The Heatley

For those who haven’t deduced it from the reviews, this «restaurant» seems to want to be a bar, but couldn’t get the license. Drinks ok but overpriced, food abysmal but required as part of the liquor license to serve the drinks. Sad because Strathcona really needs a little neighbourhood joint for decent brunch and dinner.

Ugh, I hate writing this review as I really wanted to encourage Strathcona local businesses!
A group of eight of us were hungry and thirsty and happy that we had a great looking option in the hood, after having done some culture crawling in the hood.
We managed to find a table (for ourselves, no one even pointed a table to us), and then proceeded to wait a few minutes before heading to the bar to grab menus ourselves. Yes, there is a theme here…
We busied ourselves with banter and menu perusing hoping that the server would pay attention to us and head over our way. Instead she and the bartender seemed to be chatting and not paying attention to any customer whatsoever.
Ten minutes later, one of us decided we had waited long enough. He walked over to the server to only have her TURN in the other direction when she clearly saw him headed her way (we all watched and saw this happen). He was persistent and asked that she please come take our orders.
This ends badly. 5 minutes, and she was back standing with the bartender and not making any moves towards our table.
We walked out. The artwork is beautiful and the service is abysmal.
Sadly, not a business I will be supporting even though it is in my neighbourhood.

Went here with a group of friends for dinner before catching a show. We made reservation at the last minute and they were able to accommodate our group of 9 people. The place is nice enough inside, not too loud, lots of tables. Our waitress was quite nice and took our drink orders promptly.
After we ordered food, some of it came out sooner than others (to be expected for such a large group). One order was forgotten, but the server was very apologetic for it and brought out free chips and salsa so my friend wasn’t the only one not eating.
Beer selection is good, although I believe they are 16 ounce pints, not proper 20 ounce pints (I could be wrong but that’s how it seemed to me). Beer prices are average, but the cocktails are way overpriced ($ 8.50 for a single caesar, likely made with Smirnoff, no garnish… wtf?). The menu is limited and has comfort food items such as nachos, mac and cheese, hot dogs and BLT sandwich. I had the mac and cheese with pulled pork, which was delicious, but I found the portion to be quite small. My girlfriend had the BLT, which was average. The hot dogs looked quite interesting, with toppings such as hickory sticks. My friend who had two of them said they were pretty good if not quite filling.
Good experience overall, I probably would go here again and try the hot dogs next time. I would give it four stars if it served bigger portions (food and beer) and if the cocktails weren’t so pricey. Great service though.

Easily the worst brunch I have ever had in Vancouver. Depressing weird breakfast with a smokie and some sad arugula and yesterday’s cold, hard potatoes. When they say waffles they mean eggos. Not worth the $$.
But, GREAT SERVER (she gets the star) and she adjusted the price for us because it sucked so much. I will probably go back, at night, because it seems like a good place to get drunk. But it is an absolute breakfast nightmare.

I saw this reviewed on the front page of Unilocal on August 20^th and book marked it. It was actually Leona’s picture of what looked like a smores dessert which sold me on putting this on my bucket list.
I came here for lunch cause I was too lazy to go to the gym. I figured that my jaw muscles needed a workout with an awesome plate of huevos rancheros.
If you can get over the smell of burning tires from outside than this place is awesome.
Lots of space, clean wood interior, great hipster music. They were playing The War on Drugs when I dined.
It was just myself and one other girl, therefore, just occupied myself with working on my zine.
The guy at the bar was super awesome and chill.
Plate to mouth service was around 23 minutes which was a bit slow for something that’s already ²⁄₃ prepared. They just had to cook the egg really and possibly heat the beans.
I don’t mean to be a meal diva but I was on a lunch break that sadly was only an hour. I was also the only one eating.
Other than that the experience was good.

Just found out about this place, and love it! It’s Sunday night, 10:30pm, and we’ve just got here and 1. they’re open! (Yay!!! This is quite late for Vancouver after all); 2. They have really cold, good beer! 3. Their veggie tacos (which can be made vegan) are pretty delish; and 4. What?! Live, awesome music?!
How not to love this place? :) oh, and close to home!
Ps. Just wish they had more vegan options on the menu.

Our group was visiting Vancouver and staying around the corner. We had a fantastic time chatting with the staff on a slow night. Gabrielle is a joy. The drinks were fabulous. Very well priced. The food was great too. I was shocked to have the best nachos I’d had in years given I was raised in Texas and live in Denver. One doesn’t associate nachos with Vancouver generally. :-)

The atmosphere at The Heatley is awesome. Warm lighting, great design, open concept, hand-​made wooden benches, community feel. Great cocktails. Yummy and affordable food and great service. It’s become a regular place for me, and love that it’s in the Strathcona neighbourhood. They also play good music and keep it real.

Let’s start with the positive: the space is great. Like really good. Warm and comfortable.
The not so positive? Drinks were pretty good, but overpriced for the most part (6oz glass of on tap wine starting at $ 9) – also they were out of two draught beers :(The food was over priced and poorly executed for what it was. There seemed to be a lack of cohesion – from jerk chicken to hummus to ceviche to too sweet desserts. Did appreciate that the menu was small though.
The negative: the service was awful. Slow, inattentive and quite aloof, frankly.
I really want to see this place do well and I think it would start with a revised food concept and staff that care about providing an excellent experience.

I love The Heatley! Strathcona has been dying for a new restaurant. I had the nachos which have a creamy rich cheese sauce which was delicious! I couple friends of mine got the Mac-​and-​cheese, one added jerk chicken and the other added pulled pork, and they were raving about it. I also got The Apparation, which is a gin drink that reminds me of a Rosemary mojito, and it’s to die for! Great food great drinks… Great décor and atmosphere. I’ll be back for sure!

Had the breakfast one afternoon wasn’t a fan of the sausage it tasted like a tough over cooked hotdog and the potatoes weren’t too great either.
Came back another time and had the meatball sandwich which was great.

Not really a place to go out of the way for. But it’s needed watering hole in the neighborhood. If your passing by stop in for for a drink. Good local beer selection. They had limited choice of wine but way over priced. We only had the honey garlic wings. Not the best tasted liked they had been boiled first. Sauce was not set. Would not recommend.

Cute new spot, delicious food! The chef is amazing. I’ve been back 4 times since it opened and will definitely be going back to try the lunch menu. Staff is friendly and atmosphere is really pleasant!

Went to Vancouver for vacation and saw this Lil place in the newspaper so I thought I’d check it out.
Something changed and this place is a dump. Food is garbage low quality fast food waste of money

Wings are squish. Hot dog is squish. This is a restaurant for people with no teeth. Squish rating ten. Crunch rating none. Too much squish not enough crunch.

We live in the neighbourhood and looked forward to trying the Heatley. It was a Friday night, 6:30 pm, and the place was empty. Hmm. We didn’t lose hope. The staff seemed half-​engaged. Well, hey, it’s Vancouver. Three menu items not available… okay, well maybe the chicken and the mixed nuts didn’t get delivered today. The beef flank on the menu doesn’t exist, its brisket, the menu is being changed. Uh huh, okay, s***t happens. Ya get busy and your printer runs out of ink. At least you’ve got your kick ass food to fall back on.
Then the food arrives. Hot dog, meat balls, brisket. The kind of stuff you could make at home and still not screw up. But the Heatley? Tasteless, overcooked, awful. Embarrassingly bad. My mother made awful mashed potatoes but hers were a mouthwatering triumph compared to the lumpy, unflavoured nothingness served at the Heatley. How can you screw up mashed potatoes? You could hammer nails with the brisket.
The service was slow even though the place was empty. The staff don’t care and now I understand why. They see the iceberg approaching and its got a big sign on it «Closed Because Cooking… Its Harder Than We Thought Eh».
Maybe the ownership needs to get that first bar/​restaurant failure under its belt. Mission accomplished.

Loved the summer salad super fresh flavours. We also ordered the brisket whoch was bland with a salty bq sauce

This is the gem this neighbourhood has been asking for and, whoa, does it ever deliver.
The signature cocktails are a dream. Each one with amazing fresh local ingredients. The Apparition has rosemary syrup along with fresh cut cucumber and a sprig of rosemary to garnish.
I tried the Crispy Chicken Entrée. It blew my mind. The amount of flavours were just amazing yet simple. The Chicken thigh has no fat on it what so ever and was just tender and juicy and packed full of flavours if thyme and rosemary. It’s beautifully brined an perfectly crispy pan fried skin. You can tell there is love out into this chicken, alone. The Polenta is so tasty and flavourful, I could have just eaten that. The Brussels underneath the chicken with the bacon was a treat. The brussles were perfectly cooked with just enough crunch. Perfectly cooked!!!
My bartender Gabrielle was spectacular. She’s funny and knowledgable with a wonderful character. She is so excited on what the place has to offer which makes me excited about it too. I highly recommend this place. I made love to the food and stayed for the drinks. 5 stars, hands down.

A much-​needed addition to the neighborhood; Strathcona denizens can’t be spending less than ten bucks on a cocktail ;)
We had the mushroom /​prawn appy, the brisket, the spicy/​sweet wings, and the summer salad w/​jicama, mint, basil, cranberries, and mango. Only the salad was disappointing; it was tasty, but for 13 bucks I expected it to be larger. But the mushrooms and brisket were delicious, as were the wings (though super spicy).
For cocktails, I had the Apparition (tequila, muddled cucumber, rosemary syrup, lime juice, and tonic) and the Divine Intervention (lemongrass and lime infused gin, lime guice, ginger liquer). Both delicious.
It’s a great space too. Open, airy, and an organic feel (lots of wood). I’ll definitely be back.

FINALLY — Strathcona has a watering hole.
Visited for the first time a couple days after opening; the place was busy, but not packed and we got a table right away. The space is decidedly intimate, with a few two-​top booths and one larger table for groups, plus seating at the wood. Décor is casual but not cookie cutter; the centrepiece of the room is a gorgeous whimsical mural by (I believe!) local illustrator Ola Volo.
The draft list is small but decent; the cocktails looked stellar (can’t wait to try the Sriracha Caesar)… only the cider list could use some work (Lone Tree is all she wrote, folks). I assume that’ll expand with time! We’d already had dinner so we opted for a snack — a salty, feta-​topped black bean dip — and it was quite delicious and well-​priced.
Overall, it’s a great addition to my favourite neighbourhood. Welcome to Strathcona, guys!