Pub/Bar Archives - Page 3 of 3

In Bar and Grill

The New Oxford Public House: Shots, Shots, Shots and Of Course Food

August 18, 2011

I went to ConsultingGirl’s going away party and she had it at The New Oxford Public House, it is owned and operated by the Donnelly Group. They are located in Yaletown and has very vintage looking decor. They even have a shuffle board in the back room to play. It’s easy to make reservations for your large party.

I think in all celebratory occasions, you must order a drink, so I got a bottle of Stella Artois ($6.47). They didn’t have any Japanese beer, so Stella is my go to beer.

Prosciutto Brie Sandwich ($12) has prosciutto, brie, arugula, tomatoes, basil aioli and balsamic vinegar on toasted panini bread. It also comes with a pickle on top. It is a very simple sandwich and it’s one of the more healthier items on their menu. The outside of the sandwich is nicely toasted and the filling was simple and delicious. The sandwich isn’t very large, so you may get hungry if you plan on staying a bit longer.

Instead of getting the regular fries, I ordered the Truffle Fries for an additional $1.50. They were really good and had a subtle mushroom taste. Definitely recommended for the upgrade.

Overall the food was alright, but a bit expensive. The service was very slow and it took a while to get our order and bill.

Since the night was still young, I needed to get ConsultingGirl slammed, so I ordered her a JagerBomb ($7.59) and a Prairie Fire ($8.04), which has tobacco and vodka. Prairie Fire is pretty nasty. If you want to disgust your friends, I would recommend the Cement Mixer (Baileys + lime juice) and the Dirty Panty (Baileys Irish Cream, Sambuca, Tabasco Sauce, Tequila).

You have any nasty drink choices?

Words of Wisdom:

Good for drinks and hanging out
Expensive food
Truffle Fries
Closest Skytrain: Yaletown
Reservations are probably wise on busy nights

We Rate The New Oxford Public House:

Address:

1144 Homer Street
Vancouver, BC V6B

Website:
donnellygroup.ca/oxford/

Facebook:
www.facebook.com/newoxfordpub

Twitter:

@DonnellyPubs

In Gastown

Blarney Stone: Horrible Service but Decent Food

July 1, 2011

It was NotFauna’s welcome back/ Birthday celebration. She chose Blarney Stone for a good fun meal before heading out to Fortune Sound Club a few blocks away.

CanuckGirl and I arrived early since she wanted to see a few players being drafted into the Canucks…sadly none of the TVs were showing that and when we asked them to about changing the channel, but they couldn’t do it. As we waited for everyone to arrive, we watched a TV promoting the Blarney Stone.

The place was quite full around 6:30, so it was a good idea we got reservations for the large group. The service was pretty bad from the beginning; it was hard to find anyone to help us find NotFauna’s reserved section since there were several reservations for the night. They didn’t even reserve the right amount of seats that was requested. When CanuckGirl and I sat down, the waitress didn’t offer us a menu to start looking.

After more people arrived, the waitress finally gave us menus. The menu was not bad at all. Lots of choices between $8 – $15 ish dollars.

Before you get your food, you must pay for it ahead of time or keep a tab for the night. It was super super weird to all of us, but in a way it made sense since people can easily skip out on the bill.

CanuckGirl ordered the Blarney Burger ($9). It comes with a beef patty, lettuce, tomato, ketchup, mayo and pickles. You can also choose between fries or salad.

It seems like it was a well made burger and she seemed to enjoy it.

A few others had the Fried Mac and Cheese loaf ($10). It has three types of cheese with macaroni, breaded and fried. It comes with a side salad too. It was not bad but it will probably get you full since it’s so rich in cheese.

CandiedZen ordered the Sheppard’s Pie ($11). It comes with side salad and focaccia bread. She enjoyed it and the addition of the cheese on top was pretty good.

I ordered the chicken focaccia Sandwich ($10). It has roasted chicken, cheddar cheese, bacon, onion, tomatoes, lettuce, and mayo. I chose to have the side salad with balsamic and oil dressing.

It was a pretty good sandwich, but the chicken was a bit on the dry side. I loved the bacon! It was very nice and crisp!

Overall, the food was not too bad. It’s your regular pub style food; so don’t have super high expectations or anything. Service is really bad and they don’t usually refill your water either unless they flag you down.

Words of Wisdom:

Quite loud inside
Patio seating
Best to reserve for large groups
Decent food under $15
Pay before your meal arrives or start a tab
HORRIBLE service

We Rate Blarney Stone:

Address:

216 Carrall St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.blarneystone.ca

In Pub/Bar

The Diamond: Drinks and Appetizers

May 27, 2011

Flo has always wanted to try out The Diamond, but they were always too full. We were having a little SFU get together and when she asked if they had space. Flo jumped at the chance to go.

