger ($14.95) has butcher-style beef burger with truffled crimini, portobello mushrooms and fontina cheese. It comes with a choice of salad or fries on the side. The burger was quite large and Jojocake had a hard time eating it, so she had to resort to using a knife and fork.

Fresh Roasted Mahi Mahi Tacos ($15.95) has chipotle mayo, guacamle, pico de gallo salsa, and cilantro. I got the salad on the side. These are more like cones and they were quite massive. You’ll definitely get full from this item as well! The fish seemed like it was a bit over cooked, so it made the texture a bit tough.

Overall, the menu was good. I went here for a lunch before with a coworker and haven’t been disappointed yet… except for the tacos. At first the price can seem a bit expensive for lunch, but the portions are large enough to be stuffed.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Great view
  • Large selection of drinks
  • Large venue, good for group gatherings
  • Close to Waterfront Skytrain

We Rate Mahony & Sons:
Address:
1055 Canada Place, Unit #36
Vancouver, BC
Address:
http://www.mahonyandsons.com/

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Foodology Disclaimer: I was invited to try out their new menu, but I tried to keep the review as unbiased as I could. The review does not guarantee 100% similar service you might normally get from this restaurant.


Chronic Taco Cantina is located in Gastown and has introduced a new menu to better cater to the people in the area. Their new menu has more variety of California-Style Mexican food as well as appetizers. They still serve their signature tacos and burritos.

I came with GastroFork, FoodPunk, PetitFoodie and CandiedZen to try it out.

There are tons of TVs on the walls so it’s easy to catch the game. Also they have some crazy artwork on their walls. Taco life anyone? They have also installed more booth seating!

Coke! The days when I go without tea or coffee, I go with coke!

Chips and Salsa (complementary) I liked the crunchy chips but I wish there was more salsa. The salsa was good and chunky but the container is a bit small to dip the chips into. I would suggest ordering a side of guacamole to go along with this.

Baja Ceviche ($7.49) has wahoo fish, lime, mango, pears & plantain chips. This is not your traditional ceviche, but I did enjoy the hints of fruity and acidic tastes. We did not have enough plantain chips to use with the ceviche, so we started using the chips.

Taco Platter ($8.49-$11.49) comes with your choice of two tacos and side of rice and beans. The price varies depending if you want soft or crispy shell, or vegetarian. I am not a big fan of rice or beans, so I thought they were alright.

You can choose from these tacos:

  • Carne Asada – marinated grilled steak
  • Pollo Asado – marinated grilled chicken
  • Carnitas – slow cooked pork
  • Al Pastor – spicy marinated pork with pineapple & onions
  • Fish – wahoo tecate beer battered or spicy baja style
  • Shrimp – tecate beer battered or grilled

There’s also other types of rice and beans that you can add. The tacos were quite large too.

The tacos that were really good were the beer battered fish and the shrimp.

Al Pastor Taco has the spicy marinated pork with pineapple & onion. It was indeed large and quite spicy. I usually can take spice, but I had to resort to grabbing a glass of water. The pork was nicely spiced and tender.

Carnitas Taco has slow cooked pork and comes with veggies, salsa and guacamole. The meat was a tad dry.

Jalapeno Poppers ($9.49) are breaded jalapeno peppers with cream cheese & a side of baja sauce. It’s a good item to order when watching the game when you need some finger food. Its a bit spicier than usual places, but I did enjoy the amount of heat.

Beer Battered Prawns ($9.49) are drunk prawns with baja sauce & cilantro sauce. I loved this appetizer! The prawns were of good size and tasted good. It had a crunchy exterior and the succulent prawn inside. YUM!

Flank Steak Fajitas ($15) comes on a sizzling hot plate with flank steak, peppers, and onions. There is also rice & pico de gallo that comes with it. You wrap them all up in a flour tortilla.

The steak tastes good when it comes right off the sizzling plate. If you wait too long, the meat isn’t as tender or flavourful.

This is a fun dish since you can do it yourself, but it is a bit expensive. In the end, we didn’t put it together since we were more interested in eating the meat.

Southwest Stuffed Peppers ($15) contains tofu, spinach, rice, jack cheese & mole.

It is a very unique dish and I’ve never had anything like it. You would expect it to be savory, but with the mole, it just tastes like sweet chocolate.

Deep Fried Ice Cream Sandwiches ($6) has 2 ice cream sandwiches battered and deep-fried with caramel drizzle. You definitely want to share this with another person.

The deep-fried ice cream sandwiches had a good fragrant cinnamon taste to it, which I enjoyed. On the downside, it wasn’t cold in the center as the ice cream just melted from the heat. It ended up more mushy than solid.

Churros Con Sorbete ($6) has fresh churros, cinnamon sugar, caramel sauce, and vanilla bean ice cream.

I like the pairing of the 2 items and the cinnamon and sugar is just heavenly. Unfortunately, I felt like the churro was a bit overcooked. It still had the nice crispy exterior and softer center.

Overall, don’t expect Chronic Taco Cantina to serve traditional Mexican food. It’s a bit different. The food is great to go with games and just chilling with friends. They have a very large interior, so they can accommodate large groups.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Decent eats
  • Around $10
  • Lots of space to watch the game
  • Beer battered anything is yummy
  • Burritos are huge!

We Rate Chronic Tacos Cantina:

Address:
102 Water Street
Vancouver, BC

Website:

http://www.chronictacos.ca/

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Ensemble Tap is opened by Top Chef Canada’s winner – Dale MacKay. They sell pub-style food with a large array of beer on tap, thus the name. It’s a spin off of his other restaurant – Ensemble, which is a higher end dining.

Since I helped Flo assemble some furniture, she treated me out for some food close to her place. Since Ensemble Tap was just downstairs, it seemed like a good place to go.

