The Portside Pub

I see many poor reviews of Portside as a pub proper. This is a review of Portside as an alternative to a club for good times. Both nights were great, but this was a year or two ago. There was good music, good floor layout, good crowd. Fun times.

My buddy and I walked in here to start of our night of Vancouver debauchery. The cover was $ 5CAN, and coat check was $ 3CAN. As soon as we walked in, we immediately related this place to the bars in Westwood in LA. Undergrad party scene all over again. The crowd was early 20s, and it was kicking. We got some drinks, and took in the ambient.
This was not our crowd, but it was a nice place to start the night. We took off shortly thereafter for other spots around town.
If you’re college age, and looking for a good party spot, then this is your place. If you’re looking for a more upscale mature spot, then head elsewhere.
I’m not bagging on this place hard, however, as the staff here was pretty cool. Great customer service.

Good for weekends, not coming back on New Years Eve.
I quite like this place normally, but I didn’t really have a fun time on NYE. It wasn’t super busy, even though it was a sold out event, and I thought the music could’ve been a lot better (music that makes you want to dance or even top 40). I did hear that it got better after midnight but I didn’t stay. Drinks and shots were pretty expensive but I expected that for NYE. Honestly, what really annoyed me last night was that they said stamps could be given after 11pm, but when approached for a stamp, they weren’t given out. It kind of ruined my night as I already wasn’t having a great time. After hearing that, I decided it wasn’t worth it to stay, so my friends and I left.
I had really high hopes for their NYE event and even told my friends to come, saying I usually have a good time here. I was disappointed and regret not going elsewhere.

It’s OK, but nothing to make it stand out amongst some great Gas Town venues.
One of the more bizzare menu items is a the beer flight which comes with a mandatory shot of whisky. Nothing wrong with that. But heaven forbid you don’t fancy the whisky (or are with someone who doesn’t like whisky) as they’ll flat our refuse to serve a flight without the shot! Even if they remove the whisky you still HAVE to pay for it. Pretty draconian rules!
So when you can get extensive craft beer offering and flights at most other Gas Town venues (Alibi Room and Postmark are pretty close by!), I can’t think of a reason to recommend going here for a drink.

I can’t review this place based on its «club» attributes (in fact you wouldn’t catch me dead here on a Friday night) but it’s pub attributes were great.
At first blush, the entrance way makes the place look a little like a theme park ride at a Chinese amusement park, what with the giant ship’s wheel in the front, in other words: sort of lame, but walking into the bar area gives off a nice, relaxed vibe that’s really not as hokey as the front may imply.
The only place I’ve had a good domestic pale ale is at portside (33 Acres pale) 3 out of 3 Californians agree. As a Californian, I’m a little spoiled in that respect, but everything I’ve tried in Vancouver so far has tasted like moldy water at the bottom of barrel (there’s others out there I assume, but I haven’t come across them yet.) They carry some reputable imports on draft as well, which is always nice.
I live down the street, so I will return, hopefully it stays in my good graces. Bartender was great; I think of him as a Zach Efron avatar, which may not seem like a compliment at first, but he’s got that clean cut, good natured frat boy thing going for him and depending on how you feel about frats; you get to order him around to bring you beers… So win win.
Pro tip:
If you’re ordering Coronas at this place, you’re doing it wrong.

We were celebrating my partner’s birthday at the Portside Pub with a group of friends. The food was good, but they were missing several things on the menu, which was quite short anyways. The worst part of the night was however, when friends of ours dropped in with a stroller for a minute to wish my partner happy birthday. They were not let inside the bar, which is understandable, so we came to talk to them near the entrance, when we were literally kicked out in the rain with them because the staff ‘had to run a business’. I must say, I did not expect such rude service anywhere in Vancouver, and I am never coming back to this place again.