The Diamond is located on Powell on Carrall, but it’s on the 2^nd floor, so be sure to look out for the sign and the stairs to enter. They are more of a drinking lounge rather than straight up eating. It’s the place to go after work to kick back with a few drinks and a little bit of food.

For the FourSquare users, do check-in because you will find some tips so hilarious. The first tip that popped up was from someone I knew at SFU and he basically said to never go to this place…we were already here so, it’s wasn’t like we were gonna get up and leave. Good thing I am not a good listener because I did enjoy the Diamond.

Their food menu is not very extensive and really will not fill you up. I find this place best to have your pre-dinner meal and then head off somewhere else if you are hungry. For example, after this, we headed to the night market to eat again.

Since HikingMan doesn’t drink beer and Flo wanted a virgin cocktail, someone had to drink right? I got the Asahi Super Dry Lager ($6). What can I say? I really love Japanese Beer. Some say local beer is good, but I have a secret love affair with Japanese, German and Austrian Beer. Perhaps one day I will go in-depth about this.

Flo started off with the Tuna Tartare ($13). There is a block of tuna and avocado cream drizzled with ginger sake dressing and a side of tomato chili Jam. You also get 4 wonton crisps to eat the tartare with. This is one of their more expensive dishes, but it has a lot of great flavours combining together.

Flo then got the gyoza ($7) since FourSquare kept telling her it was one of their best dishes. Inside the gyozas are pork, mushrooms and cabbage. The sauce that the gyozas come in smells so good! It is a mixture of soy, mirin and sesame oil. Even thought this dish is under the “Bigger” category, it really was not that big.

I ordered the Rock Cod Sub ($12). Inside the sub is rock cod with Morrocon spice rub, greens, cucumbers, hint of lemon, tomatoes and a nice Japanese Mayo sauce. The sub was pressed in a Panini presser, but the sub was still nice and chewable. Yet again, it did have nice flavours, which I was surprised. The sub does drip a bit when you eat it, so make sure you don’t eat it too close to you or else you might stain your new clothes.

HikingMan ordered the BBQ Short Rib Sandwich ($12) and he really thought the tender beef was spot on. Basically if you order, the sub, you can’t go wrong.

Overall, great drinking place, go small eats, but this is not the place to have a full dinner.

Words of Wisdom:

Best to go here for light food and drinks
Gets full at night

We Rate The Diamond:

Address:

6 Powell St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.di6mond.com

In Event

$2 burgers at SFU Highland Pub

March 18, 2011

Yesterday was an epic night at SFU during St. Patricks Day. The Student Marketing Association was hosting their pub night and since I’ve never been there for St. Pattys day, I thought it would be a good idea to go. Plus, peer pressure!

I was really hoping there would be food because we were starving! We were super hungry and that was the only thing on our minds. My friends and I were in meetings/classes the entire day.

It was packed by people who were wearing green… LOTS of green and funky green hats…painted faces…GREEN GREEN GREEN.

The pub is still in it’s 2nd phase of renovations, so only the lower level is complete. It still look super amazing!

On Thursdays, they offer $2 burger… there is a minimum order of 3 burgers per table. So, since we were so hungry we got 3 each. We were expecting small white castle burgers, but we were blown away by full sized burgers for $2.

If you only want one burger, grab a few friends and split 3 burgers.

The burger has mayo, cheese and patty. No vegetables at all, if you are a man, you will love this! I’m not a guy but I loved it because I was so hungry. The quality of the burgers were not bad either, better than a Mcdonalds cheese burger! The best part of it was the cheese! Its not the crappy kraft slices, this was real cheddar cheese! Every bite you would get would have a mouth full of ooey gooey cheese with the savory taste from the burger.

Since it was St. Patricks day, no visit can be done without a pitcher of green beer. It was not vibrant green but more of a seaweed green. Kinda creepy, but it did taste like normal beer…but with food coloring.

A pitcher was $10, so it was not too bad at all.

They had some crazy amazing deals like $3 high balls, and $2.75 tequila. Clearly some people had a bit too much and all over the place. If you were wondering, I was not one of those people. Green beer all the way!

Some people have wondered, does drinking green beer turn your pee green. If you have 3 pints which I had, you shouldn’t have that problem. If you drink a few pitchers you may have the green pee issue.

Address:

8888 Unversity High St
Burnaby, BC

Website:

http://highlandpub.ca/

In Bar and Grill

Wings on Granville

March 6, 2011

It was TaiwaneseGirl’s Birthday, so she quickly put together a small party at Wings on Granville.

The only time we could make a reservation was 6pm or before. I guess it’s a policy. Good thing we did make reservations because it was quite full. There were other large groups as well.

They usually show Hockey games, but the day we went was not a Canucks game, so the place was not jam packed. If you are coming here for a Canucks game, there is a HUGE screen in the back of the restaurant.

No birthday party is complete without a pitcher of beer. Goes well with wings!

