What is there to do on a Wednesday night in the Gastown area? The Portside has a Rock, Paper , Scissors tournament every Wednesday. There is a $5 entry fee to participate but if you want to just sit in your seats and laugh your ass off, you can do that too. They also have $4 Jameson shots on special too.
I was invited and brought a few friends with me to check it out. I’ve been here a while ago for happy hour and the atmosphere is definitely better later in the evening.
Once we went inside, there was a seat yourself sign before you enter the pub.
The pub looks pretty awesome with its mostly wooden look with a few taps.
It’s like a secret underground area with food and booze.
They serve up pub food inspired by the East Coast of Canada.
Flight of Beer comes with a shot of Jameson on a paddle board. I didn’t know what to choose, so we asked them for 4 of their lightest beers.
They chose for me:
- Portside Pilsner
- Postmark Blonde
- Steamworks Kolsh
- White Bark Wheat Ale
All were really good, but my favourite of the bunch was the Portside Pilsner.
The Jameson shot at the very end is deadly. It’s an Irish Whiskey.
Blue Buck Pale Ale by Phillips Brewing Co. was ordered by my friend. Another lighter beer.
Alexander Keith’s Indian Pale Ale in a bottle was ordered by Little A.
4 women cheers with all our light beers. hahaha. It was a good start to the night before the food and Rock Paper Scissors tournament began.
Of the 4 of us, 3 of up participated. It’s $5 to enter the competition, but its pretty fun. The winner get $50 in cash, 2nd place is $10 and 3rd place is $5.
You just fill out the sheets with your bio and they read it out loud to everyone. Everything you write on it, they will read. It was pretty hilarious hearing what people wrote. A few tame ones and a few hilariously funny ones.
Monster Nachos ($16 +$20) has corn tortilla chips, layered with roasted jalapeno, mixed olives, local tomatoes, and green onions served with sour cream, chipotle sour cream and fresh in-house tequila salsa. It also has Chilli lime chicken, Chris Bros Pepperoni, smoked bacon, chilli and Nova Scotia Lobster.
We went all out and had all the meat on top. It also comes with a shot of Jameson.
What we found with these nachos is that the topping to chip ratio is very good We actually wished we had more chips. The pepperoni did over power the rest of the meat since its more spicy and flavourful. The lobster was drowned out.
Mac and Cheese was ordered. It has house made farm-house cheese and ricotta cream sauce, served with garlic bread.
You can add things like Porter Cheddar, Smoked Bacon, or Nova Scotia Lobster.
Mini Perogies has tiny cheddar stuffed perogies, Chris Bros. Pepperoni, sautéed onions, topped with chipotle sour cream and served with a micro salad. Tasted ok, but nothing spectacular.
Beef Pot-Roast Sandwich has rosemary and garlic seasoned chuck Pot-roast with red wine dijonaise, tomatoes, mixed greens and Porter Cheddar, served with chips & salsa and a micro salad. The sandwich was filling, but the taste was average. Nothing very special from what I could tell.
At 8pm, the competition began and our amazing host made the entire evening very memorable. SO funny!
It was tournament style and best out of 5. I failed miserably and lost of my first round.
Even if you’re not participating or lost early in the tournament, you will be thoroughly entertained for the rest of the game.
It got busier as the night went on and I was really surprised. No one was rushing home to get to work the next day.
Overall, I had a great time with my friends here on a Wednesday evening. If you’re looking for something to do, grab a few drinks, share a plate of nacho, and enter the rock, paper, scissors tournament. The rest of the food is pretty average, but most people come here for the drinks.
We Rate The Portside: 
Address:
7 Alexander Street, Vancouver
Website:
http://theportsidepub.com/