This place is okay. People I know hyped it up as the place to go on a Saturday night. Came here twice. First time was on a Sunday night so it was pretty slow. Second was on a Saturday and it was packed and there was a DJ and dancing. Definitely made it more enjoyable.
The one thing I don’t like is how dim the lighting is. It makes it hard to read the menu and kind of made me sleepy. I tried their lobster mac n cheese which was excellent! Nachos, not so much. Didn’t care for the sauce (not sure what it was) that was covering them.
If you like the club scene with the comfort and casualty of a pub, then this is the place for you.

The Portside Pub is basically your typical pub during the weekdays and more of a club scene Friday and Saturday nights. I really like how they have 3 levels and the dance floor is in the middle with views to the bottom and top level. Very crowded on Friday and Saturday nights but that’s obviously expected.
The reason I gave 3 stars is because I had a terrible experience with a female bartender this past Saturday night. I went up to order some drinks from her and mid sentence as I was ordering the first 2 shots she glanced over at what seemed to be her friends and completely ignored me! I was literally mid sentence and she just walked away, set up like 5 shot glasses and poured her friends shots… Being that I was in the same industry myself a few years ago I was shocked. That is definitely NOT good customer service and holy hell, how rude. She just lost my business and an even bigger tip (I like to take care of my fellow bartenders). Don’t work in the service industry if you have shit customer service skills because that’s what gets you more or less tips and business for the bar. I don’t like to write negative posts because I don’t like to judge a whole business by 1 individual or 1 experience but I couldn’t believe she did that. Worst experience I’ve EVER had with anyone in the service industry.

This is a cool looking basement bar but it would have been nice to get some service of any kind. I am usually pretty understanding when a place is busy and short staffed, but we had been sitting there for at least 10 minutes before my boyfriend tried to place an order at the bar… to which he STILL received no service. After 15 minutes we decided to leave. The experience altogether was very disappointing. I wouldn’t bother coming here at all if it was busy.

I rarely feel the need to leave a review on a place when it’s less than amazing but the bartender woman at this establishment was literally the most unpleasant Witch that I have ever dealt with. I have never felt less inspired to leave a 0% tip in my life. What a waste of my incredibly on point jokes.

The ambiance is nice, although it’s way too dark. The place is big, and it has air conditioning which is always nice when you’re dancing and getting sweaty.
The bar attenders however were very rude. One of them messed up my drink and when I told her she didn’t change it or apologized, she continued to say that it was the right drink. I know the difference between gin and whiskey.

So, my friend told me about this place
He said it was a pretty cool pub/club.good change from Granville and Davie
Well, he was correct
Very cool place. especially liked the upstairs, and the lights
I’ll be back, for sure

Love the decoration
I’ve heard mixed reviews for this place. So I had to check it out myself. This place is pretty cool. It looks like the bottom of a boat, and beer is pretty cheap. The bartenders are very friendly, the crowd is pretty easy going, not your regular pretentious pub for sure. I would say this place is worth checking out

No thanks.
Who charges $ 10 cover to get into a pub? Would you not rather have patrons spend their money inside on drinks (which eventually leads to more drinks) and food? However, if you want food to do not go after 9PM because the kitchen is closed. So this place wants to have the best of both worlds? A pub and a nightclub. They brand themselves as «Maritime pub culture,» but it is hardly that. It’s a money grab joint with no real identity.
The only reason they get a single star is because they support lower breweries by carrying their beers on draft. If it weren’t for the beers on tap, I would have made sure to mention «I would give this place zero stars if there were an option.»
With that being said, every place has craft beer on tap, so it’s not a selling point in any way.
The bottom line: this is a confused place that is weak both as a pub and a club.
P. S. The music here is terrible; having a laptop DJ, who plays a stream of songs from iTunes is not considered a DJ.

I’ve only ever been her for Geeks vs. Nerds events. But the food is really good, the drinks are pretty decent and the space itself is very unique. Service isn’t great (though there is one server who is probably a robot of some kind, she is so good) but once you actually manage to place an order, it’s worth the wait.
Also, genderless bathrooms. Oh, yeaaah.

If you’re looking for a place to drop by for a quick beer or four and at a decent price, you’ve come to the right place. I’m not sure when their regular happy hour runs till, but on a Thursday, you can get happy hour pricing till 8pm on all their beers. So why not?!
While their beer list is not insanely large. They still give a good range of beers to sample. Plus if your up for it, 12 dollars will get you a flight of four AND a shot of Jameson. No joke.
Let’s just say, I left the pub feeling pretty happy
Bonus: crazy nautical theme and if you stay long enough, live music and dance floor action.

If your goal is to try out the different pubs on offer in Gastown, this should be one of the places on your list. There are two floors, connected from inside through a fancy staircase. The upper floor has red-​brick textured interiors, and with modern art put on the walls. It was really loud inside (As one would expect on a Friday night? :))
The choice of drinks was nothing out of ordinary, we ended up ordering a few Coronas. What caught my attention was the last entry on their menu: «Award winning Port Side ice cream sandwich». The ingredients included cookie crust, ice cream, whipped cream, smoked bacon, maple syrup. Sounds exciting right? It turned out to be quite disappointing (The flavors did not gel well with each other), nothing worthy of the name «Award Winning».

So I walked into this beer spot to get wifi. I was wifi hopping all over gastown. And it was pretty much dead when I got there at 7pm — where’s the happy hour crowd?
Anyway, the bartenders were very happy to share their knowledge of the beers on tap there. I had a few drinks before and wanted something light. They were cool enough to offer tastings of light beers before I settled on my choice. In the end, I chose one of Belgium’s finest — Delirium and it was on tap! Super stoked. The bar quickly filled up by 8pm and I was happy to run off to a new spot. Great for a pub crawl when I do organize them.

If you’re going to charge cover for a «pub» you better make sure it is worth while to enter your establishment. At 11pm on a Saturday night (granted it was November 1^st) the front door people informed us there was 140 people inside and the proceeded to charge us $ 10 for entry. We got inside and there was barely 40 people — the top bar wasn’t even staffed and the «DJ» was playing top 40 from 15 years ago. My two friends and I immediately turned around and exited the premises and asked for our cover back, which they refused stating again that there is a 140 people inside and that it will get busy «later». It’s Vancouver, if you don’t have a line by 11 it’s not gonna happen. If I was in there for more than 10 mins I would agree but the place was desolate and if anything they should have been handing out drink tickets and waiving cover just to get it going in there.
Front door staff — I am a customer, it’s not a gift you bestowed upon me to enter your establishment and if I don’t get what I paid for expect there to be complaints and you better figure out how to deal with them.

A fun night out here — great hip hop music, but only beers & well drinks (no cocktails!).
Saturday night about 10pm: there was a line outside but it wasn’t too crazy. A few people in our group were on the guest list so we got priority entry. $ 10 cover, cash only, and there’s an ATM inside with a $ 2 charge to withdraw cash. Coat check is right up front too.
There’s an upstairs area on the sides surrounding the downstairs. A long high table in the middle, sit down tables along one side and the bar at the other. Everything is made of large pieces of natural wood — made me think of a barn. A really stylish, happening bar. There are stringed lights hanging across the two upstairs balconies — really cute.
The two floors connect in the back onto a dance floor in the middle. The music was AWESOME. It was like 90s hip hop rehash night. We heard everything from Beyonce to Snoop Dogg to Dr. Dre to N Sync to Backstreet Boys to Jackson 5. Later it got into some Top 40s stuff, and the DJ definitely reused a few songs throughout the night (but they were all ones that we liked!).
Downstairs from the dance floor are the restrooms — individual stalls, a single line for both boys and girls. They got pretty messed up by the end of the night… at least one wasn’t flushing, and my bf unfortunately got one where part of the bowl was chipped off and water got everywhere when he flushed.
My bf thought the vibe of the place was totally weird considering the disparity between the hip-​hop music and the rustic décor. Oh well, I had fun!