I was trying to be healthy and ordered the greek salad entree size ($8.99). In this salad were bell peppers, red onions, cucumbers,black olives, feta cheese and tomatoes. It is also served with garlic toast. It was an ok greek salad was not the best. I really like my greek salads to have a bit more balsamic vinegar in it.

KoreanGirl and TaiwaneseGirl both had 2 pounds of wings ($14.39). Thats what 2 pounds looks like. Kinda expensive!

M, InsecureGirl and FragileBoy shared a plate of 5lb wings ($33.95). You get 5 flavours of your choice and 3 dipping sauces with some vegetable sticks. When looking at the plate, it really did not look like 5 pounds. Since all the wings are piled onto the plate, you really have no idea if it is 5 pounds unless you happen to carry a scale in your purse.

You also have no idea what each flavour is since they mostly look the same. The waiter just brought it to the table without explaining what was what.

The only day where it is really worth having wings is Sundays where it is $0.25 each. You essentially save about $3 per pound.

We all decided to share the Wings Shared Platter ($20). It had Wings, dry ribs, crispy wontons, spring rolls, potato skins, chippers, pita bread, veggies, served with tzatziki sauce.

Even though there was a lot of variety in this platter, the quality was not that great, pretty average. It’s still a good dish to order if you are sharing with your friends.

Words of Wisdom:

Wings special on Sundays
Famous for their wings (duh)
Reservations before 6pm
Good place to watch the game

We Rate Wings onGranville:

Address:

1162 Granville St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.greatwings.ca

In North Burnaby

Mountain Shadow Pub

February 25, 2011

If you go to Simon Fraser University on the Burnaby Campus, I am sure you have heard about Mountain Shadow Pub. It is just 3 bus stops away and it’s were you go when you want to party, watch the game, or even devour some cheap lunch/dinner.

Mountain Shadow has a lot of weekly specials. My favorite days to come here are Tuesday and Wednesday because it’s WINGS NIGHT! What more could university students want? Cheap food, alcohol, and great company.

I started off relaxing with a pint of Stella Artois (~$7). Stella Artois is a European lager from Belgium. It is golden in color and has an exceptional clarity. The crisp, refreshing flavour of Stella pairs well with flavoured food such as wings. The bitterness cuts through sauces.

Even though the wings are 25 cents per wing, you have to order then in pounds rather than ordering 3 of this and 3 of that.

I ordered one pound of Salt and Pepper ($3) and a pound of hot ($3). I prefer these over the other choices – Honey Garlic, BBQ, Thai, and Teriyaki because those are heavily drenched in sauces and do make your hands very sticky and super dirty.

All the wings are prepared by frying them in the deep frier and then putting their sauces and/or spice onto the wings. Most places that do have the 25 cent wings deal tend to have very tiny sizes for the wings and drumettes. As for the sizes at Mountain Shadow, the sizes were decent, a woman can get really full by have 2 pounds of wings.

The salt and pepper was seasoned well, so there was not too much salt.

The hot was not extremely hot, if you can deal with a little bit of hot, you should be alright. What I usually do to cut down the amount of hotness in my mouth, is to eat one salt & pepper wing, then a hot, and then salt & pepper, and then hot again. This way, the amount of hot does not accumulate.

Words of Wisdom:

Reservations are best on game days for large groups
25 cent wings on Tues and Wed
Lots of free parking
Not a place to take your family – mostly a university scene
Located in a residential area
Student Club fundraising events on Fri/Sat Night

We Rate Mountain Shadow Pub:

Address:

7174 Barnet Rd
Burnaby, BC

Website:
www.shadowpub.com

In Pub/Bar

SportsTown Taverna

February 5, 2011

Last week, I did a 3 hour lesson on Archery. Boy…was it ever fun. I’m not a Robin Hood yet, nor can i shoot an apple off your head…but I can ensure you that I can hit one of your organs. Be afraid..those arrows go fast!

Since the Archery Association has their facilities in SportsTown in Richmond, a bunch of us headed over to the taverna to get a quick bite.

I ordered the chicken strips ($10) and it came with a salad. There were 2 sauces..dijon mustard with the chicken strips and balsamic vinegar for the salad.

The chicken strips were pretty average. When it came down to having the salad, the balsamic vinegar sauce was fairly warm and tasted more like oil than balsamic. Some of their salad leaves seems a bit wilted and not too fresh.

The worst part was the service, I swear…there must have been one person working there. This woman was manning both the bar and the dinning area. It took her about 10 mins to acknowledge we were here…so we sat ourselves down. The menus took a while to get to our table too. Ordering was totally fine, but when we asked for the bill, she said she would bring it right away because we were in a rush….5 mins later we saw her at the bar chatting up with a customer.

You may think I am probably just crazy, but I am not. The dinning room had only one group of people seated…and this was us.

Words of Wisdom: