Life in the Lower Mainland (BC, Canada)

My friend organized a wing night for Canucks versus Colorado at The Pint . Otherwise I'd never have gone to the pub -- just not my scene. The reservation was downstairs, but since there was no hostess table, it was a bit tricky figuring it out. I ended up going downstairs where it wasn't super-packed pre-show and asking a bartender at a not-very-full bar. Fortunately my question was answered very quickly -- bonus points for staff efficiency! TIP: Reserve a table downstairs for pre-game dinner. Once most people leave for the game, the area will be much, much quieter because they will likely close that section. You won't get kicked out, but they won't be letting anyone go downstairs either, unless the pub becomes super-busy. TIP: Auto-gratuity for groups of 10+, but you can also get a 20% food discount for being a large group. Ask your server. TIP: If you're going to have a beer anyway, ask about the offer of a free pound of wings with order of a pint of be...

Some places have daily food specials, so if there's something you are interested in, or if you feel the regular prices there are daunting, you can try going on a particular day. Yagger's Downtown has a special every day , and on Wednesdays it is Pulled Pork Tacos at $2.29 each with purchase of a drink. Thanks to my friend B, I got the picture below. I don't normally take pictures. We sneakily took this picture when the server was away. This was one of the very rare times I wanted a picture because it was just so funny at the time that the taco on the left appeared to had much less filling than the ones in the middle and on the right. What probably happened is they all had approximately the same amount of meat underneath the slaw. Pulled Pork Tacos (3 for $10.99) smoked pulled pork, bbq sauce & buttermilk slaw on flour tortillas Tasty for all the wrong reasons: You taste the salty-covered-by-sweetness bbq sauce, and that's about it. Might as well have skippe...

The Admiral Pub & Grill isn't the sort of place I'd normally have considered going as I like to look for interesting eats. However I was lured there on Thursday night by a friend of mine who's clever at sniffing out cheap eats in town. And the Admiral Pub & Grill has cheap eats -- just consult their daily features ! Regular prices are steep for what you get. Eating what you want at the correct time and day is the key. This is a sports pub with occasional live music, so what you're really there to do is drinking. Great food is probably an afterthought here, as it is with many such places. As sports pubs go, this is a pretty decent place: Spacious, and a good view of at least one TV no matter which way you turn. Spacing between seats is generous, and table space is also quite generous. Don't sit too close to the front when they've got a band or you're liable to walk out with a ringing in your ears for a very long time. My friend had gone severa...

I really don't blame Doolin's for being more than just an Irish pub specializing in only Irish food as that probably isn't going to cut it in fussy Vancouver. For your classic pub stuff, there is a "Pub Favourites" section of the menu. The rest is... the rest. Call it what you want, but it's basically a mishmash of everything comfortably familiar and safe to order. Duck Bites ($8) Chipotle and ginger marinated duck bites topped with spicy pickled jalapenos, wrapped in bacon and topped with a sweet sesame soy glaze You get about six of these, which are really bite-sized. The rest of your plate is salad. There's spicy heat here, so if you're not used to spicy, watch out. Whatever taste the duck had was covered up by the stronger flavour of bacon. Short Rib Flatbread ($10) Red wine braised beef short rib with caramelized onions, dry roasted cherry tomatoes, mozzarella, and tomato sauce, topped with a house-made blue cheese aioli The rectangu...

Back Forty Saloon is a dimly lit sports bar. The televisions are not as obtuse as at Jimmy's Taphouse , which makes it an inferior sports bar, but more balanced as a place to hang out with your friends if you are not into what sports are on TV. Bar-height tables against the walls were uncomfortably arranged, being pushed right against the seat. Getting in or out was horribly awkward, so if your party is assigned such a section try to sit on the outside on barstools. Better yet, try not to get stuck with them and get proper sit-down tables and chairs. Salads are pretty big here, so do ask your server about the portion size before committing to an order. When I was there last Friday I gave the vegan burger a try. Back Forty Vegan Burger ($12.40) Quinoa, cashews, oats, roasted garlic, B40 relish, avocado mousse, lettuce, beef steak tomato, toasted Kaiser. Comes with fries, salad, or slaw. The patty on this burger is actually quite good, with a bit of sweetness (that, or the ...

I was just at Colony this past Friday for an after-work get-together. We were in at around 5.30pm and by 6.30pm the bar was still rather quiet. TVs on the walls showing soccer, but without any volume to disturb patrons who might be disinterested. As is my wont, I probed them for freshly squeeze juice. Nope, not available (I didn't think it would be, but I'm ever hopeful). Of the fruit drinks they had, I chose a tall glass of pineapple ($4.50). The online menu shows their $10 lunch specials, but there is a small link at the bottom where you can download the dinner menu ("Food Menu"). I tried the Organic Quinoa Vegetable Burger (house made quinoa and goat cheese patty, pickled red onion, lettuce, tomato, tartar sauce, brioche bun). Our lovely waitress Sam said that she didn't like it herself because of the goat cheese. This is good information to know, since the online lunch menu does not mention goat cheese. And it's good to have it pointed out because g...

Vegetarian? Don't order any food here. Just last Friday I was down at Lion's Pub with some Friday night pub-goers. It was a social thing. But I spotted a couple of interesting things on the menu and figured I'd have dinner there. On Friday nights -- even as early as 5pm -- you can expect the place to be pretty packed. Our get-together was scheduled for 5.30pm and it was swarming with the Convention Centre crowd. And when it's packed like that, it gets hard to flag down a waitress. Really hard. They are not deliberately ignoring you, though: There's no head-down / eyes averted technique going on here. They are just busy. And if you are sitting at a table against the wall, try not to be trapped inside (or get someone on the outer edge catch a waitress for you). It's an English style pub, apparently, and the one person who ordered their fish and chips was very impressed by the two well-battered pieces he got. I was more curious about the weirder things on the...

Finally dropped by this place to check it out. When I was younger, I was into the whole pencil-and-paper tabletop role-playing game stuff and it was a real treat to see lots of interesting items that make up the decor in The Storm Crow . Dungeons & Dragons, assorted fantasy, and a bit of retro style ray guns. If you're sitting at the bar, ask to check out the tin of Unicorn Meat. 200% rainbows out the ass from old unicorns, apparently. The menu isn't on their website, but it is on their Facebook page , so it's probably best if you go there instead. Chickpea Fries ($6) with sriracha mayo Pretty big order for an appy. Definitely good to share or alone as a light meal. I think they can easily do a more manageable half portion for $4. It's ground up chickpeas and doesn't seem to be anything else in there. So it came across as rather dreadfully bland. Nicely fried. Think crispiness on the outside with hardly any oiliness to the taste or on your fingers. Came...

For an unspecified limited time, the very recently opened Vancouver FanClub is offering a 2-for-1 deal on its menu -- anything except drinks. And it's apparently grouped by category, so if your party orders 2 burgers and one pecan pie dessert, you pay for the pricier burger, get the other burger free, and pay for the comparatively cheap dessert -- instead of getting the cheap dessert free and paying for the two burgers. After our meal, the manager explained that the 2-for-1 promotion, which is valid every day from Noon till 6pm, is a " loss leader " strategy aimed at selling their bourbons and other liquor. The idea is to draw people in with cheap (good) pub food, and hope they buy alcohol too. At this point I got the distinct impression that he'd been disappointed by our showing because we hadn't ordered any drinks. My friend was going back to work in less than an hour, and I'm a non-drinker. Which also bring up the issue of a weekday 12-6 time slot for ...

One pound of wings here is $8.18 (slightly less if you order more) and works out to be about 11 wings, or about 74 cents per wing. If this is too painful for you old timers who remember 25-cent wing nights in the '90s, you can try their Sunday night 47 cent wings. This said, I don't want to make it sound like Wings is a pricey place for wings. It's just a sigh over inflation. Wings has several locations, and the Burnaby one near Highgate is a sports bar style pub with patio and easy parking. I went on a late-ish Friday night and it was pretty busy. There's generous booth seating as well as round tables that can be booked for larger groups. If you're not into sports, you can go for one of the bigger against-the-wall cushioned booths that has two rows of seating between you and the TVs mounted above the bar. There are many flavours of wings here, and with varying degrees of spiciness. Flavours like Greek, Chicago, Tokyo, Thai and others means you can assemb...