Mike T.
Yelp
When I came in, the place was packed! There were only one or two tables left at the time my friends and I came in. And this was when happy hour was ending at 6pm.
decor/ambience:
First thing I noticed when I came into the pub was the loud retro music from the 60s and 70s. I felt like I was at an old disco club without a dance floor and all they had was a bar. The decor is definitely dated. I felt like I was in the 80s or earlier. The chairs and booths are dark plush leather and the tables are solid wood.There was a big bar in the middle of the dining area where liquor is served with stools all around it. They have large windows surrounding the place and you can clearly see the street overlooking the beach. The decor was retro-ish yet plain. I'm indifferent to retro disco decor stuff because I was born way past that era. The tables are not very clean because the table my friends and I sat at was noticeably sticky.
service:
The staff was pretty friendly and nice. She answered our questions pretty clearly when we asked about the dishes they served. Our server was like a busy bee being all over the place moving quickly serving table to table. There were just two servers at the time for the packed bar.
The wait time for the food was longer than expected. My friends and I must have waited for around 20 minutes or so. I understand the place was packed so they had to make a lot of orders at once but at least the server could have acknowledged that we waited for a relatively long time.
I ordered two dishes: the BC wild salmon and the sweet and savoury braised beef. Both were $18.
BC wild salmon:
The wild salmon came with veggies, lemon herb quinoa, and a bit of citrus salsa.
Presentation wise, overall it looks pretty colorful and nice. I'm glad the salmon was de-boned quite well because there weren't any bones in it.
I feel like the salmon was simply baked and it lacked seasoning. All I could smell and taste in the dish was the salmon fillet. It was covered in a pinkish radish vegetable. I might be red radish relish. The radish relish didn't really add any flavor, but more for presentation. The fried salted zucchini and the salted cauliflower were salted well. The quinoa was drier than I liked. It was slightly overcooked, lacking moisture. Overall this dish was just OK. I wouldn't order it again.
Sweet and Savoury Beef:
The braised beef came with gravy, fried salted zucchini, salted cauliflower, and mashed potatoes.
The mashed potatoes were soft and well seasoned. It actually wasn't bad at all, flavor wise. The zucchini and cauliflower were cooked well and seasoned well. The beef was soft and tender. There was just a little bit of fat on it. I'm not a big fan of the gravy though. It didn't quite match the flavor of the beef as I had hoped. Maybe I didn't have braised beef in a long time but i didn't like the aftertaste of this dish. Maybe I should have bought a strong beer to mask it! Overall, in my opinion, it's another mediocre dish that I can't recommend ordering again.
I can't comment on the liquor as we didn't order any drinks, just water. The water was fine. It was iced and tasted like a cool, clean glass of water.
closing thoughts:
At the end of the day, If you just come for the food like I did, you will find it very mediocre. The dishes I ordered were cooked well but it lacked the nice flavors I hoped it would have.
Everything from the food, to the service, the decor and ambience was just OK. I give it a 2.5 stars out of 5 rounded up to 3 out of 5 because the yelp rating system doesn't let me give half stars.