Steam Buns ($14) has seared albacore tuna, Mama Cho sauce, and fresh kimchi. The bun was cold and we felt it might have been better if it was warm like those Chinese-style steam buns. It was hard to taste the tuna since the kimchi and the Mama Cho sauce overpowered the tuna. It was a tad spicy and has a little sour taste to it. I really didn’t like the flavour combinations.

Thai Chicken Wings ($12 – 1 lb) The chicken was deep fried and came with the thai sauce on the side. I didn’t find it very amazing at all since it’s quite expensive for a pound of chicken wings.

Tap Burger + Bacon ($15) has mushrooms, caramelized onions, onion, lettuce, Swiss cheese, horse radish, and a side of fries. The beef patty was quite large and the added bacon was nice and crunchy. I really liked the burger since it was a good price and tasted delicious.

Key Lime Pie ($8.50) has whipped cream, toasted coconut, and lime zest. It was light and airy, so it was not a heavy dessert. It has a really nice lime flavour, but you know there was definitely some food coloring in this. I’ve never had a key lime pie, but this was good.

Overall, the appetizers are definitely expensive. The burgers are delicious and priced well. Service was ok.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Good burger
  • Around $15
  • Some appetizers not worth the price
  • Good array of beers
  • Closest Skytrain: Burrard

We Rate Ensemble Tap

Address:
990 Smithe Street
Vancouver, BC
Website:
http://www.ensembletap.com/
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Shark Club Bar & Grill is a large venue which is great to watch the game. Too bad I’m not into sports or going out to bars to watch sports games. I only go to these places for beer and good company!

The Social Media Network from SFU and UBC were hosting a Tweetup here and I decided to join in on all the fun. Of course there had to be food too .


Molson Canadian ($4) actually tasted good. It was nice and light.

Chicken Pesto Quesadilla ($13) has grilled chicken breast, pesto sauce,  peppers, onions and melted cheese, in a flour tortilla. It also has sour cream and salsa and fries. There was a lot of filling in the quesadilla so you do get full.

Roast Beef Dip ($13) it has roast beef topped on a toasted baguette with a side of au jus. Also a side of fries too.

I liked it since it had so much meat! The best park was just dunking it into the au jus and having the bread to soak it all up. The fries were decent.

Overall, foodwise it was alright. It was a bit expensive for what you get. I probably wouldn’t go here on a normal day. The service was pretty slow and they probably could have used more servers on a Friday night.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Very large venue, good for really large groups
  • Good for the game
  • pretty dead when there are no games on
  • Daily drink specials
  • Decent food and ok service
  • Slightly overpriced for what you get

We Rate Shark Club: 

Address:
180 W Georgia St
Vancouver, BC V6B
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It was a long day, so a bunch of us decided to head to Smiley’s Public House to unwind. It’s a pub that is owned and operated by the Donnelly Group.

We went inside and just seated ourselves. It took the waitress a while to give us menus and to serve us. It seemed like they were quite understaffed since it looked like one waitress serving the whole place. If you can bear with mediocre service, you should be fine….it is a pub so don’t expect too much.

Nachos ($16) tortilla chops, cheddar cheese, monetery jack cheese, olives, tomatoes, jalapenos with guacamole, sour cream and salsa. It was pretty good, but if you aren’t a fan of heat, you should pick the jalapenos off. The nachos were quite large and can feed about 3 – 4 people. It goes well with beer!

Overall, food is decent, but service is bad. I asked for the bill and they wouldn’t deliver it to the table for some strange reason. I tried paying at the counter but the waitress just walked away and didn’t take the money, so we just left it on the table. It made a simple process quite confusing and complicated.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Daily specials of food and drinks
  • Lots of TVs for the game
  • Lots of seats
  • Service sucks
  • Closest Skytrain: Burrard
We rate Smileys Public House: 

Address:
911 West Pender Street
Vancouver, BC V6C
Website:
donnellygroup.ca/smileys
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I met up with fellow SFU Food Blogger – The Food Queen! We were chatting on Twitter and decided to just meet up since it’s fun to eat with others. Since she was on her hunt to try out all the food places at SFU, I thought Club Ilia would be a great place to meet up. It’s not the best place for a quick lunch for one since it’s best with 2 since they have tables. It’s a good place for meetings or more formal-ish lunches.

Club Ilia is an eatery/ lounge that opened up at SFU a few years ago to add to the dining scene. They have a good selection of items.

Sesame crusted tuna sandwich ($13) was something I had to get when I saw it on their daily special menu! I have a weird obsession to find the best ahi tuna burger since Havana’s no longer has their ahi tuna burger. 🙁

It took them a while to get the sandwich ready since they had to defrost the tuna before serving. It’s a funny thing because it was on their daily special, they probably should have been more prepared ahead of time.

It’s got mayo, lettuce, tomatoes, avocados, onions and the sesame encrusted seared tuna. I thought it was alright, I thought the cut of tuna could have been a bit thicker since the bun was quite thick compared to the ingredients.

You can also choose your side of salad! I got the salad and it wasn’t bad at all! The greens were fresh and had HUGE cuts of tomatoes. Since they didn’t have balsamic vinegar, I got a raspberry vinaigrette.

Or you can get fries! Food Queen totally had to go with the fries. They do look good.  Check out FoodQueen’s review on Club Ilia here!

Overall, it’s not a bad place to dine on campus. SO much better than the other quick stops at Cornerstone or the cafeteria.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Variety of Beer on tap
  • Decent prices for lunch but dinner can get a bit pricey

We Rate Club Ilia: 

Address:

8902 University High St
Burnaby, BC V5A

Website:
clubilia.com
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